Transcription
A rectangular city, 2 kilometers wide and 15 kilometers long, a city called Jal Durg, with three rivers flowing along its banks. The city's defense was provided by a stone wall with 64 gates and 570 towers built for the city's surveillance. Currently, this city is the capital of a state, but it was once the capital of the world's largest empire, which was said to be impossible to conquer. We are talking about Pataliputra, built in the eastern corner of India. This city has been the capital of six empires. The Greek historian Megasthenes said about it, "Such a magnificent city does not exist anywhere in Persia." What is the history of Pataliputra? How was Pataliputra founded? How was this city destroyed? And how did Pataliputra become Patna? We will learn this in today's episode. Hello, I am Nikhil, and you are watching Tarikh, in which today is the story of Pataliputra. Patna is Pataliputra, we know this. But until just 130 years ago, Pataliputra was an unsolved puzzle for archaeologists. Historians had been trying to connect Patna and Pataliputra since 1780. But the fact that these two cities are the same could not be proven without evidence. In 1877, Alexander Cunningham, the Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India, surveyed the area. Alexander was convinced that Pataliputra was buried somewhere around Patna. However, others did not agree. Most believed that the city was washed away by floods or that no remains were left. This theory was proven wrong by another British officer, Lawrence Atherton Baddley. He was a Colonel in the British army and had a great passion for history. Baddley took the help of ancient texts. Xuanzang and Faxian, who came to India from China, wrote a lot about Pataliputra. With their help, some remains from the Ashoka period were discovered. With his report, Baddley had almost confirmed that Pataliputra was still buried underground. However, to see that buried city, a comprehensive excavation was still necessary. But the British government refused to excavate, citing a lack of funds. The capital of India's ancient empire would have remained buried in the ground. But then Sir Ratan Tata made his entry. Before we learn how Tata contributed to the discovery of Pataliputra, let's go back a little and learn how Pataliputra was founded. 600 years before Christ, there were 16 Mahajanapadas in India. You have read about them. One of them was Magadha. The foundation of Magadha was laid by King Bimbisara of the Haryanka dynasty. Bimbisara's son was named Ajatashatru, and it was during Ajatashatru's time that Magadha became the first empire. And it was also decided during Ajatashatru's time whether Indian states would be monarchies or republics. Actually, next to Magadha was a Mahajanapada called Vriji. Consider this the northern region of present-day Bihar. Vriji was a republic, a federation of tribes. Therefore, their leader was called a Ganapramukh (republican chief), not a king. In the Vriji federation, there was a tribe called Lichchhavi, whose Ganapramukh was Chetak. During Bimbisara's reign, there were good relations between Vriji and Magadha. Bimbisara was married to Chellana, the daughter of Chetak. And according to Jain sources, Ajatashatru was born from this Chellana. This means Ajatashatru had a relationship with the Vajjis. This relationship began to sour due to some diamonds and jewels. Jain and Buddhist sources tell different stories about why all this happened, and we have explained both these stories in detail. You will find the link to that episode of Tarikh in the description. For now, understand that during Ajatashatru's time, there was a war between the Vriji federation and Magadha. The story says that Ajatashatru gathered a large army of elephants, horses, and infantry and attacked the Vajjis. During Ajatashatru's time, Magadha's capital was Rajgir, and the capital of Vriji was Vaishali, which was quite far from Rajgir. Therefore, Ajatashatru felt that to attack Vaishali, he would have to shift his base, otherwise, the supply lines would be too long. And if you follow military doctrine even a little, the longer your supply lines, the more trouble you will have in fighting. No matter how strong you are at your parent position, if you are fighting very far away, you will face difficulties. Hence, he created a new base on the banks of the Ganges River. This base on the banks of the Ganges was named Pataliputra, which, by the standards of that time, could be called a cantonment. Pataliputra was a village that was given the shape of a military camp. From here, the Magadha army repeatedly attacked Vaishali and eventually succeeded in conquering Vaishali. Thus, Pataliputra became an important city of Magadha. However, it was not yet the capital. After Ajatashatru, his son Udayin further expanded Magadha. He also moved the capital of Magadha from Rajgir to Pataliputra. Pataliputra was situated on the banks of three rivers: Ganga, Son, and. This is why the Greek historian Megasthenes gave it the title of Jal Durg (Water Fort). Megasthenes provided a detailed description of Pataliputra. According to him, a moat was dug outside Pataliputra, which was 600 feet wide and built for the city's defense. Water came into this moat from the Son River. Other accounts state that the entire city was built of wood and was one of the most magnificent cities in the world. One after another, many powerful dynasties made Pataliputra their capital. After the Haryanka dynasty came the Shishunaga dynasty, then the Nanda dynasty, then the Maurya dynasty, then the Shunga, and finally the Gupta dynasty kings made Pataliputra their capital. This raises a question: we know that the Magadha Empire extended from far-off Afghanistan to the south of India. Why was its capital located so far east, near Patna? Like real estate, here too, the answer is location, location, location. As we mentioned earlier, being surrounded by rivers provided Pataliputra with natural security. Anyone who wanted to come had to cross these large rivers. They couldn't come during the monsoon. Then, to the south were the Vindhya hills and forests, where elephants were found, and whoever had elephants had a strong army. Besides, there were iron mines here, which were used for making weapons. Metallurgy also existed at that time. Pataliputra was located at the confluence of trade routes coming from the north and south. Kashi was also nearby, which was a very important city for trade. It was a large