Mathura A Gazetteer-5

MATHURA A GAZETTEER,
edited and compiled by, D.L. DRAKE-BROCKMAN [1911]

HISTORY

EARLY RECORDS OF MUTTRA
No fact of historical importance can be extracted from the legends relating to Krishna at Muttra, and the vague dates assigned to the great war in which he is said to have taken part have no basis in authentic history. Muttra is mentioned in ancient literature under the name Madhura, "the Sweet or Lovely One," but the precise relationship between this name and Muttra is not clear. Muttra is not enumerated among the eight great cities of Jambudvipa or Buddhist India in the Book of the Great Dicease; nor is it mentioned in the Mahabharata. It is stated in the Ramayana that Rama's brother Satrughna killed the demon Lavana on the banks of the Yamuna at Madhupura and made this place his capital but the statement occurs only in the last book (Uttara-Kanda) which is believed by the best authorities to be a later addition. These omissions are sufficient to show that Muttra is not one of the oldest cities of India; and this fact is supported by the statement of the grammarian Patanjali (circ. 160-140 B.C.) that Patali-putra existed before Muttra. Patali-putra is believed to have been founded shortly before the death of the Buddha who foretold its future greatness, but it did not become the capital of Magadha until many years after.

BUDDHIST MUTTRA
The death of the Buddha is now generally held to have taken place in 487 B.C. We have it on the authority of Hiuen Tsang who visited India between 629 and 645 A.D. that the Buddha, when he lived in the world, often travelled in the kingdom of Muttra, and that monuments had been erected in every place where he expounded the law. It may be presumed, therefore, that the place first rose into prominence during the lifetime of the Buddha or during the latter half of the fifth century B.C.; but whether Muttra was a famous city before it became a great Buddhist centre, there are at present no means of determining. From 500 B.C. till the end of the seventh century A.D. Muttra remained a Buddhist stronghold, though from other indications given by Hiuen Tsang it appears that Buddhism was gradually declining when he paid his visit to the place; and from the account written two hundred years before by the Chinese pilgrim, Fa-Hian, the decline would appear to have taken place in the interval between his own visit and that of Hiuen Tsang. One of the most famous buildings of Muttra in early days appears to have been a monastery, situated a little to the east of the old town, in the centre of which was a stupa enclosing some nail-parings of the Tathagata. This monastery is said to have been built by the venerable monk Upagupta. To this monk is ascribed the conversion of Asoka Maurya to Buddhism, and he was probably a native of Muttra.

MENANDER
Muttra was thus a famous city in the Maurya empire, but the period which commences with the death of Asoka in or about 231 B.C. is one of the most obscure in all the history of northern India. The Maurya kingdom appears to have come to an end about 184 B.C., with the usurpation of the throne of Magadha by Pushyamitra, the commander-in-chief of Brihadratha Maurya, the last of the Mauryas. This chieftain founded what is known as the Sunga dynasty, but it is unlikely that either Pushyamitra or the later Mauryas exercised any jurisdiction in the Punjab. In order to understand the history of Muttra, it is necessary to trace the course of events which resulted in the loss of this pro vince to the Indian dynasties. The spacious Asiatic dominion consolidated by the genius of Seleukos Nikator passed in the year 262 or 261 B.C. into the hands of his grandson Antiochos, surnamed Theos. To wards the close of the latter's reign the empire suffered two grievous losses by the revolt of the Bactrians under the leadership of Diodotos, and of the Parthians under that of Arsakes. With the latter, however, we are not concerned. The crown won by Diodotos passed about 245 B.C. to his son Diodotos II, and the latter was followed about 230 B.C. by Euthydemos, a native of Magnesia, who seems to have gained the crown by successful rebellion. This chieftain became involved in a long struggle with Antiochos the Great; but the result was that the independence of Bactria was recognised and a daughter of Antiochos was given in marriage to Demetrios, the son of Euthydemos. Demetrios, like his father, conquered about 190 B.C. a considerable portion of northern India apparently including Kabul, the Punjab and Sind. About 175 B.C. one Eukratides rebelled and made himself master of Bactria and its subordinate possessions; but his murder in 156 B.C. by his own son shattered to fragments the kingdom which he had won, and a period of confusion ensued during which a succession of obscure princes bearing Greek titles rose to power. The names alone of these are known. Only one name stands out conspicuously-that of Menander. He seems to have belonged to the family of Eukratides and to have had his capital at Kabul, whence he issued in or about 155 B.C. to make a bold invasion of India. This expedition was made during the latter years of Pushyamitra, the founder of the Sunga dynasty. Menander annexed the Indus delta, the peninsula of Surashtra or Kathiawar, and some other territories on the west coast, occupied Muttra on the Jumna, and even threatened Pataliputra. Two years later, however, he was obliged to retire and devote his energies to the warding off of dangers which menaced him at home. Menander was celebrated as a just ruler, and when he died he was honoured with magnificent obsequies. He is supposed to have been a convert to Buddhism and has been immortal ized under the name of Milinda in a celebrated dialogue entitled the Milinda-panha or "Questions of Milinda," which is one of the most notable books in Buddhist literature. Muttra is men tioned in this work as one of the famous places of India.

