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Many cities in ‘mahajanapadas’ were fortified.
A) True
B) False

Answer
VerifiedVerified
502.8k+ views
Hint: The Mahajanapadas were a gaggle of sixteen kingdoms that existed in ancient India. It all started when the late Vedic period tribes (janas) decided to make their own territorial communities, which eventually gave rise to new and permanent areas of settlement referred to as states or 'janapadas.'

Complete answer:
The majority of mahajanapadas had a capital city, and lots of them were fortified. This suggests that massive walls of wood, brick, or stone were constructed around them. Forts were presumably constructed because people were scared of attacks from other kings and required protection.

The rajas of Mahajanapadas built forts to guard their capital city and other people from attacks by other rajas. It is also possible that they wanted to demonstrate their wealth and power by erecting massive, powerful, and impressive walls around their cities.

Aryans were the foremost powerful tribes and were referred to as Janas. This gave rise to the term janapada, from the Sanskrit words Jana (people) and pada (foot). the main kingdoms of Vedic India were the Janapada. In Mahajanapada, a replacement sort of sociopolitical development was happening. Mahajanapada was divided into geographical zones. Between 600 B.C. and 300 B.C.

The Indian subcontinent had 16 Mahajanapadas. Mahajanapadas includes following kingdoms are Anga, Assaka, Avanti, Chedi, Gandhara, Kamboja, Kasha, Kosala, Kuru, Magadha, Malla, Matsya,
Panchala, Surasena, Vajji, Vatsya. People are mentioned as Jana' in both words. A tribe, ethnos, or tribal political entity was represented by these individuals.

As a result, The given statement is true as Many cities in ‘mahajanapadas’ were fortified.

Note: The history of the Mahajanapadas can be traced back to the development of eastern Uttar Pradesh and western Bihar during the 6th to 4th centuries BCE when agriculture flourished due to the availability of fertile lands and iron production increased due to the abundance of iron ore. This resulted in the expansion of the Janapadas' territories (due to the use of iron weapons), which were later addressed as 16 highly developed regions or the Mahajanapadas.