History of Magadha- An Enquiry into the So-Called 'Dark Age' From c. 187 B.C. to A.D. 300 (An Old and Rare Book)

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I developed special interest in Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology, when I was a student of the Post-Graduate Department of History, Burdwan University. While teaching Ancient Indian History, our teacher explained to us the problems of reconstructing the early history of India due to non-availability of sufficient source-material. At the same time, he also brought to our notice the continuous process of discovering and interpreting new source- material providing scope of filling up the gaps in the knowledge of early Indian history. No less a historian than Sir Jadunath Sarkar once pointed out that until the reconstruction process of Indian history is complete, it is futile to make an attempt to study Indian historiography. However, we can hardly ignore the contributions made by different scholars from time to time on the basis of the source-material available to them before we undertake a fresh investigation of any period of Indian history.

We have chosen the early history of Magadha (c. 187 В.С. -A.D. 300) as the field of our investigation. There are reasons more than one. Firstly, Magadha is located in Eastern India and the history of Magadha epitomises the history of Eastern India since sixth century B.C. It is reasonable to undertake an investigation into a regional history of India than the whole of Indian history. Secondly, considerable work has already been done by a host of scholars on Magadha either as a part of Indian history as a whole or as a separate regional history. But inspite of their best efforts they failed to throw light on the entire early history of Magadha, because they had suffered from dearth of materials. Thirdly, the history of Magadha from the fourth century B.C. to the second century B.C. and again from the fourth century A.D. to the sixth century A.D. has been more or less, well-constructed. But the Magadhan history in between those two periods remains still an enigma to the historians. Because, scholars have failed to provide a connected history of Magadha of the period concerned. Whatever they have written so far seems to indicate that for a long period Magadha lost its identity in the ongoing historical process. This position can hardly be accepted. Fourthly, whenever there is dearth of material, scholars often take resort to theorisation. Sometimes an attempt has been made to interprete the available historical data in such design that a favourite theory fits in it. But if we are genuinely interested in reconstructing the history of Magadha during the period between the downfall of the Mauryas and the rise of the Guptas, we have to seek and sort out the material in order to find out the actual trend of history which directly or indirectly involved Magadha. Lastly, in recent times epigraphists, numismatists and archaeologists have discovered some new material which has to be utilised with caution and care to throw light on the so-called 'dark period of Magadhan history.

In modern times, Magadha is identified with the districts of Patna and Gaya including the northern fringe of the Hazaribagh district. But ancient Magadha seems to have had a larger area than the modern word applies. It has been observed by Malasekhara that at the time of the Buddha, the kingdom of Magadha was bounded on the east by the river Champa, on the south by the Vindhyan mountains, on the west by the Sona and on the north by the Ganga. Whatever might have been the physical geographical limits of Magadha Janapada, the political and cultural boundaries of Magadha often included the whole of Bihar and sometimes even the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh. The discovery of some important archaeological sites in the Magadhan region seem to indicate that Magadha proper and its surrounding regions remained populated and included some flourishing cities and towns during the period from the second century B.C. to the end of the third century A.D. Recently Navin Kumar in his Archaeological Excavations in Bihar (1999) has given reports of explorations and excavations in the pre- and post independence period. Previously, R.S. Sharma in his Urban Decay in India (1987) has examined such sites as Chirānd, Vaišālī, Champa, Kumrahār and Rājagriha to conclude that those were flourishing urban sites between c. 200 B.C. and A.D. 300. He has also brought to our notice the results of excavations carried out at Buxar in Bhojpur district, Rajgir in Nalanda district and Sonpur in Gaya district. All these urban sites situated south of the Ganga flourished during the Post-Maurya period. If that be so, it can hardly be assumed that the Magadhan history passed through a dark period between the two 'Empires'.

In fact, scholars who are accustomed to treat political history as the only history might fail to find out a connected history of Magadha during the Post-Maurya period. But, in fact, polity, society and economy of Magadha were in no way dissociated from those of Northern India. The process of development, change and progress, that constitutes the main theme of history was almost the same in Magadha as in other parts of the Ganga Valley. Therefore, the theory of 'dark period' may be reasonably ruled out.

Again, we may also make an in-depth study of the political history, not with the purpose of considering the rise and fall of kingdoms and empires, or the rise and fall of dynasties, but with the purpose of discerning the underlying message of history. Political unity was the dream of Indian theologians, philosophers, statesmen, political thinkers and social legislators for a long time. The dream was in a process of being fulfilled from the sixth century B.C. to the fourth century B.C. It was realised to a great extent with the foundation of the Magadhan state with its capital at Pataliputra and the 'First Magadhan' empire that ushered in an age of imperial unity.