16 Mahajanapadas – Name , Location, Capitals

Mahajanapadas Period ( 600 BC – 325 BC )

• The Mahajanapadas were sixteen kingdoms or oligarchic republics that existed in Northern ancient India from the sixth to fourth centuries BCE during the second urbanisation period.
• The meaning of the work Mahajanapads is “Great Realm”.
• Buddhist literature (Anguttara Nikaya, Mahavastu) and Jain literature (Bhagavati Sutta) present a list of 16 Mahajanapadas (i.e., great states) with minor variation of names.
• In the course of time, smaller or weak kingdoms, and the republics were eliminated by the stronger rulers. In the 6^th century only 4 powerful kingdoms remained:
  1. Magadha (Important rulers: Bimbisara, Ajatashatru)
  2. Avanti (Important ruler: Pradyota)
  3. Kosala (Important rulers: Prasenjit)
  4. Vatsa (Important rulers: Udayana)

  Later, all of them were annexed to or became part of Magadha.

• Out of the 16 Mahajanapadas, only Ashmaka was in southern part of India. 

16 Mahajanapadas – their Name , Location, Capitals

No	Mahajanapada	Location	Capital
1	Anga	Munger and Bhagalpur in Bihar	Champa/Champanagari
2	Magadha	Girivraj, Rajgriha/Rajgir	Patna, Gaya and Nalanda in Bihar
3	Vajji	Muzaffarpur & Vaishali in Bihar	Videha, Mithila, Vaishali
4	Malla	Uttar Pradesh	Kuishinara and Pawa
5	Kashi	Varanasi in U.P	Varanasi
6	Kosala	Eastern Uttar Pradesh	Sravasti
7	Vatsa	Allahabad	Kausambi
8	Chedi	Jaipur	Shaktimati/ Sotthivati
9	Kuru	Haryana and Delhi area	Indraprastha
10	Panchala	Western Uttar Pradesh	South Panchal-Kampilya
11	Shurasena	Western Uttar Pradesh	Mathura
12	Matsya	Alwar, Bharatpur and Jaipurin Rajasthan	Viratnagar
13	Avanti	Malwa and Madhya Pradesh	Ujjaini or Mahismati
14	Ashmaka	Bank of Godavari	Pratisthan/ Paithan
15	Gandhara	Rawalpindi	Taxila
16	Kamboja	Rajori and Hajra	Pooncha

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