Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

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STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SÜTRA [Ch. III Kośalā Devī, a protracted war between king Prasenjit and king Künika began and lasted for a long period with alternate results of victory and defeat on both the sides.
At first king Prasenjit was defeated and driven back by king Kūnika to the wall of the capital city of Srāvasti. On another occasion the tide of war flowed in favour of the Košalan king. This time the Magadhan king was besieged and taken prisoner together with his whole army by king Prasenjit in an encounter, but his life was spared owing to his near relationship with the Kośalan king.'
After this signal victory over king Küņika, king Prasenjit concluded a peace with the captive king by releasing him and offering him the hands of his own daughter, the princess Vajirā, and by restoring the contended village of Kāśī to him as a dowry for her bath money."
But the relation between these two states became strained again after the death of king Prasenjit from exposure outside the gates of Rajagrha where he went as a result of the palace revolution to seek the military help of king Kūņika in order to capture his rebel son, Vidādābha, who was placed on the Kośalan throne by the commander-in-chief, Digha-Cārāyana, during his absence from his capital, Srāvastī in a country town.'
Therefore "the Kośalan war and the Vajjian war were pro. hably not isolated events but parts of a common movement directed against the establishment of the hegemony of Magadha'' over North Eastern India.
The evidences furnished by the Jaina texts clearly show that the political struggle between king Kūņiku and king Cetaka, united together with his allies, the rulers of Kāíz and Košala and their eighteen republican chiefs. nine Mullakis and nine Licchavis, dragged on for more than sixteen years, because
i The Book of the Kindred Sayings, I, pp. 109-110. 3 Sanyutta Nikāya, 1, 84-6, Jataka, IV, 1342, Dhammapala
comm. III, 259. 3 Bhuldasala Jataka 4 P. H. A. I. --Dr. H.C. Ray Chaudhuri p. 213,