Buddhist texts like Anguttara Nikaya and Culla-Niddesa frequently mention sixteen great nations (solasa Mahajanapadas), which existed before the time of the Buddha. They are Kasi, Kosala, Anga, Magadha, Vajji (or Vriji), Malla, Chedi, Vatsa (or Vamsa), Kuru, Panchala, Machcha (or Matsya), Surasena, Assaka, Avanti, Gandhara and Kamboja. The Anguttara Nikaya (Gradual Collection) is the fourth of the five nikayas, or collections, in the Sutta Pitaka, which is one of the three baskets that compose the Pali Tipitaka. ... A stone image of the Buddha. ... Benares (also known as Banaras, Kashi, Kasi and Varanasi (वाराणसी)) is a Hindu holy city on the banks of the river Ganga or Ganges in the modern north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. ... This article needs to be wikified. ... Magadha was an ancient kingdom of India, mentioned in both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. ... A stupa A stupa (from the Sanskrit) is a type of Buddhist structure found across the Indian subcontinent and Asia. ... Kuru can mean: Kuru, a disease related to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) affecting cannibals In the Mahabharata, part of Indian and Hindu mythology, Kuru is the ancestor of the Kauravas and Pandavas. ... The name may refer to one of the following. ... Buddhas First Sermon at Sarnath, Kushan Period, ca. ... Kamboja is ancient name of a country and the tribe settled therein. ...

The first fourteen in the list are included in the Majjhimadesa (Central India) while the last two belong to Uttarapatha or north-west division. Uttarapatha was the northern division of Jambudvipa of ancient Indian traditions. ...

Their approximate geographical locations have been identified as follows:

1. Kasi: (Benares)
2. Kosala: (Avadh or Oudh)
3. Anga : (District Bhagalpur with Champa as its capital)
4. Magadha: (Patana and Gaya in Bihar)
5. Vajji or Vriji: (North Bihar with capital at Mithila)
6. Malla (Gorakhpur district)
7. Chedi : (roughly Bundelkhand)
8. Vamsa or Vatsa: (Allahabad region with capital at Kausambi)
9. Kuru: (Thaneswar, Delhi and Meerut districts)
10. Panchala: (roughly Rohilkhand in Uttar Pardesh)
11. Machcha or Matsya: (former state of Jaipur in Rajasthan)
12. Surasena: (Mathura)
13. Assaka or Asmaka: (on the Godavari with capital at Potali)
14. Avanti : (in Malwa with capital at Ujaini)
15. Gandhara: (North-west Panjab, Peshawar and Rawalpindi districts)
16. Kamboja: Kamboja is attested to comprise region on either side of the Hindukush. The cis-Hindukush region from Nurestan up to Rajori in southwest of Kashmir constituted the Kamboja and trans-Hindukush region including Pamirs and Badakhshan constituted Parama-Kamboja. The Kamboja Mahajanapada of the Buddhist traditions refers to the cis-Hindukush branch of ancient Kambojas (See: Problems of Ancient India, 2000, p 5-6, K. D. Sethna; cf: Geographical Data in the Early Puranas, p 168, Dr M. R. Singh)