Magadha

Magadha was an ancient kingdom in the eastern Ganges plain, in what is now the Indian state of Bihar. From around the sixth century BCE, it grew from one of many states into the base of India's first great empires, and it was where both Buddhism and Jainism took shape.

In the sixth century BCE, northern India was divided among sixteen major states, the Mahajanapadas, such as Kosala, Kashi, Vatsa, Avanti, Magadha and the confederacy of the Vajjis, with its capital at Vaishali, a republic governed by assemblies of clan leaders. This was a period of growing cities, trade, coinage and new religious movements, sometimes called the second urbanisation of India.

Magadha had many advantages: fertile soils in the Ganges valley for rice farming, iron ore in the hills to the south for weapons and tools, forests that supplied timber and elephants for war, and the Ganges and its tributaries for trade and transport. Its first capital, Rajagriha, today's Rajgir, was surrounded by hills and walls.

King Bimbisara, of the Haryanka dynasty, who ruled in the sixth or early fifth century BCE, expanded Magadha through marriage alliances and conquest, annexing Anga, to the east. According to tradition, he was killed by his son Ajatashatru, who conquered Kashi and Kosala and, after a long war, the Vajji confederacy. He built a fort at Pataligrama, on the Ganges, which became Pataliputra, the later capital, near modern Patna.

Both the Buddha and Mahavira, the great teacher of Jainism, were active in and around Magadha. The Buddha attained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, in Magadha, and Bimbisara was one of his patrons, giving the Bamboo Grove at Rajagriha to the Buddhist community. After the Buddha's death, the first Buddhist council was held at Rajagriha. Mahavira died at Pawapuri, also in Magadha. Other religious groups, such as the Ajivikas, also flourished.

The Shishunaga dynasty replaced the Haryankas in the early fourth century BCE and conquered Avanti. The Nanda dynasty, founded by Mahapadma Nanda, who, according to tradition, was of low birth, made Magadha the strongest state in northern India, with a large army and great wealth. Greek writers reported that the Nanda army, with thousands of war elephants, discouraged Alexander the Great's soldiers from advancing beyond the Beas river in 326 BCE.

Around 321 BCE, Chandragupta Maurya, with the help of the Brahmin Chanakya, overthrew the last Nanda king and founded the Maurya Empire, with Pataliputra as its capital. Under Ashoka, the Maurya Empire covered most of the subcontinent. Later, the Shunga dynasty and, from the fourth century CE, the Gupta Empire were also centred on Magadha.

Even after the great empires ended, Magadha remained a centre of learning and religion. The monastic university of Nalanda, founded in the fifth century CE, attracted students from China, Korea, Tibet and Southeast Asia, until it was destroyed around 1200. Bodh Gaya remains the holiest site in Buddhism, and the Mahabodhi temple there is a World Heritage Site.

Our maps use the name Magadha from 500 to 323 BCE, and again on the 200 CE map. Its largest outline, about 1.3 million square kilometres on the 323 BCE map, covers the Nanda kingdom across much of northern and eastern India and into today's Bangladesh. The 200 CE outline is the region before the rise of the Gupta Empire.