AVANTI

kingdom of ancient India, in the territory of present Madhya Pradesh state. The area was for a time part of the historic province of Malwa. About 600 BC the Avanti capital was Mahismati (probably modern Godarpura on the Narmada River), but it was soon moved to Ujjayini (near modern Ujjain). The kingdom was on the overland trade routes between northern and southern India and to the port of Bharukaccha (modern Bharuch) on the Arabian Sea. By the lifetime of the Gautama Buddha (fl. c. 6th4th century BC), Avanti was one of the four powers of northern India; it was strong enough at that time, under King Pradyota the Fierce, to threaten the empire of Magadha. In the same period there was also an Avanti-daksinapatha (Sanskrit: Avanti of the South; perhaps modern Nimar), of which Mahismati may have been the capital. In the 4th century BC Candra Gupta Maurya of Magadha conquered and annexed Avanti to his dominions. Ujjayini, one of the seven holy cities of the Hindus, renowned for its beauty and wealth, became a centre of early Buddhism and of Jainism. After 50 BC, in the Magadha empire's decline, Avanti was fought over by the Sungas, Andhrabhrtyas, and Sakas; and in the 2nd century AD Ujjayini, under Rudradaman I, was the prosperous capital of the western Saka satrapy. About AD 390 Candra Gupta II (who was also called Vikramaditya, patron of the poet Kalidasa) expelled the Sakas and held court at Ujjayini. The name of the Malava tribe (which had moved to Avanti at an uncertain date) gradually replaced that of the Avantis as the designation of this land.