Virudhaka

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Virudhaka (विरूढक) (IAST: Virūḍhaka, Pali: Viḍūḍabha) was son of Raja Prasenjit and king of Kashi. This king is probably related with Burdak gotra of Jats.

History

Soon after usurping the prosperous kingdom built up by his father Bimbisara, the parricide Ajatashatru went to war with his aged uncle Prasenjit, and gained complete control of Kashi. Just after this Prasenjit, like Bimbisara, was deposed by his son Virudhaka, and died. The new king, Virūḍhaka (in Pali Viḍūḍabha), then attacked and virtually annihilated the little autonomous tribe of Shakyas, in Himalayan foothills, and we hear no more of the people which produced the greatest of Indians, the Buddha. [1]

Probably Virudhaka, like Ajatashatru of Magadha, had ambitions of empire, and wished to embark on a career of conquest after bringing the outlying peoples, who had paid loose homage to his father, more directly under the control of the centre; but his intentions were unfulfilled, for we hear no more of him except an unreliable legend that he was destroyed by a miracle soon after his massacre of Shakyas. A little later, his kingdom was incorporated in Magadha. [2]

Alexander Cunningham found a sculpture of Virudhaka at Bharhut stupa in Satna district in Madhya Pradesh. [3]

हिन्दी में

विरूढक काशी कोषल देश का राजा था। वह राजा प्रसेनजित का पुत्र था। विरूढक ने प्रसेनजित को गद्दी से उतार दिया और राजा बन गया। कहते हैं कि विरूढक द्वारा शाक्यवंश का नाश किया जिस कारण उसका खुद का भी चत्कार से विनाश हो गया। उसका राज्य मगध में समाहित हो गया।

References

  1. A.L. Basham, The Wonders that was India, 1967, p. 47
  2. A.L. Basham, The Wonders that was India, 1967, p. 47
  3. Alexander Cunningham, The Stupa of Bharhut : A Buddhist Monument Ornamented with Numerous Sculptures Illustrative of Buddhist Legend and History in the Third Century B.C. Reprint. First published in 1879, London. 1998

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