The sixteen Mahajanapadas
North India splits into kingdoms and republics; Magadha rises
In the 6th century BC sixteen 'great realms', the Mahajanapadas, took shape in the Ganges valley and north-west India: kingdoms such as Magadha, Kosala and Avanti, and republics such as Vajji. Buddhist texts list them; in time Magadha swallowed its neighbours and became the core of later empires.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 6th century BC
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- c. 600 BC Greeks found Massalia — same year
Middle East
- 612 BC Fall of Nineveh — 12 years earlier
- 605 BC Battle of Carchemish — 5 years earlier
- 587 BC Destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar — 13 years later
Alive at the time
- Cyrus the Great (aged 0)
- Nebuchadnezzar II (aged 42)
- Solon (aged 30)
- Sappho (aged 30)
- Thales of Miletus (aged 24)
- Anaximander (aged 10)