ANCIENT HISTORY FOR SSC EXAMS 2025 | MAHAJANPADAS | FRB 2.0 BY PARMAR SSC

0:01 So hello everyone and welcome to the new lecture of FRB 2.0 in which in today's lecture we are going to talk about Mahajanapadas. Alright? So let's start . And before starting as you all know Spotify is available for us. Okay? So there also you can see that you can listen to the audio if you want to revise. Okay ? If you do not get such spare time for revision, then if you are doing any activity, then you can use Spotify at that time. So let 's start now with Mahajanapadas, total 16 Mahajanapadas, as you all know brother, what happened was that Aryans invaded. Okay? It is believed that Aryans were a tribe and a book was also written on this like Bal Gangadhar Tilak ji wrote Arctic Home to Vedas. Okay? Bal Gangadhar Tilak has written that book. So here there is an Aryan theory that how did they come here. Then how did the battle take place here?

0:50 You should also be told about that battle because we know it as the 10 Rajan Battle which was fought on the banks of the Ravi River and whose ancient name is Purushani and what was in it? In that, the federation of 10 kings, that is, 10 kings were on one side and the king of the Bharat tribe, King Sudas, was on the other side who won this battle. So gradually, this place got divided into different Janapadas. Wherever these, that is, Jan means tribe. Pad means feet. So wherever these tribes set foot, they got named accordingly on the name of that tribe. Then gradually, these got consolidated, became bigger and from Janapadas, they took the form of Mahajanapadas. Now, the Mahajanapadas that emerged from these were monarchial. That is, monarchial means single ruler. In that way, and republic means where there is an elected head. Okay? So it is simply multiple decision maker

1:37 . It is not necessary that the modern form of republic that we see today, which we read in Polity, in Preamble, that republic means where there is an elected head. Like UK, Britain is not a republic but we are. Okay? So it is not necessary that the same form is the same meaning of republic. Here it means multiple decision maker. A little bit of spelling or a little bit because all the new mind maps are being made in a hurry . Okay? So that is why at some places, the spelling of multiple is different, so manage a little bit. Okay? And if we talk about republic, then it is known by the name of Kuru, Kamboj, Vajji, Malla and Assamak or Asak . Okay? So these were the examples for Republic and Monar. I did not get many questions like, tell me which one is a republic but which one is monarchical but still one should know. After this from where do we get information about Mahajanapadas. So Pani has written a book by name Ashtai which

2:27 is the oldest literature on Sanskrit Grammar. Right? Ashtadhaai by Pani. It mentions about 40 Janapadas . It is Buddhist literature. Anguttar Nikaya in which 16 Mahajanapadas are mentioned and Dik Nikaya in which 12 Mahajanapadas are mentioned. We will talk about Jain literature. This is Bhagwati Sutra where these Mahajanapadas are mentioned. Okay? Let's talk about facts . Part okay? So you have just watched Mahabharata in Mahabharata, I am also watching Mahabharata these days. Okay? Mummy puts Mahabharata on while eating food. So I am watching Mahabharata here. By the way, I mean to tell you the truth, I have not watched much. I mean I have seen Ramayana many times but I have not seen Mahabharata but I am watching it these days, so Karna, so you must have seen in it that there is a Karna and he is known as Angraj because he belonged to the Mahajanapada of Ang,

3:14 so Varanasi, okay, it was made from Varun and rope, okay, from two rivets, so Varanasi Ujjain on the banks of Shipra river and Vaji it is a combination of eight lenses, Vaji is made from eight lamps, Janaika Videha Lakshmi, all these, okay, now I have not put a map here for our Mahajanapadas, but if you look at the map, you will know their location. What is written here? Mahajanapada, its capital is written here . Okay? Meaning where is it located in the present and its capital is written here . Okay? Capital and where is it located in the current. So if you see, Ang is the easternmost. Ang was in the east and its capital was Champa. That means you will find it near Bengal. Presently it is in the area of Munger and Bhagalpur . Okay? Completely Eastern Bihar. If we talk about Magadha, then

