Mahajanapadas, Magadha and Mauryan Empire

The kingdoms SSC asks about:

• Magadha (south Bihar): bounded by the Ganga and the Son; capital Rajagriha, later Pataliputra. Its strengths: iron ore nearby (now Jharkhand), fertile land and forest elephants.
• Vajji: a confederacy led by the Lichchhavis, capital Vaishali.
• Kosala: capitals Shravasti and Ayodhya, in present Uttar Pradesh.
• Anga: capital Champa. Avanti: capital Ujjain.

Magadha's dynasties, in order: Haryanka (Bimbisara, Ajatashatru), Shishunaga, Nanda. Bimbisara married a Kosalan princess, a sister of King Prasenajit, which kept peace with Kosala while he expanded east.

Buddhism:

• Mahapajapati Gotami, the Buddha's foster mother, was the first woman ordained, starting the order of nuns.
• His chief disciples included Ananda, Upali and Sariputta. (Susima was Ashoka's half-brother, not a disciple.)
• The Fourth Buddhist Council met in Kashmir under the Kushana king Kanishka; there Buddhism split into Hinayana and Mahayana.
• A stupa has a dome (anda) holding the relics, a square railing on top (harmika), seen as the abode of the gods, and an umbrella (chhatra).
• Vikramshila university was founded by the Pala king Dharmapala.

Jainism: 24 Tirthankaras. The first is Rishabhadeva (Adinatha), the 23rd Parshvanatha and the 24th Mahavira.

Ajivikas: their chief teacher was Makkhali Gosala, and they believed in niyati, fate: everything is fixed and effort changes nothing.

Chandragupta Maurya overthrew the Nandas with the help of Kautilya (Chanakya), whose personal name was Vishnugupta and who wrote the Arthashastra. He defeated Seleucus Nicator (about 305 BCE), who then sent Megasthenes to his court. Megasthenes wrote the Indica and divided Indian society into seven classes. Later, Deimachus came to Bindusara's court, sent by Antiochus I.

Kautilya's seven limbs (saptanga) of the state: Swami (king), Amatya (ministers and officials), Janapada (territory), Durga (fort), Kosha (treasury), Danda (army), Mitra (ally).

The Mauryan state was highly centralised: the king ruled through a large paid staff, army and spies. Princes (Kumaras) governed the provinces.

The facts:

• Kalinga was conquered about 261 BCE, eight years after Ashoka's coronation. After its bloodshed he gave up war.
• His inscriptions call him Devanampiya Piyadasi. The Maski edict is the one that names him as Ashoka.
• His son Mahendra and daughter Sanghamitra took Buddhism to Sri Lanka (Ceylon).
• Dhamma was a moral code for ordinary people: non-violence, tolerance of all sects, respect for elders and kindness to servants. Historians also read it as a way to hold the empire together. It did not preach celibacy, which is a rule for monks.