01The hill-ringed capital
His seat was Girivraja, the old Rajagriha, a valley closed by five hills, and its stone circuit wall still runs for kilometres over the ridges near modern Rajgir. From there he married to the east and west at once. Kosala Devi, sister of King Prasenajit of Kosala, brought a village of Kashi as her dowry; Chellana came from the Licchavis of Vaishali; Khema from Madra in the Punjab. Anga, with its river port of Champa near modern Bhagalpur, he took by force, and with it the trade of the lower Ganga.
02Friend of two teachers
The Pali texts say Bimbisara first met the young Siddhartha begging in the streets of Rajagriha, and after the Enlightenment gave the Sangha the bamboo grove of Venuvana, its first gifted home. His physician Jivaka treated the Buddha. The Jain Agamas give the same king a Jain life, as Shrenika of Magadha, often seated before Mahavira in the assemblies of Rajagriha.
His end was bitter. Buddhist tradition says his son Ajatashatru imprisoned him and he died in confinement.
