Class 7 Social Science Chapter 4: New Beginnings: Cities and States Notes

What is this chapter about?

The chapter opens with advice from Kautilya’s Arthashastra, an ancient text on statecraft: a kingdom should fortify its capital and its frontier towns, feed its people and help outsiders in a calamity, use its farmland, mines, forests and pastures, not rely only on rain, keep good roads and waterways, and have a productive economy. That advice suits a world of cities and states, and this chapter tells how such a world took shape in India in the 1st millennium BCE. A photo of ruins at Rajagriha (today’s Rajgir in Bihar), once the capital of Magadha, shows what is left of it.

After the first cities

In the early 2nd millennium BCE the Harappan civilisation, which we call India’s First Urbanisation, broke up. People left some of its cities altogether; in others they stayed on but lived as villagers. Everything that makes a city had gone: grand buildings, busy streets and markets, specialised craftspeople, writing, drains, an administration and a state with rulers. For about a thousand years there were hardly any cities in India, though a few towns may have existed in the north, and regional cultures carried on.

The Second Urbanisation

In the 1st millennium BCE, city life returned. It began in the Ganga plains, in some areas of the Indus (Sindhu) basin and nearby regions, and slowly spread across the Subcontinent. We know this from two kinds of evidence: excavations that have found the remains of these cities, and late Vedic, Buddhist and Jain texts that mention them again and again. This new phase is called India’s Second Urbanisation, and it has never ended: our towns and cities today belong to it. Read the Second Urbanisation.

Janapadas and mahajanapadas

Late in the 2nd millennium BCE, people in north India formed clans that probably shared a language and customs. Each clan came to be linked with its own territory, a janapada, led by a raja. As trade networks grew and connected them, some janapadas merged, and by the 8th or 7th century BCE these bigger states were called mahajanapadas. Ancient texts give different lists, but the most common one names 16, from Gandhara in the far northwest across to Anga in the east, and down to Ashmaka near the Godavari. Many lie in the fertile Ganga plains, close to iron ore in the hills and along new trade routes.

The strongest were Magadha, Kosala, Vatsa and Avanti. Most capitals were large, well-fortified cities with a moat outside the walls, and their gateways were kept narrow so that guards could control who and what came in or went out. Most of these capitals are still living cities, often about 2,500 years old. Read the mahajanapadas.

Early democratic traditions

Every janapada had its own assembly, the sabha or samiti, probably made up mostly of elders, where the clan’s affairs were discussed. A good raja was expected to take its advice, as well as that of the ministers, and some texts even say an assembly could remove an incompetent ruler, though our evidence from so long ago is incomplete. Many mahajanapadas, such as Magadha, Kosala and Avanti, were in effect monarchies: the raja was the final authority, usually the son of the previous raja, and collected taxes, kept order, built fortifications and kept an army. But at least two, Vajji (or Vrijji) and its neighbour Malla, worked differently. Their assembly decided matters by discussion and, if needed, by vote, and even chose the raja. These ganas or sanghas are called early republics, among the earliest anywhere.

New ideas and new technologies

This was an age of deep change. Late Vedic, Buddhist and Jain schools of thought spread through travelling scholars, monks, nuns and pilgrims, and art began a renewal. The Harappans had worked copper and bronze; the new age ran on iron. Iron-working had been perfected in parts of India from the early 2nd millennium BCE, and by its end iron tools were common, helping people farm on a bigger scale. Iron weapons were lighter and sharper than bronze ones, and there is some evidence of wars, and alliances, between neighbouring mahajanapadas. Growing trade also brought the first Indian coins, punch-marked pieces of silver; later came coins of copper, gold and other metals.

The varna–jati system

As societies grow complex, people form groups by occupation, class or other criteria. Ideally such groups help one another, but they often lead to inequality. Indian society was organised in two ways: by jati, communities tied to an occupation whose skills passed down the generations, and by varna, four groups described in the Vedic texts. In early times people could change occupations when circumstances demanded, but the system later became rigid and led to discrimination. Read the varna–jati system.

Developments elsewhere in India

Routes opened up for trade, pilgrimage and military campaigns. The Uttarapatha joined the northwest to the Ganga plains and eastern India, and the Dakshinapatha ran from Kaushambi, near Prayagraj, across the Vindhya hills to the south. Side roads led to busy ports on both coasts. In the east, Shishupalgarh, capital of Kalinga and now part of Bhubaneswar, had a square plan, massive walls and broad streets. In the south, cities appeared from about 400 BCE, and three kingdoms arose: the Cholas, Cheras and Pandyas, mentioned in the earliest Tamil literature. Rich in gems, gold and spices, the south traded within India and overseas.

Before we move on

By 300 or 200 BCE almost the whole Subcontinent, the Northeast included, had become one connected land, where goods and culture passed between regions and often went on to Central and Southeast Asia. Around the same time the mahajanapadas ceased to exist, making way for empires. Answers to the Big Questions, every Let’s Explore and all four questions are in the NCERT solutions for Chapter 4.