Pataliputra ( IAST: ), adjacent to modern-day

Patna Patna ( ), historically known as Pataliputra, is the capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Patna had a population of 2.35 million, making it the 19th largest city in India. ...

, was a city in

ancient India According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. Quote: "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by m ...

, originally built by

Magadha Magadha was a region and one of the sixteen sa, script=Latn, Mahajanapadas, label=none, lit=Great Kingdoms of the Second Urbanization (600–200 BCE) in what is now south Bihar (before expansion) at the eastern Ganges Plain. Magadha was ruled ...

ruler

Ajatashatru Ajatasattu (Pāli ) or Ajatashatru (Sanskrit ) in Buddhist tradition, or Kunika () and Kuniya () in the Jain histories, (c. 492 to 460 BCE or early 5th century BCE) was one of the most important kings of the Haryanka dynasty of Magadha in East ...

in 490 BCE as a small fort () near the

Ganges The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...

river.. Udayin laid the foundation of the city of Pataliputra at the confluence of two rivers, the

Son A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative. Social issues In pre-industrial societies and some current c ...

and the

. He shifted his capital from

Rajgriha Rajgir, meaning "The City of Kings," is a historic town in the district of Nalanda in Bihar, India. As the ancient seat and capital of the Haryanka dynasty, the Pradyota dynasty, the Brihadratha dynasty and the Mauryan Empire, as well as the ...

to Patliputra due to the latter's central location in the empire. It became the capital of major powers in ancient India, such as the Shishunaga Empire (c. 413–345 BCE), Nanda Empire (c. 460 or 420–325 BCE), the Maurya Empire (c. 320–180 BCE), the

Gupta Empire The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire which existed from the early 4th century CE to late 6th century CE. At its zenith, from approximately 319 to 467 CE, it covered much of the Indian subcontinent. This period is considered as the Gold ...

(c. 320–550 CE), and the

Pala Empire The Pāla Empire (r. 750-1161 CE) was an imperial power during the post-classical period in the Indian subcontinent, which originated in the region of Bengal. It is named after its ruling dynasty, whose rulers bore names ending with the suffi ...

(c. 750–1200 CE). During the Maurya period (see below), it became one of the largest cities in the world. As per the Greek diplomat, traveler and historian

Megasthenes Megasthenes ( ; grc, Μεγασθένης, c. 350 BCE– c. 290 BCE) was an ancient Greek historian, diplomat and Indian ethnographer and explorer in the Hellenistic period. He described India in his book '' Indica'', which is now lost, but ha ...

, during the Mauryan Empire (c. 320–180 BCE) it was among the first cities in the world to have a highly efficient form of local self government. Afterwards,

Sher Shah Suri Sher Shah Suri ( ps, شیرشاه سوری) (1472, or 1486 – 22 May 1545), born Farīd Khān ( ps, فرید خان) , was the founder of the Sur Empire in India, with its capital in Sasaram in modern-day Bihar. He standardized the silver coin ...

(1538–1545) revived Pataliputra, which had been in decline since the 7th century CE, and renamed it ''Paṭna''. The location of the site was first identified in modern times in 1892 by

Laurence Waddell Lieutenant Colonel Laurence Austine Waddell, Order of the Bath, CB, Order of the Indian Empire, CIE, Linnean Society of London, F.L.S., Doctor of Laws, L.L.D, Master of Surgery, M.Ch., Indian Medical Service, I.M.S. Royal Anthropological Instit ...

, published as ''Discovery Of The Exact Site Of Asoka's Classic Capital''. Extensive archaeological excavations have been made in the vicinity of modern Patna. Excavations early in the 20th century around Patna revealed clear evidence of large fortification walls, including reinforcing wooden trusses.

Etymology

The etymology of Pataliputra is unclear. "Putra" means son, and "" is a species of rice or the plant '' Bignonia suaveolens''. One traditional etymology holds that the city was named after the plant. Indeed, according to the ''

Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta The ''Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta'' is Sutta 16 in the ''Digha Nikaya'', a scripture belonging to the Sutta Pitaka of Theravada Buddhism. It concerns the end of Gautama Buddha's life - his parinibbana - and is the longest sutta of the Pāli Ca ...