THE SATRAPS
The history of the next three centuries is comparatively clear. No district in the provinces has benefited so much as Muttra from the patient labour of the archaeologist, who has gradually evolved the history of northern India from the chaos of architectural remains, inscriptions and coins that have come to light, many in Muttra itself, during the last fifty years. Many points are, it is true, far from clear; but from the time of Menander until that of the Kushan dynasty, it appears that Muttra was ruled by Indo-Greek potentates who are usually known as Satraps. They were probably Sakas and their occupation of the country was one of the results of the great movements of peoples in the Central Asian steppes. A horde of nomads, named the Yueh-chi, were driven out of north western China about 170 B.C. and compelled to migrate westwards by the route to the north of the deserts. Some years later, about 160 B.C., they encountered another horde, the Sakas or Se, who occupied the territories to the north of the Jaxartes River. The Sakas, accompanied by cognate tribes, were forced to move in a southerly direction, and in course of time, entered India from the north. The flood of barbarian invasion spread also to the west and burst upon the Parthian kingdom and Bactria between 140 and 120 B.C. After overpowering two Parthian kings, Phraates II and Artabanus I, and extinguishing the Hellenistic monarchy of Bactria ruled by Heliokles, the Saka torrent surged into the valley of the Helmund River and filled the region now known as Seistan; while other branches penetrated into India and depo­sited settlements at Taxila in the Punjab and Muttra on the Jumna. Yet another section of the horde at a later date pushed on southwards and occupied the peninsula of Surashtra or Kathia war. Little is known regarding the Satraps of Muttra except their names. The best known of them is Sodasa, who became Satrap about 110 B.C. He was the son of the Satrap Rajuvala, who succeeded the Satraps Hagana and Hagamasha; and the latter are said to have displaced Hindu Rajas, of whom the names, Gomitra and Ramadatta, and coins survive. There is an inscription of the Satrap Sodasa at Muttra; and numerous undated memoranda on the well-known lion capital which was found in the place connect the Satraps Rajuvala and Sodasa with the Taxilan Satraps Liaka and Patika. These Satraps appear to have been subordinate to the Parthian monarchy.

THE KUSHANS
It is now necessary to return and trace in brief outline the fortunes of the Yueh-chi who dispossessed the Sakas of their an cestral lands and subsequently also replaced them in northern India. For some fifteen or twenty years this tribe remained undisturbed in its usurped territory near the Jaxartes river; but about 140 B.C. the Yueh-chi were in turn forced to move into the Oxus valley by another tribe, the Hiung-nu. In this region they appear to have settled down and to have lost their nomad habits; for about 70 B.C. they are found as a territorial nation divided into five principalities.

KADPHISES 1
For the next century nothing is known about Yueh-chi history; but more than one hundred years after the division of the nation into five territorial prin cipalities, the chief of the Kushan section of the horde, Kadphises 1 succeeded in imposing his authority on his colleagues and in establishing himself as sole monarch of the Yueh-chi nation. This event may be dated approximately 45 A.D.; and it was Kadphises I who made himself master of Ki-pin, supposed to be Kashmir, as well as of the Kabul territory, consolidated his power over Bactria and also attacked the Parthians.

