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Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c12.s5: Section V. Magadha Militant—Kūṇika-Ajātaśatru

Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c12.s5

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English

Section V. Magadha Militant—Kūṇika-Ajātaśatru

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Whatever may have been the mode by which he acquired the throne, Kūṇika-Ajātaśatru proved to be an energetic ruler. The defences of the realm were strengthened by fortifications at Rājagṛiha and the foundation of a new stronghold at Pāṭaligrama near the junction of the Son and the Ganges. Like Frederick II of Prussia he carried out the policy of a father with whom his relations were by no means cordial. His reign was the highwater mark of the power of the Haryaṅka dynasty. He not only humbled Kosala and permanently annexed Kāśi, or a part of it, but also absorbed the state of Vaiśālī. The traditional account of his duel with Kosala is given in Buddhist texts.¹ It is said that when Ajātaśatru murdered Bimbisāra, his father, the queen Kosalā Devī died of love for him. Even after her death the Magadhan King continued to enjoy the revenues of the Kāśi village which had been given to the lady for bath money. But Prasenajit, the sovereign of Kosala, determined that no parricide should have a village which was his by right of inheritance. War followed, sometimes the Kosalan monarch got the best of it, and sometimes the rival king. On one occasion Prasenajit fled away in defeat to his capital Śrāvasti; on another occasion he took Ajātaśatru prisoner but spared his life as he was his nephew. He confiscated the army of the captive prince but sought to appease him by the offer of the hands of his daughter Vajirā. The princess was dismissed with the Kāśi village in question, for her bath money. Her father could not enjoy the fruits of peace for more than three years.¹ During his absence in a country town, Dīgha Chārāyaṇa, the Commander-in-Chief, raised prince Viḍūḍabha to the throne.² The ex-king set out for Rājagṛiha, resolved to take Ajātaśatru with him and capture Viḍūḍabha. But he died from exposure outside the gates of the Magadhan metropolis.

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¹ *The Book of the Kindred Sayings*, I. pp. 109.-110. The *Saṁyutta Nikāya* and the *Haritamāta*, *Vaḍḍhaki-Sūkara*, *Kummā Sapiṇḍa Tachchha Sūkara* and the *Bhaddasāla Jātakas*.

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¹ *DPPN*, II, 172.

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² *Bhaddasāla Jātaka*.

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The traditional account of the **war with Vaiśālī** is preserved in part by Jaina writers. King Seṇiya Bimbisāra is said to have given his famous elephant Seyaṇaga (*Sechanaka*, the sprinkler), together with a large necklace of eighteen strings of jewels, to his younger sons Halla and Vehalla born from his wife Chellaṇā, the daughter of *Rājā* Cheṭaka of Vaiśālī. His eldest son Kūṇiya (Ajātaśatru), after usurping his father’s throne, on the instigation of his wife Paūmāvaī (Padmāvatī),³ demanded from his younger brothers the return of both gifts. On the latter refusing to give them up and flying with them to their grandfather Cheṭaka in Vaiśālī, Kūṇiya, having failed peacefully to obtain the extradition of the fugitives, commenced war with Cheṭaka.⁴ According to Buddhaghosha’s commentary the *Sumaṅgala-vilāsinī*,⁵ the cause of the war was a breach of trust on the part of the Lichchhavis in connection with a mine of precious gems or some fragrant material near a port on the Ganges over which a condominium was exercised by Ajātaśatru and his northern neighbours.

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³ The appellation Padmāvatī is of so frequent occurrence in connection with Magadhan royalty that it seems to be an epithet rather than a personal name. The mother of prince Abhaya, a queen of Ajātaśatru, and a sister of Darśaka, all have this name according to tradition. *Cf.* the name Padminī applied to the most commendable type of women in treatises on Erotics. It is also not improbable that the name belongs to the domain of mythology.

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⁴ *Uvāsaga-dasāo*, II, Appendix, p. 7; *cf.* Tawney, *Kathākośa*, pp. 176 ff.

