Magadha & Avanti: The End of the House of Pradyota-s

We all are very well aware about the sixteen states (soḷasa mahājanapada) of ancient India. Their rise is usually considered to have taken place in pre-6th century BCE India i.e. before the rise of Kosala under Mahākosala, father-in-law of Bimbisāra¹ . Some of these sixteen states have been mentioned in various earlier sources. For example, Kāmboja, Aṅga, Magadha etc have been referred in the Vedic literature but it is the Buddhist text- Aṅguttara Nikāya which first enlightens us about this concept of ‘sixteen states’ that were important enough in those times to be specifically mentioned. The sixteen mahājanapada-s as per Aṅguttara Nikāya were Kāsi, Kosala, Aṅga, Magadha, Vajji, Malla, Chetiya (Chedi), Vaṁsa (Vatsa), Kuru, Pañchāla, Machchha (Matsya), Sūrasena, Assaka, Gandhāra, Kamboja.²

As can be expected in the political climate of those times, these states of varied dominance had varied relationship with each other. Some were more commanding than the other and with time, the political ambitions of some of these states had resulted in their aspirations for more. By the sixth century BCE when the curtain lifts, of the aforementioned states, four mahājanapada-s are in the ascendance — Kosala, Vatsa, Avanti and Magadha. We obviously know that which of these four was to become the paramount power of India but to know about that journey is just as fascinating as the outcome.

From the political power struggle between these four states, Magadha emerged as the harbinger of India’s political destiny for centuries to come. With the rise of Magadhan monarchy in the period of Haryaṅka-s from sixth century BCE onwards, the relationship of Magadha with one of the four important states — Avanti — gradually became strenuous. The hostility between these two states forms the topic of this brief analysis.

Malwa Plateau Illustration

Background

Magadha: According to the Mahābhārata and the Purāṇas, the earliest dynasty of Magadha was of the Bārhadratha kings. The first king of this dynasty was Bṛihadratha, son of Vasu Chaidyoparichara and the father of Jarāsandha.³ The dynasty is continued in the Purāṇas until the last of its king, Ripuñjaya. But as Dr. Raychaudhuri puts it, there is a serious lack of external corroboration regarding this dynasty and therefore, many scholars are hesitant to take it seriously. Some scholars agree with the historicity of the Bārhadratha kings and agree that they ruled in Magadha before the rise of Bimbisāra and his family but the exact chronology in this period is a bit difficult to ascertain.

The fall of the Bārhadratha dynasty leads to — as per Purāṇas — in the succession of the Pradyotas (the dynasty of king Pradyota) to the throne of Magadh which were later ousted by Śiśunāga, king of Banāras. And after the fall of Śaiśunāga kings, emerged Bimbisāra in Magadha.⁴ But, with the corroboration from the Buddhist sources, this information lacks in cohesiveness. The Purāṇas, though otherwise very informative, are particularly in this regard contradicting themselves, as will be explained later in this write up.

It is now generally accepted by the scholars that Pradyota-s ruled in Avanti, not Magadha and that Śiśunāga succeeded the Haryaṅka dyansty (the dynasty of king Bimbisāra). The Buddhist text Mahāvaṁsa informs us that Bimbisāra was only fifteen years old when he was anointed king by his own father, whose name is not disclosed by Mahāvaṁsa but other sources mention it as Bhaṭṭiya.⁵ The chronology of various dynasties at Magadha is therefore considered as: Bārhadratha (probably), followed by Haryaṅka dynasty, followed by the Śaiśunāga and then came the Nandas.

Avanti: Avantis are not mentioned in Vedic Literature but as per Mahābhārata, Avanti was ruled by the dual monarchs, Vinda and Anuvinda who each led an akṣauhinī of troops to Duryodhana’s army.⁶ Both these kings immensely helped the Kaurava’s army with such huge contribution both in numbers and with their prowess. They were slain in the battle either by Arjun or Bhīma. The Purāṇas, particularly Viśṇupurāṇa and Agnipurāṇa mention the matrimonial relations between the Avantis and the Yadus. It is stated that Vasudeva, son of Śura had five sisters, one of whom named Rājyādhidevi was married to the king of Avanti and that the couple had two sons, Vinda and Upavinda (probably identical to Vinda and Anuvinda of Mahābhārata).⁷

Some more information is provided by the Purāṇas regarding the state of Avanti. The Matsyapurāṇa tells us that the ruler of this territory was the powerful Kārttavīryārjuna of the Haihaya dynasty. He had many sons, one of whom was ruling in Mathura, the other in Surāśṭra and one son named Jayadhvaja was reigning in Avanti. Jayadhvaja’s son Tālajaṅgha in turn had many sons as well. The Purāṇas also inform us that the Haihayas formed five main groups namely, Vitihotra, Śāryāta, Bhoja, Avanti and Kunḍikera who were collectively called Tālajaṅghas. Of these, Avantis were ruling in Mālwā.⁸

The historicity of the Haihayas is certain for they have been mentioned even in Arthaśāstra and as per the Purāṇas, were responsible for the establishing the capital city of Māhiśmati. But, the exact chronology of these dynasties is again a bit muddled because not much information is available after Vinda and Anuvinda of Mahābhārata. Though it is very much possible that Vitihotras (one of the Tālajaṅghas) were ruling Avanti before the rise of Pradyota.

