Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c12.s4.10

c12.s4.10

³ *Jātaka*, Nos. 239, 283, 492. According to the *Thusa Jātaka* (338) and the *Mūshika Jātaka* (373) the Kosalan princess was the mother of Ajātaśatru. The preface to the *Jātakas* says, "At the time of his (Ajātaśatru's) conception there arose in his mother, the daughter of the king of Kosala, a chronic longing to drink blood from the right knee of king Bimbisāra". In the *Saṁyuktā Nikāya* (*Book of Kindred Sayings*, 110) Pasenadi of Kosala calls Ajātaśatru his nephew. In Vol. I, page 38n of the *Book of the Kindred Sayings*, however, Maddā (Madrā) appears as the name of Ajātaśatru's mother. A Tibetan writer, calls her Vāsavī (DPPN, I. 31.). The Jaina writers represent Chellaṇā, daughter of Cheṭaka of Vaiśālī as the mother of Kūṇika-Ajātaśatru. The Nikāyas call Ajātaśatru Vedehiputta (Vaidehīputra), *i.e.*, son of the Videhan princess. This is taken to confirm the Jaina tradition because Vaiśālī was in Videha. Buddhaghosha, however, resolves "Vedehi" into Veda-iha, *Vedena īhati* or intellectual effort (BKS, Vol. I, 109n) and seems to suggest that "Vedehiputta" simply means "Son of the accomplished princess". We should moreover remember that the Kosalan monarch Para Āṭnāra, had the epithet *Vaideha* and the name Kauśalyā was applied to several Kāśi princesses in the epic. The appellation Vaidehīputra, therefore, does not necessarily disprove the Kosalan parentage of the mother of Ajātaśatru. According to one authority "Chelā" (Chellanā) was styled "Vaidehī" "as she was brought from Videha" (AIU, II. 20).