Patna and Related Topics

Bihar

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State in eastern India.

(Sitting L to R): Rajendra Prasad and Anugrah Narayan Sinha during Mahatma Gandhi's 1917 Champaran Satyagraha

Kathak classical dance form, from Bhojpur region

Patna river port on national inland waterways-1 at Gai Ghat

Front view of administrative building of IIT Patna

It had its capital at Pataliputra (modern Patna).

Pataliputra

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Ruins of pillared hall at Kumrahar site at Pataliputra.

The Pataliputra capital, discovered at the Bulandi Bagh site. 4th-3rd c. BCE.

Mauryan remains of a wooden palissade at Bulandi Bagh site.

Mauryan remains of a wooden palisade discovered at the Bulandi Bagh site of Pataliputra.

Fa-Hien at the ruins of Ashoka's palace in Pataliputra in the 4th century CE (artist impression).

Pataliputra served as the capital of the Haryanka dynasty and the Shishunaga dynasty of Magadha.

Pataliputra served as the capital of the Nanda Empire.

Pataliputra served as the capital of the Maurya Empire.

Pataliputra served as the capital of the Shunga Empire.

Pataliputra served as the capital of the Gupta Empire.

Pataliputra served as the capital of the Pala Empire.

Portion of pillar, found in Pataliputra.

Pataliputra Yakshas, with Mauryan inscriptions.

Mason marks at the base of a pillar.<ref>Foreign Influence on Ancient India, de Krishna Chandra Sagar p.41</ref>

Charriot wheel, Bulandi Bagh, Mauryan period.

Bulandi Bagh female statuette, Sunga period.

Pataliputra (IAST: ), adjacent to modern-day Patna, was a city in ancient India, originally built by Magadha ruler Ajatashatru in 490 BCE as a small fort near the Ganges river.

Ganges

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Trans-boundary river of Asia which flows through India and Bangladesh.

Devprayag, confluence of Alaknanda (right) and Bhagirathi (left), and beginning of the Ganges proper.

The Himalayan headwaters of the Ganges River in the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand, India.

The Gandhi Setu Bridge across the Ganges in Patna, Bihar

A sailboat on the main distributory of the Ganges in Bangladesh, the Padma river.

The Ganges delta in a 2020 satellite image.

A 1908 map showing the course of the Ganges and its tributaries.

The River Ganges at Kolkata, with Howrah Bridge in the background

Hardinge Bridge, Bangladesh, crosses the Ganges-Padma River. It is one of the key sites for measuring streamflow and discharge on the lower Ganges.

Chromolithograph, Indian woman floating lamps on the Ganges, by William Simpson, 1867

Descent of Ganga, painting by Raja Ravi Varma c. 1910

Preparations for cremations on the banks of the Ganges in Varanasi], 1903. The dead are being bathed, wrapped in cloth, and covered with wood. The photograph has a caption, "Who dies in the waters of the Ganges obtains heaven."]

Women and children at a bathing ghat on the Ganges in Banares (Varanasi), 1885.

Shiva, as Gangadhara, bearing the Descent of the Ganges, as the goddess Parvati, the sage Bhagiratha, and the bull Nandi look on (circa 1740).

A procession of Akharas marching over a makeshift bridge over the Ganges River. Kumbh Mela at Allahabad, 2001.

Head works of the Ganges canal in Haridwar (1860). Photograph by Samuel Bourne.

The Ganges Canal highlighted in red stretching between its headworks off the Ganges River in Haridwar and its confluences with the Jumna (Yamuna) River in Etawah and with the Ganges in Cawnpore (now Kanpur).

A girl selling plastic containers in Haridwar for carrying Ganges water.

The catla (Catla catla) is one of the Indian carp species that support major fisheries in the Ganges

The threatened gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) is a large fish-eating crocodilian that is harmless to humans

The Gangetic dolphin in a sketch by Whymper and P. Smit, 1894.

People bathing and washing clothes in the Ganges in Varanasi.

It has been important historically, with many former provincial or imperial capitals such as Pataliputra, Kannauj, Kara, Munger, Kashi, Patna, Hajipur, Delhi, Bhagalpur, Murshidabad, Baharampur, Kampilya, and Kolkata located on its banks or the banks of tributaries and connected waterways.

