Pre Mauryan Age ~ Indian History Articles

Pre-Mauryan Age (600 BC - 300 BC)

This age can be termed as Pre- Mauryan Age / Age of Buddha / Age of "Shodasa Maha Janapadas" (Shodasa - 16, Maha - Great, Janapadas - Kingdoms).

600 BC - 350 BC - Amongst the sixteen Mahajanapadas, Magadha rose to prominence under a number of dynasties that peaked with the reign of Asoka Maurya, one of India's most legendary and famous emperors. Reasons may be like

-->Geographical
-->Human factors - Most powerful Kings are present in Magadha

According to the Puranas, the Magadha Empire was established by the Brihadratha Dynasty, who was the 'sixth in line from Emperor Kuru of the Bharata dynasty through his eldest son Sudhanush. The first prominent Emperor of the Magadhan branch of Bharathas was Emperor Brihadratha. His son Jarasandha appears in popular legend and is slain by Bhima in the Mahabharata. Vayu Purana mentions that the Brihadrathas ruled for 1000 years.

The Brihadrathas were succeeded by the Pradyotas who according to the Vayu Purana ruled for 138 years. One of the Pradyota traditions was for the prince to kill his father to become king. During this, it is reported that there were high crimes in Magadha. The people rose up and elected Haryanka to become the new king, which destroyed the power of the Pradyotas and created the Haryanka dynasty: Due in part to this bloody dynastic feuding, it is thought that a civil revolt led to the emergence of the Haryanka-dynasty.

Sanskrit Language - Language of great intellectuals of ancient India (Brahman) not for common man.

According to tradition, the Haryanka dynasty founded the Magadha Empire in 684 BC, whose capital was later Pataliputra, near the present day Patna.
Bimbisara - 1st King of Magadha and founder of Haryanka. He conquered Anga and Kasi Kingdoms. He married Princess Kasala Mahadevi. He got the Kasi Kingdom as dowry from Kasala.
Ajatasatru - Son of Binibisara - 2nd king of Magadha. He is a patricide. He came to power by killing his father. He conquered Kasala, Vajji and Malla Kingdoms.
Udayana/Udayabhadra - 3rd King of Magadha - Son of Ajatasatru. He was the weak king so Udayana was killed by his Senapati 'Sisunaga'. Then Magadha kingdom was closed and Sisunaga came to power.

Sisunaga 1st King and founder. He conquered Avanthi.
Kalashoka - He is the son of Sisunaga. He was the 2nd and last king of this dynasty. Mahapadma Nanda killed Kalashoka and came to power establishing Nanda Kingdom (350 BC).

Mahapadmananda - He conquered all the Janapadas left over including the Asmaka Kingdom. Up to Godavari basin, he conquered and he was the 1st king to conquer the South India. He is considered as the Greatest of Magadha. The first Sudra King of India - Mahapadmananda. Jain by religion. He conquered all the kingdoms except two kingdoms of North-West of India.
Gandhara and Kamboja Kingdoms - Nanda Kings didn't touch these kingdoms. Even Haryanka & Sisunaga kingdoms also didn't.
Dhanananda — Son of Mahapadma Nanda. He was defeated and the power had been captured by Chandragupta Maurya (321 BC). Thereafter Mauryans came into power.

Around 600 BC — Iranians/Persians were very powerful emperors in the world. These kingdoms are in the Iranians province.
Cyrus — 1st foreign conqueror of India.
Darius I — (Cyrus grandson) then came to power.
Persians used 'Hi' instead of 'Si' (Sindhu — Hindu). So is the name Hindustan.
Two great empires in the world at this time were Macedonian (Greeks) and Iranian (Persia). There exists a lot of conflicts between both the kingdoms.
'Alexander' (334 BC) was the conqueror of the world for the first time. His teacher was Aristotle.
Darius III (329 BC) was killed by Alexander and ends the Iranians.
Ambhi - King of Taxila (Thakshashila). He gave an invitation to Alexander. Rival of Ambhi is 'Porus'. Hence Alexander came to India
327BC - 325 BC — Alexander spent 19 months in India.
326 BC — Battle of Hydaspus (River Jhelum) with Porus. Porus was then defeated by Alexander and he conquered all the territories.
When Alexander was in India, The contemporary Magadha king Dhanananda was in power.
323 BC — Alexander died at Babylonia (At the age of 33 or 34 ).
Three Greek Empires were Ended after Alexander's death.

Metal coins - 1st coins of India started around 600 BC. Silver & Copper both sorts of metal coins used.
Punch marked coins made up of silver/copper are used. Coins marked with a tree/hill/bird/sun/moon etc are punch marked coins. These coins are uninscribed.
The growth of Guilds — Guild is an English word but Indian literature it is called 'Sreni' (Guilds are associations of merchants& Traders). Every guild works like a modern banking system. Few of them

This period produced many great intellectuals.
62 philosophical movements, which were completely against with the rituals & Brahmanistic society. These movements are called 'Heterodox'. Heterodox - Means Unorthodox. Shreemana and Orthodox are Brahaminates. All those were against the Brahmanas called Shreemana.
In 62 movements, 4 prime and fully fledged religions were