The discovery of silver punch-marked coins of the pre-Mauryan period dating back to 600 BC to 400 BC in Wari-Bateshwar reveals that the place was a Mahajanapada, one of the earliest kingdoms or states ...
It is his near contemporary, Megasthenes, the Greek traveller who is believed to have lived for a time in Patna, then the capital of the Magadha Kings, who first patronised Prince Gautama, the Buddha.