Haryanka dynasty

According to tradition, the Haryanka dynasty founded the Magadha Empire Fact|date=July 2007 in 684 BCE, whose capital was Rajagriha, later Pataliputra, near the present day Patna in India. This dynasty was succeeded by the Shishunaga dynasty.

History

The dynasty may have been preceded by another, called the Brihadratas.

Bimbsara

The Haryanka king Bimbsara was responsible for expanding the boundaries of his kingdom through matrimonial alliances and conquest. The land of Kosala fell to Magadha in this way.

Estimates place the territory ruled by this early dynasty at 300 leagues in diamter, and encompassing 80,000 small settlements.

Bimbsara may have been contemporary to Buddha, and may have even met the prince.

Ajatasattu

In some sources, Bimbsara was imprisoned and killed by his successor, Ajatasatu, under whose rule, the dynasty reached its largest extent.

Vishali, ruled by the Licchavis, went to war with the kindgom of Magadha at some point, due to a border dispute involving gem mines.

He is thought to have ruled from 551 to 519 BCE.

Udaybhadra

The Mahavamsa text tells that Udayabhadra eventually succeeded his father, Ajatasatu, moving the capital of the Magadha kingdom to Pataliputra, which under the later Mauryan dynasty, would become the largest city in the world.

He is thought to have ruled for sixteen years.

Later rulers

The kingdom had a particularly bloody succession. Anuruddha eventually succeeded Udaybhadra through assassination, and his son Munda succeeded him in the same fashion, as did his son Nagadasaka.

Due in part to this bloody dynastic feuding, it is thought that a civil revolt led to the emergance of the Shishunaga dynasty.