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.

DECLINE OF BUDDHISM
It is necessary at this point to pause in the chronicle of events relating to the successive rulers of the country, and to attempt an outline of the revolution that was slowly taking place in the religious history of Muttra. The prevalence of Buddhism in the city is amply attested not only by the testimony of Fa-Hian but by the numerous ancient Buddhist remains that have been unearthed in it. The Jain cult, which was closely related to the Buddhist, does not appear to have gained very wide popularity in northern India, but it was certainly practised with great devotion in certain localities. Of these Muttra was one; but it must be remembered that the Kankali Tila at Muttra, the site of a Jain stupa which is called in one inscription " the Vodva-stupa built by the gods," is the only mound which has been completely explored, so that the number of Jain sculptures obtained from Muttra is disproportionately large. But the orthodox Hindu worship, conducted under the guidance of Brahmans and associated with sacrificial rites abhorrent to Jain and Buddhist sentiment, had never become extinct and had at all times retained a large share of popular favour. Thus in Muttra itself there is evidence that side by side with Buddhism and Jainism there existed the cult of the Nagas or serpent gods. Several Naga images with their characteristic snakehoods have been found in the district. The most remarkable specimen is that which was discovered at the village of Chhargaon, now in the Muttra museum, and which in an inscription, dated in the reign of Huvishka, is distinctly described as “the lord Naga”. It is not a little curious that these ancient Naga figures are now-a-days worshipped as Dau-ji -a familiar name for Krishna's elder brother Balaram or Baladeva. Moreover, modern effigies of this deity are exact copies of such Naga figures, and the snakehood is accounted for as referring to his being an incarnation of Seshnaga. But it has not been ascertained how far the modern cult of Balaram has been derived from or influenced by the ancient Naga worship. The origin of the worship of Krishna which must have arisen about the time of the Guptas is involved in similar obscurity. In some respects Buddhism, in its Mahayana form, was better fitted than the Brahmanical system to attract the reverence of casteless foreign chieftains; but the facts do not indicate any clearly marked general preference for the Buddhist creed on the part of the foreigners. Kanishka, it is true, liberally patronized the ecclesiastics of the Buddhist church; but Vasudeva reverted to the devotion for Siva, and the later Saka Satraps of Surashtra seem to have inclined much more to the Brahmanical than to the Buddhist cult. Moreover the develop ment of the Mahayana school of Buddhism was in itself a testi mony to the reviving power of Brahmanical Hinduism; it had much in common with the older Hinduism and the relation is so close that even an expert often feels a difficulty in deciding to which system a particular image should be assigned. Brahmanical Hinduism was the religion of the Pundits, whose sacred language was Sanskrit. As the influence of the Pundits upon prince and peasant waxed greater in matters of religion and social observance, the use of their special vehicle of expression became more widely diffused. The restoration of the Brahmanical religion and the associated revival of the Sanskrit language first became noticeable in the second century. In the time of the Guptas it had certainly gained the ascendancy; for these princes, although apparently perfectly tolerant both of Buddhism and Jainism, were themselves beyond all question zealous Hindus, guided by Brahman advisers and skilled in Sanskrit, the language of the Pundits. Without the specification of further details, the matter may be summed up in the remark that coins, inscriptions and monuments agree in furnishing evidence of the recrudescence during the Gupta period of Brahmanical Hinduism at the expense of Buddhism. We have already seen that the latter creed was flourishing when Fa-Hian visited Muttra about 400 A.D. At the beginning of the sixth century came the Hun invasion and the destruction of Gandhara which gave Buddhism at that place its death-blow; and two hundred years later, in the time of Hiuen Tsang, the number of resident monks at Muttra had been reduced to 2,000 and five temples had been erected to Brahmanical deities. Both facts indicate a considerable decline in the prevalence of the creed. By the time Mahmud of Ghazni made his expedition to Muttra, the Brahmanical religion had been completely re-established; and this may be assumed to be the interval during which the Krishna cultus, which was subsequently developed by the Vaishnavite reformers, took root.

