The Haryanka Dynasty of Magadha

1.1 How old was Bimbisara when he became king?

Buddhist tradition says Bimbisara was fifteen when his father anointed him king. To anoint means to crown with a ceremony. Raychaudhuri adds that he also bore the name Seniya, or Srenika. Jain texts call him Shrenika.

1.2 When did he begin to rule?

Raychaudhuri reckons the coronation at about 545 to 544 BCE. Geiger’s table, built from the Ceylonese chronicle, gives 543 BCE. So the date is c. 545 to 543 BCE, depending on the scholar.

His reign length also varies. The Ceylonese chronicle gives fifty-two years. The Puranas give twenty-eight, and some manuscripts give thirty-eight. No single figure is safe.

1.3 Where did he rule from?

Raychaudhuri says the king lived in Rajagriha-Girivraja, near modern Rajgir in Bihar. Girivraja was the old fort ringed by hills. Smith credits Bimbisara with building New Rajagriha, the outer town to the north of those hills.

2.1 Why did Bimbisara marry into other royal families?

A dynastic marriage joins two ruling families to build an alliance. Raychaudhuri says Bimbisara followed a policy of such marriages, like the Hapsburgs and Bourbons of Europe. He made alliances with the ruling families of Madra, Kosala and Vaisali.

2.2 Which queens are named?

The Cambridge History of India names three principal queens. Each came from a different region.

The same book adds that this holds only if the traditions of these relationships are correct.

2.3 Who was Ajatashatru’s mother?

Here the sources part ways. Rhys Davids says Ajatashatru was Bimbisara’s son by another wife, the Videha lady from Mithila. So treat the queen list as tradition, not settled history.

Be careful with the word first. Raychaudhuri compares the marriages to those of European dynasties. He does not call them the first of their kind in India.

3.1 How did Magadha take Anga?

Raychaudhuri says Bimbisara annexed Anga after defeating Brahmadatta. Brahmadatta is said to have been the last independent ruler of ancient Anga. To annex means to add a territory to your own state.

Champa was Anga’s main town. The Sonadanda Sutta says King Bimbisara had given its revenues to the Brahmin Sonadanda. Raychaudhuri adds that Anga was then governed as a separate province, with Champa as its capital, under the Magadhan crown prince.

3.2 What was his link with the Buddha?

Tradition says they first met about seven years before Gotama became the Buddha. On the Buddha’s second visit to Rajagaha, Bimbisara gave him the Bamboo Grove.

The Pali name of the grove is Veluvana. The Sanskrit form is Venuvana. Both names mean Bamboo Grove.

3.3 How did Bimbisara die?

The sources disagree. Rhys Davids says the main fact, that his son Ajatashatru put him to death, may be accepted as historical. Smith records another story, that he handed the kingdom to a favourite son and retired.

For exams, say that Buddhist tradition blames his son. Do not add details of the death that no source here gives.

4.1 How did Ajatashatru gain the throne?

Buddhist tradition says Ajatashatru killed his father for the throne. In the Samannaphala Sutta he later admits that he put his father to death for the sake of sovereignty.

Raychaudhuri puts his accession at 493 BCE, if the Cantonese date for the Buddha’s death is accepted. Geiger’s table gives 491 BCE.

The Ceylonese chronicle gives him thirty-two years. It also says the Buddha died in the eighth year of his reign. Scholars use it to anchor early Magadhan dates.

4.2 How did he beat the Vajji confederacy?

The Vajjis were a union of clans led by the Licchavis of Vaishali. Ajatashatru’s minister Vassakara spent about three years sowing disunion among them. Rhys Davids tells this story from the Buddhist texts.

Two ministers, Sunidha and Vassakara, were also building a fort at Pataligrama to check the Vajjis. The new city was either the later Pataliputra or close to it.

4.3 Which weapons did he use?

The mahasilakantaka seems to have been an engine like a catapult that threw big stones. The rathamusala was a chariot with a mace attached, which killed many men. Raychaudhuri explains how they worked by inference.

4.4 When did the war end?

Raychaudhuri says Vassakara’s visit to the Buddha came a year before the Buddha’s death. The Vajji power fell some three years later, about 484 BCE. So 484 BCE marks the end of the Vajji power, not the start of the war.

5.1 Who ruled after Ajatashatru?

The Ceylonese chronicle lists Udayabhadda, Anuruddha, Munda and Nagadasaka in a father-to-son line. It says each killed his father. The Cambridge History calls this not above suspicion, since it gives five kings in about fifty-six years.

5.2 How did the Haryanka line end?

The chronicle says the citizens grew angry and called it a dynasty of parricides. A parricide is someone who kills his own father. They banished Nagadasaka, who had reigned twenty-four years.

They then anointed Susunaga, a minister proved worthy. He reigned eighteen years, and his son Kalasoka reigned twenty-eight. So Buddhist tradition ends the Haryanka line with Nagadasaka and begins the next with Susunaga.

5.3 Who moved the capital to Pataliputra?

The sources disagree, and the table shows who each text credits. Ajatashatru only fortified the village of Patali, near the later city.

So never state one founder as certain. Say Udayin in the Puranic tradition.

5.4 Do all lists agree on the order?

No. The Puranas put Shishunaga first and call them the ten Shaishunaga kings. The Buddhist lists reverse this, and the Jains omit his group altogether. Count six Haryanka kings in the Ceylonese list, not six generations.

6.1 Which claims cause errors?

• Say dynastic marriages, not the first systematic marriage diplomacy.
• Say Buddhist tradition for the parricide story, since Jain and other accounts differ.
• Say 484 BCE ends the Vajji power. It does not begin the war.
• Give the capital move as disputed between Udayin, Kalasoka and Asoka.

6.2 What should you memorise?

Bimbisara annexed Anga from Brahmadatta. Ajatashatru’s ministers built the Pataligrama fort against the Vajjis. The Buddha died in the eighth year of Ajatashatru. Susunaga replaced Nagadasaka after the citizens revolted.