Mathura A District Memoir Chapter-5

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Mathura A District Memoir By F.S.Growse Chapter-1 Chapter-2 Chapter-3 Chapter-4 Chapter-5 Chapter-6 Chapter-7 Chapter-8 Chapter-9 Chapter-10 Chapter-11 Chapter-12 Chapter-13

THE BUDDHIST CITY AND ITS ANTIQUITIES

APART from its connection with the deified Krishna, the city of Mathura has been a place of note from the most distant antiquity. In Buddhist times it was one of the centres of that religion, and its sacred shrines and relics at tracted pilgrims even from China, two of whom have left records of their travels. The first, by name Fa Hian, spent, as he informs us, three years in Western Asia, visiting all the places connected with events in the life of the great teacher or of his immediate successors; his main object being to collect authentic copies of the oldest theological texts and commentaries, to take back with him to his own country. Commencing his journey from Tibet, he passed success- ively through Kashmir, Kabul, Kandahar, and the Panjab, and so arrived in Central India, the madhya-des of Hindu geographers. Here the first kingdom that he entered was Mathura, with its capital of the same name situate on the bank of the Jamuna. All the people from the highest to the lowest were staunch Buddhists, and maintained that they had been so ever since the time of Sakya Muni's translation. This statement must be accepted with considerable reserve, since other evidence tends to show that Hinduism was the prevalent religion during part of the interval between Buddha's death and Fa Hian's visit, which was made about the year 400 A. D. He assures us, however, that many of the ecclesiastical establishments possessed copper plates engraved with the ori ginal deeds of endowment in attestation of their antiquity. In the capital—where he rested a whole month--and its vicinity, on the opposite banks of the river, were twenty monasteries, containing in all some 3,000 monks. There were, moreover, six relic-towers, or stupas, of which the most famous was the one erected in honour of the great apostle Sari-putra. The five other stupas are also mentioned by name; two of them commemorated respectively Ananda, the special patron of religious women, and Mudgala-putra, the great doctor of Samadhi or contemplative devotion. The remaining three were dedicated to the cultus of the Abhi-dharma, the Sutra, and the Vinaya divisions of the sacred books, treating respectively of Metaphysics, Religion, and Morality, and known in Buddhist literature by the collective name of the Tri-pitaka or' three baskets.'

Some 200 years later, Hwen Thsang, another pilgrim from the Flowery Land, was impelled by like religions zeal to spend sixteen years, from 629 to 645 A.D., travelling throughout India. On his return to China, he compiled, by special command of the Emperor, a work in twelve Books entitled ‘Memoirs of Western Countries,' giving succinct geographical descriptions of all the kingdoms, amounting in number to 128, that he had either personally visited, or of which he had been able to acquire authentic information. After his death, two of his disciples, wishing to individualize the record of their master's adven tures, compiled in ten Books a special narrative of his life and Indian travels. This has been translated into French by the great Orientalist, Mons. S. Julien. Mathura is described as being 20 li, or four miles in circumference, and as con taining still, as in the days of Fa Hian, 20 monasteries. But the number of resident monks had been reduced to 2,000, and five temples had been erected to Brahmanical divinities; both facts indicating the gradual decline of Buddhism. There were three stupas, built by King Asoka, and many spots were shown where the four former Buddhas had left the marks of their feet. Several other stupas were reverenced as containing relics of the holy disciples of Sakya Muni, viz., Sari-putra, Mudgalayana, Purna-maitrayani-putra, Upali, Ananda, Rahula, Manjusri, and other Bodhi-satwas. Every year (he writes) in the months of the three long fasts (the first, fifth, and ninth) and on the six monthly fasts the religious assemble in crowds at these stupas, and make their several offerings at the one which is the object of their devotion. The followers of Abhi-dharma offer to Sari-putra, and those who practise contemplation (dhyana) to Mudgal ayana. Those who adhere to the Sutras pay their homage to Purna-maitrayani-putra ; those who study the Vinaya honour Upali ; religious women honour Ananda ; those who have not yet been fully instructed (catechumens) honour Rahula ; those who study the Maha-yana honour all the Bodhi-satwas. Banners enriched with pearls float in the air, and gorgeous umbrellas are grouped in procession. Clouds of incense and constant showers of flowers obscure the sight of the sun and moon. The king and his ministers apply themselves with zeal to the practice of meritorious works. Five or six li—i.e., about a mile and a quarter—to the east of the town is a monastery on a hill, the sides of which have been excavated to allow of the construction of cells. The approach is by a ravine. It is said to have been built by the venerable Upagupta. In its centre may be seen a stupa which encloses some nail-parings of the Tathagata. At a hill to the north of this monastery is a cave in the rock, twenty feet high and thirty feet broad, where had been collected an immense number of little bambu spikes, each only four innhes long. When a married couple, whom the venerable Upagupta had converted and instructed, obtained the rank of Arhat, he added a spike. But he took no note of other per-sons, even though they had attained the same degree of sanctity. Twenty-four or 25 li to the south-east of this cave was a large dry tank with a stupa by its side, where it was said that one day as Buddha was pacing up and down, he was offered some honey by a monkey, which he graciously told him to mix with water and divide among the monks. The monkey was so charmed at the condescension that he forgot where he was, and in his ecstasy fell over into the tank and was drowned: as a reward for his meritorious conduct, when he next took birth, it was in human form. A little to the north of this tank was a wood with several at stupas to mark the spots that had been hallowed by the presence of the four earlier Buddhas, and where 1,250 famous teachers of the law, such as Sari -putra and Mudgala-putra, had given themselves up to meditation. When the Tathagata (he adds) lived in the world, he often travelled in this kingdom, and monuments have been erected in every place where he expounded the law.

