An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v2.c42.241

v2.c42.241

At the time of Buddha the place was only a village which was fortified by Ajātaśatru, the ruler of Magadha (s. Bihar) in the first half of the 5th century B.C. His son Udayin transferred his capital to this place from Rājagṛha (RAJGIR), and since then it remained for centuries the capital of Magadha: under the Nandas and Mauryas became the virtual capital of India. The grammarian Pāṇini is said to have lived in the court of the Nandas. The city never lost its importance till the 6th century A.D. At the time of Candragupta Maurya (last quarter of the 4th century B.C.) its prosperity knew no bounds. The royal palace, i.e., that of Candragupta, says Aelian, probably following Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador to the court of Chandragupta, could be vied by ‘neither Memnonian Susa with all its costly, splendour, or Ekbatana with all its munificence’ (McCrindle, 1901, p. 41). Palibothra, as Pāṭaliputra was known to the Greeks, is described by Strabo and Arrian, again quoting Megasthenes, as situated at the confluence of the Ganga and Erannaboas (Hiraṇyabāha = Son); it was about 14·5 km in length and 2·4 km in breadth shaped like a parallelogram and was girded by a wooden wall with 570 towers and 64 gates and with loop-holes for the discharge of arrows, and a ditch about 182 m in breadth and 14 m in depth (McCrindle, 1877, pp. 66, 205). Aśoka held the third Buddhist council here. The stone palace of Aśoka excited the marvel of Fa-Hien, the Chinese traveller, in the 5th century (Legge, 1886, p. 77). He also saw many Buddhist establishments. Under the Pālas the district of Pāṭaliputra was known as Śrīnagara-bhukti. The city was re-occupied in medieval times, notably under Sher Shāh who built a fort here in 1541, and has retained its provincial importance ever since.