Ajatasatru

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Ajatasatru bigraphy, stories - King of the Magadha Empire

Ajatasatru : biography

The approximate extent of the Magadha state in the 5th century BCE Ajatasatru’s [[stupa in Rajgir, where his ashes were interred]]

Ajatasatru (Sanskrit अजातशत्रु, Ajataśatru, Tibetan མ་སྐྱེས་དགྲ་; ruled c. 492 BC – c. 460 BC) was a king of the Magadha empire in north India. He was the son of King Bimbisara, the great monarch of Magadha. He was contemporary to Mahavira and Buddha. He took over the kingdom of Magadha from his father forcefully by imprisoning him. He fought a terrible war against the Vajjis/Lichhvis and conquered the once considered invincible democratic Vaishali Republic. He followed the policy of conquest and expansion. He defeated his neighbours including the king of Kosala; his brother occupied Kashi which was given to Bimbisara as dowry. This led to a war between Magadha and Kosala. Ajatshatru occupied Kashi and captured the smaller kingdoms. Ajatshatru’s Magadha became the most powerful kingdom in Northern India and its power was felt far and wide.

War and victory over Vaisali

The Jain Tradition

Once Queen Padmavati wife of Ajatasatru, was sitting in her balcony in the evening. She saw Halla and Vihallakumaras with their wives sitting on Sechanaka elephant and one of the wives wearing the 18 fold divine necklace. Immediately she heard one of the maidservants speaking from the garden below "It’s Halla and Vihalla kumaras and not the king who enjoy the real pleasures of the kingdom" and she thought "what’s the use of the kingdom if I do not have both the jewels in my possession?"

So, she shared this thought with Ajatasatru the same night and became excessively insistent in her demand. Ajatasatru at last agreed and sent a request to both his brothers to give the elephant and the necklace to him, which both his brothers denied saying that these gifts were given by their dear father so why should they part from them? Ajatasatru sent the request thrice but got the same reply all three times. This annoyed him a lot, so he sent his men to arrest them. Meanwhile Halla and the Vihallakumaras availed a chance and escaped to their maternal grandfather Chetaka who was the king of the Great kingdom of the Vaisali republic (Vajjis/Lichhvis). Ajatasatru sent notice thrice to Chetaka to surrender them but was denied by Chetaka.

This was enough for Ajatasatru. He called his half brothers, Kalakumaras (10 kalakumaras, those born to King Bimbisara and 10 Kali Queens Kali, Sukali, Mahakali,etc.) to merge their army with his. As it was well known to Ajatasatru that Vaisali republic has always been invincible in past and he alone would not be able to capture it. Each Kalkumara brought 3000 horses, 3000 elephants, 3000 chariots and 30000 infantrymen each. On the other hand, Chetaka invited his own allies 9 Mallas, 9 Lichhvis and 18 kings of Kasi-Kosala to fight his grandson Ajatasatru. All these kings came with 3000 horses, 3000 elephants, 3000 chariots and 30000 infantrymen each. Thus all together there were 57000 elephants, 57000 chariots, 57000 horses, and 5,70,000 infantrymen.

The war began. King Chetaka was a devout follower of Lord Mahavira and had a vow to not shoot more than one arrow per day in a war. It was known to all that Chetaka’s aim was perfect and his arrows were infallible. His first arrow killed one Kalakumara, commander of Ajatasatru. On the consecutive nine days the rest of the nine Kalkumaras were killed by Chetaka. Deeply sorrowed by the death of their sons, the Kali queens were initiated as nuns in the holy order of Lord Mahavira.

As Ajatasatru was moving towards defeat he practiced penances for three days and offered prayers to Sakrendra and Charmendra (Indra of different havens) who then helped him in the war. They protected him from the infallible arrow of Chetaka. The war became very severe and by the divine influence of the Indras even the pebbles, straws, leaves hurled by Ajatasatru’s men fell like rocks on the army of Chetaka. This war was thus named "Mahasilakantaka", more than lakh died in this war. Next Indras granted Divine huge chariot with swinging mace or blades on each sides to Ajatasatru which was driven by Charmendra himself. The chariot moved freely in the battlefield chrushing lacs of soldiers. This war was named "Ratha-musala". In this war Chetaka was defeated. But Chetaka and others immediately took shelter inside the city walls of Vaisali and closed the main gate. The walls around Vaisali were so strong that Ajatasatru was unable to break through it. Many days passed by Ajatasatru became furious and again prayed to Indra, but this time Indra refused to help him. But Ajatasatru was informed by an oracle of a demi-goddess "Vaisali can be conquered if Sramana (monk) Kulvalaka gets married to a prostitute.".