Pataliputra

Pataliputra was a city of ancient India that stood beside the site of modern Patna in Bihar. Tradition credits the Magadha ruler Ajatashatru with building it in 490 BCE as a small fort called Pataligrama near the Ganges, and his successor Udayin then laid out the city at the meeting of the Son and the Ganges, moving the royal seat from Rajgriha because the new site lay closer to the centre of the realm. It went on to serve as the capital of the Shishunaga, Nanda, Maurya and Gupta empires and, under the Mauryas, ranked among the largest cities in the world. The Greek envoy Megasthenes described a highly efficient form of local self government there. The site was first identified in modern times in 1892 by Laurence Waddell, and excavations around Patna have since uncovered large fortification walls reinforced with wooden trusses.