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CHAPTER III. MAHĀJANAPADAS AND KINGSHIP
SECTION I. The Sixteen MAHĀJANAPADAS.
The Vedic texts do not throw much light on the political conditions of the period which elapsed from the fall of the Videhan monarchy, probably early in the sixth century B. C., to the rise of Kosala under Mahākosala, the fatherin-law of Bimbisāra, about the middle of that century. But we learn from the Buddhist Anguttara Nikāya that during this period there were sixteen states of considerable extent and power known as the “Solasa Mahājanapada." 1 These states were :1. Kasi
9. Kuru 2. Kosala
10. Pañchāla 3. Anga
11. Machchha (Matsya) 4. Magadha
12. Sūrasena 5. Vajji (Vriji)
13. Assaka (Asmaka) 6. Malla
14. Avanti 7. Chetiya (Chedi)
15. Gandhāra 8. Vamsa (Vatsa)
16. Kamboja These Mahājanapadas flourished together during a period posterior to Karāla-Janaka but anterior to Mahākosala, because one of them, Vajji, apparently rose to power after the fall of the Videhan monarchy, while another, namely, Kāsi, lost its independence before the time of Mabākosala and formed an integral part of the Kosalan empire in the latter half of the sixth century B.C.
The Jaina Bhagavatī Sūtra? gives a slightly different list of the sixteen Mahājanapadas :
1 P. T. S. 1, 213 ; IV, 252, 256, 260. The Mahāvastu (1. 34) gives a similar list, but omits Gandhāra and Kamboja, substituting in their place sibi and Daśārņa in the Punjab (or Rajputana) and Central India respectively. A less complete list is found in the Jana-vasabha-suttanta.
2 Saya xv Uddessa I (Hoernle, the Uvāsagadasão, II, Appendix) ; W. Kirfel, Die Kosmographie Der Inder, 225.
