Cosmography and Geography in Early Indian Literature c6.s1.6

c6.s1.6

(Ceylon).⁵ The canonical works of the Buddhists and the Jains, probably composed in the age of the Mauryas and Śuṅgas, give a list of 16 *Mahā-janapadas* or great states of the Indian sub-continent and its north-western neighbourhood, compiled from the angle of the writers of Bihar and Eastern U. P. which were the field of activities of the Buddha and Mahāvīra. These include some kingdoms, of the east and south, which were supposed to have flourished in the 6th and 5th centuries B.C. during the age of the Buddha and Mahāvīra.⁶