Book Title: Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra
Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur
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Sec. III]
King Kūnika
As already discussed in the third chapter on 'Political Conditions' King Kūņika of Campā appears here as the victor in the political struggle over his rival confederate army of nine Mallakis, nine Licchavis, Kāši and Kosala and their eighteen Ganarajas led by Ceṭaka, the president-king of Vaisali Republic.
STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SUTRA
Kūņika, the son of king Seniya-Bimbisāra, was attributed by the names of Kunika1 and Asogacanda as derived from the incidents of the tearing of his little finger by a cock's tail, when thrown on a dung hill according to one tradition and the illumination of the garden of Aśoka tree where he was cast according to another tradition, just after his birth. The third epithet Vajjividehaputta or Videhaputta was attributed to him because of his maternal relation with Videha.
Both the Jaina" and Buddhist works record the accounts of Kūņika's ascendancy to the throne of his father, Seniya-Bimbisara by putting him into the prison where he breathed his last with painful tortures at the hands of his own son.
It is said that Kūņika transferred his capital to Campa from Rajagṛha only to forget this unbearable tragic incident and sorrow."
It appears from the Jaina and Buddhist works that king Kūņika-Ajataśatru was intimately associated with the Nirgrantha order as well as with the Buddhist church and had predilection for both religions, as it is revealed by the fact that he was claimed as a devoted follower of both the faiths.
1 Ovaiya Sutta 6. 3 Bhs, 7, 9, 300.
497
p.
Jain Education International
20.
2 Avasyaka Curni p. 166.
4 Comm. on Digha Nikaya 1. p. 139.
Nirayavaliya Sutta 1; Avasyaka Curni II, p. 171.
See Comm. on the Digha Nikaya p. 135 ff for the Buddhist
verson.
7 Nirayavaliya Sutta 1; Avasyaka Curni II, p. 171.
8 Aupapatika Sutra 12. 27. 30; 6 p. 20; Hemachandra's PariSista Parvan Canto IV; Avasyaka Sutra pp. 684, 687 Samaññaphala Sutta; Digha Nikaya 1.50; Digha-Nikaya
11. 168.
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