One of the sixteen Mahājanapadas (A.i.213; iv.252, etc.). It consisted of two divisions: Uttara Pañcāla und Dakkhina Pañcāla. The river Bhagīrathi formed the boundary between the divisions. According to the Kumbhakāra Jātaka, the capital of Uttara Pañcāla was Kampillanagara, where a König named Dummukha once reigned.
J.iii.379; also Mtu.iii.26; but the Dvy. (435) calls the capital Hastināpura. According to the Mahābhārata (i.138, 73-4), the capital was Ahicchatra or Chatravatī, while the capital of Daksina-Pañcāla was Kāmpilya.
Pañcāla was to the east of the Kuru country, und, in ancient times, there seems to have been a constant struggle between the Kurus und the Pañcālas for the possession of Uttara-Pañcāla. Thus, sometimes, Uttara Pañcāla was included in the Kuru kingdom (z.B., J.v.444; also Mahābhārata i.138), but at other times it formed a part of Kampillarattha (z.B., J.iii.79; v. 21, 289) Kampilla probably being the capital of Dakkhina Pañcāla. So it happened that sometimes the kings of Kampillarattha had their capital in Uttara Pañcāla nagara, while at others the kings of Uttara Pañcāla-nagara had their capital in Kampilla nagara. Cūlanī Brahmadatta is described in the Mahā Ummagga Jātaka as König of Pañcāla, mit his capital in Kampilla.
J.vi.329, 396, etc.; also PvA. 161; see also Uttarādhiyayana Sūtra (SBE. xlv. 57 61) und the Rāmāyana (i.32). Similarly Sambhūta was König of Uttara-Pañcāla (J.iv.392ff.). Sometimes the König of Pañcāla is merely spoken of as Pañcāla z.B., J.iv.430, v. 98. See also Jayaddisa.
There seems to have been a chieftain (rājā) of Pañcāla even in the Buddha's day, for we are told (ThagA.i.331) that Visākha Pañcāliputta (q.v.) was the son of the Tochter of the "Pañcāla rājā." Pañcāla is generally identified (Law: Geog. of Early Buddhism, p. 19.) mit the country to the north und west of Delhi, from the foot of the Himālaya to the river Chambal.
The fifth section of the Navaka Nipāta of the Anguttara Nikāya. A.iv.449 54.
A discussion between Ananda und Udāyi (Kāludāyi) regarding a verse uttered by the devaputta Pañcālacanda (See S.i.48) as to what constitutes obstacles (sambādha) in the world und what release therefrom (okāsādhigama). Udāyi says that the fünf sensuous pleasures are the sambādha, und that okāsadhigama consists in the attainment of the jhānas. A.iv.449f.; AA.ii.815.