Avanti

Historic kingdom, north-central India. Located on the overland trade routes between northern and southern India, it lay within present-day Madhya Pradesh. Its capital was at Ujjayini (near present-day Ujjain). It flourished in the 6th–4th centuries BC as one of the great powers of northern India. In the 4th century BC it was conquered and annexed by Candra Gupta Maurya of Magadha. Ujjayini, one of the seven holy cities of Hinduism, was renowned for its beauty and wealth; it also became a centre of early Buddhism and Jainism.