Story of King Ajatsatru.

Ajatasatru [ Ruled during c.492 BC – c. 460 BC ] was a king of the Magadha empire in north India. 

He was the son of King Bimbisara( 558 BC –491 BC), the great monarch of Magadha.

He was contemporary to Mahavira( 599 BCE–527 BCE) and Buddha(563 BCE–483 BCE).

Birth of Ajatsatru

The story of Ajatasatru is found in Buddhists Tripitakas and Jain Agamas. The account of Ajatasatru's birth is more or less similar in both the traditions.  

According to Jaina tradition, Ajatasatru was born to king Bimbisara and Queen Chelna; Buddhist tradition records Ajatasatru being born to King Bimbisara and queen Kosala Devi.

According to "Nirayavalika Sutta" of Jaina Aagams, during her pregnancy Queen Chelna had the strong desire to eat fried flesh of her husband's (King Bimbisara's) heart and drink liquor. Meanwhile the very intelligent Prince Abhayakumara (son of King Bimbisara and Queen Nanda) fried a wild fruit that seemed like heart and gave it to the queen. The queen ate it and later felt ashamed for having such a demonic desire and she feared that the child might grow up and prove fatal for the family, thus after few months when the child was born, the queen had him thrown out of the palace. When the child was lying near the garbage dump, a cock bit his little finger. King Bimbisara, learning about the child being thrown out, ran outside and picked up the child and put its bleeding little finger in his mouth and sucked it until it stopped bleeding and continued this for days until it was healed. As the little finger of the child was sore, he was nicknamed Kunika i.e., Sore Finger. But later he was named Ashokachandra.

In the Buddhists text Digha Nikaya Atthakatha, the above story is almost the same, except that Queen Kosala devi desired to drink blood from King Bimbisara's arm; the king obliged her and, later, when the child was thrown near the garbage dump, due to an infection he got a boil on his little finger and the king sucked it and once while sucking it the boil got burst inside the king's mouth, but due to the affection for his child he did not spit the pus out, rather swallowed it.

 Early life of Ajatsatru

 

The Young prince Ashokchandra was 7 feet tall, handsome, strong, with long curly hair which touched his chest, very intelligent and learned in all 64 arts. At the age of 20 he was married to Princess Padmavati. Once King Bimbisara decided to give gifts to his children (those born of Queen Chelna), he gave an 18 fold Divine Necklace to Hallakumara and one Sechanaka (watering) White elephant (pachyderm) to Vihallakumara, which cost more than half of Magadha. But as the king wanted to surprise Ashokcahandra by giving him the entire kingdom, he did not give anything to him on that day. But Ashokchandra, failing to understand his father, thought that the king would even give the entire kingdom to Halla and Vihallakumaras. Thus, he imprisoned his father in the prison of Rajgriha and enthroned himself as king of Magadha.

 The fear of Queen Chelna became true and thus she cursed him that for rest of his life and in history he will be known as Ajatasatru i.e.-one who is an enemy of his own clan from even before his birth. 

Death of Bimbisara

 

 According to the Jaina tradition 

Once Ajatasatru was eating his meal with his newborn son in his lap, his son suddenly urinated, of which some of the drops fell in his plate but due to his affection for his child he did not change the plate but wiped the drops with his own patta(cloth on the shoulder) and continued to eat in the same plate. After eating a morsel he asked his mother Chelna who was sitting in the same dining room, whether she has ever seen any father loving and caring as much as he is, to which his mother narrated the story of affection of King Bimbisara for him. This touched Ajatasatru's heart and his affection for his father aroused. At once he picked up his axe and hurried to the prison to free his father by breaking all the iron chains by himself. But when Bimbisara saw him coming with an axe in his hand he thought, ... so, he is coming to kill me. It is better that I end my life with my own hands. At once he removed the Talaputa poison from his ring, closed his eyes and chanted "Kevli pannato Dhammam saranam pavajyami"(I seek refuge in the dharma taught by the kevlins or omniscient) and swallowed the poison and ended his life.Ajatasatru repented a lot but repentance was of no use. Ajatasatru then shifted his palace to Champa and made it his capital as the previous palace reminded him of his atrocious mistake.

According to the Buddhist tradition 

Ajatasatru allowed no one, but only Kosala devi, to meet Bimbisara in the smokey cell. Ajatasatru wanted to starve him to death, as Devdatta had said "father cannot be killed by a weapon." Thus Kosala devi used to take small food packets to the cell, being caught by guards she started to take food hidden behind her hair, being caught again she started slipping in food by hiding it in her golden slippers again being caught she coated 4 layers of honey on her body which was licked by the king. When she was caught once again Ajatasatru prohibited Kosala devi from meeting the king. When Ajatasatru saw that the king was not dying even then he ordered a barber to pierce the king's legs with a knife , then pour salt, hot oil and fire made from khairawood on him. When this was done the king died.

According to Buddhist tradition, the aspiration of Ajatasatru was aflame at the provocation given by Devadatta. Devadatta was looking for ways and means of taking revenge on the Buddha, and seeing in the prince a very desirable weapon, he exerted all his strength to win him to his side. Ajatasatru was greatly impressed by Devadatta's powers of iddhi and became his devoted follower. He built for him a monastery at Gayāsīsa and waited upon him morning and evening carrying food for him, sometimes as much as five hundred cartloads in five hundred cooking pans. Devadatta incited him to seize the throne, killing his father if necessary. When Bimbisara learnt of the prince's intentions he abdicated the throne. But Devadatta was not satisfied until Bimbisāra, who was one of the Buddha's foremost supporters, was killed. Ajatasatru thus on Devadatta's words put Bimbisara behind the bars.