Surasena

Surasena was an ancient Indian kingdom in the Braj region of present-day Uttar Pradesh, with its capital at Mathura on the Yamuna river. Buddhist texts such as the Anguttara Nikaya list Surasena as one of the sixteen Mahajanapadas, the great realms of the sixth century BCE. The kingdom was associated with the Yadava clans, and its people traced their descent to the Yadus of the Rigveda. Greek writers who followed Alexander's campaigns, including Megasthenes, knew the region as the land of the Sourasenoi and mentioned its cities Methora and Cleisobora. Mathura grew into an important trading centre because the northern route across the Gangetic plain met roads to Malwa and the west coast there. Archaeological excavations show a settlement that developed from the Painted Grey Ware culture of about 1100–500 BCE into the Northern Black Polished Ware culture of 700–200 BCE. In the Buddhist tradition, King Avantiputta ruled the Surasenas in the time of the Buddha. The kingdom was later absorbed into the expanding Magadhan and Mauryan states, but Mathura remained a major religious and artistic centre for centuries.