[8][9][10] Pradyota's father was Puṇika or Pulika, who was the minister at the court of the king of the Uttara (northern) Avanti kingdom centred around Ujjenī.

Śivā was herself a cousin of the 24th Jain Tīrthaṅkara Mahāvīra, who was the son of Ceṭaka's sister Trisalā.

[8] Under Pradyota, the Avanti kingdom controlled the important sea port city of Bharukaccha,[13] from where trade was carried out with states of ancient Western Asia such as the Neo-Babylonian and Persian Achaemenid empires.

[14] Pradyota nevertheless had to contend with other powerful kingdoms near Avanti: according to Jain sources, Pradyota had stolen a sandalwood image of Mahavīra as well as the image's keeper, a slave girl named Devadattā, from Vītībhaya, the capital of the kingdom of Sindhu-Sauvīra, after which the king Udayāna of Sindhu-Sauvīra marched on Pradyota's capital Ujjenī, defeated him, and branded his forehead with a frontlet on which was written dāsī-pai ("husband of a slave girl"), before later granting Pradyota pardon and releasing him shortly before the festival of Pajjusana, after which Udayāna invested him as king of Avanti with a gold plate on his forehead to cover the letters dāsī-pai.

[15] Pradyota also engaged in hostilities with the kingdom of Vatsa, against which he carried out an initially successful military campaign until its king Śatānīka was able to repel him.

[11] In addition to his daughter Vāsavadattā, Pradyota had two sons, named Gopāla and Pālaka, all born from his marriage with the Licchavika princess Śivā.

[8] Pajjota and his descendants, collectively known as the Pradyota dynasty, ruled over Avanti until it was finally conquered by Magadha in the late 5th century BCE.