The Rise and Decline of Pataliputra

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

The present book attempts to give a comprehensive account of one of the oldest cities of India and capital of the Nandas and Mauryas, Ptaliputra. The city emerged as a small hamlet of Pataligrama but gradually became the agranagar of India. The process of rise and decline of Pataliputra has been outlined in seven chapters. Chapter 1 discusses the discovery or identification of Pataliputra with modern Patna or at least parts of it. Chapter II surveys archaeological excavations made up to date at Pataliputra. Chapter III gives an outline of the history of this city, beginning from the construction of a fort at Pataligrama to the Gupta period. Town planning and administration of Pataliputra forms the theme of Chapter IV. A detailed study of society, including religion, education, literature and economy is made in Chapter V. Chapter VI discusses art and architecture of Pataliputra. The last Chapter examines the causes of the decline of Pataliputra. The study is based primarily on archaeological evidences though other relevant literary sources like the Indica, Chinese accounts and Kautilya's Arthashastra has been utilized exhaustively. This study is a valuable contribution to the existing literature on the history and culture of Pataliputra.

Dr. Kameshwar Prasad (b. 1947) is a brilliant product of Patna University. He did his M. A. in History (Gold Medallist) and Ph. D. from there. He opted for the teaching career and joined the Department of History, Patna University as a Lecturer in January 1970. Having served the Department for nearly 39 years he superannuated as Head of the Department of History in July 2009. His field of specialization has been Ancient Indian History, especially urban history and history of Bihar. He has contributed nearly 100 research papers in reputed historical journals. He is a prolific author and has written several books in English and Hindi. His outstanding books are Cities, Craft and Commerce Under the Kushanas, New Delhi (1984), The Glory That Was Vaishali, Patna (2015), Buddhist Education in Early Medieval India, New Delhi (2021) and Teach Yourself History of India in four volumes (in Hindi), Patna. Dr. Prasad is associated with a large number of historical and academic bodies. He is member of the executive committee of the Bihar Heritage Development Society, Patna. He is also the Chief Editor of the Journal of The Bihar Puravid Parishad, Patna.

Pataliputra is one of the oldest cities of India. It finds mention prominently in the Brahmanic, Buddhist and Jain literature. The Indica of Megasthenes, A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms of Fa-hien and the Si-Yu-Ki of Hsuan Tsang preserve detailed and graphic description of the once renowned city of Pataliputra. Ever since the construction of a fort at Pataligrama by the Magadhan king Ajatashatru, the small village of Pataligrama developed in the city of Pataliputra. Its fortunes rose high after transfer of the Magadhan capital from Rajagraha to Pataliputra in 457 BCE by Udayin or Udaibhadra, the successor of Ajatashatru. Under the Nandas and the Mauryas Pataliputra became the nerve-centre of the politics of northern India. Its fame rested not only on being the capital city of the first Indian empire, but also on account of its economic and cultural developments. This situation continued at least upto the Gupta period.

However, no comprehensive account of this city is available in modern historical writings. Reference to the city and different aspects of its culture may be found in some research papers in historical journals, gazetters, reports of Alexander Cunningham and others, Hamilton Buchanan's Account of the District of Bihar and. (1811-12), but there are yet very few independent monographs on the history and cutlture of Pataliputra taking into account every aspect of the city. Perhaps, the first independent book published on Pataliputra was Manoranjan Ghosh's Pataliputra (Patna, 1919). Ghosh was an archaeologist related with the excavations of Kumrahar and adjoining areas, specially Bulandibag. Therefore, his book outlines the archaeological findings from Kumrahar. Treatment of other aspects of Pataliputra are lacking in this book. Before the publication of this book, L. A. Waddell, P.C. Mukherjee and D. B. Spooner had also published their findings on Kumrahar excvations. These works dealt exclusively with the archaeological heritage of Pataliputra but failed to give a detailed account of once famous city of Pataliputra. The later publications like Lt. General S. K. Sinha, Pataliputra, Past to Present (Patna, 1986), Ramji Mishra Manohar, Dastane Pataliputra (in Hindi) (Nai Dilli, 1989), Raman Gupta, Patna: A Journey Through the Ages (Calcutta, 1998), Braj Mohan Kumar, Arhchaeology of Pataliputra and Nalanda (Delhi, 1987), Om Prakash Prasad, Pataliputra se Patna Tak ka Itihasa (in Hindi), (Patna, 2010), attempted to give more information on the history of Pataliputra. Dayanand Roy, Pataliputra ka Itihasa (450 B.C.-554 AD) (in Hindi), (Patna, 1999), for the first time tried to present a full account of the history and culture of Patalipurra - the urbanisation of Paraliputra, political and administrative history, international urban character, its economic base and cultural heritage of Pataliputra - but the study is deficient in many ways. Some books have also appeared in form of collected research papers on Pataliputra. In this category the first and foremost publication appears to be Q. Ahmad (ed.), Pataliputra Through the Ages: Glimpses of History, Society and Economy (Patna 1988). Special mention may be made of C. P. Sinha (ed.), Pataliputra in Art, Archaeology and Literature, (Delhi, 2020). It includes 37 research papers on the theme and gives an outline of the history and culture of Pataliputra. It provides guidelines for further research on Pataliputra. S. N. Arya's (ed.), Pataliputra Through the Ages, (Patna, 2022) is also useful for the study of history and culture of Pataliputra. Despite these publications, there is scope for further enquiry in the history of Pataliputra. With this purpose the present study has been taken up.

An attempt has been made in this book to give a holistic account of the history and culture of Pataliputra. It has been divided in seven chapters. Chapter I discusses the discovery or identification of Pataliputra with modern Patna or at least parts of it. Chapter II suveys archaeological excavations made upto date at Pataliputra. In the III chapter an outline of the history of this city, beginning from the construction of a fort at Pataligrama to the Gupta period, is given. Chapter IV deals with town-planning and administration of Pataliputra. A detailed study of society, including religion, education, literature and economy is made in chapter V. Chapter VI discusses art and architecture which flourished at Pataliputra. The last chapter (excluding conclusion) examines the causes of the decline of Pataliputra. The study is based primarily on archaeological evidence though other relevant sources like Megasthenes's, Fa-hien's, Hsuan Tsang's account and some literary sources, the most important being Kautilya's Arthasastra, has also been utilised exhaustively for the study. On the basis of these sources we have outlined the rise and decline of Pataliputra.

I take this opportunity to express my deep sense of gratitude to all those scholars who have worked earlier on Pataliputra and whose works have been consulted and utilised in the present study. I express my sincere thanks to a large number of friends and well-wishers who helped me directly or indirectly in the completion of this book. They always extended their cooperation and well wishes.