________________
474
But his mother's name was Celaņā according to the Jaina tradition, and Kosála Devi according to the Buddhist tradition. The Jaina tradition believes that during her pregnancy the mother saw a lion in her dream, but the Buddhist tradition has nothing like this. During her pregnancy, the mother had a desire, According to the Jaina tradition, the desire was that he should eat the fried muscle of the heart of King Srenika and drink liquor; but according to the Buddhist tradition, it was to drink blood from the king's arm. According to both, the desire was fulfilled by the king. The Jaina source, however, holds that Abhayakumara so contrived that the muscles of the king's heart had not really to be taken out, and yet the queen had the satisfaction that she had eaten the fried muscles of the king's heart. According to the Buddhist tradition, a surgeon took out the blood from the king's arm and the queen drank it. After the fulfilment of her desire, the queen was very much ashamed and sorry. She tried even to kill the child in her womb. This she tried because, as per the Buddhist tradition, the astrologers had forecast that the child would one day kill his father. As per the Jaina tradition, the queen could visualise herself what sort of childshe was carrying in her womb who desire to taste the muscles of his father's heart.
Srenika's Love for his Son
According to the Jaina tradition, when the child was born, Celaņā had it thrown out. From there, a cock took out his little finger. There started a profuse bleeding at the place wherefrom the finger had been pecked out. When
nika came to know of this incident, he became restless out of affection for the son, He picked up the boy, brought him back to the queen and repeatedly sucked at the wound to stop bleeding.
King
As per the Buddhist tradition, the officers of the king had the child removed at once out of fear lest the queen should kill it herself. After a gap of time, the child was restored to his mother. Then the queen felt an affection for him. Once boy Ajātasatru had a boil on his finger. As the prince was bitterly crying, he was brought to the king
the court. The king held the finger in his mouth to warm the boil. After some time, the boil burst in the king's