Who Are Kshatriya

For a long time therefore, this eastern part of the Gangetic plain remained outside the ārya influence, nurturing a different culture. It is this region that Bronkhorst calls the Greater Magadha; it constituted of “Magadha and its surrounding lands : roughly the geographical area in which the Buddha and Mahāvīra lived and taught.”. (Bronkhorst, 2007 : Greater Magadha - Studies in the Culture of Early India, 4) Bronkhorst does not give exact geographical boundaries of his Greater Magadha; for our purpose too we do not require that delimitation. What is important is the fact that there existed a certain region in the eastern Gangetic plain that was different in culture from the ārya culture. It is in this area that a number of religious and spiritual movements arose, most famous among them being Buddhism, Jainism and Ājīvikism. We have only scanty information about the aspects of the culture of this region that preceded these faiths, and which, perhaps, was responsible for their emergence.