Jain Journal 1969 01

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

Page 17

JANUARY, 1969
111
Videha kingdom, so he was videhadattātmaja, and being the noblest among the videhis, he has been called videhajātya.40
The great poet Bhasa in his drama Svapnavāsavadattā has called king Udayana as videhīputra,41 because his mother was a princess of Videha kingdom. According to the Jaina tradition, Cellana (mother of Kunika) and Mrgavati, mother of Udayana, were real sisters, being the daughters of king Cetaka of Vaisali.42 Lord Mahavira's mother Trisala was the sister of king Cetaka.43 There the epithets, such as videhadinnā, or videhiputra are most natural and intelligible. Even in the Jaina cannons, Kunika has been called as ‘videhiputra'.44 According to Rhys Davids king Bimbisara has two queens, one Kosala Devi, sister of king Prasenajita, and the other a Videha princess, and Ajatasatru was the son of the latter.45
According to the Atthakathā, while the king Bimbisara was in prison in the hot-house, queen Kosala Devi waited upon him. In the Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, the name of the waiting queen is stated as Khema and she is said to be the royal princess of Kosala kingdom.46 But this obviously appears to be an error. Khema truly belonged to Madradesa.47 It seems that in place of Kosala Devi the name of Khema has been mentioned erroneously. In the Tibetan tradition and the Amitāyurdhyāna Sūtta, the name of the waiting queen has been mentioned as Videhi Vasavi who was the daughter of Vaisali's Commander Sinha.48 Radha Kumud Mookerji writes that Videhi Vasavi can be recognised as Cellana.49 From these diversities in the Buddhist tradition nothing more is inferred than that Ajatasatru was the son of the princess of Videha and so he was called videhīputra. It is not understandable why Acarya Buddhaghosa had been nourishing the wrong impression in interpreting the word 'videhi' as panditā and Ajatasatru as the son of Kosala Devi, the princess of Kosala.
40 S. B. E., Vol. XXII, p. 256; Vasantakumar Chattopadhyaya, Kalpa Sutra (Bengali Edition), p. 27.
11 The Hindu Civilization (Hindi Edition), p. 198. 4 Avas yaka Curni, part II, p. 164. 4 Avasyaka Curni, part I, p. 254. 4 Bhagavati Sutra, sataka 7, uddesaka 9, p. 576. 45 Buddhist India, p. 3. * Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, p. 316. 47 Therigatha Atthakatha, 139-43. 48 Rockhill, Life of Buddha, p. 63. “ The Hindu Civilization (Hindi Edition), p. 183.