MAHAJANAPADAS

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THE MAHAJANPADAS
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• In the later Vedic period, the tribal organisations changed its identity and gradually shifted to the territorial identity, and the area of settlement were now regarded as janapadas or states.
• In transition from tribe to monarchy, they lost the essential democratic pattern of the tribe but retained the idea of government through an assembly representing the tribes. These states consisted of either a single tribe such as Shakyas, Kolias, Malas etc.
• The people in the lower Ganges Valley and Delta, which were outside the Aryan pale, were not incorporated. There was, therefore, a strong consciousness of the pure land of the Aryans called Aryavarta.
• Each janapada tried to dominate and subjugate other janapadas to become Mahajanapadas.
• Anguttara nikaya metoins about 16 mahajanapadas.

S No	Mahajanapadas	Capital	Present Day Location
1	Kashi	Varanasi	Around Varanasi
2	Kosala	Shravasti	Eastern UP
3	Anga	Champanagri	Bhagal and Munger distts of Bihar
4	Magadh	Girivraj or Rajgriha	Patna and Gaya distt
5	Vajji	Vaishali	Vaishali distt of Bihar
6	Malla	Kushinagar and Pavapuri	South of Vaishali distt
7	Chedi	Shuktimati	Eastern parts of modern Bundelkhand
8	Vatsa	Koushambi	Around modern Allahabad
9	Kuru	Hastinapur, Indraprastha and Isukara	Around the Delhi Meerut region
10	Panchal	Ahichhatra and Kampilya	Rohilkhand
11	Matsya	Viratnagar	Jaipur, Bharatpur Alwar distts
12	Surasen	Mathura	Mathura region
13	Assaka	Paudanya or Bodhan	Near Paithan in Maharashtra
14	Avanti	Ujjaini	Ujjain distt
15	Gandhara	Taxila	Between Kabul and Rawalpindi
16	Kamboj	Rajpur	Punchh area in Kashmir