01The war against Vaishali
The Mahaparinibbana Sutta opens with Ajatashatru sending his minister Vassakara to ask the Buddha whether the Vajjis could be beaten. The Buddha answered that they would not decline while they met often, kept their old laws and honoured their elders and shrines. Vassakara and Sunidha then built the fort at Pataligrama. The Jain Bhagavati Sutra remembers the war for two new engines: the mahashilakantaka, which hurled great stones, and the rathamusala, a chariot fitted with swinging maces. The confederacy fell, and Magadha reached the Himalayan foothills.
02Kosala and the first council
His mother was a Kosala princess, and her brother Prasenajit took back the Kashi village after Bimbisara’s death. War followed; the Pali texts say it ended with Prasenajit giving his daughter Vajira in marriage to Ajatashatru. After the Buddha’s parinirvana, the first Buddhist council met at the Sattapanni cave on Vaibhara hill outside Rajagriha, under this king’s protection, to recite the Teaching together.
