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480
Vol. V Part IV, pp. 550-551). It is desirable that in future, this latter name is used in the history of India.
Two meanings are given to the word, 'Ajātasatru', as follows:
na yātah satrur yasya, i.e., one to whom no enemy has been born(127), and ajāto hapi satruh, i.e., one who has been an enemy even from before his birth(128).
The second meaning is due to Buddhaghoşa, and is correct in a sense, and logical too, though the first meaning is more apparent, and comes at once. Kūnika was a powerful and a brilliant monarch. He had overpowered many an invincible foes. So the epithet Ajātas atru, instead of standing as a condemnation (as in the interpretation of Buddhaghosa), should appropriately stand as an eulogy for his gallantry.
The word "Künika" is derived from the word 'kuni" which means sore of the finger(129). Hence "Kūņika" should mean one who had suffered from soar finger. As Acarya Hemacandra has written.
rūąhavraņāpi sā tasya kūạitāitta'vadanguliḥ,
tataḥ sapāṁsura maņaiḥ sohabhyaściyata kūņihā. Kūņika has been named "Asóka Candra" in the Avasyak Cūrņi(130); but this use is very rare.
Mahāśilākaņțaka War and the Conquest of the Vajjis
One of the historical episodes in the life of Kuņika was, to use a Jaina expression, the Mahasilakantaka War, called the 'conquest of the Vajjis' by the Buddhists. The causes of the war, the process of fighting and the termination of hostilities have been diversely described in the two traditions; but one truth that inevitably emerges is that Magadha achieved victory over the Vaisali confederacy. When this war broke out, both Mahavira and the Buddha were alive; both answered questions about the war. Most thrilling is the account of the war itself in the two sources,
