• Kamsa

1. Kamsa.Another name, according to the scholiast, for Brahmadatta, king of Benares and father of Samuddajā. J. vi.198 (25).

2. Kamsa.King of Benares, and called Bārānasiggaha because he was ruler of Benares. According to the Seyya Jātaka (J.ii.403), he was the king who was seized by the monarch of Kosala, owing to the treachery of a disloyal courtier, and who was later set free on account of his great piety. In the Ekarāja Jātaka, which purports to relate the same story, and again in the Mahāsīlava Jātaka, the king is referred to by other names. We probably have here a confusion of legends due to an effort to make three similar stories into one and the same.

It is probably this same Kamsa Bārānasiggaha who is referred to in the Tesakuna Jātaka, by the owl Vessantara (J.v.112). There the scholiast explains Bārānasiggaha as catūhi sangahavatthūhi Bārānasim gahetvā vattanto.

3. Kamsa.Son of Mahākamsa and brother of Upakamsa and Devagabbhā.

Later he became king of Asitañjana in Kamsabhoga in the Uttarāpatha.

He was killed by Vasudeva, one of the Andhakavenhudā-saputtā (J.iv.79f).