The Lalita Vistara, which is the oldest and most authentic record that the Buddhists possess, gives a most elaborate account of Sakya Muni's early adventures, and of the six years of preliminary penance and seclusion that he spent in the woods of Uruvilva (now Buddh Gaya) before he commenced his public ministry; but the narrative terminates abruptly with his departure for Bananas, which was the first place to which he betook himself after he had attained to the fulness of perfect knowledge. There is no equally trustworthy and consecutive record of the second and more important half of his life—the 40 years which he spent in the promulgation of his new creed—and it is therefore impossible to say at what period he paid those frequent visits to Mathura of which Hwen Thsang speaks. There is, however, no reason to doubt that they were paid; for the place was one of much importance in his time and, like every other new teacher, it was the great centres of population that he laboured most to influence. In Beal's translation of the Chinese ver sion of the Abhinishkramana Sutra we find Mathura styled the capital of all Jambu-dwipa, and on that account it was one of the first suggested as a fit place for Buddha to take birth in. He rejected, it however, on the ground that the king by whom it was ruled, a powerful monarch, Subahu by name, was a heretic. The objections to other large cities were, either that the king's pedi gree had some flaw; osr that he was a Brahman, not a Kshatriya by caste; or that he had already a large family; or that the people were insubordinate and self-willed. Banaras and Ujaiyin were considered unworthy for a similar reason as Mathura, viz., that at the former there were four heretical schools of philosophy, and that the king of the latter did not believe in a future state. The use of the word ‘heretical' is to be noted, for it clearly indicates that Buddha did not intend to break entirely with Hinduism ; or rather, like the English ' Re- formers' of the 16th century, and Dr. Dollinger and his "old Catho lics" on the continent of Europe at the present day, or Babu Kesav Chandra Sen in Calcutta, or, in short, like all subverters of established systems, he found it politic to disguise the novelty of his theories by retaining the old terminology, and thus investing them with the prestige of a spurious antiquity.

In consequence of the changes in religion and the long lapse of time, the whole of the ancient Buddhist buildings described by the Chinese pilgrims had been overthrown, buried, and forgotten, till quite recently, when some fragments of them have been again brought to light. The first discovery was made by General Cunningham, in 1853, who noticed some capitals and pillars lying about with in the enclosure of the Katra, the site of the Hindu temple of Kesava Deva. A subsequent search revealed the architrave of a gateway and other sculptures, including in particular a standing figure of Buddha, three and-a half feet high, which was found at the bottom of ‘a well, with an inscription at its base recording the gift of the statue to the ' Yasa Vihara,' or 'Convent of Glory,' which may be taken as the name of one of the Buddhist establish ments that had existed on the spot. The date of the presentation was recorded in figures which could not be certainly deciphered

A far more important discovery was made in 1860, in digging the foun dation of the Magistrate and Collector's new court-house. The site selected for this building was an extensive mound overhanging the Agra road at the entrance to the civil station. It had always been regarded as merely the remains of a series of brick-kilns, and had been further protected against exploration by the fact that it was crowned by a small mosque. This was, for military reasons, blown down during the mutiny ; and afterwards, on clearing away the rubbish and excavating for the new foundations, it was found to have been erected, in accordance with the common usage of the Muhammadan conquerors, upon the rains of a destroyed temple. A number of Buddhist statues, pillars, and basso-relievos, were disinterred ; and the inscriptions, as partially deci phered, would seem to indicate that the mound was occupied by several dif ferent monasteries ; three of which, according to General Cunningham, bore the names of Sanghamittra-sada Vihara, Huvishka Vihara, and Kundokhara,' or as it may be read, Kunda-Suka Vihara. On the pedestal of a seated figure was found recorded the first half of a king's name, Vasu; the latter part was broken away, but the lacuna should probably be supplied with the word 'deva,' as a group of figures inscribed with the name of King Vasudeva and date 87 was discovered in 1871 at a neighbouring mound called the ' Kankali tila.' The most numerous remains were portions of stone railing of the particular type used to enclose Buddhist shrines and monuments. The whole were made over to the Agra museum, where the railings were roughly put together in such a way as to indicate the original arrangement. The entire collection has since been again removed elsewhere, I believe to Allahabad; but as there is no proper building for their reception there, nobody appears to know anything about them, and it is very much to be regretted that they were ever allowed to be taken from Mathura. Many of the pillars were marked with figures as a guide to the builder; and thus we learn that one set, for they were of various sizes, consisted of at least as many as 129 pieces. There were also found three large seated figures of Buddha, of which two were full, the third a little less than life-size; and the bases of some 30 large columns. It was chiefly round these bases that the inscriptions were engraved. One of the most noticeable fragments was a stone hand, measuring a foot across the palm, which must have belonged to a statue not less than from 20 to 24 feet in height.

