PASSAGE TO EARLY MEDIEVAL PHASE: EMERGENCE OF TEMPLE CENTRED SOCIETY IN EARLY BIHAR Anil Kumar Post Mauryan historiography of ancient India suggests two important factors, i.e. (i) foreign invasions and (ii) shift of the political and cultural centre from the lower Ganga valley to Central India as well as upper Ganga valley. This had effected the ancient glory of Pataliputra and its people a lot. Its whole gamut of economic as well as political dominance over other parts of the country started declining from the period of 2nd cent. B.C. onwards. Loss of its position as epi-centre for political activities denied the mercantile community of Pataliputra advantages which these people had enjoyed for not less than four-five centuries. State patronage for a long period of time made the business community of Pataliputra more dependent on state power rather than trade or business equations. The people of Magadha were having one more advantage that was Pataliputra’s geographical location. Being situated on the bank of the Ganga and connected with the ‘Uttarapatha’ and ‘Dakshinapath’ was also very helpful for trading activities. But the change of political fortune left its impact on this region. As a consequence of the loss of patronage from state the mercantile community of Bihar were less prepared to face stiff challenges posed by the mercantile communities from other regions. In the post-Mauryan period there are stray references about traders of Magadh trading with the people of Benaras. 1 In Milinda-panho there are references that traders from Magadh were carrying on business in far away Sialkot; 2 but the volume of the trade started decreasing as compared to the earlier period. Faded references for trade are themselves indicative of the deterioration. The Kusana 3 two gold coins and few copper coins from two or three places supplement the idea. The situation further deteriorated during the pre Gupta era. Frequent foreign invasions and decline in the Indo-Roman trade left the overall economic condition in a very miserable state. Political instability as well as economic insignificance seem to have compelled the people of Bihar to concentrate more on rural areas. The trade situation was not conducive as compared to the agrarian ecnomy, which was yielding good results. The main reason for development in the field of agriculture was probably the fertility of the soil and the infrastructure provided by the Mauryan empire. The horizontal expansion of rural settlements continued during the Sunga and Kanva rules. Political unrest and upheavals throughout the period were causing impediments for any sustained mercantile activity in this region. In these circumstances Brahmanical religious reform movement and the reaction against the dominant Buddhist ideas also flourished. 4 Probably this was not confined to state politics only, but also spread among the masses and the aggressive form of Brahmanism found its route. Performance of yajnas (sacrifices) by the rulers 5 was one of the obvious markers of the situation. The dynastic history of Bihar from the post-Sunga period till the rise of the Guptas in early 4th century A.D. is undocumented and therefore very sketchy. After the establishment of the Gupta empire the economic condition of Bihar does not seem to have changed. The economy of Bihar during the Guptas was also predominantly rural. Land became the main source of sustenance. Two spurious plates of Samudra Gupta — suggest that peasants and artisans were confined to their respective villages so that their self sufficient economy might not be disturbed. In this socio-economic situation people were left with sufficient surplus time for intellectual as well as religious activities. The horizon of Buddhists was widened by the philosophical ideas of Aryadeva, Vasubandhu, Buddhaghosa and Dinnaga. Inscriptions and seals found in various places of Bihar testify to the phenomenal growth of Vaisnavism, Saktism and Saivism during the Gupta age. In the period under survey there was also a restatement of the values of life and affirmation of the Puranic values, which never denied the authority of the Vedas and held the Sruti as the infallible source of religion. An out come of the greater intellectual activity was the controversies between the rival religious