The name of a brahmin clan (gotta). In the Vinaya Pācittiya it is given as one of the lower clans. (Vin.iv.8; but it is also Sakka’s clan, and is therefore generally regarded as a high one; see e.g., Thag.415; ThagA.i.452).

Among those mentioned as belonging to this clan are the brahmin Kevaṭṭa (J.vi.418 f), the brahmin who was the father of Soṇa Kumāra (the Bodhisatta) (J.v.319 ff), Bhaddā-Kāpilānī, born in Sāgala (AA.i.99; ThagA.68; SA ii.144), and the banker who came to be known as Macchariya-Kosiya (q.v.)

Kātiyāna’s father was a Kosiyan, but he married a woman of the Kātiyāna family (ThagA.i.452).

The Bhūridatta Jātaka (J.vi.181; Mtu.ii.49) mentions a sage Kosiya, who taught Alambāyana the Nāga-spell. The scholiast says he belonged to the Kosiya-gotta.

The Sālikedāra Jātaka (J.iv.278 f) mentions a brahmin of Sālindiya, called Kosiya-gotta, probably for the same reason.

The Kosiya Jātaka (J.i.465 f) speaks of a Kosiya-brāhmaṇī. All these are either addressed or spoken of as Kosiya in their different contexts. The name Kosiya is also used twice in speaking of Sakka — once by the Buddha (D.ii.270), once by Mahā-Moggallāna (M.i.252) — and again by Guttila (J.ii.252) and by Mahā-Kassapa (Ud.iii.7; UdA.200; DhA.i.429).

The name means “belonging to the Kusika family.” It is once used of Indra in the Ṛg Veda, in what exact sense is not known. Rhys Davids suggests (Dial.ii.296 f; see also Dvy.632; Mtu.iii.200, 202, 315, 403) that perhaps we have here a survival from the time when Indra was only the god of a Kusika clan.

The word Kosiya (e.g., J.ii.208) means “Owl” and is probably one of the several clan names which are also names of animals (cf. Vaccha).