Rajagrha

Ancient name for the city corresponding
to modern Rajgir, in the Nalanda district
of the state of Bihar. Although contemporary Rajgir is a small and insignificant
city, at the time of the Buddha it was the
capital of the Magadhan empire and the
center of the region’s political and intellectual life. According to Buddhist tradition, Rajgir was the site of the first
Buddhist council, held shortly after the
Buddha’s death and organized to document his teachings. This story is almost
certainly apocryphal, since the Buddhist
scriptures went through a much longer
period of development, but its setting
illustrates Rajagrha’s centrality in the
middle of the first millennium before
the turn of the common era.