port on the Ganges River. Trade also happened through the rivers near Pataliputra. The Ganges also flowed from there, which led to important ports here. Pataliputra was not only a center of politics but also a hub for great minds in the fields of culture, literature, and science. For example, Aryabhata, who discovered or understood zero, the grammarian Panini, and the author of the Kamasutra, Vatsyayana, all had connections to Pataliputra. For all these reasons, Pataliputra remained the capital and the center of India for about 800 years. However, with the end of the Gupta dynasty in 550 AD, Pataliputra's star began to decline, its importance diminished, and eventually, the city was completely destroyed. Now, there are different theories about how Pataliputra was ruined. Buddhist texts mention that Mahatma Buddha made a prophecy about Pataliputra. He said that it would be a great city, but it would be threatened by only three things: fire, water, and internal conflict. Buddha's words proved to be somewhat true. Fire and water became major causes of its destruction. However, Pataliputra was also attacked by outsiders several times. The first mention of an attack on Pataliputra is during the Shunga dynasty. When Alexander returned from India, he left his satraps behind. These people later came to be known as Indo-Greeks. And one such Indo-Greek king was Menander. According to Greek sources, Menander tried to attack Pataliputra. Menander later debated with a Buddhist monk named Nagasena, and after losing, he embraced Buddhism. Besides Menander, several other Greek kings tried to attack Pataliputra. The Yuga Purana mentions in one place that the Yavanas (Greeks) attacked Saketa (Ayodhya) and Kusumadhvaja. Kusumadhvaja was another name for Pataliputra. The second attack on Pataliputra occurred after Emperor Ashoka. This attack was by King Kharavela of Kalinga, to avenge Ashoka's attack. The Hathigumpha inscription states that King Kharavela also took a statue of a Jain Tirthankara from Pataliputra back to Kalinga, which had been brought to Pataliputra during the reign of the Nanda kings. Despite these two attacks, Pataliputra remained the capital for another approximately 400 years. But then its bad days began after 550 AD. In 637 AD, Xuanzang visited Pataliputra. Xuanzang wrote that the city was almost ruined, and the population was limited to about a thousand people. According to Xuanzang, the old buildings of Pataliputra had become dilapidated, and people had left them and moved to the immediate vicinity of the Ganges. The condition of the city further deteriorated, and old Pataliputra was almost lost to history. Some reasons are given for Pataliputra's disappearance. According to Jain sources, floods in the Son River washed away the city. Another reason suggested is that the Hun invasion might also have been a cause of Pataliputra's destruction. A thick layer of ash found in excavations near Pataliputra indicates that a fire also occurred here. Whatever the real reason, after the 7th century, Pataliputra came under the rule of one king after another. Coming to modern history, the big question remains: how did Pataliputra become Patna? After Muhammad Ghori's invasion, the region of Bihar was constantly under attack. According to modern maps, universities like Taxila in Pakistan and Nalanda in Bihar were destroyed, and Pataliputra's importance gradually diminished. In the 16th century, Sher Shah Suri, who was from Sasaram, built a fort here. The story goes that while returning from a military campaign, Sher Shah Suri, standing near the Ganges, thought of a new city. The result of this was Patna, which was built on top of old Pataliputra. It is estimated that between the 12th and 16th centuries, Pataliputra began to be called Patna. However, besides Patna, this city had several other names. In 1704, the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb appointed his son Muhammad Azam as the governor of Bihar. Azam requested his father to change the name of Patna, and then Aurangzeb renamed Patna as Azimabad. However, Aurangzeb did not live much longer. After his death, a war of succession broke out among his sons, and Muhammad Azim was also one of the claimants to the throne. The story goes that during a battle between the brothers, the elephant on which Azim was riding was shot, and it panicked and started running. While running, he jumped into the Ravi River. Both the elephant and the prince died by drowning in the marshy area near the river. Coming back to Patna, Aurangzeb did give the name Azimabad to Patna, but common people still called it Patna. Going further back, before Ajatashatru, Pataliputra was called Patali Gram. The Greeks called it Palibothra. Besides these, Palit is also mentioned as a name for Patna. The reason behind all these names was that a tree called Patali grew here, and the flowers of this tree were very fragrant. Because of the flowers, it was also called Kusumapura or Pushpa. There are also several stories behind the current name Patna. In Sanskrit, Pattan means port. Due to the Ganges and other rivers, there were large ports here at one time, which might be why its name became Patna. Besides, there is also a temple of Patan Devi here, which might also be a reason for the name. After talking about the names, let's now learn how Pataliputra was discovered. [Music] At the beginning of the episode, we discussed that by the year 1900, it was confirmed that Patna is Pataliputra, or you could say that Patna is built on Pataliputra. But the remains of this ancient city were buried underground, and extensive excavation was needed. The British said they had no money, even though they claimed the sun never set on their empire. Then Ratan Tata stepped in. Not the current one, but we are talking about Ratanji Tata, son of Jamsetji Tata. He agreed to provide a grant of ₹10,000 annually for the excavation of Pataliputra, for an unlimited period, saying, "I will give ₹10,000 every year as long as you deem it necessary." Excavation began at Kumhrar near Patna, where 1300 people worked daily. After a long period of excavation, the ancient city of Pataliputra was discovered on February 7, 1913. After this, excavation continued for another 4 years, during which historical remains, coins, and sculptures were found. These remains are still kept in the Patna Museum today. With this story, today's episode concludes. Kamal wrote, and Jatin recorded for you. Keep watching The Lallantop. [Music]