The name of a country and its people (Maddā).
In the Kusa Jātaka, Kusa, son of Okkāka, king of Kusāvatī in the Malla country, is mentioned as having married Pabhāvatī, daughter of the king of Madda, and the capital of the Madda king was Sāgala (J.v.283ff.; Kusāvati was one hundred leagues from Sāgala (J.v.290), cp. Mtu.ii.441f).
In the similar story of Anitthigandha, a prince of Benares contracts a marriage with a daughter of the king of Sāgala - his name being Maddava; but the girl dies on the way to her husband. (SNA.i.68f.; cp. DhA.iii.281, about the other Anitthigandha of Sāvatthi of the Buddha's days, who also married a Madda princess).
The Chaddanta Jātaka also mentions a matrimonial alliance between the royal houses of Benares and Sāgala, while in the Kālingabodhi Jātaka (J.iv.230f ) the Madda king’s daughter marries a prince of Kālinga while both are in exile.
J.v.39f.; so also in the Mūgapakkha Jātaka (J.vi.1), the wife of the Kāsi king was the daughter of the king of Madda, Candadevi by name; while Phusatī, wife of Sañjaya of Jetuttara in the Sivi kingdom and mother of Vessantara, was also a Madda princess (J.vi.480); likewise Maddī, wife of Vessantara.
Cūlani, son of Talatā, also married a princess of Madda (J.vi.471). According to the Mahāvamsa (Mhv.viii.7; this probably refers to Madras and not to the Madda country, whose capital was Sāgala), Sumitta, son of Sīhabāhu and king of Sīhapura, married the daughter of the Madda king and had three sons by him, the youngest of whom, Panduvāsudeva, became king of Ceylon.
Bhaddā Kāpilānī wife of Pippalimānava (Mahā Kassapa), was the daughter of a Kosiyagotta brahmin of Sāgala in the Madda country. Men went there in search of a wife for him because it was famed for the beauty of its women (Maddarattham nāma itthāgāro) (ThagA.ii.142; ThigA.68). Anojā, wife of Mahā Kappina of Kukkutavatī, also came from the royal household of Madda (DhA.ii.116), as did Khemā, wife of Bimbisāra (ThigA.127).
The wife of a Cakka-vatti comes either from Uttarakuru or from the royal family of Madda (MA.ii.950; DA.ii.626; KhA.173).
For the identification of Madda see Sāgala.