“According to some scholars, the twenty Vitihotras, who are mentioned in the Purāṇas, as having ruled after the Bhārata War were kings of Avanti.”

The Buddhist sources are our further source of information on Avanti. It is stated that Avanti was divided in two parts — northern part with its capital at Ujjain and southern with Māhiśmati as its capital (c.f. the Mahābhārata makes Avanti and Māhiśmati as two separate kingdoms).⁹ Mahāgovinda Suttāṅta also makes Māhissati as the capital of Avantis and mentions its king Vessabhu.¹⁰

Ascendance of Pradyota

The Purāṇas tell us that a minister named Pulika will kill his master and then will anoint his son Pradyota as the king. The related verse mentioned with a loose translation is as follows:

Bṛhadratheṣv atīteṣu Vitihotreṣv Avantiṣv Pulikaḥ svāmīnaṁ hatvā svaputraṁ abhiṣeksyati.

When Bārhadrathas, the Vitihotra and Avantis passed away, a minister named Pulika is said to have killed his master and anointed his own son Pradyota by force.

The early Pali texts tells us that the Avanti king Canḍa Pradyota Mahāsena was the contemporary of Bimbisāra. Therefore, Pulika couldn’t have killed the last of the Bārhadrathas – Ripuñjaya, because the Buddhist sources place Pradyota as the king of Avanti and not Magadha. Here comes into play the self contradiction that was mentioned above. The Vāyu Purāṇas tell us that “Śiśunāga will destroy the prestige of Pradyotas and will be king”:

Ashṭa-triṁśachchhatam bhāvyāḥ Prādyotāḥ pañcha te sutāḥ hatvā teshām yaśaḥ kṛitsnaṁ Śiśunāga bhavishyati ¹¹

Now if Śiśunāga was to destroy the Pradyotas then he has to come later than the first Pradyota i.e. Canḍa Pradyota Mahāsena or king Canḍa Pajjota who we know that he was the contemporary of Bimbisāra, the king of Magadha at that time as per the Pali sources. Another important fact is that Śiśunāga in the Purāṇas has been mentioned as the king of Banaras but we know that Kāśi did not become a dominion of the Magadha until king Bimbisāra and his son Ajātaśatru. Therefore, Śaiśunāga dynasty certainly came after the Haryaṅkas and the Pradyotas (as mentioned in the Pali sources) was the dynasty of Avanti and not Magadha. One more important piece of information comes from Mālālaṅkāravatthu that “Rājagṛiha lost its rank as a royal city from the time of Śiśunāga.” This clearly points to the fact that Śiśunāga came after the palmy days of Rājagṛiha which was after the time of Bimbisāra and Ajātaśatru.¹²

Another very interesting information about the family of Pradyota comes from Harśacharita of Bāṇa. Bāṇa writes: “Kumārasena, the Pauṇic prince, younger brother to Pradyota, having an infatuation for stories about selling human flesh, was slain at the feat (feet?) of Mahākāla by the Vampire Tālajaṅgha.” (Agrawal, The Deeds of Harsha). There is an interesting interpretation by Dr. Bhandarkar about the Tālajaṅgha, his family and the aforementioned incident. As explained before, there is a strong possibility that Vitihotras (one of the Tālajaṅgha branch) were ruling in Avanti when the Bṛihadratha empire of Magadha came to an end. And the king that Puṇika or Puṇaka killed was a Vitihotra king and then he annointed his son Pradyota as the king of Avanti. What probably happened in the above mentioned verse was a possible act of revenge.¹³

“..someone descending from the Tālajaṅgha family who were friends of the Vitihotras, in the temple of Mahākāla killed Kumārasena, who was son of Puṇaka and younger brother of Pradyota. Folk tradition converted this Tālajaṅgha into a vetāla or vampire. In very ancient times, human sacrifice was performed in the temple of Mahākāla and this gave to Tālajaṅgha and occasion to be successful in his conspiracy.”