SACK OF MUTTRA BY MAHMUD OF GHAZNI
The next mention of Muttra, and the first authentic contem porary record that we find in Indian literature, is connected with the ninth invasion of Mahmud of Ghazni in 1017 A.D. The original source of information respecting Mahmud's campaigns is the Tarikh-i-Yamini of Al'Utbi, who was himself secretary to the Sultan though he did not accompany him in his expedi tions. Mahmud first captured the fort of Baran, the modern Bulandshahr, and, "after some delay, marched against the fort of Kulchand, who was one of the leaders of the accursed Satans, who assumed superiority over other rulers and was in flated with pride, and who employed his whole life in infidelity and was confident in the strength of his dominions……… He possessed much power, great wealth, many brave soldiers, large elephants and strong forts, which were secure from attack and capture. When he saw that the Sultan advanced against him in the endeavour to engage in a holy war, he drew up his army and elephants within a deep forest, ready for action. The Sultan sent his advance guard to attack Kulchand, which, penetrating through the forest……..enabled the Sultan to discover the road to the fort ……..The infidels, when they found all their attempts fail, deserted the fort, thinking that beyond it they would be in security; but many of them were slain, taken, or drowned in the attempt………Nearly fifty thousand men were killed and drowned, and became the prey of beasts and crocodiles. Kulchand, taking his dagger, slew his wife and then drove it into his own body." "The Sultan then departed from the environs of the city, in which was a temple of the Hindus. The name of this place was Maharutu-l-Hind. He saw there a building of exquisite structure which the inhabitants said had been built, not by men, but by Genii…….The wall of he city was constructed of hard stone, and two gates opened upon the river flowing under the city, which were erected on strong and lofty foundations, to protect them against the floods of the river and rains. On both sides of the city there were a thousand houses, to which idol temples were attached, all strengthened from top to bottom by rivets of iron, and all made of masonry work; and opposite to them were other buildings, supported on broad wooden pillars, to give them strength. In the middle of the city there was a temple larger and firmer than the rest, which can neither be described nor painted…. The Sultan gave orders that all the temples should be burnt with naphtha and fire and levelled with the ground." Now in this account neither Muttra nor Mahaban are mentioned by name. The Tarikh-i-Alfi calls Kulchand's fort by the name of Mand; and Mr: Growse suggests that possibly the words "deep forest" may be intended as a literal translation of the name "Mahaban." The identification of Kulchaud's fort with Mahaban and that of Maharutu-l-Hind with Muttra depends on the authority of Ferishta and the later Musalman historians. The identification, however, need not be discredited, as it is probable that it is based on authentic traditions. These historians take for granted that Muttra was an exclusively Brahmanical city. It is probable that this was really the case, and that the remarkable wealth and gorgeous temples which the Sultan found in the city were the result of the religious revival and the modern Krishna cult. The original authorities, however, leave the point open and speak only in general terms of idolaters, a name equally applicable to Buddhists.

THE PERIOD OF AKBAR
From 1017 A.D. until the time of Akbar the history of the district is almost a total blank. As regards this period Mr. Growse says; " The natural dislike of the ruling power to be brought into close personal connection with such a centre of superstition divested the town of all political importance; while the Hindu pilgrims,who still continued to frequent its impoverished shrines, were not invited to present, as the priests were not anxious to receive, any lavish donation which would only excite the jealousy of the rival faith. Thus, while there are abundant remains of the earlier Buddhist period, there is not a single building, nor fragment of a building, which can be assigned to any year in the long interval between the invasion of Mahmud in 1017 A.D. and the raign of Akbar in the latter half of the sixteenth century." Probably the city was unable to recover from the destruction inflicted on it by Mahmud; while the country round about appears to have become a jungle. It has been suggested that the district fell into the hands of the Mewatis, a robber tribe whose headquarters were in the district of Gurgaon and the contiguous portions of Rajputana. The references to the city or district in the Muhammadan historians are few and far between. The author of the Tarikh-i-Daudi says that Sikandar Lodi, who reigned from 1488 to 1516 A.D. and was one of the most able and energetic of all the occupants of the Dehli