Jain Journal 1968 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 21

JAIN JOURNAL
of the relics ; that he obtained them; and built a stūpa or burial mound over them. And though the oldest authority says nothing about it, younger works state that on the convocation of the first Council at Rajagrha, shortly after the decease, it was the king who provided and prepared that hall at the entrance to the Sattapanni cave, where the rehearsal of the doctrine took place. He may well have thus showed favour to the Buddhists without at all belonging to their party. He would only, in so doing, be following the usual habit so characteristic of Indian monarchs of patronage towards all schools."29
Mother's longings during pregnancy
The description of Kunika's birth and his revolt against his father is almost identical in both the traditions. We find this description in the Jaina canon Niryāvalikā and in Dighanikāya Atthakathā of the Buddhists. Both the traditions name his father Srenika (Bimbisara). His mother's name was Cellana according to the Jaina tradition and Kosala Devi according to the Buddhists. The Jainas state that his mother, on the day of conception, saw a lion in a dream but the Buddhists do not mention anything about it. According to the Jaina tradition, the mother longed during pregnancy to eat the fried and baked meat of king Srenika's heart muscles and drink wine. According to the Buddhists, she longed only to drink the blood from the kings arm. Both the traditions state that the king fulfilled these longings. According to the Jaina tradition, Abhaya Kumara slyly so manouvered that the king's heart muscle was taken out and given to her, but in fact it was not even touched. The Buddhists state that blood from the king's arm was extracted by a doctor and the mother's longing fulfilled. The queen later felt aggrieved of this incident and even attempted to destroy the embryo in the womb. According to the Buddhists, this she attempted to do as the astrologers had predicted the would-be child to be a murderer of his father. But the Jainas state that this she attempted out of her own thinking as to what could be expected of one who, even, while in the womb, demanded his father's heart.
Srenika's affection for his son
According to the Jaina tradition, Cellana, the queen-mother, threw away the child on a slum soon after its birth. There a cock bit his little finger. The finger bled. No sooner did the king come to know about this, he, out of affection, felt aggrieved and then quickly came to the
2.Buddhist India, pp. 15-16.