Most of the sculptures were executed in common red sandstone and were of indifferent workmanship, in every way inferior to the specimens more recently discovered at other mounds in the neighbourhood. The most artistic was the figure of a dancing-girl, rather more than half life-size, in a tolerably natural and graceful attitude. (Two representations of this figure are given in Cunningham’s Archaeological Survey). Like the so-called figure of Silenus, discovered by James Prinsep in 1836, of which a detailed description will be given fur ther on, it was thought that it might have been the work of a Greek artist. This conjecture, though I do not accept it myself, involves no historical, diffi culty, since in the Yuga-Purana of the Gargi-Sanhita, written about the year 50 B. C., it is explicitly stated that Mathura was reduced by the Greeks, and that their victorious armies advanced into the very heart of Hindustan, even as far as Patali putra. The text is as follows:-

तत: साकेतमाक्रम्य पञ्चालान् मथुरां तथा ।
यवनादुष्टविक्रान्ता: प्राप्स्यन्तिकुसुमध्वजम् ।
तत: पुष्यपुरे प्राप्ते कर्दमे प्रथिते हिते ।
अकुला विषया: सर्वे भविष्यन्ति न संशय: ।

“Then those hateful conquerors, the Greeks, after reducing Saketa, the country of Panchala and Mathura, will take Kusuma-dhvaja (Patali-putra) ; and when Pushpa-pura (i. e., Patali-putra) is taken, every province will assuredly become disordered."

In close proximity to the mound where the antiquities, which we have des cribed above were discovered is a large walled enclosure, called the Damdama, for some years past occupied by the reserves of the district police, but originally one of a series of saraes erected in the time of the Delhi Emperors along the road between the two royal residences of Agra and Delhi. Hence the adjoin ing hamlet derives its name of Sarae Jamalpur; and for the sake of conver nience, when future reference is made to the mound, it will be by that title. As it is at some distance to the south-east of the katra, the traditional site of ancient Mathura, and so far agrees with the position assigned by Hwen Thsang to the stupa erected to commemorate Buddha's interview with the monkey, there is plausible ground for identifying the two places. The identification is confirmed by the discovery of the inscription with the name Kundo-khara or Kundasuka; for, whichever way the word is read, it would seem to contain a reference to a tank (kunda), and a tank was the characteristic feature of Hwen Thsang's monkey stupa. It at first appears a little strange that there should be, as the inscriptions lead us to infer, four separate monasteries on one hill, but General Cunningham states that in Barma, where Buddhism is still the national religion, such juxtaposition is by no means uncommon.

Transcripts and translations of many of these inscriptions have been since made by different scholars and have been published by General Cunningham in Volume III. of his Archaeological Survey ; but they are for the most part of a very tentative character and leave much room for uncertainty, both as regards reading and interpretation. They are all brief votive records, giving only the name of the obscure donor, accompanied by some stereotyped religiousformula. The dates, which it would be specially interesting to ascertain, are indicated by figures, the value of which has been definitely determined; but the era to which they refer is still matter of dispute. Dr. Rajendra-lala Mitra has consistently maintained from the first that it is the Saka era, beginning from 76 A. D.; and if so, the series ranges between 120 and 206 A. D. But the era intended might also be that of Vikramaditya, or of the Seleucidae, or of Buddha's Nirvana, or of the particular monarch whose name is specified.

Before the discovery of these and similar inscriptions, the history of India, from the invasion of Alexander the Great to that by Mahmud of Ghazni, was almost an absolute blank, in which however the name of Vikramaditya, the repu ted founder of the era still most in vogue among Hindus, enjoyed such universal celebrity that it seemed impossible for any question to be raised regarding him. This solitary stand-point has completely given way under the weight of modern researches, and not only Vikramaditya's paramount sovereignty, but even his existence, is now denied, and that by disputants who will scarcely find a single other matter on which to agree. Mr. Fergusson writes: " No authentic traces exist of any king bearing the name or title of Vikramaditya having lived in the first century before Christ; nor "—though here his assertion will be disputed-" has it been possible to point to any event as occurring B. C. 56, which was of sufficient importance to give rise to the institution of an era for its commemoration." Similarly, Professor Bhau Daji, of Bombay, declared that he knew of no inscription, dated in this Sambat, before the eleventh cen tury of the Christian era ; and, though this appears to be carrying incredulity a little too far, General Cunningham, upon whose accuracy every reliance can be placed, says that the earliest inscription of the Vikramaditya era, that he has seen, bears date 811, that is A. D. 754. Now, if the era was really established before the birth of Christ, it is difficult to understand why it should have lain so long dormant and then have become so curiously revived and so generally adopted.

Various solutions of the difficulty have been attempted. It has been definitely ascertained that the title Vikramaditya was borne by a king Sri Harsha, who reigned at Ujaiyin, in the first half of the sixth century A. D., and General Cunningham conjectures with some probability that it was he who restored the general use of the old era (which had been to a great extent superseded by the introduction of the Saka era in 79 A. D.) and made it his own, simply by changing its name to that which it now bears. The king by whom it was really established about the year 57 B. C. he conceives to have been the Indo-Scythian Kanishka.

