Magadh Empire

 How the concept of states in a country came into existence, have you ever thought of that. Was in past also we had same number of states of boundary well lets find out how the states came into existence.

                                     Ancient History of India - 2

Before Britishers came into India , our country was divided into 16 major parts which were known as 'Mahajanpada'. 'Angutar Nikaya' is the Bodh granth in which all the Mahajanpadas are mentioned.The largest Mahajanpada in terms of area was Avanti which has its capital Ujjayini. The most powerful among the 16 Mahajanpadas was Magadha Empire. 

Magadh was an ancient Indian kingdom in southern Bihar and has its capital at Rajagriha later changed to Patliputra . The 1st Buddhist council was held here.The dynasties that ruled Magadh were :

1. Haryanka dynasty :

The founder of this dynasty was Bimbsaar who was the follower of Buddhism. Bimbsara was imprisoned and killed by his successor, Ajatasatru, under whos rule, the dynasty reached its largest extent. Ajatasattu's son Udayabhadra( Udayin ) succeeded Ajatasatru and ruled for the next sixteen years. He moved his capital to the bank of Ganges which was known as Pataliputra.

2. Shishunaga dynasty :

Shishunaga was the founder of this dynasty.He successfully fought against Avantivardhana and annexed the Avanti kingdom to his empire. He was succeeded by his son Kalashoka , who was brutally murdered, presumably by the founder of the Nanda line, and the Shaishunaga dynasty ceased to rule.

3. Nanda dynasty : 364 B.C. and 324 B.C.

Mahapadma was the founder of  Nanda dynasty. At this time Alexander came to India and defeated King Porus of Paurava in the battle of Hydaspes in 326 B.C .  Dhanananda was the last of the Nanda Kings. Magadha had become a very powerful kingdom by that time. It had expanded upto the Punjab in the West. Chandragupta Maurya, an ambitious young man, attacked and conquered Magadha. That was the end of the Nanda rule.

4. Maurya dynasty : 

Chaundragupta Maurya was the founder of this dynasty he was a follower of Jainism. His Guru was Chankya ( Kautilya ), who wrote the book Arthashashtra.Chandragupta ruled on 8 Mahajanpadas.  He became the first emperor to unify India into one state, creating one of the world’s largest empires in its time, and the largest ever in the Indian subcontinent. 

In 305 B.C Seleucus,one of Alexander’s generals,lost the Seleucid-Mauryan War, and the two rulers reconciled with a peace treaty. The Greeks offered a Macedonian princess for marriage to Chandragupta, and several territories.In addition to this treaty, Seleucus dispatched two Greek ambassadors, Megasthenes , who wrote the book 'Indica' and later Deimakos, to the Mauryan court at Pataliputra. Chandragupta died in Sharwanbailgola and was succeeded by his son Bindusaar.