'' ( Sutta 16 of the ''

Dīgha Nikāya The Digha Nikaya (dīghanikāya; "Collection of Long Discourses") is a Buddhist scriptures collection, the first of the five Nikāyas, or collections, in the Sutta Pitaka, which is one of the "three baskets" that compose the Pali Tipitaka of ...

''), Pāṭaliputta was the place "where the seedpods of the Pāṭali plant break open". Another tradition says that means the son of , who was the daughter of Raja Sudarshan. As it was known as (" village") originally, some scholars believe that is a transformation of , " town". Pataliputra was also called Kusumapura (city of flowers).

History

There is no mention of Pataliputra in written sources prior to the early

Jain Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...

and Buddhist texts (the

Pali Canon The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the most complete extant early Buddhist canon. It derives mainly from the Tamrashatiya school. During t ...

and Āgamas), where it appears as the village of Pataligrama and is omitted from a list of major cities in the region.. Early Buddhist sources report a city being built in the vicinity of the village towards the end of the Buddha's life; this generally agrees with archaeological evidence showing urban development occurring in the area no earlier than the 3rd or 4th Century BCE. In 303 BCE, Greek historian and ambassador

mentioned Pataliputra as a city in his work Indika.

Diodorus Diodorus Siculus, or Diodorus of Sicily ( grc-gre, Διόδωρος ; 1st century BC), was an ancient Greek historian. He is known for writing the monumental universal history ''Bibliotheca historica'', in forty books, fifteen of which su ...

, quoting

Iambulus __NOTOC__ Iambulus or Jambulus ( grc, Ἰάμβουλος, ''Iamboulos'') was an ancient Greek merchant and the likely author of a utopian novel about the strange forms and figures of the inhabitants of the "Islands of the Sun". His name seems not t ...

mention that the king of Pataliputra had a " great love for the Greeks ". The city of Pataliputra was formed by fortification of a village by Haryanka ruler

, son of

Bimbisara Bimbisāra (in Buddhist tradition) or Shrenika () and Seniya () in the Jain histories (c. 558 – c. 491 BCE or during the late 5th century BCE) was a King of Magadha (V. K. Agnihotri (ed.), ''Indian History''. Allied Publishers, New Delhi ...

. Its central location in

north eastern India , native_name_lang = mni , settlement_type = , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = , motto = , image_map = Northeast india.png , ...

led rulers of successive dynasties to base their administrative capital here, from the

Nandas The Nanda dynasty ruled in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent during the fourth century BCE, and possibly during the fifth century BCE. The Nandas overthrew the Shaishunaga dynasty in the Magadha region of eastern India, and expanded ...

Mauryans The Maurya Empire, or the Mauryan Empire, was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in the Indian subcontinent based in Magadha, having been founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BCE, and existing in loose-knit fashion until 1 ...

Shungas The Shunga Empire (IAST: ') was an ancient Indian dynasty from Magadha that controlled areas of the most of the northern Indian subcontinent from around 185 to 73 BCE. The dynasty was established by Pushyamitra, after taking the throne of the M ...

and the Guptas down to the

Palas A ''palas'' () is a German term for the imposing or prestigious building of a medieval ''Pfalz'' or castle that contained the great hall. Such buildings appeared during the Romanesque period (11th to 13th century) and, according to Thompson ...

. Situated at the confluence of the

, Gandhaka and

rivers, Pataliputra formed a "water fort, or ''jaldurga''". Its position helped it dominate the riverine trade of the Indo-Gangetic plains during

's early imperial period. It was a great centre of trade and commerce and attracted merchants and intellectuals, such as the famed

Chanakya Chanakya (Sanskrit: चाणक्य; IAST: ', ; 375–283 BCE) was an ancient Indian polymath who was active as a teacher, author, strategist, philosopher, economist, jurist, and royal advisor. He is traditionally identified as Kauṭil ...

, from all over India. Two important early Buddhist councils are recorded in early Buddhist texts as being held here, the second session of the Second Buddhist council in the reign of Ashoka, 35 years after the first session held in Vaisali and the

Third Buddhist council The Third Buddhist council was convened in about 250 BCE at Asokarama in Pataliputra, under the patronage of Emperor Ashoka. The traditional reason for convening the Third Buddhist Council is reported to have been to rid the Sangha of corruption ...

