Viḍūḍabha
king of Kosala
Viḍūḍabha (Pali: विडूडभ Viḍūḍabha; Sanskrit: विरूढक Virūḍhaka) was a king of Kosala during the lifetime of the Buddha.
Life
Early life
He was the son of Prasenajit and Vāsavakhattiyā, the daughter of a Shakyan chief named Mahānāma by a slave girl Nāgamundā. He grew up to be a handsome and healthy young man. He was curious about his grandfather (Mahānāma) and grandmother (Nāgamundā), but his mother Vāsavakhattiyā kept preventing him from visiting them. However, one day, she finally gave in. In the Shakya realm, he did not receive a warm welcome as he expected (for he was the son of a slave girl) and was offended when he learnt about his mother's true identity.
Rise to power
During Pasenadi's reign, a Mallaka named Bandhula who had received education in Takṣaśilā, had offered his services as a general to the Kauśalya king so as to maintain the good relations between the Mallakas and Kosala. Later, Bandhula, along with his wife Mallikā, violated the Abhiseka-Pokkharaṇī sacred tank of the Licchavikas, which resulted in armed hostilities between the Kauśalya and the Licchavikas. Bandhula was later treacherously murdered along with his sons by Pasenadi. In retaliation, some Mallakas helped Pasenadi's son Viḍūḍabha usurp the throne of Kosala to avenge the death of Bandhula, after which Pasenadi fled from Kosala and died in front of the gates of the Māgadhī capital of Rājagaha.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3267648. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Viḍūḍabha” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.