The Death of King Bimbisara

Through the Buddha’s teaching, Bimbisara and Vaidehi were able to transcend their present suffering and were assured of final liberation from the rounds of birth and death. Ajatashatru, however, was still dominated by paranoia, hatred, and cruelty and was as determined as ever to make his father suffer and die.

Ever since his consort was imprisoned, King Bimbisara was denied all food. Peering through his window, he gazed upon the verdant green Vulture Peak; this provided some consolation for his mind. However, when Ajatashatru heard of this, he blocked up the window and slashed the soles of the king’s feet, so that the king could not stand. Around that time, Ajatashatru’s child Udaya was suffering from a boil on the tip of his finger. Therefore, Ajatashatru, while hugging his child to his bosom, sucked away the pus. Vaidehi, the king’s consort, who was sitting nearby, observed this and said, “King, when you were small, you suffered from an identical boil. Your father, the great king, just as you did, sucked away its pus.” When Ajatashatru heard this, his anger toward his father the king suddenly changed into thoughts of love. He said to his ministers, “If there is someone who will report that my father the king is alive, I shall grant him half of this country.” People rushed to where his father the king was being held. But the king, hearing the clamorous footsteps, became terrified and thought, “They are going to inflict severe punishments on me.” In agony, he collapsed onto the bed and breathed his last.

Blinded by worldly pleasures, Ajatashatru, who thus caused the death of his innocent father the king, was now best with contrition. His body suffered from high temperature; his whole body was covered with boils. The boils oozed pus and were so foul smelling that it was hard to come near him. He pondered, “Now, in this world, I receive something like the fruits of hell. Before long, I shall receive the fruits of the actual hell.” His mother Vaidehi was struck with grief and smeared various medicines on his body, but the boils would not heal. King Ajatashatru said to his mother, “These boils grow out of the mind and not from the body. They cannot be healed by human power.” (Ibid, p. 560)

The death of King Bimbisara is said to have occurred in the 38th year of the Buddha’s teaching mission. According to the Pali account, Vaidehi died of grief shortly thereafter. This led to a dispute between King Ajatashatru and his uncle, King Prasenajit of Koshala, the brother of Vaidehi. In the 39th year of the Buddha’s teaching mission King Prasenajit led his Koshalan troops to reclaim a village that had been given to Magadha as part of Vaidehi’s dowry when she married King Bimbisara. King Prasenajit declared that Bimbisara’s parricidal son had no right to it. King Ajatashatru led his own Magadhan troops to take back the village and to further his own imperialistic ambitions. The following discourse recounts what happened as well as the Buddha’s comments:

Thus I heard. The Blessed One was living at Shravasti. Now at that time Ajatashatru Vaidehiputra, King of Magadha, mustered a four-constituent army with elephants, cavalry, charioteers and infantry, and he marched into the Kashi country against Prasenajit, King of Koshala. King Prasenajit heard about it, and himself mustered a four-constituent army, he advanced into the Kashi country to engage King Ajatashatru in battle. The two kings fought. In that war King Ajatashatru beat King Prasenajit, who retreated to his own royal capital, Shravasti. Monks gathering alms in Shravasti heard about this, and they went and told the Blessed One. He said:

“Monks, Ajatashatru Vaidehiputra, King of Magadha, has bad friends, bad allies, bad intimates; Prasenajit, King of Koshala, has good friends, good allies, good intimates. But King Prasenajit will pass this night in suffering as one who is beaten.”

Conquest begets enemies;

One vanquished has a bed of pain,

A man of peace can lie in quiet –

No conquest or defeat for him.

Later the two kings fought as before. But in that battle King Prasenajit captured King Ajatashatru alive. Then it occurred to King Prasenajit: “Though this Ajatashatru Vaidehiputra, King of Magadha, has injured me who did him no injury, still he is my nephew. Why should I not confiscate all his elephants, his horses, his chariots and his infantry, and let him go alive?” Monks gathering alms in Shravasti heard about this, and they went and told the Blessed One. Knowing the meaning of this, the Blessed One then uttered this exclamation:

A man may plunder as he will.

When others plunder in return,

He, plundered, plunders them again.

The fool believes he is in luck

As long as evil does not ripen;

But when it does, the fool fares ill.

The slayer gets himself a slayer,

The victor finds himself a conqueror,

The abuser gets himself abused,

The persecutor persecuted;

The wheel of deeds turns round again

And makes the plundered plunderers.

(Adapted from Life of the Buddha, pp. 271-272)

After suffering defeat and then a merciful reprieve from his uncle, King Ajatashatru returned home and turned to philosophy for a time. His guilt over the murder of his father and the accompanying illness had not gone away. He also dreaded the consequences of his deeds if they should come to fruition in a future life. In order to ease his mind he visited the six unorthodox (from a Vedic point of view) teachers who all rejected the authority of the Vedas, the divinely revealed scriptures of the brahmins. These six included: Purana Kashyapa, who denied that moral causes will have an effect in a future life; Maskarin Goshali, who taught that everything is predestined and that liberation is a simple matter of just letting events unfold like letting a string unwind; Samjayin Vairatiputra the skeptic, who took an agnostic position on all matters; Ajita Keshakambala the materialist, who denied rebirth altogether; Kakuda Katyayana the pluralist, who taught that both the physical and spiritual elements that make up life disperse at death with no continuity; and Nigrantha Jnatiputra, the founder of Jainism, who taught that our actions bind us to suffering regardless of our intentions and that only complete inaction can lead to liberation. Four of them denied the law of cause and effect in terms of the consequences of moral and immoral actions. Samjayin Vairatiputra denied that there could be any certainty about such things. Nigrantha Jnatiputra held a very rigid view of cause and effect that demanded an ascetic life of inactivity. King Ajatashatru did not find any of these teachings satisfactory. His sickness remained, as did his guilt and dread of the future.