ANCIENT INDIA - CULTURAL

In the Vedic times (beginning of the third millennium BC), Chedi had its capital at Sotthivatinagara. Kausambi was the the whole of India was known as Jambudvipa. It was looked capital of Vatsa. Ancient Kuru kingdom had its headquarters upon as a geographical entity after analyzing successively the at Indraprastha and Hastinapur. regional characteristics of Brahmavarta, Brahmarsidesa, Madhyadesa and Aryavarta between the Himalayas and the Panchala was divided into two parts; northern part had its Vindhyan Mountain. These regions along with capital at Ahichchhatra and southern part at Kampilya. Dakshinapatha completed the geographical picture of the Matsya had its capital at Viratanagara. Mathura was the country. principal town of Surasena. Asmaka had Potana or Patali as its capital. Ujjaini was the principal town of Avanti. In some literatures the country was divided into five macro Gandhara had its capital at Takshasila. Kamboja, the regions: (a) Udichya (Northern India), (b) Pracya (Eastern kingdom famous for good horses, had two famous cities viz., India), (c) Aparanta (Western India), (d) Madhyadesa Dwaraka and Nandipura. (Central India) and (e) Dakshinapatha (Deccan or Southern India). Thus modern concept of five macro regions of India is Of these sixteen great kingdoms, Kasi, Kosala, Anga, based on the regional divisions of Jambudvipa as handed Magadha, Vatsa, Puru, Panchala, Avanti, Gandhara, Vriji and down to us from the Vedic times. Malla were in limelight. Though most of these kingdoms had monarchical constitution, there were tribal republics like Apart from Vedic sources, description of India could be Vriji, Malla, Sakya, Mauriya and Kalama. These sixteen obtained from various ancient literatures. Kalidas elaborated kingdoms were engaged in national strife for mastery and in the geographical account of various regions of India. His two the long run monarchical kingdoms of Avanti, Vatsa, Kosala important works, Raghuvansa and Meghdoota, vividly and Magadha emerged powerful. describe the land and people, thereby elaborating the relationship between geography and culture. In addition to these sixteen mahajanapadas, there were some other prominent states. To the east, beyond Magadha, lived In Meghdoota we get description of important places, the Pundras of north Bengal and the Vangas of central and mountains and rivers of Central India like Ramgiri (Ramteke east Bengal. These clans were outside of Aryan influence. near Nagpur), Vidisa of Malavadesa, Ujjain on the bank of the Sipra River, and Chera at Vanji (Cranganoor). Further, Literatures of the Brahmanical Hindus and the Buddhists the Sandesa Kavyas by the poets of Malabar coastal area introduce a few more names. In the south, the kingdom of describe the geography and culture of different kingdoms of Andhra lay in the Godavari valley. Kalinga was on the east ancient Kerala. coast stretching from the Vaitarani basin in Odisha to the neighbouring areas of the Godavari basin in north eastern The map provides a glimpse of the geopolitical and the Andhra Pradesh. cultural situation of the country around 600 BC. The political history of that time can be traced from Buddhist Jataka, Jain Mulaka was on the upper Godavari, Surashtra was in Sutra and the Hindu Purana. It is felt that there was no Kathiawar and Sindhu-Sauvira in the lower valley of the unified political set-up in India (Jambudvipa). There were Indus. Videha was situated to the east of the Gandak river sixteen great kingdoms or Mahajanapadas that occupied the and Vidarbha was in the Wardha valley. territory from the Kabul valley on the north up to the banks of the Godavari River in the south. Of the dynasties of south India, Keralapuaputras, Cholas of Tanjore, Pandyas of Madura and Satiyaputras of Travancore These states were Anga (eastern Bihar), Magadh (south Bihar were prominent. and parts of Jharkhand), Kasi (Varanasi), Kosala (Oudh), Vriji or Vajji (north Bihar), Malla (Gorakhpur district), Chedi In the sixth century BC, the Achaemenian dynasty of Iran (Bundelkhand and adjoining areas), Vatsa (Allahabad extended its dominion over northwestern part of south Asia district), Kuru (Thaneswar, Delhi and Meerut), Panchala by conquering Afghanistan, Gandhara, Sind and western (Rohilkhand and the Ganga-Yamuna doab), Matsya (Jaipur), Punjab. Influence of Persian culture is evidenced from the Surasena (Mathura), Asmaka (upper Godavari valley), use of armanic and kharoshti scripts in the inscriptions. Avanti (Malwa), Gandhara (Peshawar and Rawalpindi districts of Pakistan) and Kamboja (northwest Kashmir and The cultural front of the country flourished to a great extent southern part of Pamir plateau, Tibet). during this period. There were a number of internationally famous educational centres like Vikramsila, Nalanda, Taxsila The kingdom of Anga had its capital at Campa. Rajgriha was and Sarnath. Ports like Tamralipta, Bharukachchha used to the principal town of Magadha. Later, in Ashoka’s time maintain regular trade links with southeast Asia and Pataliputra (Patna) became the capital of Magadha. Varanasi elsewhere. was the capital of Kasi. After the decline of Ayodhya, the former capital, Sravasti and Saketa became the principal towns of Kosala. Vaisali (Besarh in Muzaffarpur district, Bihar) was the capital of Vriji. The kingdom of the Mallas had Kusavati (Kusinara) and the Pava as principal towns.