Mahajanapada Period Questions and Answers – Page 3

Buddhist sources conventionally enumerate ten important republican states or clans in the Buddha’s time, while sixteen refers to the Mahajanapadas as a whole.

Magadha, Kosala, Vatsa and Avanti were the four major monarchies competing in northern India during the Buddha’s time. Shakya, Licchavi and Malla were republican polities, while several other Mahajanapadas were less dominant.

Magadha became the most powerful Mahajanapada because of fertile land, access to iron resources, elephants, river routes, capable rulers and strategic capitals at Rajagriha and later Pataliputra. Kosala, Vatsa and Avanti were major rivals but were eventually surpassed.

The Buddhist Anguttara Nikaya and the Jain Bhagavati Sutra preserve lists of sixteen Mahajanapadas, though their lists differ in details. The Vedas are earlier, while the Arthashastra and Indica are associated mainly with the Mauryan age.

The age of the sixteen Mahajanapadas is especially associated with the sixth century BCE, a period of the second urbanisation, iron technology, expanding trade, coin use, states and new religious movements.

The Vaisheshika school is traditionally associated with Kanada and analyses reality through categories such as substance, quality, action, generality, particularity and inherence. Kapila belongs to Sankhya, Gautama to Nyaya and Jaimini to Mimamsa.

Patanjali is traditionally credited with systematising Yoga in the Yoga Sutras. Jaimini is associated with Mimamsa, Kapila with Sankhya and Gautama with Nyaya.

Kapila is traditionally regarded as the founder or earliest teacher of Sankhya philosophy, which analyses purusha and prakriti and explains liberation through discriminative knowledge. Kanada, Patanjali and Gautama belong to other schools.

The Nyaya school is traditionally associated with Akshapada Gautama and is known for logic, epistemology and methods of valid knowledge. Kapila founded Sankhya, Kanada Vaisheshika and Jaimini Mimamsa.

The Gopatha Brahmana is the sole surviving Brahmana associated with the Atharvaveda. Aitareya and Kaushitaki belong to the Rigveda, Shatapatha to the Shukla Yajurveda and several important Brahmanas to the Samaveda.