The Mahājanapadas (Sanskrit: महाजनपद, lit. ‘great realm’, from maha, “great”, and janapada “foothold of a tribe, country”) were sixteen kingdoms or oligarchicrepublics that existed in ancient India from the sixth to fourth centuries BCE. Two of them were most probably ganatantras (republics) and others had forms of monarchy. Ancient Buddhist texts like the Anguttara Nikaya make frequent reference to sixteen great kingdoms and republics which had evolved and flourished in a belt stretching from Gandhara in the northwest to Anga in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent and included parts of the trans-Vindhyan region,[ prior to the rise of Buddhism in India.
PUNCH-MARKED COIN, VIDARBHA JANAPADA, SILVER 1/4 VIMSHATIKA, OBV: FOUR SYMBOLS INCLUDING ELEPHANT, 500-400 BC,
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