Bihar Bizarre 1 (Facts from ancient and medieval history)

Situated in the eastern part of the country, Bihar has a rich history:

Seeta, the consort of Lord Rama, was a princess of Bihar.

Maharishi Valmiki - original author of the Hindu epic - The Ramayana -lived in Ancient Bihar.

Prince Gautam attained enlightenment, became the Buddha- at the present Bodh Gaya- a town in central Bihar; and the great religion of Buddhism was born.

Guru Gobind Singh was born and became a Sikh Guru in Patna.

Kautilya, the author of Arthashastra, the first treatise of the modern science of Economics, lived here. Also known as Chanakya, he was the wily and canny adviser to the Magadh king, Chandragupta Maurya.

Megasthenes, an emissary of Alexander's General, Seleucus Necator, lived in Pataliputra (ancient name of Patna, the Mauryan capital) arond 302 B.C. He left behind a chronicle of life in and around Pataliputra. This is the first recorded account by a foreign traveler in India. It describes in vivid terms the grandeur of life in Pataliputra, a city established by King Ajatshatru, around 5th Century B.C., at the confluence of the rivers Sone and Ganga.

Ashok, (also known as Priyadarshi or Priyadassi), around 270 B.C., was the first to formulate firm tenets for the governance of a people. These, Edicts of Ashok, are inscribed on stone pillars which were planted across his kingdom. The pillar were crowned with the statue of one or more lions sitting on top of a pedestal which was inscribed with symbols of wheels. As the lion denoted strength, the wheel denoted the eternal (endless) nature of truth (dharma), hence the name Dharma (or Dhamma) Chakra. This figure of lions, atop a pedestal, with inscription of a wheel, was adopted as the Official Seal of the independent Republic of India.

During medieval times, Sher Shah who was a Mogul Jagirdar in Sasaram, defeated thje Mugal Emperor Humayun twice.

Sher Shah was a noble administrator and the Grand Trunk Road built by him, running from Calcutta to Kabul, in the sixteenth century is in use even today.