Chetaka

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Chetaka or Chedaga
Ceṭaka or Ceḍaga
Gaṇa Mukhya of the Licchavi Republic
Gaṇa Mukhya of the Vajjika League
Personal details
Bornc. 6th or 5th century BCE
Died468 BCE
Vesālī
Children
Military service
Battles/warsMagadha-Vajji war

Chetaka (Sanskrit: Ceṭaka) or Chedaga (Sanskrit: Ceḍaga) was the consul of the Licchavi tribe during the 5th century BCE.

Life[edit]

Ceṭaka was the son of Keka and Yaśomatī, he belonged to the Haihaya clan, and he had a sister named Trisalā.[1]

Ceḍaga was one of the nine elected rājās ("rulers") of the Council of the Licchavi tribe, which was the supreme authority of the Licchavikas' gaṇasaṅgha (aristocratic oligarchic republic) administration, of which he was the head. As the leader of the Licchavika Council, Ceḍaga was also the Gaṇa Mukhya ("head of the republic"), that is the elected consul of the republic,[2] which also made him the head of the Vajjika League led by the Licchavikas.[3]

Diplomatic marriages[edit]

Ceṭaka contracted several diplomatic marriages between members of his family and the leaders of other republics and kingdoms. One such marriage was the one between his sister, Trisalā, and the Nāyika Gaṇa Mukhya Siddhārtha, which was contracted because of Siddhārtha's political importance due to the important geographical location close to Vesālī of the Nāya tribe he headed, as well as due to Siddhārtha's membership in the Vajjika Council. The son of Siddhārtha and Trisalā, that is Ceḍaga's nephew, was Mahāvīra, the 24th Jain Tīrthaṅkara.[4]

Other marital alliances concluded by Ceṭaka included the marriages of his daughters:

Religious policy[edit]

Ceṭaka became an adept of the teachings of his nephew Mahāvīra and adopted Jainism, thus making the Licchavika and Vajjika capital of Vesālī a bastion of Jainism,[8] and Ceṭaka's sixth daughter, Sujyeṣṭhā, became a Jain nun.[6] The marriages of Ceṭaka's daughters to various leaders, in turn, contributed to the spreading of Jainism across northern South Asia.[8]

Ceṭaka's favourable attitude towards Jainism was why Buddhist sources did not pay notice to him, since he used his power to support the Buddhists' Jaina rivals.[9]

War against Magadha[edit]

See also: Magadha-Vajji war

The relations of the Licchavikas with their southern neighbour, the kingdom of Magadha, were initially good, and the wife of the Māgadhī king Bimbisāra was the Vesālia princess Vāsavī, who was the daughter of the Licchavika Nāyaka Sakala's son Siṃha. There were nevertheless occasional tensions between Licchavi and Magadha, such as the competition at the Mallaka capital of Kusinārā over acquiring the relics of the Buddha after his death.[10]

In another case, the Licchavikas once invaded Māgadhī territory from across the Gangā, and at some point the relations between Magadha and Licchavi permanently deteriorated as result of a grave offence committed by the Licchavikas towards the Māgadhī king Bimbisāra.[10]

The hostilities between Licchavi and Magadha continued under the rule of Ajātasattu, who was Bimbisāra's son with another Licchavika princess, Vāsavī, after he had killed Bimbisāra and usurped the throne of Magadha. Eventually Licchavi supported a revolt against Ajātasattu by his younger step-brother and the governor of Aṅga, Vehalla, who was the son of Bimbisāra by another Licchavika wife of his, Cellaṇā, the daughter of Ceḍaga; Bimbisāra had chosen Vehalla as his successor following Ajātasattu's falling out of his favour after the latter had been caught conspiring against him, and the Licchavikas had attempted to place Vehalla on the throne of Magadha after Ajātasattu's usurpation and had allowed Vehalla to use their capital Vesālī as base for his revolt. After the failure of this rebellion, Vehalla sought refuge at his grandfather's place in the Licchavika and Vajjika capital of Vesālī, following which Ajātasattu repeatedly attempted to negotiate with the Licchavikas-Vajjikas. After Ajātasattu's repeated negotiation attempts ended in failure, he declared war on the Vajjika League in 484 BCE.[10]

As members of the Vajjika League, the Vaidehas, Nāyikas, and Mallakas were also threatened by Ajātasattu, and, as the Vajjika Gaṇa Mukhya, Ceḍaga held war consultations with the rājās of the Licchavikas and Mallikas before the fight started. The Vaidehas, Nāyikas, and Mallakas therefore fought on the side of the League against Magadha. The military forces of the Vajjika League were initially too strong for Ajātasattu to be successful against them, and it required him having recourse to diplomacy and intrigues over the span of a decade to finally defeat the Vajjika League by 468 BCE and annex its territories, including Licchavi, Videha, and Nāya to the kingdom of Magadha, while the Mallakas also became part of Ajātasattu's Māgadhī empire but were allowed a limited degree of autonomy in terms of their internal administration.[10][11][12]

After the Licchavikas' defeat, Ceḍaga committed suicide by jumping into a well with an iron statue tied to his neck,[1] while his tribe itself nevertheless survived their defeat by Ajātasattu, and the structures of the older Licchavi republic subsisted within a degree local autonomy under Māgadhī rule, as attested by how the Licchavika Council instituted a festival in the memory of the decease of the Jain Tīrthaṅkara Mahāvīra.[10][11][12]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sikdar 1964, p. 498.
  2. ↑ Sharma 1968, p. 105-106.
  3. ↑ Sharma 1968, p. 180.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Sharma 1968, p. 159-168.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Sikdar 1964, p. 388-464.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 Deo 1956, p. 71.
  7. ↑ Jain 1974, p. 66.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Jain 1974, p. 67.
  9. ↑ Sharma 1968, p. 106.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 Sharma 1968, p. 85-135.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Sharma 1968, p. 136-158.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Sharma 1968, p. 169-181.

External links[edit]

  • Deo, Shantaram Bhalchandra (1956). History of Jaina Monachism from Inscriptions and Literature. Pune, India: Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute. ISBN 978-9-333-68377-7.
  • Jain, Kailash Chand (1974). Lord Mahāvīra and His Times. Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidass. p. 66. ISBN 978-8-120-80805-8.
  • Sharma, J. P. (1968). Republics in Ancient India, C. 1500 B.C.-500 B.C. Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill. ISBN 978-9-004-02015-3.
  • Sikdar, Jogendra Chandra (1964). Studies in the Bhagawatīsūtra. Muzaffarpur, Bihar, India: Research Institute of Prakrit, Jainology & Ahimsa. pp. 388–464.
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