Dr. Bhandarkar as cited in V. S. Agrawala’s The Deeds of Harsha

The Buddhist sources make Ujjain as the capital of the mahājanapada of Avanti. The Purāṇas describe Pradyota as a powerful monarch who defeated many of his neighbouring kings – sa vai pranata sāmantaḥ. But some harsh criticism is reserved for him in both kinds of our sources. The Purāṇas describe him as “destitute of good policy (nayavarjita)”¹⁴ and the Buddhist sources like Mahāvagga also say that he was cruel.¹⁵ All of this explains the epithets like Canḍa and Mahāsena. It is also revealed that king Pukkusāti or Pushkarasāri of Gandhāra waged war against Pradyota in which Pradyota was defeated.¹⁶

Pradyota and Bimbisāra: Pradyota was therefore certainly a formidable king but relations between him and Bimbisāra seem quite cordial. When Pradyota got affected by jaundice, Bimbisāra sent his physician Jīvaka to help him. But the friendly relations here come to an end and Magadha under various successive dynasties doesn’t rest until Avanti is brought under its sway.

Pradyota and Udayana: Udayana was an interesting historical monarch of Vatsa kingdom. He has been the hero of many Sanskrit and Pali works. From Dhammapada and also Bhāsa’s Pratijñāyaugandharāyaṇa and Svapnavāsavadattā, we are told that Udayana, monarch of the Vatsa kingdom was a very warlike king and had a strong army with many elephants. This prosperity and wealth of Udayana made Pradyota jealous and he conceived a plan to capture him. When Udayan was at the frontier of Vatsa, Pradyota succeeded in trapping him and he was made captive. But the Vatsa monarch was able to free himself with the help of daughter of Pradyota, Vāsuladattā or Vāsavadattā and they both eloped and got married. How much of this romanticized version is true cannot be known for sure but the fact that this tale with more or less similar story line has been detailed in varied sources tells us that Pradyota definitely wanted to conquer Vatsa and somehow Avanti ended up having matrimonial relations with Vatsarāja.

Avanti and Ajātaśatru

The first time relations between Avanti and Magadha turn sour was when Ajātaśatru was ruling Magadha. The source for this is the Buddhist text Majjhima Nikāya that mentions the discomfort of the Haryaṅka monarch with Pradyota. It states that Ajātaśatru fortified the capital city Rājagṛiha as he was afraid about a possible invasion of his territories by Pradyota.¹⁷ We do not know whether the attack was ever made but there seems to be another interesting fact explained below, which might have played an additional role that made Ajātaśatru fortify his capital. Another way in which Avanti and Ajātaśatru’s relations went downhill was that Avanti also played a role against Ajātaśatru in the famous Magadha and Vajji conflict that protracted for many years.

Amongst many other reasons for this long conflict was that Magadha monarch was not fighting against a mere republic but a proper confederation of as many as 36 republics under the leadership of its chief Chetaka. Chetaka had given his daughters to many kings. He had strong matrimonial alliances with many mahājanapadas like Sindhu-Sauvīra, Vatsa and yes, Avanti.¹⁸ This fact must have played an important role in the mutual relations of Avanti and Magadha. But this matter remained unresolved in the time of Ajātaśatru.

Avanti and Udāyin

The conflict of these two states continued in the time of Udāyin, the successor of Ajātaśatru and Pālaka, successor of Pradyota in Avanti. The Pariśishtiparvan informs us that Avanti was still counted as an enemy of Udāyin.¹⁹ This is in accordance with whatever has come down to us in our sources about the relations of Avanti and Magadha in the reign of Ajātaśatru.

Pālaka, King of Avanti: Magadha, the ambitions of this state, with the passing of time became more ambitious and aggressive. Aṅga, Vaiśāli had already been taken under its sway. The Vajji conquest was a feather in the cap of the Magadhan monarch. Kosala was already feeling uneasy with the ensuing events and after the reign of Prasenjit, it was already on the decline. Avanti was the only remaining thorn in its way. And from the point of view of Avanti, it was now alone holding the ground. Kathāsaritasāgara tells us that Udaybhadra or Udāyin had many a times defeated Pālaka, the son and successor of Pradyota. Vatsa with its capital at Kauśāmbi was now the only remaining formidable kingdom apart from Avanti but even Vatsa perished and Pālaka grew in power after his conquest of Kauśāmbi.²⁰ With the independence of Vatsa gone, the rival kingdoms of Avanti and Magadha were now face to face with each other. The Āvaśyaka sūtra tells us how Udāyin was killed:

“while he (Udāyin), was listening to the discourse of a teacher, with a novice, the latter fell upon him and killed him with his concealed dagger. It is stated that this assassin was engaged by his political rival, Pālaka the king of Avanti.”

History and Culture of Indian People, Vol II, The Age of Imperial Unity.

