Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c9.s7.1

c9.s7.1

The Vedic texts do not throw much light on the political condition of the period which elapsed from the fall of the Videhan monarchy, probably early in the sixth century B.C., to the rise of Kosala under Mahākosala, the father-in-law of Bimbisāra, about the middle of that century. But we learn from the Buddhist *Aṅguttara Nikāya* that during this period there were sixteen states of considerable extent and power known as the "*Solasa Mahājanapada*."¹ These states were:—