throne,"was so zealous a Musalman that he utterly destroyed many places of worship of the infidels, and left not a' single vestige remaining of them. He entirely ruined the shrines of Muttra, that mine of heathenism, and turned their principal temples into sarais and colleges. Their stone images were given to the butchers to serve them as meat-weights, and all the Hindus in Muttra were strictly prohibited from shaving their heads and beards and performing their ablutions. He thus put an end to all the idolatrous rites of the infidels there; and no Hindu, if he wished to have his head or beard shaved, could get a barber to do it." In confirmation of this statement it may be observed that when the Musalman governor, Abd-un-Nabi, in 1661, built his great mosque as a first step towards the construc tion of the new city, of which he is virtually the founder, the ground which he selected for the purpose and which was unquestionably an old temple site had to be purchased from the butchers. At the time of Ibrahim's defeat by Babar in 1526, we read that " Marghub, slave, was in Mahaban," presumbly as governor. During the reign of Sher Shah (1540-45 A.D.) a road was made from Agra to Dehli with Sarais at every stage. Sheikh Nur-ul-Haqq, the author of the Zubdat-ut-tawarikh, who wrote in 1596 A.D., says that this road was the same as that existing in his day; and incidentally mention is made of the jungles that surrounded and the robbers that infested the road. Before this road was built, we read, people had to travel through the Doab between those two places. These Muttra jungles were in existence until much later and were the favourite hunting-grounds of the emperors. Abul Fazl tells as one of Akbar's miracles that he mastered there with his eye an infuriated tiger about to spring on a favourite servant. Jahangir records how the empress, the famous Nur Jahan, killed a tiger here with one ball fired from an elephant unsteady through fear; and as late as 1634, Shahjahan killed four tigers in the Mahaban jungles on the opposite side of the river. In the year 1554-55, during the confused fights between the various aspirants to the throne, after the murder of Firoz Shah Sur, an important action took place in the district. Ibrahim Khan Sur, a cousin of Sher Shah, who had married a sister of the Sultan Muhammad Shah Abdali assumed the insignia of royalty under the title of Ibrahim Shah. Thereupon Ahmad Khan, a nephew of Sher Shah, who was married to another sister of Abdali, and was one of the territorial rulers of the Punjab also assumed the insignia of royalty under the title of Sultan Sikandar and led his forces against Ibrahim. The rival armies met at Farah and, after some ineffectual overtures had been made for peace by Sikandar, a battle was fought. Victory declared for Sikandar who became master of Agra and Dehli. Ibrahim fled to Sambhal. Not many years after this the whole of Hindustan came into the power of the Mughals.

MUTTRA UNDER AKBAR
During the tolerant reign of Akbar the places sacred to Hinduism began again to flourish, and it was at this time that the chief temples at Brindaban and Gobardhan were built. Indeed in 1570 the fame of the Brindaban Gosains had spread so far abroad that the emperor himself was induced to pay them a visit. Here he was taken blindfolded into the sacred enclosure of the Nidhban, the actual Brinda grove to which the town owes its name, and so marvellous a vision was revealed to him that he was fain to acknowledge the place as holy ground. The attendant Rajas expressed a wish to erect a series of buildings more worthy of the local divinity and, having obtained the cordial support of the sovereign, built the four celebrated temples of Gobind Deva, Gopi-nath, Jugal Kishor and Madan Mohan in honour of the event. In the territorial distribution carried out by Akbar, the district of Muttra fell within the subah of Agra, but was divided between three sarkars. The portions of the district which fell within the sarkar of Agra were comprised in the mahals of Muttra, Ol, Mangotla, Mahaban, Maholi and Jalesar. The first of these had an area of 37,347 bighas and paid a revenue of 1,155,807 dams. The mahal of Ol, which extended over portions of what is now Bharatpur territory, was nearly five times the size of Muttra; it had an area of 153,377 bighas and paid a revenue of 5,509,477 dams, and, whereas Muttra contributed no troops, Ol contributed 1,000 cavalry and 1,000 infantry to the imperial army. The mahal of Mangotla took its name from the large village of Magorra which still exists to the north of Ol and near Sonkh; its area was 74,974 bighas and its revenue 1,148,075 dams, the military contingent consisting of 400 foot-soldiers and 20 horsemen. Maholi is the Madhupuri of Sanskrit literature and is now an insignificant village only four miles from Muttra city; but the pargana to which it gave its name in Akbar's day had an area of 66,690 bighas and paid a revenue of 1,501,246 