[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922) › v1.c19.s4 # The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c19.s4: II. Magadha The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c19.s4 - **Language:** English ### II. Magadha ### [v1.c19.s4.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.1) This was a narrow strip of country of some considerable length from north to south, and about twelve to fifteen per cent. in area of the size of Kosala. Just as Kosala corresponded very nearly to the present province of Oudh, but was somewhat larger, so Magadha corresponded in the time of the Buddha to the modern district of Patna, but with the addition of the northern half of the modern district of Gayā. The inhabitants of this region still call it Magā, a name doubtless derived from Magadha³. The boundaries were probably the Ganges to the north, the Son to the west, a dense forest reaching to the plateau of Chotā Nāgpur to the south, and Aṅga to the east. The river Champā had been the boundary between Magadha and Aṅga⁴; but in the Buddha's time Aṅga was subject to Magadha—it is the king, not of Aṅga, but of Magadha, who makes a land-grant in Aṅga (that is a grant of the government tithe)⁵, and an Aṅga village is one of the eighty thousand parishes over which the king of Magadha holds rule and sovereignty⁶. All the clansmen in each of these two countries are called by Buddhaghosa, princes⁷ (exactly as he elsewhere calls the Sākiyas and Licchavis). The same writer says that the two kingdoms amounted together to ‘three hundred leagues⁸.’ It is reasonable to suppose, as he was born and bred in Magadha, that he was not so very far wrong. But this is said in reference to the time of Bimbisāra. Later on he estimates the area of the whole of the United Kingdom of Magadha, in the time of Ajātasattu, at five hundred leagues. We may conclude from this that, according to the tradition handed down to Buddhaghosa, the size of the kingdom had nearly doubled in the interval. This would be about correct if the allusion were to Ajātasattu's conquests north of the Ganges¹. As Buddhaghosa however seems to use the larger figures of a date, not after, but at the beginning of those conquests, other wars of which we have no record, to the east or south, may be meant. ### [v1.c19.s4.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.2) ³ Grierson in \*E.R.E.\* VI, 181. ### [v1.c19.s4.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.3) ⁴ \*Jāt.\* IV, 454—above, pp. 172–3. ### [v1.c19.s4.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.4) ⁵ \*Dīgha\* I, 111. ### [v1.c19.s4.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.5) ⁶ \*Vinaya\* I, 179. ### [v1.c19.s4.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.6) ⁷ \*Rāja-kumārā\*, \*Sum.\* I, 279, 294. See \*Early Buddhism\*, 27. ### [v1.c19.s4.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.7) ⁸ \*Yojanas\*, \*Sum.\* I, 148. ### [v1.c19.s4.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.8) ¹ \*V. inf.\*, p. 185. ### [v1.c19.s4.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.9) The king of Magadha in the Buddha's time, was Bimbisāra. Of his principal queens one was the Kosala Devī, daughter of Mahā-Kosala, and sister therefore of Pasenadi²; another was Chellanā, daughter of a chieftain of the Licchavis³; and a third was Khemā, daughter of the king of Madda in the Punjab⁴. If the traditions of these relationships be correct they are eloquent witnesses to the high estimate held in other countries of the then political importance of Magadha. ### [v1.c19.s4.10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.10) ² \*Jāt.\* II, 403. ### [v1.c19.s4.11](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.11) ³ Jacobi, \*Jaina Sūtras\*, I, xii-xv. ### [v1.c19.s4.12](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.12) ⁴ \*Thig. A.\* on 139-143, and \*Apadāna\* quoted \*ibid.\* 131. ### [v1.c19.s4.13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.13) Bimbisāra had a son known as Vedehi-putto Ajātasattu in the canonical Pāli texts, and as Kūnika by the Jains. The later Buddhist tradition makes him a son of the Kosala Devī; the Jain tradition, confirmed by the standing epithet of Vedehi-putto, son of the princess of Videha, in the older Buddhist books, makes him a son of Chellanā. Buddhaghosa has preserved what is no doubt the traditional way of explaining away the evidence contained in the epithet⁵. But the matter cannot be further discussed here. ### [v1.c19.s4.14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.14) ⁵ \*Sum.\* I, 139. Cf. \*Dialogues\*, II, 78. ### [v1.c19.s4.15](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.15) One of the very oldest fragments preserved in the canon is a ballad on the first meeting of Bimbisāra and Gotama. In the ballad the latter is called ‘the Buddha.’ But the meeting took place about seven years before he became the Buddha in our modern sense; and this unwonted use of a now familiar title would have been impossible in any later document⁶. Gotama has only just started on his search for truth. The king, with curious density, offers to make him a captain, and give him wealth. It will be noticed that the king still resides in the palace of the old capital at the Giribbaja, ‘the Hill Fort.’ Some years afterwards when Gotama returns as a teacher, the king was lodged in the new palace that gave its name to the new capital, Rājagaha, ‘the King's House.’ The ruins of both these places are still extant; and the stone walls of the Giribbaja are probably the oldest identified remains in India. Dhammapāla says that the place was originally built or planned by Mahā-Govinda, the famous architect, to whom it was the proper thing to ascribe the laying out of ancient cities¹. ### [v1.c19.s4.16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.16) ⁶ \*Sutta Nipāta\*, verse 408. See \*Dialogues\*, II, 2. The ballad is translated in Rh.D., \*Early Buddhism\*, 31-34. ### [v1.c19.s4.17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.17) ¹ \*Vimāna-vatthu Commentary\*, p. 82, and above p. 173. ### [v1.c19.s4.18](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.18) On Gotama's second visit to Rājagaha Bimbisāra presented him with the Bamboo Grove, where huts could be built for the accommodation of the Order²—just as he endowed also the opposite teaching³. We hear very little about him in the books. He is not even mentioned in three out of the four Nikāyas, and the few references in the fourth are of the most meagre kind. But the Vinaya gives a short account of an attempt made by Ajātasattu to kill his father with a sword⁴, and in the closing words of the \*Samañña-phala\* there is an allusion to the actual murder which he afterwards committed⁵. The commentary on that Suttanta gives a long account of how it happened⁶. The details may or may not be true; but the main fact that Bimbisāra was put to death by his son Ajātasattu may be accepted as historical. The Ceylon chronologists place this event eight years before the Buddha's death, at the time when Bimbisāra, who had come to the throne when he was fifteen, had reigned fifty-two years⁷. ### [v1.c19.s4.19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.19) ² \*Vinaya\* I, 39. ### [v1.c19.s4.20](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.20) ³ \*Dīgha\* I, 111, 127. ### [v1.c19.s4.21](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.21) ⁴ \*Vinaya\* II, 190. ### [v1.c19.s4.22](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.22) ⁵ \*Dīgha\* I, 86. ### [v1.c19.s4.23](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.23) ⁶ \*Sum.\* I, 133–136; \*Peta-v. A.\* 105. ### [v1.c19.s4.24](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.24) ⁷ \*Dīp.\* III, 56–60; \*Mhv.\* II, 29, 30. ### [v1.c19.s4.25](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.25) On the death of Bimbisāra, his wife, the Kosala Devī, is said by tradition to have died of grief⁸. The government revenues of an estate in Kāsi had been settled upon her by Mahā-Kosala as pin-money on her marriage. At her death the payment of course ceased. Ajātasattu then invaded Kāsi. It seems incredible that this could have been the real motive of the war, unless the kings of that place and time were less expert in inventing pretexts for a war which they wanted than modern kings in Europe. The war itself is however mentioned in the Canon⁹, and with some detail. In the first campaign Ajātasattu out-manœuvred his aged uncle, and drove him back upon Sāvatthi. In the next, however, Pasenadi lured his nephew into an ambush, and he was compelled to surrender with all his force. But Pasenadi soon set him at liberty, gave him back his army, and, according to the commentary, gave him also one of his daughters in marriage. ### [v1.c19.s4.26](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.26) ⁸ \*Jāt.\* II, 403. ### [v1.c19.s4.27](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.27) ⁹ \*Saṁyutta\* I, 84–86. Cf. \*Dhp. A.\* III, 259; \*Jāt.\* IV, 342. ### [v1.c19.s4.28](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.28) In the opening paragraph of the \*Mahā-parinibbāna Suttanta\*¹⁰ we hear of Ajātasattu's intention to attack the Vajjian confederacy, and, as the first step in the attack, of his building a fortress at Pāṭaliputta, the modern Patna, on the south bank of the Ganges, the then boundary between his territory and theirs. The minister in charge of this work was a Brāhman, known to us only by his official title, ‘the Rain-maker’ (Vassakāra). He fled suddenly to the Vajjian capital Vesālī, giving out that he had barely escaped with his life from Ajātasattu. The Vajjians gave him refuge and hospitality. He then dwelt among them, carefully disseminating lies and slanders until he judged the unity of the confederation to be finally broken. Three years after his kindly reception he gave the hint to his master, who swooped down on Vesālī, and destroyed it, and treated his relatives very much as Viḍūḍabha had treated his. We can only hope this ghastly story of dishonour, treachery, and slaughter is a fairy-tale. The question can only be discussed with profit when we have the whole of the commentary before us. ### [v1.c19.s4.29](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.29) ¹⁰ Rh.D., \*Dialogues of the Buddha\*, II, 78. ### [v1.c19.s4.30](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.30) The son of Ajātasattu is mentioned in the Canon¹. His name was Udāyi-bhadda, and it follows from the statements of the Ceylon Chronicles that he succeeded his father on the throne². This is confirmed in the commentaries³. The name also occurs in medieval Jain and Hindu lists, independent no doubt, both of them, of the Buddhist books⁴. ### [v1.c19.s4.31](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.31) ¹ \*Dīgha\* I, 50 = \*Dialogues\*, I, 68. ### [v1.c19.s4.32](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.32) ² \*Dīp.\* V, 97; \*Mhv.\* IV, 1. ### [v1.c19.s4.33](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.33) ³ \*Smp.\* 321; \*Sum.\* I, 153-4. ### [v1.c19.s4.34](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4.34) ⁴ V. inf., pp. 189-90. ## Linked texts (9) - [Apadāna](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.khuddaka.apadana) — Pāli - [Jātaka](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.khuddaka.jataka) — Pāli - [Suttanipāta](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.khuddaka.suttanipata) — Pāli - [Dīpavaṃsa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada_postcanon.vamsa.dipavamsa) — Pāli - [Dīghanikāya](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.digha) — Pāli - [Vinayapiṭaka](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.vp) — Pāli - [Mahāvaṃsa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada_postcanon.vamsa.mahavamsa) — Pāli - [Saṃyuttanikāya](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.samyutta) — Pāli - [Samantapāsādikā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.vinaya.sastra.samantapasadika) — Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s4) · Pramāṇa