4:00 Rajgir, here the capital is written, this is the modern day. Here the capital is written, where the modern day is located, so Rajgir and Pataliputra were its capitals and modern day will be in Gaya and Patna. If we talk about Kashi, its Varanasi is the present day. Banaras Vats Kaushambi is present Allahabad, okay and if we talk about Kaushal, Shravasti Kaushalpur king, who is called Lord Ram from Ayodhya, Sursen Mathura in Eastern Uttar Pradesh was its capital and if we talk about Panchal, Aichhat Kampil is its capital. You can see it in Western UP. Kuru Kuru's capital is Indraprastha Meerut which is around present day. If we talk about Matsya, then Virat Nagar was its capital and you can see it around Jaipur. Chhedi Banda was the capital and the region of Bundelkhand. Isn't it? If you remember, we had read in geography. We had read that the Narmada river

4:50 divides the entire Peninsula Plateau into two parts. One is the upper part, we call it Central Island. Here, Mewar Plateau which is called Marwar Plateau. Okay ? Okay? And after that Malwa Plateau, Bundelkhand, Baghelkhand were like this. Okay? So Bundelkhand is where mostly the region of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh i.e. Southern Uttar Pradesh and Central Northern Madhya Pradesh meet. Ok? That is your Bundelkhand. And do you know which fort is located here? We do you know Kalinjar Fort. It is located on the Bundelkhand region only. Ok? And yes, today I was watching Mahabharat in it. So what does Lord Krishna who is Vasudev say that when he tells Arjun that okay, whom should you lie to, why should you lie to your guru i.e. Dronacharya ji that his son Swathama (Swathamaayi) has

5:40 died, then Arjun ji says that he will not tell this, then Vasudev i.e. Krishna ji advises him that if you are not fighting for victory or defeat, then you are fighting for Dharma, okay, you are fighting for Dharma, so if something is wrong then it is wrong. When Draupadi was being abducted, Guruji supported those people, so it is okay for you too, if you have to do something wrong for religion, then there is no harm in it. Then, Arjun does not say that Yudhishthir lies. Okay? So there he gives an example that brother, when the ocean was churned, not only nectar was poured in it. Poison was also not poured in it. And that poison was drunk by Lord Shiva . The one who drinks poison becomes great, he becomes Shiva and do you know where Shiva was, Lord Shiva drank the poison, that poison was drunk by Shiva

6:27 in the fort of Kalinjar, from there it got its name Kalinjar, right Kal means not in the fort of Kalinjar, it means Kalinjar fort was built much later and also about the Kalinjar fort, it is not known that who exactly laid the foundation and this but it is believed that there were multiple dynasties, Gupta Chandel, all this is believed, so Kalinjar got its name from there, Kal means time. Jar means defeat. That means the one who defeated time. That means he defeated death by going there in Kalinjar . So that is where the name came from. Okay? Brother, I am telling you the truth, no one else would have done as much tourism in Kalinjar as I did. But the problem is that no one recognizes it. At least this is the problem there. Actually, it falls right on the UP-MP border. Okay? That is why I think it is not that developed. Because who will do it now? UP will do it, MP because it is right on the border. Okay? Anyway, let's come to Avanti. Avanti's capital was Ujjain. Jai Mahishmati

7:16 is okay and it comes in the MP and Mala region. We will talk about Gandhar. Takshila reminds me of the capital Rawalpindi Shoaib Akhtar. I don't know why. Kamboj, Poonch. Okay? Assamak, Pratishthan or Paithan, Vanji, Vaishali and Malla, Koshishara. How to remember sir? So many things will come to mind again and again. By the way, if many of you have studied from me before, then they will already remember them. Okay? For example, like us, you will not need to remember I think. You will also memorize this right away because the next whole topic is based on Magadha. Yes, the next topic will be automatically remembered that Rajgir and Pataliputra, Kashi, Varanasi, there is no need to remember these three. Hey son, bring me sweet lime juice. OK? Make juice of sweet lime. OK? So you can remember like this. Son, sweet lime Kaushambi. OK? And the king of Kaushapur used to tell Lord Ram that he was from Ayodhya. OK? Produce a tune.

