Kuśa

Also known as: Sahasrabala (Thousand-strength) / Sugandhabhājana / Vṛiji · Role: son of King Mahāśakuni · First appears: Chapter II

After eight or nine months, King Mahāśakuni’s chief wife gave birth to Kuśa, whose body bore eighteen signs of uncomeliness, whose face was like a lion’s, and who was extremely strong. When subordinate kings besieged the capital, Kuśa defeated them; his father rejoiced and began to take delight in him. King Mahāśakuni arranged Kuśa’s marriage to a princess, but after she rejected him for his appearance, her parents fetched her away.

Kuśa later went to a cook and then a doctor, posing as each man’s son and becoming an apprentice. He cured the princess’s brain disease, but she recognized him and cried out in alarm. Kuśa defeated the army besieging the city, and the princess came to accept him as her husband, telling her father, “this is the youth Kuśa himself.” Indra gave Kuśa a jewel to restore his courage and prevent him from killing himself. Kuśa told his father, “I shall stay here,” then built Kuśinagara from four precious stones and became a Chakravartin.