THE GREAT ANCIENT EMPIRESThe events reported here are of great significance. At the time when this
text was composed there was obviously still a clear recollection that the
land to the east of the river Sadanira (Gandak) was originally unclean to
the Brahmins because their great god Agni had not traversed this river.
Prince Videgha had nevertheless conquered this country. The term etarhi
used in the text means ‘now’ and is obviously a reference to the state of
affairs at the time of writing. So, by the time this Brahmana text was
written (in approximately the eighth century BC) this land was considered
to be acceptable to the Brahmins. But, because the god of the Brahmins
had not stepped into this land, it was considered to be inferior to the land
in the west. Because of its strong elements of an already highly developed
indigenous chalcolithic culture and society this part of the country was
suspect and impure to orthodox Brahmins even in the mid-first millennium
BC. We can therefore only endorse the statement made by Hermann
Oldenberg in his book on Buddhism which was first published in 1881:
‘When we think about the origins of Buddhism we must keep in mind that
the earliest Buddhist congregations were located in the country or at least
at the border of the country into which Agni-Vaishvanara had not crossed
on his way to the East, exuding flames.’
Archaeological research sheds more light on the establishment of a
Gangetic culture than the stray textual references which cannot be
accurately dated. Since India attained independence the Archaeological
Survey of India has made great efforts to excavate the early historical cities
of northern India. The dating of some sites is still open to debate but there
is a consensus that the period from the late seventh to the late fifth century
BC was a most decisive phase for the development of Indian culture. It
may well be said that the history of the Indian subcontinent actually
started at that time.
In this period the first territorial kingdoms were established in the
central part of the Gangetic plains, northern India witnessed a second
phase of urbanisation, and those parts of the subcontinent which are now
included in Pakistan were annexed by the Persian emperor, Dareios the
Great. At the end of this period the first historical personality of India,
Gautama Buddha, stepped into the limelight of history.
From the numerous small tribal kingdoms (janapada) sixteen major ones
(mahajanapada) emerged in the fifth century BC (see Map 3). The
emergence of these principalities had a lot to do with agrarian extension,
control of trade routes and a new and more aggressive type of warfare. The
texts do not necessarily always use the same name for each of these
mahajanapadas, but it is possible to list the most important ones which have
also been documented by archaeological research. These are: Kamboja and
Gandhara located in Northern Pakistan; Kuru, Surasena (capital: Mathura)
and Panchala in the western Doab; Vatsa (capital: Kausambi) in the eastern
Doab; Kasi (capital: Varanasi) and to the north of it, Koshala; Magadha to