the merchants formed corporations, the chiefs of which treat with the kings in the names of the whole;[397] some especially-favoured merchants obtained the privilege of receiving their wares free of toll. The great merchants in the cities did not find it necessary to pay at once for the wares which came from a distance. They printed their seal on the bales which they would buy, and paid a small deposit.[398] The members of the family work at their occupation in common; while one brother stays at home and attends to the sale, the others go with the caravans or are at sea.[399] In these circles no one marries till he has amassed a certain sum of money. The profits of the merchants appear to have been easy and large, though their journeys were attended with danger. They were not only threatened with the exactions of tax-gatherers and attacks of robbers, but were exposed to great temptations in the cities. Mistresses could be found there, "whose bodies were soft as the lotus flower, and shone in gay attire." These, no doubt, gave themselves up to the young travellers at no inconsiderable price.[400] The kings of Magadha resided at Rajagriha, _i.e._ the king's house, a city which lay to the south of the Ganges and the east of the Çona. The sutras mention Prasenajit, king of the Koçalas, who, as already remarked, lay on the Sarayu, and Vatsa, the son of Çatanika, king of the Bharatas, as contemporaries of Bimbisara, king of Magadha, and his son Ajataçatru. Hence the reigns of Prasenajit and Vatsa may be placed in the first half and about the middle of the sixth century B.C. Both princes are mentioned in the tradition of the Brahmans. In the Vishnu-Purana, Prasenajit is the twenty-third ruler of the Koçalas after the great war. Vatsa is the twenty-fifth successor of Parikshit, who is said to have ascended the throne of Hastinapura after the victory and abdication of the sons of Pandu.[401] The kings of the Koçalas had built a new city, Çravasti, to the north of their ancient capital Ayodhya; the kings of the Bharatas resided at Kauçambi on the Ganges. To the north of the kingdom of Magadha, on the other bank of the Ganges, lay the commonwealth of the Vrijis on the Gogari, and the kingdom of Mithila; to the east on both shores of the Ganges were the Angas, whose capital appears to have been Champa (in the neighbourhood of the modern Bhagalpur); to the west of Magadha on the Ganges were the Kaçis, whose capital was Varanasi (Benares). The colonies of the Arians had advanced and their territory had been extended to the south both on the east and west. This is not merely proved by the mention of Çurparaka, for the sutras of the Buddhists tell us of a great Arian kingdom on the northern spur of the Vindhyas, the metropolis of which was Ujjayini (Ozene in western writers) on the Sipra, and adjoining this on the coast was the kingdom of Surashtra (Guzerat).[402]