Gautama Buddha undertaking extreme ascetic practices before he realised it was not necessary and his enlightenment on the bank of river
Falgu in
Bodh Gaya, Bihar.
The greatest Indian empire, the
Mauryan empire, originated from Magadha in 325 BC, it was started by Chandragupta Maurya who was born in Magadha, and had its capital at
Patliputra (modern
Patna). The
Mauryan Emperor,
Ashoka, who was born in Patliputra (Patna) is believed to be one of the greatest rulers in the history of India and the world.
According to
indologist A.L. Basham, the author of the book
The Wonder that was India,
| “ | The age in which true history appeared in India was one of great intellectual and spiritual ferment. Mystics and sophists of all kinds roamed through the Ganges Valley, all advocating some form of mental discipline and asceticism as a means to salvation; but the age of the Buddha, when many of the best minds were abandoning their homes and professions for a life of asceticism, was also a time of advance in commerce and politics. It produced not only philosophers and ascetics, but also merchant princes and men of action. | ” |
Bihar remained an important place of power, culture and education during the next one thousand years. The Gupta Empire, which again originated from Magadha in 240 CE, is referred to as the Golden Age of India in science, mathematics, astronomy, religion and
Indian philosophy. The peace and prosperity created under leadership of
Guptas enabled the pursuit of scientific and artistic endeavors. Historians place the
Gupta dynasty alongside with the
Han Dynasty,
Tang Dynasty and
Roman Empire as a model of a classical civilization. The capital of
Gupta empire was
Pataliputra, present day
Patna. The
Vikramshila and
Nalanda universities were among the oldest and best centres of education in ancient India. Some writers believe the period between the 400 CE and 1000 CE saw gains by
Hinduism at the expense of Buddhism.
The Hindu kings gave much grants to the Buddhist monks for building
Brahmaviharas. A
National Geographic edition
[ reads, "
The essential tenets of Buddhism and Hinduism arose from similar ideas best described in the Upanishads, a set of Hindu treatises set down in India largely between the eighth and fourth centuries B.C."
The Buddhism of Magadha was swept away by the Muslim invasion under
Muhammad Bin Bakhtiar Khilji, during which many of the
viharas and the famed universities of
Nalanda and
Vikramshila were destroyed, and thousands of
Buddhist monks were massacred in 12th century CE.
In the years 1553–56 Pashtun dynasty ruler 'Adil Shah' took the reigns of North-India and made 'Chunar' his capital. He deputed '
Hemu' the Hindu General, also known as 'Hemu Vikramaditya' as his Prime Minister and Chief-of-Army. Hemu fought and won 22 battles continuously against Afghan rebels and Akbar's forces at Agra and Delhi and established 'Hindu Raj' in Delhi, after a foreign rule of 300 years. Hemu, who was bestowed the title of '
Samrat' at
Purana Quila, Delhi was then known as '
Samrat Hem Chandra Vikramaditya'. Hemu lost his life while fighting in the '
Second Battle of Panipat' against Akbar's forces on 7 Nov. 1556. During 1557–1576,
Akbar, the
Mughal emperor, annexed Bihar and
Bengal to his empire.
Thus, the medieval period was mostly one of anonymous provincial existence.
The tenth and the last
Guru of
Sikhism,
Guru Gobind Singh was born in Patna. After the Battle of
Buxar (1764), the
British East India Company obtained the diwani rights (rights to administer, and collect revenue or tax) for Bihar,
Bengal and
Orissa. From this point, Bihar remained a part the
Bengal Presidency of the
British Raj until 1912, when the province of
Bihar and Orissa was carved out as a separate province. Bihar now celebrates its birthday as Bihar Diwas on 22 March from 2010. In 1935, certain portions of Bihar were reorganised into the separate province of
Orissa.
Babu Kunwar Singh of Jagdishpur and his army, as well as countless other persons from Bihar, contributed to the
India's First War of Independence (1857), also called the
Sepoy Mutiny by some historians. Resurgence in the history of Bihar came during the struggle for India's independence.
It was from Bihar that
Mahatma Gandhi launched his pioneering civil-disobedience movement,
Champaran Satyagraha.
Brahmins in
Champaran had earlier revolted against
indigo cultivation in 1914 (at
Pipra) and 1916 (Turkaulia) and Pandit
Raj Kumar Shukla took
Mahatma Gandhi to
Champaran and the
Champaran Satyagraha began.
Raj Kumar Shukla drew the attention of
Mahatma Gandhi to the exploitation of the peasants by European
indigo planters.
Champaran Satyagraha received the spontaneous support from many
Bihari nationalists like
Rajendra Prasad who became the first
President of India and
Anugrah Narayan Sinha who ultimately became the first Deputy
Chief Minister cum
Finance Minister of Bihar.
In the northern and central regions of Bihar,
peasants movement was an important consequence of the Freedom Movement. The Kisan Sabha movement started in Bihar under the leadership of
Swami Sahajanand Saraswati who had formed in 1929, the
Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha (BPKS), in order to mobilize peasant grievances against the zamindari attacks on their occupancy rights.
Gradually the peasant movement intensified and spread across the rest of India. All these radical developments on the peasant front culminated in the formation of the
All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) at the
Lucknow session of the
Indian National Congress in April 1936 with
Swami Sahajanand Saraswati elected as its first President.
This movement aimed at overthrowing the feudal (
zamindari) system instituted by the British. It was led by
Swami Sahajanand Saraswati and his followers
Pandit Yamuna Karjee,
Rahul Sankrityayan,
Pandit Karyanand Sharma,
Baba Nagarjun and others. Pandit Yamuna Karjee along with Rahul Sankritayan and a few others started publishing a Hindi weekly Hunkar from Bihar, in 1940. Hunkar later became the mouthpiece of the peasant movement and the agrarian movement in Bihar and was instrumental in spreading it.
Bihar made an immense contribution to the Freedom Struggle, with outstanding leaders like
Swami Sahajanand Saraswati, Dr.
Rajendra Prasad,
Sri Krishna Sinha,Dr.
Anugrah Narayan Sinha,
K. B. Sahay,
Brajkishore Prasad,
Mulana Mazharul Haque,
Jayaprakash Narayan,
Thakur Jugal Kishore Sinha,
Satyendra Narayan Sinha,
Ram Dulari Sinha,
Basawon Singh,
Rameshwar Prasad Sinha,
Yogendra Shukla,
Baikuntha Shukla,
Sheel Bhadra Yajee,
Pandit Yamuna Karjee and many others who worked for India's freedom relentlessly and helped in the upliftment of the underprivileged masses.
Khudiram Bose, Upendra Narayan Jha "Azad",
Prafulla Chaki and
Baikuntha Shukla were active in revolutionary movement in Bihar.
On 15 January 1934,
Bihar was devastated by an earthquake of magnitude 8.4. Some 30,000 people were said to have died in the quake.
The state of
Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in the year 2000.
The 2005 Bihar assembly elections ended 15 years of continuous
RJD rule in the state, giving way to
NDA led by
Nitish Kumar.
Bihari migrant workers have faced violence and prejudice in many parts of India, such as
Maharashtra,
Punjab and
Assam, making an impression that India still carries tribal localized mindset despite of more than 50 years of Independence as a Republic.
