In ancient times Magadha was an important city of India because it was the center of cultural change .The kings who ruled Magadha in the 7th century BC were enterprising .It was the seat of the Brihadratha dynasty, Pradyota dynasty, Shishunaga dynasty , Nanda dynasty , Maurya dynasty , Shunga dynasty , Kanva dynasty and the Gupta dynasty. Magadha formed one of the sixteen so-called Mahajanapadas or regions in ancient India. Magadha covers the portion of Bihar lying south of the Ganges,with its capital at Rajgir .With the conquest of Licchavi and Anga and expanded to include Bihar and Bengal.

There is a lot of mention of Magadha in the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata ,Puranas and also in Buddhist and Jaina texts .However it is in the Atharva -Veda that Magadha finds its first reference. There is no information about the early rulers of Magadha.

According to the Puranas ,Brihadratha dynasty were the first rulers of Magadha .Magadha reached its zenith during the reign of Ashoka of the Maurya dynasty. Chandragupta founded the Maurya dynasty. Chandragupta destroyed Nanda Dynasty, which preceded the Maurya dynasty, around 321 B.C. Ashoka who inherited the dynasty after Chandragupta helped in spreading out Buddhist ideals across the whole of East Asia and South East Asia .The Guptas were another famous dynasty of ancient India who ruled Magadha around 240 to 550 A..D.The Gupta era in India has been described as the "Golden age" in science, mathematics, religion and philosophy.

In fact Magadha is the birthplace of two major religions of India Gautama Buddha in the 6th or 5th century BC was the founder of Buddhism, which later spread to East Asia and South-East Asia, while Mahavira founded Jainism.Siddhartha Gautam was born a prince of Kapilavastu in Kosala around 563 B.C.in the holy land of Magadha.