This is a personage who as yet scarcely figures at all in histories intended for the general reader ; but it is certain that he was one of the greatest sover eigns that ever held sway in Upper India and, if not the first to introduce Bud dhism, was at least the one who definitely established it as the state religion. The Sanskrit Chronicle, entitled the Raja-Tarangini, mentions among the successors of the great Asoka, in the latter half of the century immediately preceding the birth of Christ, three kings of foreign descent named Hushka (or Huvishka), Jushka, and Kanishka. The later Muhammadan writers represent them as brothers: but it is not so stated in the original text, the words of which are simply as follows:-

हुष्कजुष्ककनिष्काख्यास्त्रयस्तचैव पार्थिवा: ।
ते तुरुष्कान्वयोद्भूताअपि पुण्याश्रयानृपा: ।
प्राज्ये राज्यक्षणे तेषां प्राया: काश्मीरमण्डलं ।
भोज्यमास्ते च वौद्धानां प्रब्रज्योर्जिततेजसां ।

“There, too, the three kings, Hushka, Jushka, and Kanishka, born of Turushka descent, monarchs of eminent virtue. In their exalted reign a great part of the region of Kashmir was occupied by peripatetic Buddhist ascetics."

Their dominions are known to have included Kabul, Kashmir, and the Panjab; and recently discovered inscriptions imply that their sway extended thence as far south as Mathura. It is true that many of the religious buildings in holy places have been founded by foreign princes, who had no territorial connection with the neighbourhood; but there seems to have been some special bond of union between Mathura and Kashmir. Incredible as it has been deemed by most geographers, it is yet within the range of possibility, as pointed out by Professor Wilson, that Ptolemy intended, by the close similarity of names, to indicate a connection between Kασπηρία νπξ ŕάs rev Biξά σπov kaί rov Σavξoβaλ kai rov Ροαξιos πηγάs, that is, Kasperia, or Kashmir, at the sources of the Vitasta, the Chandra bhaga, and the Ravi—and the Kash peircei, dwelling lower down on the Vindhya range, and the banks of the Jamuna, one of whose chief towns was Mathura. For, further, Ptolemy repre sents ή πανξώov Χώρα ‘ the country of Pandu,' as lying in the neigbour hood of the Vitasta, or Jhelam ; while Arrian, quoting from Megasthenes, says it derived its name from Panda, the daughter of Hercules, the divinity specially venerated by the Suraseni on the Jamnna. Thus, as it would seem, he identifies Mathura, the chief town of the Suraseni, with Panda. Balarama, one of its two tutelary divinities, may be certainly recognized as Belus, the Indian Hercules ; while, if we allow for a little distortion of the original legend, Pritha, another name of Kunti, the mother of the Pndavas and sister of Krishna and Balarama's father, Vasudeva, may be considered the native form which was corrupted into Panda.

In historical illustration of the same line of argument, it may be remarked that Gonanda I, the king of Kashmir contemporary with Krishna, is related (Raja-Tarangini, I, 59) to have been a kinsman of Jarasandha and to have assisted him in the siege of Mathura He was slain there on the bank of the Kalindi, i.e., the Jamuna, by Balarama. His son and successor, Damodara, a few years later, thinking to avenge his father's death, made an attack on a party of Krishna's friends, as they were returning from a wedding at Gandhara near the Indus, but himself met his death at that hero's hands. The next ‘occupant of the throne of Mathura in succession to Jarasandha was Karna, the faithfulally of the Kauravas, against whom the Great War was waged by Krishna and the Pndavas. Gonanda II, the son of Damodara, was too young to take any part in the protracted struggle; but the reigning houses of Mathura and Kash mir acknowledged a common enemy in Krishna, and the fact appears to have conduced to a friendly feeling between the two families, which lasted for many generations. Thus we read in the Raja-Tarangini (IV., 512)

तस्मिन् जयपुरेकोटटे जयदत्तोव्यधान्मठं ।
राजक्षत्तु: प्रमोदस्य जामाता मथुरापते: ।
आचाभिधोव्यचरयच्छुचिराचेश्वरं हरं ।

that when Jayapida, who reigned over Kashmir at the end of the eighth century after Christ, built his new capital of Jayapura, a stately temple was founded there and dedicated to Mahadeva under the title of Achesvara, by Acha, the son-in-law of Pramoda, the king of Mathura.

Three inscriptions have been found bearing the name of Kanishka. Of these one is dated 9, another 28; in the third the year has unfortunately been broken away. The memorials of his successor, the Maharaja Huvishka, are more numerous, and the dates range from 33 to 50. In one instance, however, the gift is distinctly made to the king's Vihara, which does not necessarily imply that the king was still living at the time ; and the same may have been the intention of the other inscriptions ; since the grammatical construction of the words, which give the king's name and titles in the genitive case, is a little doubtful, the word upon which they depend not being clearly expressed. Huvishka was succeeded by Vasudeva, who, notswithstanding his purely Indian name, must be referred to the same dynasty, since ordinarily he is honoured with the same distinctive titles, Maharaja Rajatiraja Devaputra; and for Devaputra is in one legend substituted Shahi by which the Indo-Scythian Princes were specially distinguished. On gold coins, moreover, his name is given in Greek characters, Bazodeo.

