Viḍūḍabha ( ; ) was a king of

Kosala Kosala, sometimes referred to as Uttara Kosala () was one of the Mahajanapadas of ancient India. It emerged as a small state during the Late Vedic period and became (along with Magadha) one of the earliest states to transition from a lineage ...

during the lifetime of the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...

Life

Early life

He was the son of Prasenajit and , the daughter of a

Shakya Shakya (Pali, Pāḷi: ; Sanskrit: ) was an ancient Indo-Aryan clan of the northeastern region of South Asia, whose existence is attested during the Iron Age in India, Iron Age. The Shakyas were organised into a Gaṇasaṅgha, (an Aristocrac ...

n chief named by a slave girl .Kosambi D.D. (1988). ''The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India in Historical Outline'', New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, , pp.128-9 He grew up to be a handsome and healthy young man. He was curious about his grandfather () and grandmother (), but his mother kept preventing him from visiting them. However, one day, she finally gave in. In the Shakya realm, he did not receive a warm welcome as he expected (for he was the son of a slave girl) and was offended when he learnt about his mother's true identity.

Rise to power

During Pasenadi's reign, a Mallaka named Bandhula who had received education in Takṣaśilā, had offered his services as a general to the Kauśalya king so as to maintain the good relations between the Mallakas and Kosala. Later, Bandhula, along with his wife Mallikā, violated the sacred tank of the Licchavikas, which resulted in armed hostilities between the Kauśalya and the Licchavikas. Bandhula was later treacherously murdered along with his sons by Pasenadi. In retaliation, some Mallakas helped Pasenadi's son Viḍūḍabha usurp the throne of Kosala to avenge the death of Bandhula, after which Pasenadi fled from Kosala and died in front of the gates of the Māgadhī capital of

Rājagaha Rajgir, old name Rajagriha, meaning "The City of Kings," is an ancient city and university town in the Nalanda district of Bihar, India. It was the capital of the Haryanka dynasty, the Pradyota dynasty, the Brihadratha dynasty, the Mauryan Emp ...

Reign

At some point during his reign, Viḍūḍabha fully annexed the Kālāma republic which had already a vassal of Kosala. That the Kālāmas did not request a share of the Buddha's relics after his death was possibly because they had lost their independence by then. Shortly after the Buddha's death, the Viḍūḍabha invaded the

Sakya The ''Sakya'' (, 'pale earth') school is one of four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the others being the Nyingma, Kagyu, and Gelug. It is one of the Red Hat Orders along with the Nyingma and Kagyu. Origins Virūpa, 16th century. It depict ...

and

Koliya Koliya (Pāli: ) was an ancient Indo-Aryan clan of north-eastern South Asia whose existence is attested during the Iron Age. The Koliyas were organised into a (an aristocratic republic), presently referred to as the Koliya Republic. Locat ...

republics, seeking to conquer their territories because they had once been part of Kosala. Viḍūḍabha finally triumphed over the Sakyas and Koliyas and annexed their state after a long war with massive loss of lives on both sides. Details of this war were exaggerated by later Buddhist accounts, which claimed that Viḍūḍabha's invasion was in retaliation for having given in marriage to his father the slave girl who became Viḍūḍabha's mother, and that he exterminated the Sakyas. In actuality, Viḍūḍabha's invasion of Sakya might instead have had similar motivations to the Māgadhī king Ajātasattu's conquest of the

Vajjika League The Vajjika (Pāli: ) or Vrijika () League, Confederacy, or Sangha, also called simply Vajji (Pāli: ) or Vriji (), was an ancient Indo-Aryan league which existed during the later Iron Age period in the north-eastern Indian subcontinent. Na ...

because he was the son of a Vajjika princess and was therefore interested in the territory of his mother's homeland. The result of the Kauśalya invasion was that the Sakyas and Koliyas merely lost political importance after being annexed into Viḍūḍabha's kingdom. The Sakyas nevertheless soon disappeared as an ethnic group after their annexation, having become absorbed into the population of Kosala, with only a few displaced families maintaining the Sakya identity afterwards. The Koliyas likewise disappeared as a polity and as a tribe soon after their annexation. The massive life losses incurred by Kosala during its conquest of Sakya weakened it significantly enough that it eventually was soon annexed by its eastern neighbour, the kingdom of

Magadha Magadha was a region and kingdom in ancient India, based in the eastern Ganges Plain. It was one of the sixteen Mahajanapadas during the Second Urbanization period. The region was ruled by several dynasties, which overshadowed, conquered, and ...

, and Viḍūḍabha was defeated and killed by the Māgadhī king Ajātasattu.

References

Sources

* * * * Basham, A. L. ''The Wonder That was India.'' New York: Hawthorn Books, 1963. {{s-end Kings of Kosala