The ancient and modern capital of Bihar, Pataliputra was the seat of Mauryan rule.
Pataliputra is the ancient name of Patna, the present day capital of Bihar. It has had, in fact,
many names throughout its continuous history Pataligram, Pataliputra, Palibothra, Kusumpur,
Pushpapur, Azeemabad and Patna. The name Pataliputra may have been derived from the
Sanskrit word "pattan", meaning port, or from "Patali",meaning trumpet flower, in honour of
Patali, a legendary queen. Two of the city's other names, Pushpapur and Kusumpur, mean city
of flowers. Ancient Chinese texts refer to Pataliputra as Pa-lin-fou.
The ancient city of Pataliputra stretched along the south bank of the Ganga river. The
Gandak river empties into the Ganga from the north at Pataliputra, and the Sone merges with
the Ganga from the south, a few km to the west of the city. A smaller river, the Punpun, also
enters the Ganga from the south at Pataliputra. Because of the city's location near the confluence of three large rivers, trade has always been an important part of its economy.
Spring arrives in Bihar in March, but the pleasant temperatures are short-lived as summer
begins in April, lasting through late June or early July. Summer temperatures can reach as high
as 46 degree Celsius and the city's proximity to so many rivers makes it humid throughout the
year. The monsoon season lasts from July to early October. The annual rainfall in the area is 43
inches.
Early History
Legend has it that Pataliputra was magically created by the mythological King Putraka for
his queen, Patali. He named the place pataligram for her. When she had their first son, the city
was renamed Pataliputra. In Sanskrit, "gram" means village, and "putra" means son.
Pataliputra's recorded history began with Ajatshatru, the second of the Magadhan kings,
who established a small fort in 490 BCE in a better way at Pataligram, where the Ganga and
Sone rivers met, in order to fight his enemies, the lichchhavis. According to Buddhist texts, lord
Buddha visited Pataligram during the construction of this fort on his last journey north.
The Mauryans
Chandragupta Maurya (322-301 BCE) ruled his kingdom from Pataliputra. Megasthenes, a
Greek ambassador from Taxila to the Mauryan court, described Palibothra, as he called it, as
the greatest city in India. He said that the city was laid out in the shape of a parallelogram. The
city was surrounded by a wooden wall which had slots from which arrows could be shot. This
wall had 570 towers and 64 gates. Beyond the wall was a deep trench which was used for
defence and as a sewage system.
Megasthenes described life at the Mauryan court as one of "splendour and luxury". He
gave an idea of agriculture in the area when he described "reeds which produced honey with-
out bees" (sugarcane) and "trees which grew wool" (cotton). Megasthenes also wrote of the
social divisions among the populace, mentioning philosophers, soldiers, councillors, traders,
artisans, peasants, and shepherds.
During the reign of Chandragupta's grandson Ashoka (273-232 BCE), the government
became highly centralised. Ashoka's edicts were carved onto stone pillars, rocks and the walls
of caves for all to see. He maintained a large standing army and established a network of spies
and agents who spread the king's edicts and reported to him on public opinion, and kept
Ashoka informed about events throughout the kingdom.
The government bureaucracy was administered by salaried civil and military officials. A system of taxation on real estate, agricultural production and trade was established. Ashoka maintained a paternalistic attitude towards his subjects, but for the most part, treated them equaly and fairly.
During the reign of Ashoka, many of the wooden buildings in Pataliputra were replaced with stone structures.The royal palace is reported to have covered an area of four square miles.
Ashoka built universities and monastenes. He banned hunting for sport and even set up animal hospitals.
He brought new fields under cultivation and developed irrigation systems. Trade routes
linked Pataliputra with the port at Champa, and from there to Ceylon,Malaysia and the Far East.
Ashoka built a system of roads which connected the entire subcontinent, the most important
of which was the one thousand mile long Royal Highway from Pataliputra to Taxilain the north.
Today's Grand Trunk Road basically follows the route of the ancient Royal Highway.
The Mauryan Empire began to decline after the reign of Ashoka, though the Mauryas continued to rule Magadha from Pataliputra for another fifty years before the city fell into obscurity for three centuries.
The Guptas
Chandragupta I (320-335CE) married a woman of the lichchhavis who were then in control of Pataliputra, which his bride brought to him as her dowry. He established his capital at
Pataliputra and used this foothold to expand his power into neighbouring regions. His son,
Samudragupta, reigned for 50 years and expanded the Gupta influence over twenty more kingdoms.
Samudragupta was a patron of arts, and practised religious tolerance, even allowing the
king of Ceylon to build a Buddhist monastery at Bodh Gaya. Chandragupta II (375-415 CE),the
grandson of Chandragupta I, continued the expansion of the empire westward, eventually
establishing a second capital at Ujjain in central India.
