Early Bihar: Stone Age Sites to Videha, Anga and Magadha

Why start here

Bihar's history is the history of the first great Indian empires, of two world religions and of the oldest universities. But it begins much earlier, in the hills and river banks where the first people lived. BPSC regularly asks one question on these early sites and regions, and they are also the base for everything that follows in this course.

The Stone Age in Bihar

The Old Stone Age (Palaeolithic) has left hand axes and flake tools in the hills of south Bihar: in Munger, Nawada, Jamui and Kaimur. These were hunting and gathering people who lived near rock shelters and streams.

The New Stone Age (Neolithic) brought farming and settled villages. The key site is Chirand in Saran district, on the north bank of the Ganga near the Ghaghara:

• tools made of bone and antler, which are rare in other Indian Neolithic sites;
• some of the earliest rice cultivation in the middle Ganga plain;
• later Chalcolithic (copper and stone) layers above the Neolithic ones.

Other early sites to remember are Chechar (Vaishali), Senuwar (Rohtas), Maner (Patna) and Taradih (near Bodh Gaya). Chalcolithic layers are also found at Sonpur and Oriyap.

Four early regions

By the later Vedic age (about 1000–600 BCE) the plains of Bihar were divided into four regions. The diagram below shows where each one lay.

Videha (Mithila)

Videha lay north of the Ganga and east of the Gandak. Its most famous king was Janaka, the father of Sita in the Ramayana. His court is the setting of the philosophical debates between Yajnavalkya and the woman scholar Gargi in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.

The Shatapatha Brahmana tells a story that historians read as the spread of Vedic culture eastward: Videgha Mathava, guided by the fire god Agni, crossed the river Sadanira (the Gandak) and settled the land beyond it.

Vajji

Around Vaishali, clans such as the Lichchhavis formed a confederacy ruled through an assembly. We study it in detail in the next lesson, because it is often called the world's first republic.

Anga

Anga lay in the east, around today's Bhagalpur and Munger. Its capital was Champa (Champanagar). Anga's folk art lives on in Manjusha painting and in the folk tale of Behula, who brought her husband Lakhinder back from the snake goddess Manasa. It is celebrated in the Bishahari festival.

Magadha

South of the Ganga lay Magadha, with Rajagriha (Rajgir) ringed by five hills as its first capital. The Rig Veda mentions the Kikatas, usually identified with the people of Magadha, and the later Vedic texts treat the region as being outside the Vedic heartland. Within a few centuries Magadha would conquer all its neighbours.

Exam tip: Match the place to the period. Chirand = Neolithic; Videha = Janaka; Champa = Anga; Kikata = Magadha. Questions often give four sites and ask which is Neolithic.