272 
[No. 4, 
E. A. Gait — The Koch. Kings of Karnarupa. 
Bhagadatta’s successors. 
Bbagadatta went to the assistance of Duryodhana with an Ak- 
shauhtni of troops consisting of Chinas and Kir at as.* * * § At the final 
battle of Kurukshetra, he performed prodigies of valour, and no less 
than four sections of the Drona Parvan are devoted to a narrative of 
his heroic deeds, from the time when he rescued Duryodhana from the 
onslaughts of Bhima to his fight with Arjuna, in which he was at last 
defeated and slain. The issue of this last combat is ascribed to the 
masric intervention of Krishna, who rendered harmless the invincible 
weapon which he had previously given to Bhagadatta’s father Naraka.f 
Bbagadatta was succeeded by others of his line, one of whom, 
Pralambha, is described as having been an 
unusually powerful prince. By his wife Jivada, 
he had a son named Hajara, and the latter, by his wife Tara, who was 
an incarnation of Lakshmi, had in his turn a son named Vanamala. 
A copper plate containing a grant of land by the latter to a Brahman 
which was found near Tezpur in 1840 A. D., is the authority for the 
account of Bhagadatta’s successors here given. J 
It has been assumed that Vanamala was of the Pala dynasty, but 
his asserted descent from Naraka makes this impossible ; this assumed 
ancestry, and the fact that he bore the Kshattriya title Varman or Bar- 
man, renders it much more likely that he was a converted aboriginal 
potentate of the same class as the Khyen and Koch kings. 
The so-called Rajas of Rani, in Kamrup, claim to be descended from 
the lineage of Bbagadatta. 
Krishna frequently appears in Assam Mythology. We have al- 
ready seen how he slew Naraka and set up 
Kape of Eukrnmi. , , TT . , 
ins son Bhagadatta in Ins stead. He is also 
said to have carried off his bride Rukmini from her father Bhishmaka, 
the king of Kundilya§ or the country around Sadiya, between the 
Dikrang and Dibong rivers. The name of this monarch is still pre- 
served in upper Assam, and a ruined fort, some sixteen miles north of 
Sadiy r a, is attributed to his reign. || The name of the kingdom sur- 
vives in the Kundil river. 
* Udyoga Parvan, sec. XVIII. 
f Drona Parvan, secs. XXVI — XXX. 
J 3 . A. S. B. IX, p. 766. The plate bears a date in an unknown era — “ Samvat 
19 ”. Presumably this refers to the date of the king’s succession. 
§ According to ordinary Pauranik accounts, Bhishmaka was king of Kundina 
or Vidarbha, the modern Berar, in Central India.-Ed. 
|| These ruins were described by Colonel Hannay in the J. A. S B. for 1848, 
p. 459. It is not unlikely that further research amongst this and other ruins 
in the same direction, would add considerably to our knowledge of ancient Assam 
history. 