The Gupta era is considered to have been the Golden Age of Indian culture, a time in
which scholarship and arts flourished. The ancient university at Nalanda was founded in the
fifth century by the Guptas.
Fa Hien, a Chinese Buddhist monk, travelled to India and Ceylon from 399 to 414 CE. He
visited Pataliputra several times and described the city in his account of his journey. Fa Hien
admired the "elegant carving and inlaid sculpture work" of Ashoka's palace, which the monk
thought might have been built by spirits, so beautiful it was.
Fa Hien saw the inhabitants of the region as "rich and prosperous", and recounted that
they "viewith one another in the practice of benevolence and righteousness". The traveller also
found it remarkable that there was no capital punishment and he reported the lack of toll and
land taxes, as well as the presence of a well-established caste system. He noted that most citizens did not consume onions, garlic, meat or wine.
Later History
In the late fifth century, the Gupta Empire disintegrated in the face of continued foreign
invasions, notably by the Huns. A minor branch of the Guptas kept their hold on Magadh and
Pataliputra for another hundred years until they were over come by the Vardhanas.
Bythe mid-12th century, Pataliputra had become a part of the Delhi Sultanate. Duringthe
Mughal period, Pataliputra continued to be ruled from Delhi. As the Mughal Empire declined
in the 17th century, the city became an international trading centre under the control of the
Nawabs of Bengal.
Under the British Raj, Pataliputra, called Patna from 1704, rose once more a centre of
learning and trade. Today, Patna is a thriving city of over one million people, a business centre
and a popular tourist and pilgrimage destination.
Patna, The Capital City
The seat of mighty empires, Patna, the capital of Bihar state, has a fascinating past. And in
each chapter of its history, it has been crowned by a new name Kusumpur, pushpapur,
Pataliputra and Azeemabad.
Turning over the pages of early Indian history one comes across the name of Pataliputra.
Located at the site where Patna is today, this city saw the rise and fall of India's first major kingdoms. Its period of glory spanned a thousand years, from the 6th century BCto 5th century AD.
Ajatshatru, second in the line of Magadh kings, built a fort at pataligram on the bank of river
Ganga.
This later became the famous Mauryan metropolis of Pataliputra and was ruled by
Chandragupta Maurya (a contemporary of Alexander) and his grandson Ashok, acclaimed for
the spread of Buddhism in other countries. Other emperors who ruled from Pataliputra were
the Gupta and Pala Kings, Sher Shah Suri (16th century) and Azimush Shah (18th century)
grandson of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, who renamed it Azeemabad. Vestiges of this ancient
city can be seen at Kumhrar, Bhikhna Pahari, Agamkuan, Bulandi Bagh etc.
Temples in City
In Patna Sahib is the holy shrine of Sikhs. This is said to be the second-most important
Gurdwara in India. It is the birthplace of Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th guru of the Sikhs. It is
built in white marbles, with kiosks on the terraces.
It is interesting to trace the name of the place Patna, which is supposed to have been
derived from two temples that exist in Patna. The temples are known as Badi Patan Devi and Chhoti Patan Devi.
The name Patna is popularly believed to be derived from these two Patan Devi temples. The
Badi Patan Devi temples located at Maharajganj, about six miles east of Patna junction. Gulzarbagh ailway station is at a disance of half a mile. The Chhoti Patan Devi temple is located at Patna City Chowk, about two miles from Patna
City railway station.
Legends Associated With The Temples
Once Prajapati Daksha celebrated Brihaspati Yajna and invited every god to his yajna but
left out Lord Shiva, his son-in-law. Sati, the wife of Lord Shiva, on learning that her husband
had not been invited to her father's yajna, went to her father's home. When Sati found no seat
allotted to her husband there, she felt mortified and put an end to her life.
Lord Shiva at once came to know of this and in his great anger and sorrow took her dead
body on his shoulder and began to perform Tandava' dance round the Triloka (three worlds).
The gods were horror-struck and requested lord Vishnu to intervene. lord Vishnu cleverly followed the dancing Shiva and started cutting the dead body of Sati to pieces with his
'chakra'. Wherever the major limbs of the body of Sati fell, the places became Mahapeethas.
The places where the minor limbs fell came to be known as Upapeethas.
It is believed that some portion of Sati's thigh and "pat" or cloth fell near Maharajganj and
Chowk, from which Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati came into existence. It is also
believed that the names of the goddesses - Badi Patan Devi and Chhoti Patan Devi - are
derived from the "pat", which fell at Maharajganj and Chowk.
It has been mentioned in Tantrachuramani that the right thigh of Sati fell in Magadh and
it is supposed that the places where it fell are Maharajganj and Chowk where we now have the
temples of Badi Patan Devi and Chhoti Patan Devi. But many do not treat Patna as a
Mahapeeth and say that only a portion of Sati's cloth had fallen at the two places here.
