Arshia
Agriculture, story of Magadha & Vajji
Agriculture underwent major change during this time. One such change was the use of iron plough shares. Another change was the transplantation of paddy. This means that instead of scattering seeds on the ground, sapling were grown and the planted. This lead to the massive production and even more plants survived. Slaves and landless labourers were employed to do these works.
Magadha
Magadha became one of the most mahajanapadas. Rivers such as Ganga and son flowed Magadha. This was important as
- Transportation
- Water supplies
- Making the land fertile
Parts of Magadha were forested. Elephants were trained for the army. Forests provided woods for building houses, carts, chariots. There were iron ore mines in the region that could be tapped to make iron tools and weapons.
The two powerful rulers of Magadha were Bimbhisara and Ajjatasattu. They tried to conquer other janapadas by all means. Another important ruler was Mahapadma Nanda, who extended his control over the north west part of the subcontinent. Rajgriha in Bihar served as the capital of Magadha for many years. Later on pataliputra , present day Patna was given the status of capital of Magadha.
Alexander, the ruler of Macedonia in Europe, reached Indian subcontinent to conquer it. However, he conquest west Asia and parts of Egypt as he wanted to conquer the whole world. On reaching River Beas, his soldiers refused to march further as they were aware of Huge Indian army and weapons, elephants, horses, chariots,. Etc.
Vajji
Vajji, along with its capital city Vaishali in Bihar was under different forms of government, known as gana or Sangha. Gana is used for a group that has many members. Sangha means organisation or association. There were not one but thousands of rulers in gana or Sangha and each one of them were called raja. These rajas used to perform rituals- together. They all met in assemblies to discuss over important matters. The slaves were not made the part about of the meeting.
However rajas of powerful kingdom tried to control Sangha. This continued for a long time, say about1500 years. At last the last gana or Sangha was conquered by the Guptas.
