Magadha, 1908
Magadha
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value. This ancient kingdom is referred to in both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. The greater part of Magadha proper was situated in Bihar south of the Ganges, with its capital first at Rajagriha and afterwards at Pataliputra (Patna) ; but it also extended into the east of what is now the United Provinces, where it marched with the kingdom of Benares. Magadha was the scene of many episodes in the life of Gautama and is important in the history of Buddhism. About the same period Mahavira founded the cognate sect of the Jains. At the time of Alexander's invasion, the kings of Magadha appear to have been recognized as paramount over the greater part of the United Provinces as well as over Bengal. Their dominion was still further extended by Chandragupta Maurya and his grandson, the famous Asoka. The Maurya dynasty declined after Asoka's death, and Magadha was conquered about 150 b. c. by a king of Kalinga ; but towards the end of the fourth century A. D. a new line of Gupta kings renewed the glories of Magadha, and gradually spread westward to Allahabad, Kanauj, and even to Gujarat, while Samudra Gupta temporarily conquered part of the Deccan. ^^'hen the Gupta empire broke up early in the sixth century, Magadha was subdued by the Chalukya king Kirttivarman I, but again became a small kingdom, still ruled by an eastern branch of the Guptas. Inscriptions give the names of eleven kings, the eighth of whom was reigning in 672. The kingdom was absorbed in the dominions of the Pal dynasty of Bengal in the ninth century. In 1 197 the last of the Pals was dethroned by Muhammad Bakhtiar KhiljT, and the kingdom of Magadha was included in the empire of the Slave kings of Delhi. Magadha formed part of the Jaunpur kingdom for a time, and its later history merges in that of Bihar. Varaha Mihira, the Sanskrit geographer of the sixth century a.d., mentions Magadha as situated in the eastern division of India be- tween KosALA and Mithila (Tirhut). The kingdom has given its name to a tribe of Brahmans called Magadha or Sakaldwip Brahmans, and also to the Magahiya subdivision of the low-caste Doms. Like other kingdoms east of JSIadhya Desa, its inhabitants were held in low esteem, and this feeling has survived to the present day.
[Lassen, Ind. Alt., vol. i, pp. 135 and 602; Pargiter, J.A.S.B., 1897, p. 86; McCrindle, Invasion of India by Alexander, pp. 36, 56, 380, and 404-8; Fleet, lid. Anf., 1893, pp. 170, 183, and Gupta Inscriptions, pp. 200-20 ; Duff, The Chronology of India, passim.]