In an article contributed to the Indian Antiquary for 1881 Dr. Oldenberg of Berlin seeks to identify the great Kanishka, not, as General Cunningham has done, with the mythical Vikramaditya, but with the founder of the Saka era in 78 A.D., thus supporting the same chronological theory as Dr. Mitra. The Kushana dynasty, to which Kanishka belonged, seems to have first established itself about 24 B.C. in the person of Hermaens. The coins of this Prince, in which he is styled Basilevs Soter, are well known to numismatists, as also are those of his three successors, who bear the barbarous names of Kozulokad­phises, Kozolakadaphes and Ooemakadphises. The Chinese speak of this dynasty as of great power in India in 159 A.D., but after the death of Vasudeva e. 178 A.D. it rapidly declined and was altogether extinguished about the year of our era 220. After a century of darkness, regarding which nothing is known, the Guptas rose to power in 319 A.D. and held the throne, for five generations, till about 480 A.D., when they were deposed by the Vallabhis, who, however, continued to date events by the same era as their predecessors. The Satrapas or Kshatrapas, who are commemorated by an inscription at Mathura, dated in the reign of the Satrap Saudasa, probably employed a local era of their own dynasty. This appears to have been founded in Gujarat about 100 A.D. and to have continued in power for three centuries, when it was overthrown by the Guptas.

Mr. Thomas, the celebrated numismatist, has broached a theory that the era intended is that of the Seleucidae, which commenced on the last of October 310 B. C. The long interval of time between this date and either the Vikramaditya or the Saka initial year would seem to render his hypothesis altogether untenable, as being utterly subversive of accepted chronology. But from such an inscription as that of Kanishka with the date Sambat 9 he does not deduce the year 303 B. C. (that is 312-9), but rather supposes that as we ourselves ordinarily write 75 for 1875, so the Indo-Scythians wrote 9 for 309 ; and thus Sambat 9 might correspond with the year 3 B.C. A curious confirmation of this view may be observed in the fact that the inscrip tions, in which the dates range from 9 to 98, employ a division of the year into the three seasons, Grishma, Varsha, and Hemanta- that is to say, the hot weather, the rains and the winter ; and the day is specified as (for example) the 11th of the 4th month of the particular season. In only one of the Mathura inscriptions is the date above a hundred, viz., 135 ; and here the division of time is according to the Hindu Calendar still in use, the particular month named being Pushya. Hence it may be inferred that this inscription belongs to an entirely different series and may very probably refer to the Sika era.

The Seleucidan era is obiously one that might have recommended itself to a dynasty of mixed Greek descent ; but another that might with equal or even greater probability have been employed isthe Kashmirian era used by Kalhana in the last three books of his Raja-Tarangini, and which is still familiar to the Brahmans of that country. It is otherwise called the era of the Sap tarshis and dates from the secular procession of Ursa Major, Chaitra sudi 1 of the 26th year of the Kali-yuga, 3076 B.C. It is known to be a fact and is not a mere hypothesis that when this era is used, the hundreds are generally omitted. The chronological difficulties involved in these inscriptions seem therefore almost to defy solution; for the era may commence either in March, 3076 B.C., or in October, 312 B.C., or in 57 B.C., or in 78 A.D. There is further a difficulty in considering that any one era can be intended ; for one inscription has been found, dated 47, mentioning Huvishka as king, while two others bearing Vasudeva's name are dated respectively 44 and 83, which would thus make Vasudeva at once the predecessor and the successor of Huvishka. The simplest way of meeting this difficulty would be to refer the figures to the year of the king's reign, and a small fragment of an inscription that I found in the Jamalpur mound bears the words... shkasya rajya samvatsare 28 Hemant 3 div., of which the most obious translation would be ' On the day of the third winter month of the 28th year of the reign of Kanishka' (as the name it would seem must have been). Nor need any difficulty be occasioned by the use of the word Sambat to denote the year of a monarch's reign. For though modern practice res tricts the term exclusively to the Vikramaditya era, such was not always the case: witness the inscription on the temple of Gobind Deva at Brinda-ban—Sambat 34 Sri Sakabandh Akbar Shah raj—' in the 34th year of the reign of the Emperor Akbar.' But the height to which the figures run is fatal to this theory, and a final solution to the mystery has yet to be sought.

About half-a-mile due west of the Jamalpur mound is a small one on the edge of the Circular Road, where I found the lower extremities of two large seated figures, in red sandstone: the one a Buddha, with an inscription at the base, of which the only words legible are: varaha mase 2 divas 6, ' on the 6th day of the 2nd month of the rains.' The other is almost a facsimile of a sculpture figured at page 36 of Mr. Oldham's Memoir of Ghazipur, among the antiquities found at a place called Aonrihar. It is well executed and represents a woman with her left hand clasping an infant in her lap. One foot rests on an elaborately ornamented stool, the other is doubled under her body. There are five small accessory figures, one in front and two on either side at the back.

Between this mound and Jamalpur is an extensive ridge, which I spent some days in exploring, but found nothing of interest. The most likely place in this immediate neighbourhood that yet remains to be examined is a mound at the back of the jail and within its outer precincts. I brought away one figure from it. Close by is an enormous pit out of which earth was taken to con struct the mud walls of the enclosure. As this is objectionable from a sanitary point of view as well as unsightly, prison labour might with advantage be employed in levelling the mound and using the earth to fill up the pit ; by which means two objects would be obtained.

