A History of India, Third Edition

THE GREAT ANCIENT EMPIRES

the south of Patna and the tribal republics of the Mallas and Vrijis to the
north of it; and farther east, Anga, near the present border between Bihar
and Bengal; in Central India there was Avanti (capital: Ujjain) and to the
east of it Chetiya. The hub of this whole system of mahajanapadas was the
Ganga-Yamuna Doab and the immediately adjacent region to the east.
The origins and the internal organisation of these mahajanapadas are still
a matter for speculation. As the earlier tribes were usually rather small, all
the inhabitants of a mahajanapada could not have belonged to the tribe that
gave it its name. Therefore, they must have been confederations of several
tribes. Some of these mahajanapadas had two capitals which seems to be
evidence for a fusion of at least two smaller units: Hastinapura and
Indraprastha were both located in the land of the Kurus, and Panchala
included Kampila and Ahicchatra. The structure of these states was perhaps
similar to that of later medieval Hindu kingdoms: the direct exercise of royal
power was restricted to the immediate tribal surroundings while other
principalities belonging to the kingdom enjoyed a great deal of internal
autonomy. The heads of these principalities only joined the king in warfare
and plunder and they participated in his royal ceremonies. The only definite
borders of such mahajanapadas were rivers and other natural barriers. The
extension of royal authority depended on the loyalty of the border tribes
which were also able to be influenced by neighbouring kingdoms.

Urbanisation in the Ganges valley

The rise of the mahajanapadas was directly connected with the emergence
of the early urban centres of the Gangetic plains in the period after 600
BC. Five of the six major cities in the central Gangetic plains were capitals
of mahajanapadas: Rajagriha (Magadha), Varanasi (Kasi), Kausambi
(Vatsa), Sravasti (Koshala) and Champa (Anga). Only the sixth city,
Saketa, was not an independent capital but was located in Koshala. It must
have been the centre of an earlier janapada which merged with Koshala. In
central India there was Ujjain (Avanti) and in the northwest there was
Taxila (Gandhara) or rather the recently discovered early town which
preceded both Taxila and the nearby township on the Bhir Mound which
dates back to the period of Persian occupation around 500 BC. There
seems to be a correlation between political development and urbanisation
in this period of the sixth to the fifth centuries BC.
The most remarkable contrast between the new cities in the Gangetic
plains and earlier towns like Hastinapura is that of the system of
fortification. Whereas the earlier towns were not fortified, these new cities
had moats and ramparts. The ramparts were made of earth which was
covered in some cases with bricks from about the fifth century BC onward;
later on they were even replaced by solid brick walls. A millennium after the
decline of the Indus civilisation, one encounters once more bricks made in