The antiquity of Magadha (a kingdom before becoming an empire) is established by the fact that it is referred to in the Vedas. The kings of Magadha continued to be powerful for a long time and it was the awe inspired by them that made the advancing Alexander the Great retreat.
By the closing years of the 4th century B.C. Magadha had become even more powerful under the Mauryan kings, founded by Chandragupta Maurya. His grandson was Asoka the Great whose rule, to quote H.G. Wells, was "one of the brightest interludes in the troubled history of mankind."
Although Asoka's empire was vast, his impact, naturally, was felt most over Bihar. It has been observed that Pataliputra, for a long time, was as significant a city as Rome in the later period.
Bihar is studded with monuments that bear the memory of Mahavira Jina who resurrected Jainism and of the Buddha.
Bodhgaya is the place where the Buddha attained enlightenment. Once famous all over the civilized world, Nalanda, the university for Buddhist studies, was in Bihar too.
Bihar abounds in rivers, hills, lakes and forests. The most important of the rivers is the Ganga, flowing from the west to east for 560 kilometres. The three major dialects of the people are Maithili prevailing in the east, Magadhi in the south, and Bhojpuri in the west.
The area of the state is 173,876 sq. km and the population is 69,823,154. The second most populous state of India, the average density of population per sq km in Bihar is 402.