8:04 From Mathura, where you go to Mathura and produce the tune of Radha Radha. OK? Panchalatra and Kampil, try to memorize them. OK? Indraprastha and Matsya Virat Nagar belong to Kuru, so Virat Kohli takes great care of Mata ji, remember them like this, OK Matsya Chedi guy was good, Chedi, OK, remember like this Avanti Avanti, I think this too would be so difficult to remember Avanti, Mahishmati and Jaini, it's not less, right? Do less asking less and remember it like this, okay, the rest V comes from GV comes from Vaisali and Malla Mal came in Kushinagar, you can remember it like this, okay, so our Janapada Mahajanapada not Janapada these are Mahajanapadas. Okay? And we have remembered their capitals. Now let's come to why Magadh was the most powerful among these? Why? Magadh was powerful. So it

8:50 was powerful because it was in a very advantageous position. Its capitals were in very advantageous positions. If you see, Ang was the most eastern and your Magadh was here. So it was in such a location that if anyone has to be defeated, then one has to come all the way here. And I will tell you this now. Like here you see Rajgir used to be its capital earlier which is known as Rajgir. Now it is surrounded by five hills. It is surrounded by five hills. So it was very difficult to attack . Because if you see now there was a war like situation between India and Pakistan. Okay? Now it is obvious that whom will Pakistan be targeting? They will target Mumbai. They will target Chennai. Right? They will target Kolkata, won't they? They will target Delhi. Why? It is the capital, right? So if you have won over the capital, it means that you must have acquired the territory. So they will attack the capital only and only then will they announce that

9:38 yes, we have captured it. Now it is surrounded by five hills. So capturing it was not as easy as it was before. Right? If we talk about Pataliputra, it was situated at the confluence of Ganga and Son. So Pataliputra was situated at the confluence of Ganga and Son, where both are meeting. Availability of large number of elephants. They had a lot of elephants. Right? There were great leaders as well. There were great dynasties as well. Now we will start looking from here which great leaders and great dynasties were there. And there are a lot of iron mines here too because now you must understand that by the time we reached the Later Vedic Age, iron had already been discovered. Right? It had already been discovered. The Indusli people did not know about it. They did not know about it in the Early Vedic Age either. Iron had already been discovered in the Later Vedic Age. And there are a lot of iron mines here because if you look, Jharkhand region was very close by.

10:26 Clear? Okay. Now let us see which dynasties ruled Magadha. Okay? So first we will come to the Haranka Dynasty. The first ruler of the Haranka Dynasty was Bimbisar. Do not confuse him with Bindusar. Bindusar would come much later. So if we see, Bimbisar not only laid the foundation of the Haranka Dynasty. Okay? This would be Y but he was the first in the entire Magadha, which means we can call him the first ruler of Magadha. As per the information available. He defeated Ang. We just saw that Ang was here. Okay? And when Magadha was here, he defeated Anga. Then if we talk about it, he expanded his empire diplomatically, like he made marital relationships, he had three wives, so he used to marry, so that the kingdom expanded, sister of Prasanjit, she

11:14 was the daughter of Kaushal King, so he married her, sorry, his son was Prasanjit and he married her sister, and then we will talk about Chillana, who was a Lichchhavi princess, and married in Mother Glands . So this is how he expanded here. If we talk about mango, then her name was Kaushal Devi and her Khema. By the way, very few people ask about her name. Okay? And the title that she had taken should also be known. Bimbisara had taken the title of Seniya. Okay ? Then he had a physician whose name was Jeevak. He was sent to Ujjain, the ruler there was the king Pradyot. So that means he defeated them, it worked diplomatically and it was also due to marital relations. Along with that, Ujjain

12:02 was the second strongest Mahajanapada after Magadha. So there was always a rivalry between these people. So even after the rivalry, they sent them. Right ? His son became a physician. After that Azad Shatru was born from Chillana. Right? From Chalana. So he defeated Lichchhavi only. Right? He attacked his maternal uncle's house. Right? Right? That's why he was named Azad Shatru. Defeated. Well, Ajata Shatru is a very big leader of our modern India. He is also called Ajata Shatru. You can tell who got the title of Ajata Shatru of our modern India. We can say of modern India, that is, during the time of Independence . Defeated Kaushal. Right? Marry to King's Daughter Ah, after defeating Kaushal, he married the daughter of the king of that place. He first The Buddhist council was patterned. If

