Indian Antiquary Vol 45

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 18

14
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JANUARY, 1916
penultimate year of the Buddha's life. 40 The Buddhist Suttas and the Burmese legend mention his fortification, and as the city of Patnâ quickly grew round the fort, we may assume that it had been the royal residence in the last years of Aja tasatru. In the fight with the Lichchhavis also Magadha won the day. But it is not to be supposed that (Kösala) and Vaišâli became at once part and parcel of the Magadha empire. Their princes existed for two or three generations more, doubtless as vassals of the Magadha emperors. The last of the Puranic list of Kösala kings is Sumitra, a great-grandson of Kshudraka ( Virudhaka).41 There is no evidence that Vesali +2 was considered part of Magadha before about 100 B. C., when one of the Magadha kings is said to have made it his capital. If this tradition is worth anything, it may be taken to indicate that Vaisâli was then made the base of operations for further campaigns in the Lichchhavi country. The Magacha empire in the reign of Ajâta atru must have extended north of the Ganges at least as far east as the Gandak, for we are told he constructed a road along that river, and provided it with resthouses at intervals. This road probably served as the eastern line of defence north of the Ganges.
6. Expansion of the Empire. The next king was Udaya whom Buddhist traditions consider a favourite son of Ajậtasutru, + In the fourth year of his reign he is said to have built the city of Kusumapura on the southern bank of the Ganges.45 This implies that the king abandoned Rajagriha for this more northerly seat on the Ganges, as a strategic measure for watching the Lichchhavis on the north. It is hardly likely that the expansion of Magadha went on far under this king, who had such able rivals as Chanda Pradyota of Avanti and Yaugandharayana the minister at Kausâmbî. The campaigns with the Lichchhavis probably continued during the reign, but they could have hardly led to any appreciable results. The Jainas have a tradition that he was assassinated, and it is therefore likely that he ruled for 16 years as given in the Dipavamia, and not 33 as in the Vishnu-Puråņa.
When the king was cut off, the court apparently moved back to Rajagriha, giving up for the time the campaigns against the Lichchhavis. Darsaka quietly succeeded and he seems to have been a very young man at the time.46 But the political atmosphere of Hindustan was charged with electricity. Uda yana of Kausâmbi, a gay and light-hearted ruler, stood in imminent danger of losing his ancestral kingdom, where the discontent of the Vatsas was coming to a head under the arch-rebel Aruni.47 The river Ganges was
40 Kshudraka, the successor of Prasenajit in the Puranic list must certainly be identified with Virudhaka the successor of Pasenadi according to the Buddhist works.
11 Asvaghosha : Buddha Charita (S. B. E. XIX, p. 249 )
42 Represented by Basarh and Bakhira about 27 miles N. W. of Pâtna (Arch. Sur. Ann. Rep. 1903-4 pp. 81-122.)
13 Bigandet: op. cit. Vol. II, p. 95. The mention in the same work of Ajátasatru having destroyed VosAli (II. 113) means therefore little more than a temporary victory over the Lichchhavis.
" Jain traditions also agree with this. They further add that Udaya himself was childless. The Puranas distinctly declare that Dariaka was a son of Ajátasatru and that Udaya ruled after him. The Puranic order of rulers is, as we have seen elsewhere, not always correct. Putting all the traditions together, it appears highly probable that Udaya succeeded AjAtasatru, and was succeeded by Dariaka, & younger brother of his, he being childless.
46 स वै पुरवरं राजा पृथिव्यां कुसुमाइयं
' Fra: A Taifa witoare 11-(Vayu P.) 46 This may be inferred from soveral passages in Bhlsa's Vasavadatid : (Trivandrum, 1912). Waruf a a EU TEHT HET haft. (page 4).
ATT HEHere forfaran (page 6). It is noteworthy that Dariaka is not one of the Dramatis Personae.. # Ibid, page 60.