Ancient period
Historically, the Bareilly region was first mentioned in the time of the Mahabharata. The fortress of Ahichatra was an important cultural, political and religious center through the ancient period.
Panchala Kingdom
Historically, the Panchala Kingdom occupied the region east of the Kuru Kingdom between the upper Himalayas and the river Ganga. The country was divided into Uttara-Panchala (Northern Panchala) and Dakshina-Panchala (Southern Panchala). Ahicchattra, in the Aonla region of Bareilly, was the capital of Northern Panchala. The Bareilly region is said to be the birthplace of Draupadi.
Rule of Nanda, Maurya, Gupta and Maukharis Empire
The experiment in non-monarchical form of Government in Panchala was soon engulfed in the growing Magadhan imperialism – first under the Nandas and then under the Mauryas. The fall of the Mauryan empire enabled the emergence of small and independent states in the whole Ganga Valley.
Panchala reemerged at this time as one of the strongest powers in India. About 25 kings who ruled during this period produced thousands of surviving coins. During the period between the fall of the Mauryas and the rise of the Guptas, the Panchalas had two phases of power – first the pre-Kushan phase, from c. 150 BC to CE 125 and later about fifty years after the fall of the Kushanas, which ended c. CE 350 when Panchala was assimilated into the Gupta empire by Samudragupta. Ahichatra became a province in the Gupta empire.
The Panchal coins were minted at Bareilly and the surrounding areas during 176–166 BC. Kushan and Gupta kings established mints in the region that continued into the Christian era. The Adi Vigraha and Shree Vigraha coins of the Pratihara Kings that were minted here
