The Great Janapadas
The idea of a universal king was present before the minds of the Rig-Vedic poets, and in the later Vedic texts we find mention of several rulers who went round the “earth” conquering on every side. These conquests, however, did not normally involve a permanent annexation of the territories of the vanquished people, though minor tribes may now and then have been reduced to vassalage and governed by rulers (sthapati) appointed by the conquering rajan (king). But from the sixth century BC. we can trace a new development in Indian politics. We have the growth of a number of powerful kingdoms in eastern India-the very region which in the Brahmana texts is associated with rulers consecrated to a superior kind of kingship, styled samrajya-which gradually absorbed the neighboring states till at last one great monarchy swallowed up the rest and laid the foundations of an empire which ultimately stretched from the Hindukush to the northern districts of Mysore. But before we take up the history of this remarkable political transformation, it is necessary for us to note the changes in the map of India since the period of the Brahmanas and the clear Upanishads.
The widest area known to the Aryans of the Brahmana period is that described in the Aitareya Brahmana. The boundaries of the Aryan world stretched from the countries of the Uttara Kurus and the Uttara Madras beyond the Himalayas to the land of the Satvats (and Bhojas), south of the Jumna, and the Chambal, and from the territory of the Nichyas and Apachyas in the west to the realm of the Prachyas in the east. The exact position of the Nichyas and Apachyas cannot be determined. But the Prachyas were doubtless the Prasii of Greek writers, i.e., the people of Magadha and the neighboring provinces. Beyond Magadha lived the Pundras of North Bengal and the Vangas of central and eastern Bengal who were outside the pale of Aryandom. The Vangas, however, are not mentioned in the Brahmana proper but possibly in the Aranyaka attached to it. In the south, besides the Aryan realms of the Bhojas, we find the Andhras of the Godavari valley and some aboriginal tribes inhabiting the Vindhyan forests.
The later literature of the Brahmanical Hindus and the sacred canon of the Buddhists introduce some new names, e.g. Kalinga on the east coast stretching from the Vaitarani in Orissa to the neighbourhood of the Godavari, Asmaka and Mulaka on the Upper Godavari, Avanti in Malwa, Surashtra in Kathiawar and Sindhu-Sauvira in the lower valley of the Indus. In an early Buddhist text we have a list of sixteen great nations that occupied the territory from the Kabul valley to the banks of the Godvari shortly before the rise of Buddhism. The names of these states are Anga (East-Bihar), Magadha (South Bihar), Kasi (Benares), Kosala (Oudh), Vriji (North Bihar), Malla (Gorakhpur district), Chedi (between the Jumna and the Narmada,), Vatsa (Allahabad region), Kuru (Thanesar, Delhi and Meerut districts), Panchala (Bareilly, Budaun and Farrukhabad districts), Matsya (Jaipur), Surasena (Mathura), Asmaka (on the Godavari), Avanti (in Malwa), Gandhara (Peshawar and Rawalpindi districts), and Kamboja (Southwest Kashmir and parts of Kafiristan). The palmy days of the Kurus and the Panchalas were now over, and the centre of political gravity had shifted to the east.
The Vrijian State
Among the eastern nations mentioned in the above list, the name of the Videhas is conspicuous by its absence, and in its place we find mention of Vriji (Vajji). The Vrijian State was formed by the union of several clans including the Lichchhavis and the Jnatrikas. Its capital was at Vaisali, modern Besarh or Basarh and Bakhira in the district of Muzaffarpur. The Vriji people have been represented by a modern writer as of Mongolian origin because they followed certain customs that are classed as Tibetan, such as exposure of the dead, and also because they are regarded by the Brahmana law-givers as Vratyas or degraded Kshatriyas. But similar customs are found also among the Iranians; and the Vratyas, judging from Vedic evidence, were clearly an Aryan people, though outside the pale of orthodox Brahmanism. It is significant that in Buddhist literature the fine appearance of the Lichchhavis is compared to that of the Tavatimsa gods.
The Vrijis had no monarch, but a popular assembly and elders who carried on the business of the State. This type of polity was known as a Gana or republic. The Mallas had a similar constitution and there were besides these a number of smaller republics, e.g., the Sakyas of Kapilavastu, the Bhargas of Sumsumara Hill, the Mauryas of Pipphalivana, etc.
Four Great Kingdoms
The republics had soon to contend with formidable enemies in the persons of the ambitious potentates of the neighbouring monarchies. Four of the kingdoms had grown more powerful than the rest and were following a policy of expansion and aggrandisement at the expense of their neighbours. These were Avanti, Vatsa, Kosala and Magadha.
uKosala was ruled by King Mahakosala and his son Prasenajit, It roughly corresponded to modern Oudh. In the heroic age it had its capital at Ayodhya, on the bank of the river Sarayu, and was ruled by a dynasty that claimed descent from the illustrious Ikshvaku, famed in Vedic and epic tradition. Kosala kings like Para, son of Atnara, won renown as conquerors and secriticers. Epic tradition represents Kosalan princes as having penetrated through the wilds of Dandakaranya, in the Deccan, to the bank of the Pampa or the Tungabhadra and even to the distant island of Ceylon. A branch of the ruling family established itself in Sravasti, which has been identified with the great ruined city on the south bank of the Rapti represented by Saheth-Maheth. Members of this line extended the boundaries of Kosala in several directions and absorbed the territory of the Sakyas in the Nepalese Tarai and that of the Kasis in the present district of Benares. But the ambitious designs of Kosala were soon frustrated by another power that arose in the fastnesses of South Bihar.
Magadha, embracing the districts of Patna and Gaya in the southern part of Bihar, could boast of powerful chieftains even in the days of the Vedic Rishis and the epic poets. As the probable home of the non-Aryan Kikatas, who were noted for their wealth of kine, it was a coveted prize of the Aryan invader, who, however, could not Brahmanise it thoroughly even in the period of the Kalpa Sutras. It came to possess a mixed population.
Brahmanas and Kshatriyas coming to the land were spoken of in a derisive tone as Brahma-bandhu and Kshatra-bandhu, that is, so-called Brahmanas and Kshatriyas. It had special relations with Aryans outside the pale to whom the name Vratya was given in the Vedic canon.
In the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. the throne of Magadha was occupied by a line of kings styled Saisunagas in the Puranas, an appellation derived from Sisunaga, the first king of the line in the Puranic list. Buddhist writers, however, place Sisunaga much lower in the list of kings, and split up the line into two distinct groups. To the earlier of the two groups they give the name Haryanka. The second and later group, consisting of Sisunaga, his son and grandsons, alone deserve, according to their evidence, the name Saisunaga.
