Person · Haryanka king of Magadha
Bimbisara
Also known as Bimbisāra, Śreṇika, Shrenika, Seṇiya, Seniya
Bimbisara was the Haryanka king of Magadha who ruled from Girivraja, the hill-ringed city later called Rajagriha, in the generation of the Buddha and Mahavira. He annexed Anga and with it the routes to the ports of the Ganges delta, and made peace with Kosala by marriage, receiving Kashi as dowry. What is telling is that two rival traditions both claim him: Buddhists as the Buddha's royal friend, Jains as Shrenika, a regular listener at Mahavira's assemblies.
- Date
- -543–-492
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Patron dynasty
- Haryanka
- Confidence
- Mixed / layered — Known only through later Buddhist and Jain texts, which disagree on his end.
Worth knowing
Jain scripture says that after his son imprisoned him he killed himself, was reborn in hell, and will return as Padmanabha, the first tirthankara of the next cosmic age. Buddhist texts say instead that his son had him killed.
His dates hang on the date of the Buddha: a reign of c. 543–492 BCE on the older chronology, or c. 457–405 BCE on the later one. Buddhist and Jain accounts of his death contradict each other, and both are tradition.
Connections (5)
- Ruled fromRajagriha / Rajgir
Bimbisara's first capital was Girivraja, identified with Rajagriha, the city ringed by five hills; the 7th-century Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang went further and credited Bimbisara with building the city. From here he campaigned against Anga, perhaps to avenge his father's defeat, and made his son Kunika governor at Champa. Rajgir still shows visitors a site called Bimbisara's jail, where Buddhist tradition says his son held him until his death.
- PatronageThe Buddha
Buddhist scriptures make Bimbisara the Buddha's royal friend and protector: he is said to have met the wandering Siddhartha before the enlightenment, later became a disciple who reached sotapanna, the first stage of awakening, and appears in several suttas. One story has him ask the Buddha for a hair-and-nail stupa so that the women of his palace could venerate the teacher at any hour. These are accounts from within the tradition, with no independent record of the friendship.
- Traditional linkMahavira
Jain literature knows Bimbisara as Shrenika of Rajgir, who became a Jain after being moved by the calm of the monk Yamadhar and often visited Mahavira's samavasarana, the preaching assembly, to put questions to him, among them questions about the Jain Ramayana. Jain scripture says that after his son imprisoned him he killed himself in a fit of passion, was reborn in hell, and will return as Mahapadma or Padmanabha, the first tirthankara of the next ascending age.
- Succession in timeAjatashatru
Ajatashatru, called Kunika by the Jains, succeeded his father on the throne of Magadha around 492 BCE on the older chronology, after first serving as governor of Anga at Champa. Each tradition tells the succession differently: Buddhist texts say Ajatashatru, influenced by the schismatic monk Devadatta, imprisoned his father and had him killed, while Jain texts say Bimbisara took his own life in prison. Both versions are tradition rather than record, and each serves its own moral.
- Associated withSanchi
Two panels on the gateways of the Great Stupa at Sanchi show the king of Rajagriha: one a royal cortege issuing from the city to visit the Buddha, the other the Bamboo Garden (Venuvana) at Rajagriha during a visit of Bimbisara. The Buddha himself appears only as an empty throne. Descriptions of the cortege panel allow that the king may be Bimbisara or his son Ajatashatru; similar scenes reappear later in Gandharan art, where the Buddha is shown in person.
Sources
Wikipedia, "Bimbisara" and "Sanchi Stupa". Upinder Singh, A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India (2016); Paul Dundas, The Jains (2002); Padmanabh S. Jaini, The Jaina Path of Purification (1998).
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