4 highlights
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A keen Patna-watcher, Buddha once said that the great city should guard itself against water, feud and fire
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It would be left to cultural historians of contemporary Bihar to judge how and to what extent the bridge has helped in methaphorically bridging the cultural divide between Magadh region (central Bihar) and North Bihar.
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This has to be seen in the context of the historical narrative from sixth century BC when the great republican janapadas of North Bihar, for instance Lichachavi (the first known republic in the world) and centres of religious movements like Vaishali district (birth place of Mahavira, proponent of Jainism), had a cultural and matrimonial disconnect with Magadh region and its capital Patliputra.
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Patna is too historically precious to be ignored for narrow nationalistic favours. Chinese travellers knew that. Millennia ago.