Ajātasattu (Ajātaśatru) and his Mother Vedehī (Veidehī) in the Vinayapiţaka

The main character of the prologue of the Guan wu-liang-shou jing, which tells of the story known as the "tragedy of Raj agrha" , is Vedehi (Vaidehi). This story begins with Ajatasattu (Ajatasatru), the king of Magadha, imprisoning his father Bimbisara at the instigation of Devadatta. This story is frequently contrasted to that of "Ajatasattu's patricide," which appears in many Buddhist texts. A number of studies have treated the history of this story's transmission and development. In particular, in his series of studies on the Guan jing, Sueki Fumihiko has considered the story of Ajatasattu in detail. In these studies, he discussed the formation of the Guan jing prologue and has brilliantly clarified the origin of the Guan jing itself. In particular, Sueki focused on its similarities with the story found in the Samghabhedavastu in the Mulasarvastivadin Vinaya. Through a detailed comparison of these stories, he argued that, as far as the prologue is concerned, its origin is to be sought in Central Asia. However, although Sueki describes in concrete terms the parts of the Mulasarvastivadin Vinaya story concerning Ajatasattu and Vedehi which directly bears on the Guan jing's prologue, he fails to clarify the position which Ajatasattu and Vedehi occupy in the Mulasarvastivadin Vinaya itself. For this reason, in this paper I collected as many references as possible to Ajatasattu and Vedehi in the entire Vinaya, and consider how they are depicted in the structure of the Vinaya. In this way, I have sought to reconsider the process of the development of the Samghabhedavastu which is contrasted to the prologue of the Guan jingo As a result, it has become clear that many stories concerning Ajatasattu exist in the Vinayapitaka. These stories apparently can be distinguished into two types. One is centered on his relation to Devadatta and focuses on his role as patricide, while the other focus on his more general role as king or holder of power. The redactors incorporated both of these two different aspects into the Vinaya and developed the story of Ajatasattu. The final stage of this development is found in the story of the Sarvastivadin (especially the Mulasarvastivadin) Vinaya. It has also become apparent that Vedehi appears only in this Vinaya tradition. In this way, it can be said that the similarity between the Guan jing prologue and the Samghabhedavastu has been confirmed. Recently, Jonathan A. Silk has taken up a story of Ajatasattu found in Jain texts. Through my study, I have confirmed the existence of a story closely related to that of the Jain Ajatasattu story in the Vinaya