Mahajanapada

Mahajanpada

The period c. 600-300 BCE

◦ The period of 6 BCE marks the early historical period in north India 

◦ Increase political, economic and social complexities 

◦ Expansion of agriculture and village settlements

◦ Emergence of socio-economic classes 

◦ Emergence of powerful states – Mahajanapada 

◦ Process of urbanisation 

◦ Age of Buddha and Mahavir Jain 

◦ NBPW pottery

The 16 Great States 

◦ State polities and societies emerged in 6th century BCE in the belt 

stretching from Gandhara in North -west to Anga in east, also 

extending into malwa region

◦ Two kinds of states are included in the list of Mahajanapada –

monarchies (Rajyas) and Ganas or Sanghas

◦ Nationalist historians tended to glorify them by exaggerating 

democratic features of Ganas or Sanghas

◦ Ganas or Sanghas were oligarchy 

◦ The rise of Magadhan Empire

Agrarian Expansion, Villages & Cities 

◦ Expansion of agriculture & village settlements and population 

growth in Ganga valley, eg- kuti, gama (Buddhist texts)

◦ Emergence of urban centres suggest increasing yields & 

agricultural surplus

◦ Iron technology was one of agents of historical change 

◦ Emergence of private property in land, Size of landholdings 

varied, 

◦ Bimbisara & Prasenajit giving land to Brahman brahma-deyas

(land gifted to Brahman)

◦ Urban settlements - pura (Fortified city), Nagara (fortress or 

town), Nigama (Market town) & Rajdhani (capital)

Class, Kinship, Varna, and Caste 

◦ Emergence of socio-economic classes, with significant 

differences in wealth, status and control over productive 

resources.

◦ Gajapati and Setthi wealth property owner associated with land 

and agriculture 

◦ Despite socio-economic difference, kinship ties continue to be 

extremely important and were eventually incorporated into the 

framework of caste, Kula denotes an extended patrilineal family 

◦ Four- fold order of Varna (hereditary classes), was central to the 

social discourse of the Brahminical tradition.

Varnas were supposed to be endogamous, marriage within 

group but Dharmashastra accepted certain types of inter Varna 

marriage. Thus, Varnas were not strictly endogamous

◦ Jati, another social institution, outcome of various kinds of inter 

Varna marriage

◦ Beginning of the caste system can be traced to the 6th century 

BCE

◦ The English word “Caste” comes from the purtuguese “Castas”

◦ Dharmashastra reflect an attitude of extreme prejudice against 

the chandalas.

◦ Existence of male and female slaves

Gender, Family, and household 

◦ Strict control over women’s sexuality and reproductive potential was 

essential for the patrilineal transmission of property and maintenance 

and perpetuation of the endogamous caste structure.

◦ The strengthening of the patriarchal authority within the household and 

the emphasis on certain norms related to marriage and chastity of 

women were means of effective such control.

◦ Dharmashastra classify marriage into eight types, suggest girls should 

be married off as soon as they attained puberty, do not approve of 

widow remarriage.

◦ Jaya S. Tyagi – wife as having destructive as well as constructive 

potential with in household

The Renunciatiory tradition 

◦ This age of urban affluence, of communities marked by 

distinction of class and caste, was also an age of renunciants, 

who advocated giving up attachment to all material things and 

social relations

◦ Buddhism, Jainism, Aajivikas provided different answers to the 

mysteries and travail of existence 

◦ The 6th century BCE are often known as an age of the Buddha 

and Mahavira