After my transfer from the district, the Jamalpur mound, which had so often been explored before with valuable results, was completely levelled, at a cost of Rs. 7,236, the work having been sanctioned by Government as a famine relief operation. A large number of miscellaneous sculptures was discovered, of which I have received no definite description. But the more prominent object is a life-size statue of Buddha, which is very finely executed and, when found, was in excellent preservation, though unfortunately broken in two pieces by a fracture just above the ankles. On the base is an inscription in Pali characters, of which a transcript has been sent me by a clever native draughtsman. I decipher it as follows:-

“Deyadharmayam Sakya-bhikshu Yasa-dittasya. Yad atra punyam, tad bhavatu mata-pitroh sukha rya paddhya yatam cha sarvva-satv-anuttarajnana vaptaye."

I have probably misread some of the letters printed in italics, for as they stand they yield no sense. The remainder I translate as follows:

“This is the votive offering of the Buddhist monk Yasa-ditta. If there is any merit in it, may it work for the good of his father and mother and for the propagation of perfect knowlege throughout the world."

In Sanskrit the primary meaning of deya-dharma is 'the duty of giving; 'but in Pali it ordinarily stands for 'the gift' itself. The literal signification of the monks' name, Yasa-ditta is ' Resplendent with glory' ; ditta being the Pali, Prakrit, or Hindi form of the Sanskrit dipta, by a rule of Vararuchi's, under which the example given is sutta (the modern sota) for supta. Vapti, 'the propagation,' is from the root vap, to sow; from which also comes the Hindi word bap, a father,' like the Latin sator from sero.

A second inscription of some length commences with the words Maharajasya Devaputrasya Huvishkasya Samvatsare 51 Hemanta musa 1 div…. but I have not been able to read further, as the only transcript that I have received is a very imperfect one. A great number of fragmentary sculptures of different kinds were also discovered, as I understand, and some of them have been photographed for General Cunningham, who spent several days at Mathura for the purpose of exmamining them. An account may possibly appear in some future volume of his Archaeological Survey; but already four years have elapsed and not a sign has been made.

After General Cunningham's visit a third inscribed slab was found of which a transcript was made and sent. It begins with the word siddham; then appa rently followed the date, but unfortunately there is here a flaw in the stone. After the flaw is the word. etasya The second line begins with Bhagavat. In the third line is the name Mathura; at the end of the sixth line matapi troh; in the middle of the seventh line bhavatu sarvva.

Incidental allusion has already been made to the Kankali, or, as it is occa sionally called, the Jaini Tila. This is an extensive mound on the side of the Agra and Delhi road, between the Bharat-pur and Dig gates of the city. A fragment of a carved Buddhist pillar is set up in a mean little shed on its summit and does duty for the goddess Kankali, to whom it is dedicated. A few years ago, the hill was partially trenched, when two colossal statues of Buddha in his character of teacher were discovered. They are each seven and-a-half feet in height, and are probably now in the Allahabad museum. Whatever else was found was collected on the same spot as the remains from the Jamalpur mound, and it is therefore possible (as no accurate note was made at the time) that some of the specimens referred to the latter locality were not really found there; but there is no doubt as to the inscriptions, and this is the only point of any importance. Further excavations resulted in the discovery of several muti lated statues of finer stone and superior execution, and it was thought that many more might still remain buried; as the adjoining fields for a considerable distance were strewn with fragments applied to all sorts of vile purposes. A large figure of an elephant—fortunately without its trunk—standing on the capital of a pillar and in all respects similar to the well.-known example at San kisa, but of much coarser work, was found in 1871 in a neigbouring garden. On the front of the abacus is engraved an inscription with the name of King Huvishka and date' Sambat 39.' Another inscription, containing the name of King Kanishka, with date' Sambat 9,' was discovered the same day on the mound itself below a square pillar carved with four nude figures, one on each face. This is of special interest, inasmuch as nude figures are always con­sidered a distinctive mark of the Jain sect, which was supposed to be a late perversion of Buddhism; an opinion, however, which most scholars have now abandoned. Mahivira the 24th and last of the great Jinas died in 526 B.C., while the Nirvana, or death, of Buddha, the founder of the rival faith, has finally been determined as having taken place in 477 B.C. Indeed, it was sug gested by Colebrooke, though further research would seem to have disproved the theory, that Buddha was actually a disciple of Mahivira's.

Among other sculptures found here while I was in the district may be mentioned the following:-

1st.—A life-size seated figure with an elaborately carved nimbus and long hair flowing over the shoulders and down the back. The head is lost. 2nd.—A teacher of the law standing between two tiers of small figures seated in the attitude of contemplation, with a Caliban-like monster sprawling over the top of the canopy above his head. The arms and feet of the principal figure are missing: but with this exception the group is in good preservation and is well executed.3rd.—A divdril of a doorway carved with the representation of a triumphal column with a bell capital surmounted by winged lions supporting the figure of an elephant. The reverse has an ornamental border enclosing a short inscription in which the name of the donor is given as Mugali-putra. 4th.—A chaumukhi, or pillar of four (headless) Buddhas, seated back to back, well executed in fine white stone. 5th.—A chaumukhi of four standing nude figures, roughly carved in coarse red sandstone. 6th.—A pair of columns, 31/2 feet high, characteristically carved with three horizontal bands of conven tional foliage and festoons, which are slightly suggestive of a classic model. 7th—A cross-bar of a Buddhist railing with a sculptured medallion on either side. 8th.— A small seated figure with six persons standing in a line below, three on each side of a chakra which they are adoring. There is an inscription in one line as follows:

Siddham. Jivikasya datta.Bhikshusya viharasya ;

Which I would translate thus: ' May it prosper; the gift of Jivika, a mendicant, for the monastery."