KADPHISES 11
The Yueh-chi advance necessarily involved the suppression of the Indo-Greek and Indo-Parthian chiefs of principalities lying to the west of the Indus, but the final extinction of the Indo-Parthian power in the Punjab and the Indus valley was reserved for Kadphises 11 the successor of Kadphises I, who ascended the throne about 85 A.D. About 90 A.D. this ambitious monarch engaged in a war with China, in which he was signally defeated; but this reverse did not crush his aspirations and some five years later he undertook the easier task of attacking India. Success in this direction compensated for failure against the power of China, and the Yueh-chi dominion was gradually extended all over north-western India, with the exception of southern Sind, probably as far east as Benares. The conquered Indian pro vinces appear to have been administered by military viceroys, to whom the large issues of coins, known to numismatists as those of the Nameless King, are attributed. These coins are extremely common all over northern India from the Kabul valley to Benares and Ghazipur on the Ganges.

KANISHKA
Kadphises II was succeeded about 120 A.D. by Kanishka, who alone among the Kushan kings has left a name cherished by tradition and famous far beyond the limits of India. The monuments and inscriptions of his time, as well as tradition, prove that his sway, like that of his predecessor, extended all over north-western India. His coins are associated with those of Kadphises II from Kabul to Ghazipur, and their vast number and variety, indicate a reign of considerable length. Tradition affirms that he carried his arms far into the interior and attacked the king residing at the ancient imperial city of Pataliputra. Kanishka's capital was Purushapura, the modern Peshawar, which then guarded, as it now does, the main road from the Afghan hills to the Indian plains. In his earlier days he is alleged to have had no faith either in right or wrong; but in his later years he became a convert to Buddhism. Many stories have clustered round his conversion and subsequent zeal for Buddhism; but they bear so close a resemblance to the Asoka legends that it is difficult to decide how far they are traditions of actual fact and how far merely echoes of another tradition. The most authen tic evidence on the subject of his changes of faith is afforded by the long and varied series of his coins. The finest, and presum ably the earliest, pieces bear legends, Greek both in script and Language, with effigies of the sun and moon personified under their Greek names, Helios and Selene. On the later issues the Greek script is retained, but the language is a form of old Per sian, while the deities depicted are a strange medley of the gods worshipped by Greeks, Persians and Indians. The rare coins exhibiting images of Buddha Sakyamuni with his name in Greek letters, are usually considered to be among the latest of the reign. "The appearance of the Buddha among a crowd of heterogenous deities would have appeared strange, in fact would have been inconceivable, to Asoka, while it seemed quite natural to Kanishka. The newer Buddhism of his day, desig nated as the Mahayana or Great Vehicle, was largely of foreign origin and developed as the result of the complex interaction of Indian, Zoroastrian, Christian, Gnostic and Hellenic elements…….. In this newer Buddhism the sage Gautama became in practice, if not in theory, a god, with his ears open to the prayers of the faithful and served by a hierarchy of Bodhisattvas and other beings acting as mediators between him and sinful men." -The reign of Kanishka appears to have lasted some twenty-five or thirty years and may be assumed to have terminated about 150 A.D.

HUVISHKA
He was immediately followed by Huvishka, or Hushka, who was probably his son and appears to have retained undimin ished the great empire to which he succeeded. His dominions certainly included Gaya and Muttra. He was a liberal patron of Buddhist ecclesiastical institutions, and at the last-named city a splendid Buddhist monastery bore his name and no doubt owed its existence to his munificence. But all memory of the political events of his long reign have now perished. His coinage is little inferior in interest or artistic merit to that of Kanishka and, like the contemporary sculpture, testifies to the continuance of Hellenistic influence.

VASUDEVA
His successor was Vasuska or Jaska, but he is generally known as Vasudeva. The latter, a thoroughly Indian name, is a proof of the rapidity with which the foreign invaders had succumbed to the influence of their environment. Testimony to the same fact is borne by his coins, almost all of which exhibit on the reverse the figure of the Indian god Siva, attended by his bull Nandi and accom panied by the noose, trident and other insignia of Hindu iconography. The inscriptions of this prince were mostly found at Muttra and range in date from the year 74 to the year 98 of the era used in the Kushan age. They thus indicate a reign of not less than 25 years; but the Kushan power appears to have been decadent during the latter part of it. Coins bearing the name of Vasudeva continued to be struck after he had passed away, and ultimately present the royal figure clad in the garb of Persia and manifestly imitated from the effigy of Sapor (Shahpur) I, the Sassanian monarch who ruled Persia from 238 to 269 A.D. But how or when the Kushan power actually came to an end is wrapt in complete obscurity, the period from A.D. 200 to 350 being one of the darkest in all Indian history. Coins indicate that the Kushans held their own in the Punjab and Kabul for a long time; elsewhere probably numerous Rajas asserted their independence and formed a number of petty shortlived states, the period being one of extreme confusion associated with foreign invasions from the north-west.

