One of the sixteen Mahājanapadas (A.i.213; iv.252, etc.). It consisted of two divisions: Uttara Pańcāla and Dakkhina Pańcāla. The river Bhagīrathi formed the boundary between the divisions. According to the Kumbhakāra Jātaka, the capital of Uttara Pańcāla was Kampillanagara, where a king 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-Pańcāla was Kāmpilya.
Pańcāla was to the east of the Kuru country, and, in ancient times, there seems to have been a constant struggle between the Kurus and the Pańcālas for the possession of Uttara-Pańcāla. Thus, sometimes, Uttara Pańcāla was included in the Kuru kingdom (E.g., J.v.444; also Mahābhārata i.138), but at other times it formed a part of Kampillarattha (E.g., J.iii.79; v. 21, 289) Kampilla probably being the capital of Dakkhina Pańcāla. So it happened that sometimes the kings of Kampillarattha had their capital in Uttara Pańcāla nagara, while at others the kings of Uttara Pańcāla-nagara had their capital in Kampilla nagara. Cūlanī Brahmadatta is described in the Mahā Ummagga Jātaka as king of Pańcāla, with his capital in Kampilla.
J.vi.329, 396, etc.; also PvA. 161; see also Uttarādhiyayana Sūtra (SBE. xlv. 57 61) and the Rāmāyana (i.32). Similarly Sambhūta was king of Uttara-Pańcāla (J.iv.392ff.). Sometimes the king of Pańcāla is merely spoken of as Pańcāla e.g., J.iv.430, v. 98. See also Jayaddisa.
There seems to have been a chieftain (rājā) of Pańcāla even in the Buddha's day, for we are told (ThagA.i.331) that Visākha Pańcāliputta (q.v.) was the son of the daughter of the "Pańcāla rājā." Pańcāla is generally identified (Law: Geog. of Early Buddhism, p. 19.) with the country to the north and 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 and Udāyi (Kāludāyi) regarding a verse uttered by the devaputta Pańcālacanda (See S.i.48) as to what constitutes obstacles (sambādha) in the world and what release therefrom (okāsādhigama). Udāyi says that the five sensuous pleasures are the sambādha, and that okāsadhigama consists in the attainment of the jhānas. A.iv.449f.; AA.ii.815.