Śiśunāga and Successors of Pālaka

The Purāṇas tell us about the dynasty of the Pradyota-s in which only four kings succeeded Canḍa Pradyota. They were Pālaka (who has been mentioned above), Viśākhayūpa, Ajaka (Āryaka) and Nandivardhana. They ruled for 24, 50, 21, 20 years respectively. The length of the five kings in total of the Pradyota-s is given as 138 years. When some more information is related about the Avanti-Magadha conflict, the Haryaṅka dynasty is gone and Śiśunāga is the king of Magadha. As stated before, the Purāṇic sources tell us that the powerful dynasty of Pradyota-s would be finished by Śiśunāga. But there seems to be some ambiguity as to which king of Avanti did Śiśunāga defeat. Was it Ajaka or the last ruler Nandivardhana that was defeated and Avanti was at last annexed into Magadha? But some added details are related in the Jain sources (explained below) that suggest that this was not the end yet.

Some More Evidence:

The Reign of Kākavarṇin

Kākavarṇin as per the Purāṇas or Kālāśoka as per the Buddhist sources, succeeded Udāyin. Additional information regarding Avanti and Magadha rule is as mentioned above is provided by the Jain sources. They relate to us that the kingdom of Avanti was still standing and that Kākavarṇin beseiged Ujjain during the course of which the king of Avanti, possibly Ajaka died and the city was captured. Kākavarṇin (who was later assasinated) also possibly died returning from his victory of Ujjain.²¹

But here it is important to mention that it is only a conjecture for we get another story regarding Kākavarṇin and his death from Dr. Bhandarkar and his interpretation about the death of Kākavarṇin as mentioned in Harśacharita of Bāṇa. In Agrawal’s The Deeds of Harsha, Bhandarkar’s interpretation is given as:

“Śiśunāga’s son Kākavarṇa, put to an end that foreign occupation and brought some of the Yavanas (indication is towards some Iranian from the Achaemenid dynasty of Darius) to his capital. One of them assembled a plane for taking and took the king on the same to Nagara or Jalālābād which was capital of Gandhāra and there put an end to his life.”

There could be genuine historical information in this short incident described but with lack of corroboration from any other source, it remains only one of the many stories about Kākavarṇas death. Some more information is required before confirming any one of the possibilities.

Was it Mahāpadmananda?

If we continue the story about Kālāśoka’s death after returning from Avanti, then probably due to the assassination of Kālāśoka, conquest of Avanti remained incomplete and Avanti therefore as per some scholars, was still standing as independent. The last of its king belonging to the Pradyota dynasty still ruled for another twenty years during the course of which the throne of Magadha had now passed to king Mahāpadmananda, who finally finished off the kingdom of Avanti after securing his kingdom and annexing other kingdoms first (like his conquest of Kalinga).²² We know for sure that Avanti formed an important part of the Nanda empire. The extensive conquests of Mahāpadmananda in every direction is the reason that he was given the epithet of Sarva Kṣatrāṅtaka or Mahākṣatrāṅtaka i.e. the exterminator of kings.

Conclusion

Almost every ancient source of information regardless of the situation of a civilization, whether it’s India, Mesopotamia or Egypt had an established practice of recording events that they considered important enough to be mentioned. They recorded many of the events and personalities along with the information which was ancient even to them. And they did so in their unique fashion and thus it is very normal that much of very real historical information in these sources is sometimes mixed with either some embellishments or it is sometimes incomplete and lacks in proper chronology. Many scholars therefore try to construct the chronology and other historical data by corroborating various sources.

Like in case of India, ancient records like the Vedic literature, the Itihāsas, the Purāṇas, the Buddist and Jain sources along with archaeological evidence (when it is available) are compared with one another and a common plausible line is taken to make a cohesive account. This exactly has been applied by various scholars whose interpretation I have tried to reiterate here regarding the end of an ancient conflict between such important kingdoms like Avanti and Magadha. This was a very important stepping stone for the rise of Magadha in ancient India. This conflict finally came to a conclusion with incorporation of Avanti into Magadha and this is how the house of Pradyota-s came to its end.

References

1. H. C. Raychaudhuri, Political History of Ancient India (From the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of Gupta Dynasty.
2. ibid.
3. ibid.
4. History and Culture of the Indian People, Volume II, The Age of Imperial Unity.
5. ibid.
6. Bimala Churn Law, Tribes in Ancient India.
7. ibid.
8. History and Culture of the Indian People, Volume I, The Vedic Age.
9. History and Culture…., Volume II
10. Raychaudhuri, Political History of Ancient India…
11. ibid.
12. History and Culture…., Volume I, The Vedic Age.
13. V. S. Agrawala, The Deeds of Harsha.
14. History and Culture…., Volume II and Raychaudhuri, Political History of Ancient India…
15. ibid.
16. History and Culture…., Volume II
17. Raychaudhuri, Political History of Ancient India…
18. History and Culture…., Volume II
19. Raychaudhuri, Political History of Ancient India…
20. History and Culture…., Volume II
21. Smith, R. Morton. “On the Ancient Chronology of India (II).” Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 77, no. 4, 1957, pp. 266–280. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/596129. Accessed 21 Feb. 2021.
22. ibid.