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Lord Mahāvīra and His Times
MAGADHA
In the time of Lord Mahāvīra, Magadha corresponded roughly to the present Patna and Gaya districts of South Bihar, The boundaries were probably the Ganga to the north, the Son to the West, a dense forest reaching to the plateau of Chotā Nagpur to the south, and Anga to the East. The river Champā formed a boundary between Magadha and Anga : but in Mahāvīra's time Anga was subject to Magadha. Its earliest capital was Girivraja or. Rājagņiha.
Mahāvīra's contemporary rulers of Magadha were Bimbisāra and Ajātaśatru. In their reign, Magadha was the first among the states of the sixth century B.C. to make a successful bid for the establishment of its supremacy over them. By his conquests and matrimonial alliances, Bimbisāra enlarged his influence and power. Afterwards, his son crushed the great republic of the Lichchhavis after sixteen years of struggle, vanquished Kosala, and annexed Kāśi. The kingdom of Bimbisāra is stated to have been 300 leagues in extent, to which an addition of 200 leagues was made by Ajātaśatru's conquests.
Jaina writers mention two early kings of Rājagriha, Samudravijaya and his son Gaya.1 Little reliance can be placed on them in this regard because what they say is not corro. borated by any other evidence. Bimbisāra, who belonged to the Haryanka-Kula, occupied the throne of Magadha immediately after the fall of Brihadratha dynasty in the sixth century B.C. According to the Mahāvamsa, he was fifteen ycars old when he was anointed king by his father. This would show that he was not the founder of the royal family. D.R. BHANDARKAR has inferred that Bimbisāra, who was originally a Senāpati probably of the Vajjis, made himself the king.
Bimbisāra was helped in his political career by his matrimonial alliances. His first wife was a sister of Prasenajit, the king of Kosala, who gave him the dowry of a village of Kāśí with a revenue of 100,000. His second wife was Chellană, daughter of the Lichchhavī Chief, Chotaka. His 1. SBE, XLV, p. 86.
