Anga Kingdom

Anga was an ancient kingdom and janapada of eastern South Asia, counted among the sixteen great nations in early Buddhist texts. Its territory lay between the Champa river in the west and the Rajmahal hills in the east, in what is now the Bhagalpur region of Bihar, and at times it extended south to the sea. The capital, Champapuri or Champa, stood at the confluence of the Champa and Ganges rivers and corresponds to the modern town of Champanagar. According to the Mahabharata and the Puranas, the kingdom was named after Prince Anga, son of King Vali, and its foundation was linked to the sage Dirghatamas. Anga appears in the Atharvaveda and in Vedic literature, and the Aitareya Brahmana mentions the world conquest of one of its kings. The kingdom was an important centre of trade and culture in the Gangetic plain, but it was eventually absorbed by the rising kingdom of Magadha to its west. Its capital Champa remained a significant city in later Indian history.