Ajatasattu (Pāli: Ajātasattu[1]) or Ajatashatru (Sanskrit: Ajātaśatru[1]) in the Buddhist tradition, or Kunika (Kūṇika) and Kuniya (Kūṇiya) in the Jain tradition[6] (reigned c. 492 to 460 BCE, or c. 405 to 373 BCE[2][3]), was one of the most important kings of the Haryanka dynasty of Magadha in East India.

According to the Jain Nirayavalika Sutra, during her pregnancy, Queen Chellana had a strong desire to eat the fried flesh of her husband's heart and drink liquor.

Meanwhile, Halla and the Vihalla kumaras saw a chance and escaped to their maternal grandfather Chetaka who was the king of the great kingdom of the Vaishali republic (Vajjis/Licchavi tribe).

On the other hand, Chetaka invited his own allies (9 Mallas, 9 Lichhvis and 18 kings of Kasi-Kosala) to fight his grandson Ajatashatru.

King Chetaka was a devout follower of Mahavira and had a vow to not shoot more than one arrow per day in a war.

Deeply sorrowed by the death of their sons, the Kali queens were initiated as nuns in the holy order of Mahavira.

As Ajatashatru was moving towards defeat, he practised penance for three days and offered prayers to Sakrendra and Charmendra (Indra of different heavens), who then helped him in the war.

The war became very severe and, by the divine influence of the Indras, even the pebbles, straws, leaves hurled by Ajatashatru's men were said to have fallen like rocks on the army of Chetaka.

Next, the Indras granted a huge, automatically moving chariot with swinging spiked maces on each side, (and said to have been driven by Charmendra himself), to Ajatashatru.

But, Chetaka and others immediately took shelter inside the city walls of Vaishali and closed the main gate.

But Ajatashatru was informed by an oracle of a demi-goddess "Vaishali can be conquered if 'Sramana (monk) Kulvalaka' gets married to a courtesan."

With great difficulty, he did enter Vaishali and learned that the city was saved by a "Chaitya" (altar) dedicated to "Munisuvrata".

Sechanaka the elephant died after it fell in a pit with iron rods and fire made by Ajatashatru's soldiers.

Since he thought that it might be almost impossible to fight against the whole confederacy of Vaishali, he decided instead to uproot the powerful Vajjis and exterminate them.

He sent his chief minister Vassakara to the Buddha to ask him why the Vaishali should be so invincible; to which Buddha gave seven reasons, including: That the Vajjis are always punctual to meetings, their disciplined behavior, their respect for elders, respect for women, that they do not marry their daughters forcefully, that they give spiritual protection to the Arhats, and finally, the main reason was the Chaityas (altar), which was inside the town.

Thus, with the help of his chief minister Vassakara, Ajatashatru managed to split the Vajjis and also broke the chaityas inside.

During this battle, Ajatashatru used a scythed chariot, featuring a swinging mace and blades on both sides and attacked the town with it and conquered it.

The officer had a vast network and supporting field staff through whom he collected all the information about Mahavira and reported to the king.

According to Buddhist tradition, the Samaññaphala Sutta deals with his first meeting with the Buddha, where he realized his mistakes with his association to Devadatta and planining to killing his own father.

He erected a vast Stupa on the bones and ashes of the Buddha after the funeral, and Ajatashatru also was present in the first Buddhist council at the Sattapanni (Saptparni) caves Rajgriha.

He appears in the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra as a being completely overtaken by evil and suffering, and as such the prototype of an ordinary, sinful person who can only be saved by the Buddha's compassion; the Buddha even declares in this sutra that he will "remain in the world for the sake of Ajatashatru".

[17] This episode, along with the broader theme of the Age of Dharma Decline, informed several Mahayana schools' emphasis on faith rather than accumulating merit.