MUTTRA UNDER THE KUSHANS
Incidental mention has been made in the preceding para graph of Kushan monuments at Muttra, but, in view of the importance of these remains in connection with the history of the period, it is necessary to indicate the conclusions that can be drawn from them regarding the district. The archaeological evidence shows that under the Kushans Muttra was a flourishing city. The donors of the votive inscriptions on Buddhist and Jain images belong mostly to the merchant class, and from this it appears that the city was a great commercial centre. The first book of the famous collection of Indian fables called the Panchatantra opens with the story of a merchant who starts with his bullock-cart, loaded with merchandise, from Mahilropya in the Deccan and joins a caravan to Muttra. He loses one of his bullocks by an accident on the banks of the Jumna. The Panchatantra was translated into Pehlevi by order of Khusrau Anushirvan (A.D. 531-519), and was probably written in the early centuries of our era. The dated inscriptions referable to the regins of Kanishka, Huvishka and Vasudeva number in all 71, of which no less than 56 come from Muttra, 43 being Jain inscriptions from the Kankali Tila.. All the inscriptions are records of pious gifts or dedications by private persons, and not one is official. But 26 contain the name of one or other of the kings, seven belonging to the reign of Kanishka, twelve to that of Huvishka and seven more to that of Vasudeva. Most of these inscriptions are written in the Brahmi character of the period. Besides the archaeological remains dating from the Kushan period, many others have been discovered relating to other periods, and the explorations carried on during half a century in the city have revealed the existence of a school of sculpture which flourished under the rule of the Kushan kings and for many years after. Colossal Buddhist statues manufac tured at Muttra were carried to the sacred sites of Benares and Sravasti and apparently even to far off Gaya. During the Gupta period the school still retained a prominent place, though it was then far less productive than under the Indo-Scythians. The Muttra museum contains a fine life-size Buddha image with a votive inscription of the fifth century, and Major Cunningham discovered a fragmentary inscription of the reign of Chandra Gupta II. Vikramaditya which is also preserved in the local collection; while the colossal Nirvana statue of Kasia, in the Gorakhpur district, of the fifth century appears to be the work of a Muttra sculptor. One of the most noticeable features of the Muttra school is the classical or Hellenistic influence displayed by several of its productions. This influence was derived from Gandhara, Kanishka's capital, the celebrated sculptures of which give vivid expression in classical form to the modified Buddhism which appears to have been the state religion in the later years of Kanishka's reign and in the reigns of his successors. The best examples of this influence are the Silenus statue discovered by Colonel Stacy in 1836, the "Bacchanalian group" unearthed by Mr. Growse at Pali Khera, and "Herakles strangling the Nemean lion", which is now at Calcutta. On the other hand the Muttra school was essentially Indian in character and a direct continuation of the old-Indian school exemplified at Bharhut and Sanchi. This is evident from a study of the well-known Buddhist railings with their ornamental gateways or toranas, many specimens of which have been discovered at Muttra and are evidently derived from old-Indian examples. They exhibit a peculiar feature in that the railing pillars are usually decorated with female figures probably meant to be yakshis or sylvan nymphs. The origin of these pillar figures can, however, also be traced back to the inscribed devatas on the gateways of Bharhut. In the sixth century the Muttra school of sculpture ceased to exist. This fact is probably due to the Hun invasion which then ravished the Gupta empire and, as recent excavations have shown, were particularly disastrous to the splendid Buddhist establishments of northern India.

