M aga d h a

R i s e o f Te r r i t o r i a l S t a t e s
• From the sixth century BC onwards, the increasing use of iron in eastern UP and western Bihar
created conditions for the formation of large territorial states
• Minor states and federations of clans were merged through conquests to create an empire during
this period, resulting in a large state, ruled by a chakravartin or ekarat (emperor or one supreme
king).
• The new agricultural tools and implements enabled the peasants to produce far more food grains
than they required for consumption.
• We may recall that a few janapadas arose towards the end of the Vedic-period.
• Around 450 BC, over forty janapadas covering even Afghanistan and south-eastern Central Asia
are mentioned by Panini.
• In the age of the Buddha we find sixteen large states called mahajanapadas
• Of these, Magadha, Koshala, Vatsa, and Avanti seem to have been powerful.
Magadha
• Magadha embraced the former districts of Patna, Gaya, and parts of Shahabad, and grew to be
the leading state of the time.
• Its earlier capital was Rajgir, also called (Girivraj) and later Pataliputra.

Koshala
• Koshala embraced the area occupied by eastern UP and had its capital at Shravasti
• Koshala had an important city called Ayodhya which is associated with the story in the Ramayana
• however show that it was not settled on any scale before the fifth century BC.
• Koshala also included the tribal republican territory of the Shakyas of Kapilavastu.
• Another Mahajanapada Kashi with its capital at Varanasi appears to have been the most powerful
of the states, but eventually it succumbed to the power of Koshala.

Vat sas
• In west was the kingdom of the Vatsas, along the bank of the Yamuna, with its capital at
Kaushambi near Allahabad.
• The Vatsas were a Kuru clan who had shifted from Hastinapur and settled at Kaushambi.
Kaushambi was chosen because of its location near the confluence of the Ganga and the
Yamuna.
• In the fifth century BC, it had a mud fortification.
• Older states such as Kurus and the Panchalas no longer enjoyed the political significance they
had attained in the later Vedic period.

Avanti
• In central Malwa and the adjoining parts of MP lay the state of Avanti.
• It was divided into two parts, the northern part with its capital at Ujjain, and the southern part at
Mahishamati.
• Both these towns became fairly important from the fifth century BC onwards, though eventually
Ujjain surpassed Mahishamati.
• It developed large-scale working in iron and erected strong fortifications.
Haryanka Dynasty

Bimbisara
• The political history of India from the sixth century BC onwards was one of struggles among these
states for supremacy.
• Magadha came into prominence under the leadership of Bimbisara of the Haryanka dynasty and a
contemporary of the Buddha.
• Bimbisara was the son of Bhattiya, a chieftain.
• Bimbisara acquired Anga and placed it under the viceroyalty of his son Ajatashatru
• He also strengthened his position by marriage alliances.
• He had three wives.
• Bimbisara’s first wife was the daughter of the king of Koshala and the sister of Prasenajit, the son
and successor of the Koshalan king.
• The Koshalan bride brought Bimbisara as dowry a Kashi village yielding a revenue of 100,000
which suggests that revenues were collected in terms of coins.
• The marriage bought off the hostility of Koshala and gave Bimbisara a free hand in dealing with
the other states.
• His second wife, Chellana, was a Lichhavi princess from Vaishali who gave birth to Ajatashatru
• His third wife was the daughter of the chief of the Madra clan of Punjab.
• Marriage relations with the different princely families lent enormous diplomatic prestige and
paved the way for the expansion of Magadha westward and northward.
• Magadha’s most serious rival was Avanti with its capital at Ujjain. Its king, Chanda Pradyota
Mahasena, fought Bimbisara, but eventually Magadha succeeded
• Bimbisara made Magadha the dominant state in the sixth century BC. His kingdom is said to
have consisted of 80,000 villages.
• His court Physician was Jivika
• According to Jain tradition, he was a devotee of Jainism
• Also he had met Buddha, before his enlightenment phase.
Ajatasatru
• According to the Buddhist chronicles, Bimbisara ruled for fifty-two years, from 544 to 492 BC.
• He was succeeded by his son Ajatashatru (492–460 BC).
• Ajatashatru imprisoned his father and seized the throne for himself.
• Throughout his reign he pursued an aggressive policy of expansion.
• This provoked a combination of Kashi and Koshala against him.
• There began a prolonged conflict between Magadha and Koshala.
• Koshalan king was compelled to purchase peace by giving his daughter in marriage to
Ajatashatru
• He ended the independence of Lichhavi clan in battle
• This took him full sixteen years.
• He was eventually successful in doing so because of a war engine like a catapult
(mahshilakantaka) which was used to hurl stones.
• (Scythed chariot) and He also possessed a chariot to a mace (rathamusala) which was
attached, and this facilitated mass killings.
• The Magadhan empire was thus enlarged with the addition of Kashi and Vaishali.
• Whether Ajatashatru was a Jain or Buddhist, both texts accounted for him as a devotee of the
respective religions.
Udaiyin
• Ajatashatru was succeeded by Udayin (460 BC – 444 BC)
• Udayin laid the foundation of the city of Pataliputra at the confluence of two rivers, the Son and
the Ganges.
• He shifted his capital from Rajgriha to Patliputra
Shishunaga Dynasty
• Shishunaga was the founder of the dynasty
• He was initially a Viceroy of Benaras of the last Haryanka dynasty ruler Nāgadāsaka and
ascended to the throne after a popular rebellion in c. 421 BCE.
• This dynasty was the second ruling dynasty of Magadha
• Their greatest achievement was the destruction of the power of Avanti
• This brought to an end the 100-year old rivalry between Magadha and Avanti.
• Important ruler is Kalashoka, who convened Second Buddhist council
• They ruled for around fifty years.
Nanda dynasty
• The Shishunagas were succeeded by the Nandas, who proved to be the most powerful rulers
of Magadha
• Both Indian and Greco-Roman traditions characterize the dynasty's founder as of low birth.
• According to tradition, the first Nanda king was believed to be a son of a barber.
• The Buddhist, Jain, and Puranic traditions all state that there were 9 Nanda kings
• The Nanda capital was located at Pataliputra (near present-day Patna) in the Magadha
region
• The Nandas extended the Magadhan power by conquering Kalinga
• The Nanda empire appears to have stretched from present-day Punjab in the west to Odisha
in the east.
• The first Nanda ruler was Mahapadma.
Mahapadma Nanda
• This ruler claimed to be ekarat, the sole sovereign who had destroyed all the other ruling
princes.
• Mahapadma Nanda was succeeded by his eight sons, and they were together known as the
navanandas or the nine Nandas.
• There is No proper record regarding the Nanda, as various Texts and tradition attributes different
story.
• An inscription known as Hathigumpa, from Udayagiri, near Bhubaneswar in Odisha, was inscribed
by Kharavela, the then Emperor of Kalinga in India.
• This inscription describes Nanda ruler.
Other Points
• The Nandas were fabulously rich and enormously powerful. It is said that they maintained 200,000
infantry, 60,000 cavalry, and 3000 to 6000 war elephants.
• Such a huge army could be maintained only through an effective taxation system.
• Obviously these considerations prevented Alexander from advancing against the Nandas.
• The later Nandas proved to be weak and unpopular.
• Their rule in Magadha was supplanted by that of the Maurya dynasty under which the Magadhan
empire reached the apex of glory.
• The last emperor of Nanda dynasty was Dhana Nanda (died in 321 BCE)
• Chanakya, a Brahmin who was insulted by him, vowed to overthrow him, and raised an army that
invaded the Nanda capital Pataliputra and killed him.
• Chanakya then installed his own protege Chandragupta Maurya on the throne.
Causes of Magadha’s Success
• The formation of the largest state in India during this period was the work of several enterprising
and ambitious rulers such as Bimbisara, Ajatashatru, and Mahapadma Nanda.
• Magadha enjoyed an advantageous geographical position in the age of iron, because the richest
iron deposits.
• Iron mines are also located in eastern MP, near the kingdom of the Avanti with their capital at
Ujjain
• Thus Magadha took about a hundred years to subjugate Ujjain.
• The strategic location of Magadha’s Capitals Rajgir and Pataliputra.
• Rajgir was surrounded by a group of five hills, and so it was impregnable in those days
• Pataliputra was truly a true water fort (jaladurga), in the confluence of the Ganges, the Gandak,
and the Son, and a fourth river called the Ghaghra
• The army could move north, west, south, and east by following the courses of the rivers.
• Magadha also enjoyed a special advantage in military organization.

