Pataliputra

Capital of the Mauryan empire on the Ganges, in its day among the largest cities in the world, ringed by timber walls with five hundred and seventy towers. This was the seat of power Chanakya helped Chandragupta seize and then administer by the cold clarity of the Arthashastra. Ashoka ruled his Buddhist empire from here; the modern city of Patna stands on its ground.

Pataliputra stood where the Son river met the Ganges, and under the Mauryas it was probably the largest city in the world. A Greek ambassador described it running for miles behind a wooden palisade set with hundreds of towers. Chanakya is remembered as the brahmin who engineered Chandragupta's rise to its throne and then served as his minister, and the Arthashastra reads like the manual of a state on exactly that scale. Ashoka later ruled from here and convened a Buddhist council in the city.