. Jain and Brahmanical sources identify Udayabhadra, son of

, as the king who first established Pataliputra as the capital of Magadha. The Sangam Tamil epic

Akanaṉūṟu The ''Akananuru'' (, literally "four hundred oemsin the akam genre"), sometimes called ''Nedunthokai'' (''lit.'' "anthology of long poems"), is a classical Tamil poetic work and one of the Eight Anthologies (''Ettuthokai'') in the Sangam lit ...

mentions Nanda kings ruling Pataliputra.

Capital of the Maurya Empire

Mauryan ruins of pillared hall at Kumrahar site of Pataliputra ASIEC 1912-13

During the reign of Emperor

Ashoka Ashoka (, ; also ''Asoka''; 304 – 232 BCE), popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was the third emperor of the Maurya Empire of Indian subcontinent during to 232 BCE. His empire covered a large part of the Indian subcontinent, s ...

in the 3rd century BCE, it was one of the world's largest cities, with a population of about 150,000–400,000. The city is estimated to have had a surface of 25.5 square kilometers, and a circumference of 33.8 kilometers, and was in the shape of a parallelogram and had 64 gates (that is, approximately one gate every 500 meters). Pataliputra reached the pinnacle of prosperity when it was the capital of the great

Mauryan Emperors The Maurya Empire, or the Mauryan Empire, was a geographically extensive Iron Age list of ancient great powers, historical power in the Indian subcontinent based in Magadha, having been founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BCE, and existing ...

, Chandragupta Maurya and Ashoka. The city prospered under the

Maurya The Maurya Empire, or the Mauryan Empire, was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in the Indian subcontinent based in Magadha, having been founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BCE, and existing in loose-knit fashion until 1 ...

s and a Greek ambassador,

, resided there and left a detailed account of its splendour, referring to it as "Palibothra":
Mauryan remains of wooden palissade at Bulandi Bagh site of Pataliputra ASIEC 1912-13

Mauryan remains of wooden palissade at Bulandi Bagh site of Pataliputra ASIEC 1912-13

Strabo in his

Geographia The ''Geography'' ( grc-gre, Γεωγραφικὴ Ὑφήγησις, ''Geōgraphikḕ Hyphḗgēsis'', "Geographical Guidance"), also known by its Latin names as the ' and the ', is a gazetteer, an atlas, and a treatise on cartography, com ...

adds that the city walls were made of wood. These are thought to be the wooden palisades identified during the excavation of Patna. Aelian, although not expressly quoting Megasthenes nor mentioning Pataliputra, described Indian palaces as superior in splendor to

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

's Susa or Ecbatana: Under Ashoka, most of wooden structure of Pataliputra palace may have been gradually replaced by stone. Ashoka was known to be a great builder, who may have even imported craftsmen from abroad to build royal monuments. Pataliputra palace shows decorative influences of the Achaemenid palaces and Persepolis and may have used the help of foreign craftmen. Which may be the result of the formative influence of craftsmen employed from Persia following the disintegration of the Achaemenid Empire after the conquests of

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...

Capital of later dynasties

The city also became a flourishing Buddhist centre boasting a number of important monasteries. It remained the capital of the Gupta dynasty (3rd–6th centuries) and the Pala Dynasty (8th-12th centuries). When

Faxian Faxian (法顯 ; 337 CE – c. 422 CE), also referred to as Fa-Hien, Fa-hsien and Sehi, was a Chinese Buddhist monk and translator who traveled by foot from China to India to acquire Buddhist texts. Starting his arduous journey about age 60, h ...

visited the city in 400 A.D, he found the people to be rich and prosperous; they practised virtue and justice. He found that the nobles and householders of the city had constructed several hospitals in which the poor of all countries, the destitute, the crippled and the diseased can get treatment. They could receive every kind of help gratuitously. Physicians would inspect the diseases, and order them food, drink, and medicines. The city was largely in ruins when visited by

Xuanzang Xuanzang (, ; 602–664), born Chen Hui / Chen Yi (), also known as Hiuen Tsang, was a 7th-century Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveler, and translator. He is known for the epoch-making contributions to Chinese Buddhism, the travelogue of ...

