Viá¸Âà «á¸Âabha ( ; ) was a king of Kosala during the lifetime of the Buddha.
He was the son of Prasenajit and , the daughter of a Shakyan chief named by a slave girl . He grew up to be a handsome and healthy young man. He was curious about his grandfather () and grandmother (), but his mother 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.
During Pasenadi's reign, a Mallaka named Bandhula who had received education in Taká¹£aà ÂilÃÂ, had offered his services as a general to the Kauà Âalya king so as to maintain the good relations between the Mallakas and Kosala. Later, Bandhula, along with his wife MallikÃÂ, violated the sacred tank of the Licchavikas, which resulted in armed hostilities between the Kauà Âalya and the Licchavikas. Bandhula was later treacherously murdered along with his sons by Pasenadi. In retaliation, some Mallakas helped Pasenadi's son Viá¸Âà «á¸Âabha 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 MÃÂgadhë capital of RÃÂjagaha.
At some point during his reign, Viá¸Âà «á¸Âabha fully annexed the KÃÂlÃÂma republic which had already a vassal of Kosala. That the KÃÂlÃÂmas did not request a share of the Buddha's relics after his death was possibly because they had lost their independence by then.
Shortly after the Buddha's death, the Viá¸Âà «á¸Âabha invaded the Sakya and Koliya republics, seeking to conquer their territories because they had once been part of Kosala. Viá¸Âà «á¸Âabha finally triumphed over the Sakyas and Koliyas and annexed their state after a long war with massive loss of lives on both sides. Details of this war were exaggerated by later Buddhist accounts, which claimed that Viá¸Âà «á¸Âabha's invasion was in retaliation for having given in marriage to his father the slave girl who became Viá¸Âà «á¸Âabha's mother, and that he exterminated the Sakyas. In actuality, Viá¸Âà «á¸Âabha's invasion of Sakya might instead have had similar motivations to the MÃÂgadhë king AjÃÂtasattu's conquest of the Vajjika League because he was the son of a Vajjika princess and was therefore interested in the territory of his mother's homeland. The result of the Kauà Âalya invasion was that the Sakyas and Koliyas merely lost political importance after being annexed into Viá¸Âà «á¸Âabha's kingdom. The Sakyas nevertheless soon disappeared as an ethnic group after their annexation, having become absorbed into the population of Kosala, with only a few displaced families maintaining the Sakya identity afterwards. The Koliyas likewise disappeared as a polity and as a tribe soon after their annexation.
The massive life losses incurred by Kosala during its conquest of Sakya weakened it significantly enough that it eventually was soon annexed by its eastern neighbour, the kingdom of Magadha, and Viá¸Âà «á¸Âabha was defeated and killed by the MÃÂgadhë king AjÃÂtasattu.