Mahajanapadas and Rise of Magadha: Capitals and Dynasties
Mahajanapadas and rise of Magadha notes for exams: the sixteen states with capitals, the republics, and the Haryanka, Shishunaga and Nanda rulers.
By GK24 Editorial Team· Published · 4 min read
By the sixth century BCE the small tribal janapadas of the Ganga plain had hardened into sixteen large states called mahajanapadas, each with a capital, a standing army, taxes on the peasant and a fortified town at its centre. Two hundred years later fifteen of them had been swallowed by the sixteenth, Magadha. Examiners return to this topic every year because it is made of pairs a candidate either knows or does not: a state with its capital, a king with his dynasty, a council with its patron. This note fixes those pairs.
The sixteen mahajanapadas and their capitals
The standard list of sixteen comes from the Anguttara Nikaya, a Buddhist text of the Sutta Pitaka; the Jain Bhagavati Sutra gives a list that differs in several names, and the Mahavastu gives a third. When a paper asks which text names the sixteen mahajanapadas, the expected answer is the Anguttara Nikaya.
| Mahajanapada | Capital | Modern region |
|---|---|---|
| Magadha | Girivraja or Rajgriha, later Pataliputra | Patna and Gaya, Bihar |
| Anga | Champa | Bhagalpur and Munger, Bihar |
| Kasi | Varanasi | Eastern Uttar Pradesh |
| Kosala | Shravasti | Eastern Uttar Pradesh |
| Vajji | Vaishali | North Bihar |
| Malla | Kushinagar and Pava | Eastern Uttar Pradesh |
| Chedi | Suktimati or Sotthivati | Bundelkhand |
| Vatsa | Kaushambi | Near Prayagraj |
| Kuru | Indraprastha | Delhi and Haryana |
| Panchala | Ahichhatra and Kampilya | Western Uttar Pradesh |
| Matsya | Viratnagar | Jaipur, Rajasthan |
| Surasena | Mathura | Western Uttar Pradesh |
| Assaka | Potana or Potali | On the Godavari, the only southern one |
| Avanti | Ujjain in the north, Mahishmati in the south | Malwa, Madhya Pradesh |
| Gandhara | Taxila | North-west, now in Pakistan |
| Kamboja | Rajapura | Far north-west |
Monarchies and gana-sanghas
Most mahajanapadas were monarchies, but some were gana-sanghas, often translated as republics, where a chief was chosen from among the heads of leading families and business was settled in an assembly. The Vajji confederacy with its centre at Vaishali was the best known; it joined the Licchavis, the Videhas and the Jnatrikas, and Mahavira was born into the Jnatrika clan. The Mallas of Kushinagar and Pava, the Shakyas of Kapilavastu into whom the Buddha was born, the Koliyas of Ramagrama and the Moriyas of Pipphalivana were other gana-sanghas. In these states land was owned jointly by the ruling families, and the Buddhist texts remember their assemblies in detail.
Why Magadha won
Four states grew at the cost of the rest, Magadha, Kosala, Vatsa and Avanti, and Magadha outlasted all three. Its advantages were geographical before they were political. The iron ores of the Chotanagpur belt lay close to Rajgriha and gave it better weapons and better ploughshares. The alluvium between the Ganga, the Son and the Punpun produced a surplus of paddy that paid for a standing army. The forests to the south supplied timber for building and elephants for war, an arm the north-western states lacked. The Ganga carried its trade eastward, and both of its capitals were defensible, Rajgriha ringed by five hills and Pataliputra guarded on three sides by rivers at the meeting of the Ganga and the Son. Society there sat lightly on Vedic orthodoxy, so able rulers of doubtful descent were not held back.
The Haryanka dynasty
Bimbisara, traditionally dated to about 544 BCE, made Magadha a first-rank power. He annexed Anga and its port of Champa, and used marriage as an instrument of policy: Kosaladevi, sister of Prasenajit of Kosala, brought a Kashi village as dowry; Chellana was a Licchavi princess of Vaishali; Khema came from Madra in the Punjab. He was a contemporary of both the Buddha and Mahavira. His son Ajatashatru imprisoned him and took the throne. Ajatashatru fought Kosala and then broke the Vajji confederacy after a long siege, helped by his minister Vassakara, who set the Licchavis against one another, and by two engines the texts name, the rathamusala, a chariot with a swinging mace, and the mahashilakantaka, a catapult for heavy stones. The First Buddhist Council met at Rajgriha under his patronage. His successor Udayin founded Pataliputra at the confluence of the Ganga and the Son and moved the capital there.
