History
Prince Siddhartha Gautama arrived in Bihar during the 6th century BC and spent many years here, before leaving enlightened as the Buddha. The life of Mahavira, a contemporary of Buddha and the founder of Jainism, was also entwined with Bihar. In the 4th century BC, after Chandragupta Maurya seized power of the Magadha kingdom and its capital Pataliputra (now Patna), he expanded to the Indus Valley and created the first great Indian empire. His grandson, Ashoka, succeeded him and ruled the Mauryan empire from Pataliputra, which is rumoured to have been the largest city in the world at that time. Emperor Ashoka later embraced Buddhism, building stupas, monuments and his famous Ashokan pillars throughout northern India – notably at Sarnath (Uttar Pradesh) and Sanchi (Madhya Pradesh). In Bihar, Ashoka built the original shrine on the site of today’s Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya and the lion-topped pillar at Vaishali.
Bihar continued to be coveted by a succession of major empires until the Magadha dynasty rose again to glory during the reign of the Guptas (4th and 5th centuries AD), followed by the Palas of Bengal, who ruled until 1197.
Bihar was part of the Bengal presidency under the British Raj until 1912, when a separate state was formed. Part of this state later became Orissa and, most recently in 2000, Jharkhand.