It is worthy of remark that no definite line of foundation has ever been brought to light nor any large remains of plain masonry superstructure ; but only a confused medley of broken statues without even the pedestals on which they must have been originally erected. This suggests a suspicion that possibly there never was a temple on the site, but that the sculptures were brought from different places in the neighbourhood and here thrown into a pit by the Muhammadans to be buried. They clearly belong to two very different periods. The more ancient are roughly carved in coarse red sandstone and, whenever there is any lettering, it is in Pali ; the more modern display much higher artistic skill, are executed in mach finer material, and all the inscriptions are in the Nagari character, one being apparently dated in the twelfth century after Christ. But upon the whole I conclude that the discovery of no foundations in situ is rather to be explained by the fact that the mound has long served as a quarry, and that bricks and small blocks of stone, being more useful for ordinary building purposes, would all be removed, when cumbrous and at the same time broken statues might be left undisturbed.

It is possible that here may have stood the Upagupta monastery, mentioned by Hwen Thsang. As there is no trace of any large tank in its immediate proximity, it was more probably the site of a monastery than of a stupa. For a tank was almost a necessary concomitant of the latter; its excavation supplying the earth for the construction of the mound, in the centre of which the relics were deposited. Hence a different procedure has to be adopted inexploring a mound believed to have been stupa from what would be followed in other cases. Unless the object be to discover the relics, it is ordinarily a waste of labour to cut deep into its centre; for the images which surmounted it must have fallen down outside its base, where they have been gradually buried by the crumbling away of the stupa over them and will be found at no great depth below the surface. But, in the case of a temple or monastery, the mound is itself the ruined building; if Muhammadans were the destroyers, it was generally utilized as the substructure of a mosque. The Upagupta monastery, it is true, is said to have comprised a stupa also, but it would appear from the way in which is mentioned to have been comparatively a small one: it may well have formed the raised centre of the Kankali Tila into which I dug found nothing.

But whatever the purpose of the original buildings, it is clear that the hill was frequented as a religious site for upwards of a thousand years. Some of the statues are unmistakeably Buddhist and about coeval with the institution of Christianity; while others are as clearly Jain and one of these is dated Sambat 1134. Either the Jains succeeded the Buddhists in the same way as. Protestants have taken the place of Catholics in our English Cathedrals; or the two rival sects may have existed together, like Greek and Latin Christians in the holy places of Jerusalem.

Hwen Thsang describes the Upagupta monastery as lying to the east of the town and the kankali Tila is a little to the east of the katra, which was certainly the centre of the old Buddhist city, the local tradition to that effect having been confirmed by the large number of antiquities recently found in its neighbourhood. The only difficulty in so considering it arises from the fact that Mathura has at all times been represented as standing on the bank of the Jamuna, while the katra is nearly a mile away from it. Popularly, this objection is removed by an appeal to the appearance of the ground, which has evidently been affected by fluvial action, and also by the present habits of the river, which is persistent in endeavouring to desert its present channel in favour of one still more to the east. The stream, it is said, may have so worked its way between the natural hills and artificial mounds that the temples, which once stood on its east bank, found themselves on the west, while those that were originally on the western verge of the river were eventually left far inland. This was the view taken by Tavernier more than two centuries ago who was so far influenced by the popular tradition and the appearance of the country as to assert positively, not only that the course of the river had changed, but that the change had taken place quite recently. His words are as follows:—" At Cheka Sera" (by which he must intend the Shahganj sarae, then recently built)” may be seen one of the largest pagodas in all India. Con nected with it is a hospital for monkeys, not only for those that are ordinarily on the spot, but also for any that may come from the surrounding country, and Hindus are employed to feed them. This pagoda is called Matura, and was once held in much greater veneration by the heathen than it is now; the reason being that the Jamuna used to flow at its foot, and so the Hindus, whether natives, or strangers who had come from a distance on a pilgrimage for purposes of devotion, had facilities for bathing in the river both before they entered the pagoda and also before eating when they went away. For they must not eat without bathing, and they believe that their sins are best effaced by a dip in flowing water. But for some years past the river has taken a turn to the north, and now flows at the distance of a kos or more; whence it comes about that the shrine is less frequented by pil grims than it used to be."

