Bījaka
1. Bijaka.– The son of Sudinna Kalaṇḍakaputta by the wife of his lay days. He was conceived after Sudinna had already been ordained. His wife came to him during her period and begged him to give her an offspring (bījaka). As the rule against unchastity had not then been promulgated, Sudinna yielded to her importunities, thus leading to the laying down of the Vinaya rule entailing defeat (pārājikā). The son was called Bījaka, and so Sudinna came to be called Bījakapitā and the mother Bījakamātā. Both Bījaka and his mother later left the world and became Arahants. Vin.iii.17‑19; Sp.i.215 f.
2. Bījaka.– A slave of Videha, present when the ascetic Guṇa expounded his doctrine to King Aṅgati, and it was approved by Alāta. Bījaka also agreed that Guṇa’s teaching accorded with his own experience. He remembered his previous life, when he had been born as Bhāvaseṭṭhi of Sāketa and had done many acts of virtue and piety. However, at present he was the son of a poor prostitute leading a wretched life. Even so, he always gave half his food to any who might desire it, kept the fast, and led, in every way, a virtuous life. However, virtue, he said, was useless; it bore no fruit. So saying, he wept. When Rujā heard this, she said that Bījaka’s sufferings were due to evil actions done in the past in earlier lives (J.vi.227‑229, 233, 235).
The scholiast explains (J.vi.228) that in the time of Kassapa Buddha, while Bījaka was seeking a lost ox, a monk asked him the way as he was lost. Bījaka was angry and abused the monk, calling him a slave. His birth as Bhāvaseṭṭhi was due to some earlier good done by him, but in this birth he became a slave.
Bījaka is identified with Mahā-
See the Mahānāradakassapa Jātaka.