Shishunaga and the Nandas
The Shishunaga dynasty followed. Shishunaga destroyed the power of Avanti and annexed it, ending the long rivalry with Ujjain, and shifted the capital to Vaishali for a time. His successor Kalashoka held the Second Buddhist Council at Vaishali. The Nandas came next and were the richest of the pre-Mauryan dynasties. Mahapadma Nanda, remembered in the Puranas as the destroyer of all Kshatriyas and as a ruler of low birth, built a huge army and carried Magadhan arms into Kalinga; the Hathigumpha inscription of Kharavela recalls a canal dug there by a Nanda king. The last of the line, Dhana Nanda, ruled when Alexander reached the Beas, and was overthrown by Chandragupta Maurya with the help of Chanakya, which begins the Mauryan age.
Exam Point of View
Papers test pairs, not arguments. Expect a mahajanapada matched with its capital, a king matched with his dynasty, a Buddhist council matched with its place and patron, and the reasons for Magadha's rise as a statement question. The fixed traps are Rajgriha against Pataliputra as the capital, Bimbisara against Ajatashatru as the annexer of Anga, Ujjain against Mahishmati for Avanti, Shravasti against Kaushambi for Kosala, and Mahapadma Nanda against Dhana Nanda. Remember that Assaka is the only southern mahajanapada and that the Anguttara Nikaya, not the Arthashastra, gives the list of sixteen.
Important Facts
| Text listing the sixteen | Anguttara Nikaya, part of the Sutta Pitaka |
|---|---|
| Only southern mahajanapada | Assaka, on the Godavari, capital Potana |
| Magadhan capitals in order | Girivraja or Rajgriha, then Vaishali briefly, then Pataliputra |
| Founder of Pataliputra | Udayin, at the confluence of the Ganga and the Son |
| First Buddhist Council | Rajgriha, under Ajatashatru, presided over by Mahakassapa |
| Second Buddhist Council | Vaishali, under Kalashoka of the Shishunaga dynasty |
| Ajatashatru's war engines | Rathamusala, a mace-fitted chariot, and mahashilakantaka, a stone-throwing catapult |
| Nanda founder and last ruler | Mahapadma Nanda and Dhana Nanda |
| Best known gana-sangha | The Vajji confederacy with its centre at Vaishali |
| Capital of Gandhara | Taxila, a centre of learning in the north-west |
Practice MCQs on this topic
The list of sixteen mahajanapadas of the sixth century BCE is found in which of the following texts?
- A.Arthashastra
- B.Anguttara Nikaya
- C.Mahabhashya
- D.Ashtadhyayi
Show answer
It is a text of the Sutta Pitaka of the Buddhist canon and it names the sixteen great states of the age of the Buddha, from Magadha and Kosala in the east to Gandhara and Kamboja in the north-west.
Read the full explanation →Which one of the following mahajanapadas was situated south of the Vindhyas?
- A.Assaka
- B.Chedi
- C.Matsya
- D.Surasena
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Of the sixteen mahajanapadas only Assaka lay in the Deccan, on the banks of the Godavari, with its capital at Potana, also written Potali.
Read the full explanation →Ujjain was the capital of which mahajanapada?
- A.Vatsa
- B.Kosala
- C.Avanti
- D.Panchala
Show answer
Avanti covered the Malwa region and had two capitals: Ujjain in its northern half and Mahishmati on the Narmada in its southern half.
Read the full explanation →Bimbisara, a contemporary of the Buddha, belonged to which dynasty?
- A.Shishunaga dynasty
- B.Nanda dynasty
- C.Maurya dynasty
- D.Haryanka dynasty
Show answer
Bimbisara was the first great ruler of the Haryanka line of Magadha, traditionally dated from about 544 BCE, with his capital at Girivraja, also called Rajgriha.
Read the full explanation →The First Buddhist Council was held at Rajgriha under the patronage of which ruler?
- A.Ajatashatru
- B.Kalashoka
- C.Ashoka
- D.Kanishka
Show answer
The First Buddhist Council met at Rajgriha soon after the death of the Buddha, with Ajatashatru of the Haryanka dynasty as its patron and Mahakassapa presiding, and it settled the Vinaya Pitaka and the Sutta Pitaka as recited by Upali and Ananda.