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⁵ Burmese-Edition, Part II, p. 99. See now B. C. Law, *Buddhistic Studies*, p. 199; *DPPN*, II, 781.

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The preliminaries to the struggle between Magadha and Vaiśālī are described in several Pāli texts.¹ In the *Mahāvagga* it is related that Sunīd(t)ha and Vassakāra, two ministers of Magadha, were building a fort at Pāṭaligrāma in order to repel the Vajjis (Vrijis). The *Mahāparinibbāna Suttanta* says: "The Blessed One was once dwelling in Rājagaha on the hill called the Vulture's Peak. Now at that time Ajātasattu Vedehiputta, the king of Magadha, was desirous of attacking the Vajjians; and he said to himself, 'I will root out these Vajjians, mighty and powerful though they be, I will destroy these Vajjians, I will bring these Vajjians to utter ruin'".

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¹ *SBE*, XI, pp. 1-5; XVII. 101, *Gradual Sayings* IV. 14. etc.

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"So he spake to the Brāhmaṇa Vassakāra, the prime minister of Magadha, and said, 'Come now, Brāhmaṇa, do you go to the Blessed One, and...tell him that Ajātasattu...has resolved, 'I will root out these Vajjians'. Vassakāra hearkened to the words of the king..." (and delivered to the Buddha the message even as the king had commanded).

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In the *Nirayāvalī Sūtra* (*Nirayāvaliyā-Sutta*) it is related that when Kūṇika (Ajātaśatru) prepared to attack Cheṭaka of Vaiśālī the latter called together the eighteen Gaṇarājas² of Kāśi and Kosala, together with the Lichchhavis and Mallakis, and asked them whether they would satisfy Kūṇika's demands, or go to war with him. The good relations subsisting between Kosala and Vaiśālī are referred to in the *Majjhima Nikāya*.³ There is thus no reason to doubt the authenticity of the Jaina statement regarding the alliance between Kāśi-Kosala on the one hand and Vaiśālī on the other. It seems that all the enemies of Ajātaśatru including the rulers of Kāśi-Kosala and Vaiśālī offered a combined resistance. The Kosalan war and the Vajjian war were probably not isolated events but parts of a common movement directed against the establishment of the hegemony of Magadha. The flames fused together into one big conflagration.¹ We are reminded of the tussle of the Samnites, Etruscans and Gauls with the rising power of Rome.

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² Chiefs of republican clans. Cf. 125 ante.

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³ Vol. II, p. 101.

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¹ We are told that even Pradyota of Avanti made preparations to avenge the death of his friend Bimbisāra (*DPPN*, I. 34).

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In the war with Vaiśālī Kūṇiya-Ajātaśatru is said to have made use of the *Mahāśīlākaṇṭaga* and *ra(t)hamusala*. The first seems to have been some engine of war of the nature of catapult which threw big stones. The second was a chariot to which a mace was attached and which, running about, effected a great execution of men.² The *ra(t)hamusala* may be compared to the tanks used in the great world wars.

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² *Uvāsaga-dasāo*, Vol. II, Appendix, p. 60: *Kathākośa*, p. 179.

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The war is said to have synchronised with the death of Gosāla Maṅkhaliputta, the great teacher of the Ājīvika sect. Sixteen years later at the time of Mahāvīra's death the anti-Magadhan confederacy is said to have been still in existence. We learn from the *Kalpa Sūtra* that on the death of Mahāvīra the confederate kings mentioned in the *Nirayāvalī Sūtra* instituted a festival to be held in memory of that event.³ The struggle between the Magadhan king and the powers arrayed against him thus seems to have been protracted for more than sixteen years. The *Aṭṭhakathā* gives an account of the Machiavellian tractics¹ adopted by Magadhan statesmen headed by Vassakāra to sow the seeds of dissension among the Vaiśālians and thus bring about their downfall.²

