Kola-sanniya and his companions
Kola-sanniya is the leader of the 18 disease causing demons. He is the son of an Indian King and Queen. When his mother the Queen was pregnant she greatly desired mangoes and asked her maid to bring them. The maid brought mangoes and begged one from the Queen but the Queen ate them all herself. The maid vowed revenge and went to the King in his Palace to tell him falsely that he would have a son but the Queen would not let him see the boy who she intended should be brought up by his maternal Uncle. The King believed the maid’s story and ordered the Queen to be executed. During the execution she gave birth to a son who was brought up in the King’s Palace.
The King ordered that the son should be kept ignorant of the fate of his mother, but when he was a youth a stranger told him the story. He was so upset that he journeyed to see Buddha to tell him what had happened to his mother and that he wished to avenge his mother’s death. However he died young.
In his rebirth and that of his mother he was eventually able to take revenge.
He grew up to have occult powers and gathered around himself 4000 demons. 18 of these became his lieutenants and these were the 18 Disease causing diseases.