Read the full explanation →Which mahajanapada was a gana-sangha with its centre at Vaishali?
- A.Anga
- B.Vajji
- C.Kasi
- D.Kuru
Show answer
The Vajji confederacy had its centre at Vaishali in north Bihar and was the best known gana-sangha, a state governed not by a single king but by an assembly of the heads of ruling families.
Read the full explanation →The founder of the Nanda dynasty of Magadha was
- A.Dhana Nanda
- B.Udayin
- C.Mahapadma Nanda
- D.Shishunaga
Show answer
He founded the Nanda dynasty and the Puranas describe him as a ruler of humble birth who destroyed all the Kshatriya houses, calling him Ekarat, the sole sovereign.
Read the full explanation →The war engines rathamusala and mahashilakantaka are associated with the campaigns of which ruler?
- A.Bimbisara
- B.Ajatashatru
- C.Prasenajit
- D.Pradyota
Show answer
Buddhist and Jain traditions credit him with two engines used in the long war against the Vajji confederacy: the rathamusala, a chariot fitted with a swinging mace that cut down men as it was driven through them, and the mahashilakantaka, a catapult that hurled heavy stones.
Read the full explanation →Shravasti was the capital of which mahajanapada?
- A.Kosala
- B.Malla
- C.Chedi
- D.Magadha
Show answer
Shravasti was the capital of Kosala in eastern Uttar Pradesh, and Ayodhya and Saketa were its other important towns. Its king Prasenajit was a contemporary of the Buddha, who spent many rainy seasons at the Jetavana monastery in Shravasti, which is why the town appears so often in Buddhist literature.
Read the full explanation →The last ruler of the Nanda dynasty, who was overthrown by Chandragupta Maurya, was
- A.Kalashoka
- B.Udayin
- C.Dhana Nanda
- D.Bindusara
Show answer
He was the last of the Nanda kings of Magadha and ruled when Alexander invaded the Punjab; Greek writers describe the vast army of the Gangaridai and Prasii that waited beyond the Beas.
Read the full explanation →Frequently Asked Questions
Which text gives the list of sixteen mahajanapadas?
The Anguttara Nikaya, a text of the Buddhist Sutta Pitaka, gives the standard list of sixteen mahajanapadas that exams follow. The Jain Bhagavati Sutra also lists sixteen, but several names differ, and the Mahavastu gives yet another version. If an option set contains both the Anguttara Nikaya and the Bhagavati Sutra, choose the Anguttara Nikaya unless the question says Jain text.
Why did Magadha rise above the other mahajanapadas?
Iron ore lay close to Rajgriha, which meant better weapons and better ploughs; the alluvial plain between the Ganga, the Son and the Punpun gave a paddy surplus that paid for a standing army; southern forests supplied timber and war elephants; the Ganga carried trade; and both capitals were naturally defensible. Able and unorthodox rulers from Bimbisara to the Nandas turned those advantages into conquests.
What is the difference between a janapada, a mahajanapada and a gana-sangha?
A janapada was the territory where a tribe settled after it stopped moving. A mahajanapada was a larger state formed when janapadas merged, with a capital, a fort, an army and regular taxes. A gana-sangha was a type of mahajanapada ruled not by one king but by an assembly of heads of ruling families, as at Vaishali and Kushinagar.
Who founded Pataliputra and why was the capital shifted there?
Udayin, the successor of Ajatashatru in the Haryanka dynasty, founded Pataliputra and moved the Magadhan capital to it. The site stood where the Son joins the Ganga, so rivers guarded it on three sides, boats could reach it from the whole eastern plain, and it lay closer than Rajgriha to the newly conquered lands north of the Ganga.
Which dynasty ruled Magadha just before the Mauryas?
The Nanda dynasty, founded by Mahapadma Nanda and ending with Dhana Nanda. The Nandas kept the largest army of their day and taxed heavily, which made them unpopular. Chandragupta Maurya, guided by Chanakya, overthrew Dhana Nanda and founded the Mauryan empire with Pataliputra as its capital.
Sources
- Our Pasts I (Class VI), chapter on kingdoms, kings and an early republic — NCERT
- Themes in Indian History Part I (Class XII), chapter on kings, farmers and towns — NCERT