dams, its contribution to the army being 500 foot and 80 horse. Mahaban is still a pargana of the district and in 1556 comprised an area of 290,703 bighas assessed to a revenue of 6,784,780 dams; while it furnished a force of 2,000 infantry and 200 horse. It probably included a portion of the present tahsil of Sadabad, the rest of which fell within the pargana of Jalesar. This pargana, the bulk of which is now in the Etah district, covered 904,733 bighas, paid a revenue of 6,835,400 dams, and supplied 5,000 infantry and 400 horsemen. The northern portion of the cis-Jumna tract belonged to the sarkar of Sahar, which took its name from the place which up till 1857 was the headquarters of the present Chhata tahsil. Three other parganas appear to have included parts of this district, namely Sahar, Kamah and Hodal. Of these Sahar was the largest, having a cultivated area of 385,895 bighas and paying a revenue of 2,489,816 dams. Its military contingent too was large and consisted of 7,000 foot and 200 horse. The old pargana of Kosi, now the northern part of tahsil Chhata, belonged to the mahal of Hodal, which took its name from the village situated in Gurgaon a short distance beyond the Muttra border. This mahal had an area of 78,500 bighas and paid a revenue of 462,710 dams, the military detachment furnished by it consisting only of 10 horsemen and 200 foot-soldiers. Some western villages probably fell within the mahal of Kamah, which derived its name from a well-known town in Bharatpur territory and had an area of 90,500 bighas assessed to 505,724 dams. Of the present tahsil of Mat, part probably belonged to Mahaban pargana, while the rest belonged to the pargana of Nohjhil or Noh, as it is called in the Ain-i-Akbari, in the sarkar of Kol. The cultivated area of this mahal was 139,299 bighas in extent; it paid a revenue of 1,311,955 dams, and contributed 3,000 foot and 100 horse to the army. As many of these parganas must obviously have included land lying beyond the present boundaries of the district, it would serve no useful purpose to attempt to compare the revenue paid in the days of Akbar with that paid now. Moreover the figures in the Ain-i-Akbari are often doubtful, and the value of money is widely different. The only other fact connected with Muttra during the time of Akbar is that a mint for copper coinage was established in the place.

MUTTRA DURING THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
Nothing is known of Muttra during the reign of Jahangir; but it was during his reign that Bir Singh Dee, Raja of Orchha, built a large temple at Muttra at a cost of 33 lakhs, so it may be presumed that this emperor continued his father's policy of toleration. One other fact connected with the district is recorded by the emperor himself in his memoirs. On March 10th, 1623, prince Khurram, afterwards the emperor Shahjahan, who had rebelled against his father, advanced towards Muttra and encamped in the pargana of Shahpur in the north of the district. On Jahangir's arrival at Dehli he deviated from his direct course and made off towards Ajmer, leaving two of his leaders, Sundar Rai and Darab, to oppose the emperor. Asaf Khan was sent with an army against them and a battle was fought near Biluchpur, in which the rebels were defeated. The first governor of Muttra in the reign of Shahjahan was Mirza Isa Tarkhan, who gave his name to the suburb of Isapur (now more commonly called Hansganj) on the opposite side of the river. He was succeeded in 1636 by Murshed Quli Khan, who was raised to the rank of "a commander of 2,000 horse," and was given express instructions to root out all idolatry and rebellion. We do not read, however, of much iconoclasm in the time of Shahjahan, the unenviable reputation of carrying persecution to extreme lengths being left to his successor, Aurangzeb. The rebellion here referred to appears to indicate a rebellion of the Jats who, at this time, were beginning to cause trouble is this portion of the empire; and only one year after his appointment Murshed Quli Khan was killed during an attack on one of their strongholds. The next governor of Muttra of whom we hear was Allah Verdi Khan, who held office between 1639 and 1642. He was followed in the latter year by Azam Khan Mir Muhammad Bakir, also known as Iradat Khan, but the latter was removed in 1645 because he did not act with sufficient vigour against the Hindu malcontents. Iradat Khan is described in the Maasir-ul-Umara as a man of most estimable character, but very harsh in his mode of collecting the state revenue. He is commemorated by the Azamabad sarai, which he founded, and by the two villages of Azampur and Bakirpur. The next governor was Makramat Khan and he was succeeded by Jafar, the son of Allah Verdi Khan in 1658, with whose governorship the reign of Shahjahan closed. His immediate successor was Qasim Khan, who was murdered before he joined his appointment, and in 1660 the famous Abd-un-Nabi became governor.

