Consider the following statements regarding Mahajanapads during the 6th century B C 1 ...........

Ancient and Medival History Religion and Philosopjhy

Consider the following statements regarding Mahajanapads during the 6th century B.C.:

1. Early Buddhist and Jain text mention, amongst other things, sixteen states known as mahajanapads.

2. Each mahajanapada had a capital city, which was often fortified. Maintaining these fortified cities as well as providing for armies and bureaucracies required resources.

3. While most mahajanapads were ruled by kings, some known as ganas or sanghas, were oligarchies, where power was shared by a number of men, often collectively called rajas.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

1 only

1 and 2 only

1 and 3 only

All of the above

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Explanation:

Mahajanapadas literally "Great Kingdoms" (from Maha, "great," and Janapada "foothold of a tribe," "country") refers to 16 monarchies and 'republics' that stretched across the Indo-Gangetic plains from modern-day Afghanistan to Bangladesh in the sixth century B.C.E., prior to and during the rise of Buddhism in India. They represent a transition from a semi-nomadic tribal society to an agrarian-based society with a vast network of trade and a highly-organized political structure.
These Mahajanapadas were either monarchical or republican in character.
The Mahajanapadas are the historical context of the Sanskrit epics, such as the Mahabharata and the Ramayana as well as Puranic literature (the itihasa). They were also the political and social context in which Buddhism and Jainism emerged and developed.
Most of the historical details about the Mahajanapadas are culled from Sanskrit literature. Buddhist and Jaina texts refer to the Mahajanapadas only incidentally. In a struggle for supremacy during the fifth century B.C.E., the growing state of Magadha emerged as the most predominant power in ancient India, annexing several of the Janapadas. They were all eventually absorbed into the the Maurya Empire after 321 B.C.E.