Some, however, doubt whether the name Patna has been derived from the temples.
According to them, the name is derived from "patan" which means a town and Patna was a big
place of export and import.
In the temple of Badi Patan Devi, the three small idols of the three goddesses -Mahakali,
Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati - are the legendary three presiding guardian deities who protected Putraka, the founder of Pataliputra, as is mentioned in 'Kathasarit Sagar'. In a tank near
the temple was found a peculiar stone image. It has been kept in a niche in the eastern veran-
dah of the temple and is now worshipped as a goddess.
The temple of Badi Patan Devi faces north. At the entrance of the temple, there is a portico of about 15'x15'. After that there is a room of about 8'x8' for Mahakali (12"), Mahalakshmi
(6"), Mahasaraswati (12") and Bhairav (3"). All the statues are of black stone.
Except Bhairav, they all are attired in sari and are wearing crown. Chhoti Patna Devi temple is on the south-east of the famous Gurdwara. It has the same goddesses as in the Badi
Patan Devi.
It is claimed by some that the "pat" or cloth of Sati, wife of Mahadeva, fell from the sky at
this place only. In the northern compound of this temple there is a big idol of the Sun god,
though broken into two parts.
There are also small idols of the Sun god and of Lord Vishnu and some votive stupas in
the western verandah of the temple. Like most of the temples, these temples too have a number of other images. On the right side of the three goddesses and god (and not in their room)
there is a statue of Goddess Parvati which is made of stone. It is also believed that this statue
is one hundred years old.
On the right side of Goddess Parvati there is also a small temple of Lord Shiva, which was
constructed in 1950. This temple is in an open space and there is a courtyard in front of it. As
for the architecture of the temples, they have been reconstructed from time to time with liberal use of marble and mosaic slabs. There is no authentic evidence to give us the exact date of
the construction of the first temples.
There are no hard and fast rules regarding the timings for visiting the temples. Everybody 's allowed to go to the temples from in the morning, when the morning "arti" takes place, to
ten in the night. Only when the "Maha Naivedya" is presented on special occasions, the goddesses are screened from the public with the help of a sheet. These two temples are the most
important places of local pilgrimage in Patna.
Tuesday is a particularly important visiting day for the devotees. On this day the number
of devotees visiting the temples is much more. The newlyweds and the new-born babies are
brought to these temples and the blessings of the goddesses are sought. This is a widely prevalent practice and quite a few of newly-married couples or babies are seen every morning.
Promises or "mannatas" are frequently made before the deities and offerings are made, saris
being the common offering. Goats and pigeons are also offered.
Regarding the worship of the Patan Devi goddesses, the District Gazetteer of Patna has
observed: "Of the more orthodox deities of the Hindu Pantheon, the most popular is Kali
whose chief temple is in Patna City at Kalishthan near Mangal's Talab. There are two old shrines
there dedicated to her under the name of Patan Devi, one as Chowk and the other a
Maharajganj. Under the form of Shitala, she is worshipped by all Hindus, wherever there is an
epidemic of small-pox. When anyone is attacked by the disease, a small piece of ground near
the patient is given sweetmeats and fanned with a twig of the neem." This custom is still prevalent.
As in many other places, a fair is also held near these temples at the time of Vijayadashmi
in September-October. On Saptami, Ashtami and Navami during the fair, thousands of persons
come to offer prayers daily at either of the two temples. Visitors generally bring sweets, garlands and fruits to offer to the deities. The priest of the temple takes some quantity of the offerings and returns the rest to the devotees and marks their forehead with "roli" (red powder).
The devotees also give some money to the priest.
The deity is bathed every morning and evening and this is followed by offerings of "prasad"
(fruits and sweetmeats etc) and "arti" with the usual recitation of hymns by the priest, accom-
panied by the ringing of bells.
Mahatma Gandhi Setu
The Mahatma Gandhi Setu over river Ganga stretches 7.5 km and is among the longest
bridges in the world. The Golghar and Kumhrar are the other attractions in the city. Besides, it
has long been a major centre of agri trade, its most active exports being grain, sugarcane,
sesame, and rice.
Today Patna, the capital of the state of Bihar, is an important business centre of eastern
India. More significantly, it is a gateway to the Buddhist and Jain pilgrim centres of Vaishali
Rajgir,Nalanda, Bodh Gaya and Pawapuri.
How To Reach
Air: Patna's Loknayak Jayaprakash International Airport is connected to all the major Indian
cities. The airport is 10 km from the city.
Rail: Patna is well connected to the rest of India with rail network. There are direct trains from
here to major cities.
Road: Patna is well connected by roads as well. Bus services are available for places within the
state as well as to other states.