. In a fanciful 1559 book about world geography, the Italian Caius Julius Solinus briefly mentions a powerful Indian kingdom of ''Prasia'' with a capital at Palibotra. Afterwards,

made Pataliputra his capital and changed the name to modern Patna.

Structure

Though parts of the ancient city have been excavated, much of it still lies buried beneath modern Patna. Various locations have been excavated, including

Kumhrar Kumhrar or Kumrahar is the area of Patna where remains of the ancient city of Pataliputra were excavated by the Archaeological Survey of India starting from 1913. It is located 5 km east of Patna Railway Station. Archaeological remains of ...

, Bulandi Bagh and Agam Kuan. During the Mauryan period, the city was described as being shaped as parallelogram, approximately 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) wide and 15 kilometers (9 miles) long. Its wooden walls were pierced by 64 gates. Archaeological research has found remaining portions of the wooden palisade over several kilometers, but stone fortifications have not been found.

Excavated sites of Pataliputra

* Bulandi Bagh * Agam Kuan

As dynastic capital

File:Magadha Expansion (6th-4th centuries BCE).png, Pataliputra served as the capital of the

Haryanka dynasty The Haryanka dynasty was the third ruling dynasty of Magadha, an empire of ancient India, which succeeded the Pradyota dynasty and Barhadratha dynasty. Initially, the capital was Rajagriha. Later, it was shifted to Pataliputra, near the pr ...

and the

Shishunaga dynasty The Shaishunaga dynasty ( IAST: Śaiśunāga, literally "of Shishunaga") is the fourth ruling dynasty of Magadha, an empire of ancient India. According to the Hindu '' Puranas'', this dynasty was the second ruling dynasty of Magadha, succeeding ...

of Magadha File:Nanda Empire, c.325 BCE.png, Pataliputra served as the capital of the Nanda Empire File:Maurya Empire, c.250 BCE 2.png, Pataliputra served as the capital of the Maurya Empire File:Sunga map.jpg, Pataliputra served as the capital of the Shunga Empire File:GuptaEmpire300-550.png, Pataliputra served as the capital of the

File:Asia 800ad.jpg, Pataliputra served as the capital of the

Main recovered artifacts

File:Masarh_lion_sculpture.jpg, The

Masarh lion The Masarh lion is a stone sculpture found at Masarh, a village near Arrah town in the Bhojpur district in the Indian state of Bihar.Page 88: "It is carved out of Chunar sandstone and it also bears the typical Mauryan polish. But it is undoubtedly ...

, 3rd century BCE Lohanipur torso.jpg, Lohanipur torso. File:Portion of Asokan pillar, found in Pataliputra, Modern Bihar - 3 A.D..JPG, Portion of pillar, found in Pataliputra. Patna griffin.jpg, Pataliputra griffin statuette. Winged Griffin - Chunar Sandstone - Circa 3rd Century BCE - Kumhrar - Patna - ACCN 5583-A25303 - Indian Museum - Kolkata 2014-02-14 9264.JPG, Winged griffin. Patna Yakshas.jpg, Pataliputra

Yakshas The yakshas ( sa, यक्ष ; pi, yakkha, i=yes) are a broad class of nature-spirits, usually benevolent, but sometimes mischievous or capricious, connected with water, fertility, trees, the forest, treasure and wilderness. They appear in ...

, with Mauryan inscriptions. File:Pataliputra Kumrahar coping stone with vines.jpg, Kumrahar coping stone with vines. File:Pataliputra lotus motif.jpg, Pataliputra lotus motifs. File:Mauryan Hall pillar.jpg, Polished pillar from Pataliputra. File:Pataliputra pillar mason marks with rubbing.jpg, Mason marks at the base of a pillar.Foreign Influence on Ancient India, de Krishna Chandra Saga
p.41
/ref> Charriot wheel Bulandi Bagh Pataliputra Mauryan period.jpg, Charriot wheel, Bulandi Bagh, Mauryan period. Bulandi Bagh female figure Sunga period.jpg, Bulandi Bagh female statuette, Sunga period. Pataliputra Buddhist railing with coping stone.jpg, Buddhist railing, Sunga period.

References

Sources

* *