AURANGZEB
Muttra is casually connected with two important events in this emperor's life. Here was born in 1639, his eldest son, Muhammad Sultan, who expiated the sin of primogeniture by ending his days in a dungeon; while in 1658 Aurangzeb was again at Muttra and here establised his pretensions to the crown by compassing the death of his brother, Murad. This took place a few days after the momentous battle of Samogarh, in which the combined forces of the two brothers had routed the army of the rightful heir, Dara. The conquerors on their way to Dehli encamped together near Bad, a few miles south of Muttra, being apparently on the most cordial and affectionate terms; and Aurangzeb, protesting that for himself he desired only some sequestered retreat where he might pass his time in prayer and meditation, persistently addressed Murad by the royal title as the successor of Shahjahan. The evening was spent at the banquet; and when the wine cup had begun to circulate freely the pious Aurangzeb, feigning religious scruples, begged permission to retire. Murad became soon overpowered by the stupor of intoxication, and was only restored to consciousness by a con temptuous kick from the foot of the brother who had just declared himself his faithful vassal. That same night Murad, heavily fettered, was sent a prisoner to Dehli and thrown into the fortress of Salimgarh. He was subsequently removed to Gwalior and there murdered.
To Abd-un-Nabi Muttra owes the famous mosque, the most conspicuous feature in the city, and practically the founda tion of the town as we now see it. He is first mentioned by the Muhammadan historians as fighting on the side of Dara Shikoh at the battle of Samogarh in 1658. About a week after he joined Aurangzeb, and was immediately appointed faujdar or military governor of Etawah. This office he retained only till the following year when he was transferred first to Sirhind and thence, after a few months, to Muttra. Here he remained from August 1660 until May 1668. According to the author of the Maasir-i-Alamgiri "he was an excellent and pious man, and as courageous in war as successful in administration." In his last year of office he met his death in a local rebellion, which afforded his imperial master a pretext for the crusade against Hinduism which cost Muttra some of its finest shrines. A Jat free booter, named Kokala, had raided the Sadabad pargana and plundered it. He and his band of insurgents mustered at the village of Sihora in tahsil Mahaban, whither Abd-un-Nabi advanced to meet them. "He was at first victorious and succeeded in killing the ringleaders; but in the middle of the fight he was struck by a bullet and died the death of a martyr." He was succeeded in office by Saff-Shikan Khan; but as he was unable to suppress the revolt, which began to assume formidable dimensions, he was removed at the end of 1669 by Aurangzeb who sent Hasan Ali Khan, the son of Allah Verdi Khan, to replace him. The emperor himself advanced with a strong force from Agra. The ringleader of the distur bances, Kokala, ultimately fell into the hands of the new governor's deputy, Sheikh Razi-ud-din, and was sent to Agra and there executed, while his daughter was married to Shah Quli, a favourite slave, and his son was made a Muhammadan. Shortly before this took place, in December during the feast of Ramazan, Aurangzeb began his work of destruction. The temple specially marked out for ruin was the famous shrine of Kesava Deva built by Bir Singh Deo of Orchha in the reign of Jahangir. The author of the Maasir-i-Alamgiri says of the event;-" Glory be to God, who has given us the faith of Islam, that, in this reign of the destroyer of false gods, an undertaking so difficult of accomplishment has been brought to a successful termination. This vigorous support given to the true faith was a severe blow to the arrogance of the Rajas, and like idols they turned their faces awe-struck to the wall. The richly-jewelled idols taken from the pagan temples were transferred to Agra, and there placed beneath the steps leading to the Nawab Begam Sahib's mosque, in order that they might ever be pressed under foot by the true believers." Some more iconoclasm was carried out at Brindaban; and the work of bigotry was completed by changing the official name of Muttra to Islamabad and that of Brindaban to Muminabad-names, however, the use of which did not survive the courtly historians of the fanatic emperor's reign.