THE GUPTAS AND HUNS
It is not until the fourth century that light again begins to dawn. A local Raja at or near Pataliputra raised himself about 320 A.D. to the position of a lord paramount, and extended his sway over Bihar, Tirhut and Oudh. Six years later or in 326 A.D. this chieftain, who bore the classic name of Chandra Gupta, was succeeded by his son Samudra Gupta who thoroughly subjugated the Rajas of the Gangetic plain and subsequently extended his conquests to the far south of India. The dominion, however, under the direct government of Samudra Gupta does not appear to have extended beyond the Jumna, the Punjab, eastern Rajputana and Malwa being in the possession of tribes or clans living under their own rulers who were autonomous but enjoyed the protection of the Gupta monarch. It is uncertain whether Muttra, which must have been on the border line between the sphere of direct government and the " sphere of influence," had its own ruler at this period or not; but in the reign of Chandra Gupta II all these semi-independent chieftains were swept away, and before his death in 415 A.D. the Gupta power was undisputed over northern India from the Bay of Bengal to Kathiawar and the Indus. It was during this period that the Chinese pilgrim Fa-Hian made his journey to India. Commencing his travels in Thibet, he passed successfully through Kashmir, Kabul, Kandahar and the Punjab, and so arrived in Central India, the madhya-des of Hindu geographers. Here the first kingdom that he entered was Muttra. All the people from the highest to the lowest were staunch Buddhists, and maintained that they had been so ever since the time of Sakyamuni. The pilgrim rested in the capital of this kingdom on the banks of the Jumna for a whole month; and in it and its vicinity, he assures us, there were 20 monasteries, containing in all some 3,000 monks. There were, moreover, six stupas, of which the most famous was the one erected in honour of the great apostle Sari-putra. The golden age of the Guptas comprised a period of a century and a quarter, from 330 to 455 A.D., and was covered by three reigns of exceptional length. The death of Kumara Gupta in 455 A.D. marked the beginning of the decline and fall of the empire. When Skanda Gupta came to the throne he encountered a sea of troubles. The savage Huns poured down from the steppes of Central Asia through the passes of the north-west and carried devastation over the plains of India. The invasion was beaten back at the time, but it was renewed in 465 A.D., when a fresh swarm of nomads poured across the frontier and occupied Gandhara. A little later, about 470 A.D., the Huns advanced into the interior and again attacked Skanda Gupta in the heart of his dominions and overthrew the Gupta empire. The leader in this invasion was a chieftain named Toramana, who is known to have been established as ruler of Malwa in Central India prior to 500 A.D. He assumed the style and titles of an Indian “sovereign of maharajas" and Bhanu Gupta and all the local princes must have been his tributaries. But the rule of the Huns did not last long. Toramana died about 510 A.D. and his Indian dominions passed to his son, Mihiragula. All tradi­tions agree in representing Mihiragula as a blood-thirsty tyrant; and the cruelties practised by him became so unbearable that the native princes formed a confederacy against him. About the year 528 A.D. they accomplished the delivery of their country by inflicting a decisive defeat on Mihiragula. The latter was taken prisoner, but his life was spared by Baladitya, the king of Magadha and leader of the Indian confederacy, who sent him to his capital at Sakala with all honour. Meanwhile his younger brother had usurped the throne and Mihiragula was forced to find refuge with the ruler of Kashmir, whose kindness he returned by rebelling and ejecting him from his kingdom. Having succeeded in this enterprise he attacked the neighbouring kingdom of Gaudhara, " The king was treacherously surprised and slain, the royal family was exterminated, and multitudes of people were slaughtered on the banks of the Indus. The savage invader, who worshipped as his patron deity Siva, the god of destruction, exhibited ferocious hostility against the peaceful Buddhist cult and remorsely overthrew the stupas and monasteries, which he plundered of their treasures." He died the same year or about 540 A.D. From the overthrow of the Hun empire no paramount power seems to have existed in norther India, which split up into a number of jarring states, until Harsha Vardhana, the king of Thanesar, consolidated his rule about 620 A.D. over the whole country. After his death in 648 A.D. all order seems again to have disappeared. From the most recent researches of archæologists it appears that an extensive empire in northern India, which included Muttra, came under the rule of the Gurjara-Pratihar Rajas of Bhinmal and Kanauj, between 725 and 1030 A.D., and 247-289 but no historical facts connected with Muttra itself come to light until the Musalman invasion.