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³ *S.B.E.*, xxii, 266 (para. 128). As pointed out by Jacobi (*The Kalpasūtra of Bhadravāhu*, 6 ff.) the traditional date of Mahāvīra's Nirvāṇa is 470 years before Vikrama (58 B. C.) according to the Śvetambaras, and 605 according to the Digambaras. It is suggested that Vikrama of the Digambaras is intended for Śālivāhana (78 A. D.). A different tradition is, however, recorded by Hemachandra who says that 155 years after the liberation of Mahāvīra Chandragupta became king:—

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¹ Diplomacy (*upalāpana*) and disunion (*mithubheda*), *DPPN*, II. 846; *JRAS*, 1931. *Cf. Gradual Sayings*, IV. 12. "The Vajjians cannot be overcome in battle, but only by cunning, by breaking up their alliance."

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² *Cf. Modern Review*, July, 1919, pp. 55-56. According to the *Ārya Mañjuśrī-Mūla-Kalpa* (Vol. I. ed. Ganapati Śāstrī pp. 603 f) the dominions of Ajātaśatru embraced, besides Magadha, Aṅga, Vārāṇasī (Benares), and Vaiśālī in the north. In the opinion of Dr. Jayaswal the Parkham statue is a contemporary portrait of king Ajātaśatru But Kūṇika of Parkham (Lüders List No. 150) is obviously not a king.

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The absorption of Vaiśālī and a part at least of Kāsi as a result of the Kosalan and Vajjian wars probably brought the aspiring ruler of Magadha face to face with the equally ambitious sovereign of Avanti. We have already referred to a statement of the *Majjhima Nikāya* that on one occasion

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*evam cha śrī Mahāvīra mukter varshaśate gate*
*pañchapañchāśadadhike Chandragupto'bhavan nṛipaḥ*
*Sthavirāvalīcharita, Pariśishṭaparva, VIII. 339.*

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As Chandragupta's accession apparently took place between 326 and 312 B. C., the tradition recorded in Hemchandra's *Pariśishṭaparvan* would place the date of Mahāvīra's death between 481 and 467 B.C. But early Buddhist texts (*Dialogues*, III, pp. 111, 203 *Majjhima*, II, 243) make the famous Jaina teacher predecease the Buddha, and the latest date assigned by reliable tradition to the *Parinirvāṇa* of the Śākya sage is 486 B.C. (Cantonese tradition, Smith, EHI. 4th ed., 49). According to Ceylonese writers, Śākyamuni entered into *nirvāṇa* in the eighth year of Ajātaśatru (*Ajātasattuno vasse aṭṭhame muni nibbute, Mahāvaṁśa*, Ch. II). This would place the accession of the son of Bimbisāra in 493 B. C., if the Cantonese date for the *niravāṇa* of the Buddha is accepted. Jaina writers put the interval between Kūṇika's accession and the death of their master at 16 and 'x' years. According to Buddhist chroniclers the interval would be less than 8 years as Mahāvīra predeceased the Buddha. The divergent data of the Jaina and Buddhist texts can only be reconciled if we assume that the former take as their starting point the date of the accession of Kūṇika as the *rājā* of Champā, while the Buddhists begin their calculation from a later date when Ajātaśatru mounted the throne of Rājagṛiha. According to Buddhist tradition Vassakāra's visit to the Buddha in connection with the Vrijian incident took place a year before the *parinirvāṇa*. The destruction of the Vriji power took place some three years later on (DPPN, I. 33-34) i.e. c. 484 B.C. Too much reliance can- not, however, be placed on the traditional chronology.

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Ajātaśatru was fortifying his capital because he was afraid of an invasion of his dominions by Pradyota. We do not know whether the attack was ever made. Ajātaśatru does not appear to have succeeded in humbling Avanti. The conquest of that kingdom was reserved for his successors.

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It was during the reign of Ajātaśatru that both Mahāvīra and Gautama, the great teachers of Jainism and Buddhism respectively, are said to have entered nirvāṇa. Shortly after the death of Gautama a Council is said to have been held by the monks of his Order for the recitation and collection of the Doctrine.

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