Magadha succeeded in founding the First Empire of India

Karshapana – Coin of
Mahapadma Nanda
Iranian and Macedonian Invasions
• North-west India, however, presented a different picture in the sixth century BC.
• Several small principalities, such as those of the Kambojas, Gandharas, and Madras fought one
another.
• This area did not have any powerful kingdom like that of Magadha
Iranian Invasion
• The Achaemenid Empire also called the First Persian Empire (550 BC–330 BC)
• It was an ancient Iranian empire based in Western Asia
• It was larger than any previous empire in history, spanning 5.5 million square kilometres
• It was founded by Cyrus the Great.
• He invaded India around 530 BCE and destroyed the city of Kapisha.
• Darius - I penetrated north-west India in 516 BC and annexed the Punjab, west of the Indus, and
Sindh.
• This area was converted into the twentieth province or satrapy of Iran, which had a total number
of twenty-eight satrapies
• The word “Hindu” appears for the first time in an inscription of Darius I at Persepolis, Iran.
Achaemenid Empire
• Xerxes, the successor of Darius I kept his flag flying over the Indian kingdom which he had
inherited from Darius.
• But he failed to make any forward movement in India due to his commitments over Greece.
• The defeat suffered by Xerxes in Greece led to the decline of the Persian power in India.
• Achaemenid rule over India continued up to 330 B.C.
• In that year Darius III, the last of the Achaemenid ruler summoned Indian troops to fight against
Alexander the Great.
• Persian Kings patronised Zoroastrianism
Significance
• The Indo-Iranian contact lasted for about 200 years.
• It gave an impetus to Indo-Iranian trade and commerce.
• Persian form of writing, known as the Kharoshthi script was bought into india
• It was written from right to left like the Arabic.
• Some Ashokan inscriptions in north-west India were written in the 3rd century BC in this script.
• Persian’s conquest of North west India, paved the way for the next notorious invasion by Alexander
the Great.
1.Which of the following dynasty was the first to rule over Magadha?
A. Haryankas
B. Shishunagas
C. Nandas
D. Mauryas
A. Haryankas
2.Who among the following patronised the Second Buddhist Council?
A. Shishunagas
B. Dhananada
C. Kalashoka
D. Ajatshatru
C. Kalashoka
3.Who was the first Indian King started the matrimonial alliances to
strengthen his power?
A. Ajatashatru
B. Bimbisara
C. Shishunagas
D. Dhananada
B. Bimbisara
4.Which was the earliest capital of Magadha?
A.Vaishali
B.Benarash
C. Rajgir
D. Patliputra
C. Rajgir
5.The founder of Nanda Dynasty was
A. Mahapadma Nanda
B. Dhana Nanda
C. Sishunaga
D. Shiva Nanda
A. Mahapadma Nanda