12:52 you remember, Ajatashatru Kalashoka Ashoka and Kanishka of each other. Do you remember where the battle took place? Rajgriha, Vaishali, Pataliputra, Kundalvan, Kashmir. It is believed that Ajatashatru killed his father Bimbisara. That is why he was given the title of Ajatashatru. He defeated Vaishali during the war using weaponry or catapults. This is how they are killed by throwing them. Well, not that much. Then comes his son. Who was the son of Ajatashatru? Udain was the work of Udain to shift the capital from Rajgriha to Pataliputra. Once, SSC had asked a question. Udain was not in the option. If Ajatashatru was there, then we had to take Ajatashatru. So, if Udain was not there, then we will take Ajatashatru. Okay, then comes after this, i.e. after Haranaka Dynasty comes Shishunagar Dynasty. Shishunagar dynasty defeated Avanti and merged with Magadha. So the biggest achievement of Shishunagar is that they

13:41 defeated Avanti, the second largest, second strongest Mahajanapada whose capital was Ujjaini or Mahishmati and merged it with Magadha. And if we talk about Shishunagar , they founded Shishunagar dynasty and his son was Kala Ashok. Kala Ashok had patronized the second Buddhist council. Then we come to Nanda dynasty. The founder of Nanda dynasty was Mahapadmanand who had taken the title of Ek Rath, that is empire builder and propagator of Kshatriyas. Mahapadmanand is known for killing Kshatriyas. After Mahapadmanand comes Dhananand. He was the founder and the last ruler . How was he the last ruler? First of all, Alexander the Great, who is the ruler of Greece , had invaded India. He did not come to the whole of India. But this Jhelum river had a battle on its banks. The

14:32 Battle of Hydaspes was fought on the banks of the Jhelum River. Hydaspes is actually Jhelum in Greek language. We know Jhelum as Vya . We also know Jhelum as Vitasta. Okay? Okay? Jhelum meanders in its youthful stage. Where does it originate from? It originates from Verinag. Isn't it? There are some dams built on Uri, Tulbul, Kishanganga. And here Jhelum river feeds its water to what? Wular lake which is the largest fresh water lake. Is it clear? So, this battle was not fought between Alexander and Dhanananda . It was fought between Porus. The ruler there was the local ruler Porus . And it was kind of not kind of decisive about which we can speak. Meaning it is written somewhere that decisive Alexander had won. But Porus fought so bravely that he returned Porus' territory.

15:18 Some historians, some right wing historians believe that who gives back his territory like that. Actually, the legend was defeated. So he had to return, not that he was defeated and the territory was returned. So whatever it is, but you should know about this battle. What happens after this is that Chandragupta Maurya kills Dhanananda. With whose help? With the help of Kautilya or Vishnugupta or Chanakya. And they lay the foundation of the modern dynasty. So whatever we will read after this will be the modern dynasty. But let us understand a little about what kind of society Magadha had. The pottery used here was NBPW. That is, if you look a little, we saw painted sorry ochre coloured pottery. Then we saw painted greyware. Now we have come to Northern Black Polished Ware.

16:05 NBPW. Okay? Ochre Coloured Pottery Painted Greyware and NBP that is Northern Black Polished Ware. Then if we talk again here the spelling will be PU . Panchmark silver coins which were also known as Nishka or Karshapan which were Panchamak silver coins. Artis and merchants are known by the name of guild or category. Crafts were hedatory, that is, if the father is involved in something and is big, then his son will also become big. So in this way crafts were of hedatory nature. Here iron plus plot share were used for agriculture. Because agriculture was in surplus due to this reason. Because iron had been discovered. We can consider this second urbanization after Harappa. Bali will not be compulsory. This was a voluntary offering.

16:51 Okay? It was not compulsory. It was optional. Keep in mind. It became compulsory later. It was in the beginning. It was voluntary. If anyone wants to give, he can give. If you don't want to give, then don't give. Okay? It was a voluntary offering to the king. Okay. Here, the posts used to be there, like the rich pageants, the big farmers and landowners, they used to be known as Grihapati. The pageants had to pay 1/6 tax. Whatever they produced, 1/6th of it. Okay? Then the village headman was known as Bhojak or Gramini and the toll tax collector was known as Shalika or Shuksh Adhyaksha. Shuksh means toll. Okay? And Adhyaksha means its collector. So who will be the headman or Shaulika of the fee? He will be the one who will collect the toll tags. Okay? Here our things finish. And now what do you have to do

17:40 ? You have to ask questions little by one and level one and level two. Okay? From Little Boy. And tell in the comment how much you scored. Those who have Fat Man, you have to keep revising from Fat Man. Alright? Thank you everyone. Thank you, you can download Spotify if you want to listen to audio of the lectures.