Aryavarta

Greater Magadha and its association with Aryavarta

Following the description of Aryavarta in early Brahmanical sources, Bronkhorst notes that the Greater Magadha area was outside Aryavarta, the heartland of Vedic Brahmanism, and proposes that "Greater Magadha" had a distinct culture. According to Bronkhorst, Aryavarta was primarily associated with a single state, the Kuru kingdom. According to Bronkhorst, the various emperors of Magadha had little interest in Brahmanism, and the conquest of the Vedic heartland by the Nanda and Maurya rulers deprived the Brahmins of their patrons, threatening the survival of the Vedic ritual tradition and creating opportunities for Buddhists and Jains to spread their religions outside the confines of Magadha. According to Bronkhorst, the Brahmins overcame their deprivation of patrons by providing new services and by incorporating the non-Vedic Indo-Aryan religious heritage of the eastern Ganges plain along with local religious traditions, giving rise to the Hindu synthesis.