Patliputra, nowadays known as Patna was a city in ancient India. It is originally built by magadh ruler Udayan in around 490 B.C.E. as a small fort known as Pataligram. The etymology of Pataliputra is unclear. Pāṭaliputra means the son of Pāṭali, who was the daughter of Raja Sudarshan.There is no mention of Pataliputra in written sources prior to the early Jain and Buddhist texts where it appears as the village of Pataligrama and is omitted from a list of major cities in the region. Early Buddhist sources report a city being built in the vicinity of the village towards the end of the Buddha’s life; this generally agrees with archaeological evidence showing urban development occurring in the area no earlier than the 3rd or 4th Century BCE. In 303 BCE, Greek historian and ambassador Megasthanese mentioned Pataliputra as a city in his work Indika. Diodorus, quoting lambulus mention that the king of Pataliputra had a “great love for the Greeks”.
During the reign of Emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE, it was one of the world’s largest cities, with a population of about 1.5 Lac–4 Lac. The city is estimated to have had a surface of 25.5 square kilometers, and a circumference of 33.8 kilometers, and was in the shape of a parallelogram and had 64 gates (that is, approximately one gate every 500 meters).
The city also became a flourishing Buddhist centre boasting a number of important monasteries. It remained the capital of the Guptas (3rd–6th centuries) and the Pala Dynasty. The city was largely in ruins when visited by Xuanzang, and suffered further damage at the hands of Muslim Raiders in the 12th century. Afterwards, Shershah Surie made Pataliputra his capital and changed the name to modern Patna.
During the Mauryan period, the city was described as being shaped as parallelogram, approximately 1.5 miles wide and 9 miles long. Its wooden walls were pierced by 64 gates. Archaeological research has found remaining portions of the wooden palisade over several kilometers, but stone fortifications have not been found.
Though parts of the ancient city have been excavated, much of it still lies buried beneath modern Patna. Various locations have been excavated, including Kumharar, Bulandi Bagh and Agam Kuan.
Nowadays Patna is not as rich as past in any ways of life. Patnites are not taking care and respect for its glorious past. Therefore, that golden era of development is now disintegrating.