Which of the following statements are correct about Mahajanapadas?
A. Most Mahajanapadas were ruled by kings.
B. Some Mahajanapadas, known as ganas, were oligarchies.
C. Buddha and Mahavira did not belong to Mahajanapadas.
D. Each Mahajanapada had a capital city, which was often fortified.
E. Mahajanapadas were short-lived and none of them survived for more than 100 years.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → A, B, D only
A. Most Mahajanapadas were ruled by kings. Correct. Kingship was the usual form of rule among the sixteen mahajanapadas named in early Buddhist and Jaina texts.
B. Some Mahajanapadas, known as ganas, were oligarchies. Correct. Some states, known as ganas or sanghas, were oligarchies, where power was shared by a number of men, often collectively called rajas.
C. Buddha and Mahavira did not belong to Mahajanapadas. Incorrect. Both Mahavira and the Buddha belonged to such ganas, that is, to the oligarchic mahajanapadas.
D. Each Mahajanapada had a capital city, which was often fortified. Correct. Maintaining these fortified cities, as well as armies and bureaucracies, required resources.
E. Mahajanapadas were short-lived and none of them survived for more than 100 years. Incorrect. Their histories are hard to reconstruct, but some of these states lasted for nearly a thousand years.
NCERT (2026-27): “2.1 The sixteen mahajanapadas … Early Buddhist and Jaina texts (see also Chapter 4) mention, amongst other things, sixteen states known as mahajanapadas. Although the lists vary, some names such as Vajji, Magadha, Koshala, Kuru, Panchala, Gandhara and Avanti occur frequently. Clearly, these were amongst the most important mahajanapadas. While most mahajanapadas were ruled by kings, some, known as ganas or sanghas, were oligarchies (p. 30), where power was shared by a number of men, often collectively called rajas. Both Mahavira and the Buddha (Chapter 4) belonged to such ganas. In some instances, as in the case of the Vajji sangha, the rajas probably controlled resources such as land collectively. Although their histories are often difficult to reconstruct due to the lack of sources, some of these states lasted for nearly a thousand years. Each mahajanapada had a capital city, which was often fortified.…” |