Nalanda

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Renowned Buddhist monastic university in ancient Magadha , India.

A map of Nalanda and its environs from Alexander Cunningham's 1861–62 ASI report which shows a number of ponds (pokhar) around the Mahavihara.

Nalanda was founded by the Gupta emperors in the early 5th-century and then expanded over the next 7 centuries.

Nalanda clay seal of Kumaragupta III. The inscription is in Sanskrit, late-Gupta script, the man shown has Vaishnava mark on his forehead, and seal has Garuda-vahana on upper face.

A page from Xuanzang's Great Tang Records on the Western Regions or Dà Táng Xīyù Jì

Replica of the seal of Nalanda set in terracotta on display in the Archaeological Survey of India Museum in Nalanda

Avalokisteshvara in Khasarpana Lokesvara form from Nalanda, 9th-century.

An imagined scene, sketched in Hutchison's Story of the Nations edited by James Meston, depicts the Muslim Turkic general Bakhtiyar Khalji's massacre of Buddhist monks in Bihar, India. Khaliji destroyed the Nalanda and Vikramshila universities during his raids across North Indian plains, massacring many Buddhist and Brahmin scholars.

A statue of Gautama Buddha at Nalanda in 1895.

Rear view of the ruins of the Baladitya Temple in 1872.

Prajnaparamita and Scenes from the Buddha's Life (top), Maitreya and Scenes from the Buddha's Life (bottom), Folios from a Dharanisamgraha, manuscript from Nalanda, circa 1075

Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva. Ashtasahasrika Prajnyaparamita Sutra manuscript from Nalanda's Pala period.

Excavated ruins of the monasteries of Nalanda.

A map of the excavated remains of Nalanda.

Conjectural Reconstruction of Temple no. 3, Nalanda University

Buddha Shakyamuni or the Bodhisattva Maitreya, gilt copper alloy, early 8th century, Nalanda

Sculpted stucco panels on a tower, Stupa of Sariputta

Stucco Buddha Image at Nalanda, Stupa of Sariputta

People on second story of an excavated monastery

Monastery 4 with well and stepped platform

A post-8th century bronze statue of Buddha from Nalanda

Details on one of numerous votive stupas at the site

Jain Tirthankara, Bronze, from Nalanda, 10th century.

Ganesha, Bronze, from Nalanda, 10th century

Considered by historians to be the world's very first residential university, and among the greatest centers of learning in the ancient world, it was located near the city of Rajagriha (now Rajgir) and about 90 km southeast of Pataliputra (now Patna), operating from 427 to 1197 CE.

Rajgir

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Historic town in the district of Nalanda in Bihar, India.

Gautama Buddha spent a substantial amount of time here.

The historic locality is surrounded by the Rajgir hills and remains of cyclopean walls.

Closeup of Buddha at Vishwa Shanti Stupa

It was the ancient capital city of the Magadha kings until the 5th century BC when Udayin (460–440 BC), son of Ajatashatru, moved the capital to Pataliputra (modern Patna).

Magadha

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Region and one of the sixteen Mahajanapadas of the Second Urbanization in what is now south Bihar (before expansion) at the eastern Ganges Plain.

Cyclopean Wall of Rajgir which encircled the former capital of Magadha, Rajgir. Amongst the oldest pieces of cyclopeon masonry in the world

Magadha in the early Iron Age (1100-600 BC)

Map depicting 16 mahajanapadas kingdoms and other kingdoms in 540 BCE.

King Bimbisara visits the Bamboo Garden (Venuvana) in Rajagriha; artwork from Sanchi.

Magadha kingdom coin, c. 430–320 BCE, Karshapana

Magadha kingdom coin, c. 350 BCE, Karshapana

The ancient Mahabodhi temple at Bodh Gaya prior to its restoration

The 24th Tirthankara of Jainism, Mahavira, who was born in Magadha to a royal family

The eastern Gangetic plain during the Magadha kingdom's early expansion

The core of the kingdom was the area of Bihar south of the Ganges; its first capital was Rajagriha (modern day Rajgir), then Pataliputra (modern Patna).