The third of the principal Buddhist sites is the vicinity of the katra. Here, at the back of the temple of Bhutesvar Mahadeva, is rather a high hill of verylimited area, on the top of which stood, till removed by the writer, a Buddhist pillar of unusually large dimensions. It is carved in front with a female figure, nearly life-size, bearing an umbrella, and above her head is a grotesques bas-relief representing two monkeys, a bird, and a misshapen human dwarf. Immediately opposite the temple is a large ruinous tank, called Balbhadra Kund, with a skirting wall, into which had been built up some good specimens of the cross-bars of a Buddhist railing. From an adjoining well was recovered a plain pillar neasuring four feet seven inches in height by eleven inches in breadth, carved in front merely with two roses. The elliptical holes in the sides of the pillar were too large for the cross-bars, which must have belonged to a smaller range. They measure only one foot three inches in length, and are enriched with various devices, such as a rose, a lotus, some winged monster, & c. These were eleven in number: four of the most perfect were taken away by General Cunningham, the rest are still in situ. Built into the verandah of a chaupal close by were five other Buddhist pillars of elaborate design and almost perfect preservation. It is said that there was originally a sixth, which some years ago was sent down to Calcutta; there it has been followed by two more ; the remaining three were left, by the writer, for the local museum, where possibly they may now have been placed. They are each four feet four inches in height and eleven inches broad; the front is carved with a-standing female figure, whose feet rest upon a crouching monster. In an upper come partment, divided off by a band of Buddhist railing, are two demi-figures, male and female, in amorous attitudes, of very superior execution. On one pillar the principal figure is represented as gathering up her drapery, in another as painting her face with the aid of a mirror, and in the third as supporting with one hand a wine jar and in the other, which hangs down by her side, holding a bunch of grapes. Each of these figures is entirely devoid of clothing: the drapery mentioned as belonging to one of them is simply being gathered up from behind. They have, however, a profusion of ornaments—Karas on the ankles, a belt round the waist, a mohan mala, on the neck, karn phuls in the ears, and baju-band, churi, and pahunchi on the arms and wrists. There are also three bas-reliefs at the back of each pillar; the subject of one is most grossly indecent; another represents Buddha's mother, Maya Devi, with the sal tree under which she gave birth to her son. A fragment of a pillar from one of the smaller concentric circles of this same set was at some time sent to Lahor, and is now to be seen in the museum there.

General Cunningham, in his Archaeological Report, has identified the Upagupta monastery with the Yasa Vihara inside the katra; but in all probability he would not now adhere to this theory. At the time when he advanced it, he had never visited the Kankali Tila, and was also under the impression that the Fort had always been, as it now is, the centre of the city. Even then, to maintain his theory, he was obliged to have recourse to a very violent expedient and in the text of the Chinese pilgrim alter the word ‘ east' to ‘ west,' because, he writes, " a mile to the east would take us to the low ground on the opposite bank of the Jamuna, where no ruins exist ;" forgetting apparently Fa Hian's distinct statement that in his time there were monasteries on both sides of the river, and being also unaware that there are heights on the left bank, at Isapur and Mahaban, where Bud dhist remains have been found. The topographical descriptions of the two pilgrims may be reconciled with existing facts without any tampering with the text of their narrative. Taking the katra, or the adjoining shrine of Bhutesvar, as the omphalos of the ancient city and the probable site of the great stupa of Sariputra, a short distance to the east will bring us to the Kankali Tiila i, e., the monastery of Upagupta; the Jamalpur mound has already been identified with the monkey stupa; while some mounds to the north, that will shortly be mentioned, may have been "the stupas of the four earlier Buddhas and other great teachers of the law."

Close at the back of the Balbhadra Kund and the katra is a range of hills of considerable elevation, commonly called dhul kot, literally ' dust-heaps,' the name given to the accumulation of refuse that collects outside a city, and so corresponding precisely to the Monte Testaccio at Rome. Some of these are, however, clearly of natural formation and probably indicate the old course of the Jamuna or its tributaries. Others are the walls of the old city, which in places are still of great height. They can be traced in a continuous line from the Rangesvar Mahadeo on the kans ka tila outside the Holi gate of new Mathura across the Agra road, to the temple of Bhutesvar, and thence round by an orchard called the Uthaigira ka bagh where the highest point is crowned by a small Bairagi's cell, at the back of Kesav Dev and between it and the Seth's Chaurasi temple, to the shrine of Gartesvar, ‘the God of the Moat,' and so on to the Mahvidya hill and the temple of Gokarnesvar near the Sarasvati Sangam.

At the distance of about a mile to the south-west of these ancient ram-parts, at the junction of the boundaries of the township of Mathura and the vil lages of Bakirpur and Giridharpur, is a group of some twelve or fourteen cir cular mounds, commonly known as the Chauwara mounds, from a rest-house that once stood there; Chauwara and Chaupal being different forms of the same word, like gopala and gwala They are strewn with fragments of brick and stone and would seem all to have been stupas. As they are to the north of the Jamalpur mound, they may with great probability be identified with the stupas described by Hwen Thsang as lying to the north of the monkey tank and mark ing the spots that had been hallowed by the presence of the 1,250 famous teachers of the law.

In the year 1868, the new road to Sonkh was carried through one of these mounds, and in the centre was disclosed a masonry cell containing a small gold reliquary, the size and shape of a pill-box. Inside was a tooth, the safe-guard of which was the sole object of box, cell, and hill; but it was thrown away as of no value. The box was preserved on account of the material and has been given to the writer by Mr. Hind the district engineer, whose workmen had discovered it.

Another mound was, as I am informed, by-General Cunningham in 1872, when, on sinking a well through its centre, he found, at a depth of 131/2 feet from the summit, a small steatite relic casket imbedded in a mass of un burnt bricks. Here I found subsequently the head of a colossal figure of very Egyptian cast. of features with a round hole in its forehead, in which was once set a ruby or other precious stone. The lower part of a large seated Buddha was also unearthed with an inscription in the Pali character on the ledge beneath, of which the first three words read Maharajasya Devaputrasya Huvish kasya, i. e., ' of the great king, the heaven-born Huvishka,' followed by the date sam 33, gri 1, di 8, 'the 8th day of the 1st summer month of the 33rd year.' The remainder has not been deciphered with any certainty. I found also seve ral cross-bars and uprights of Buddhist rails of different sizes and a great number of small fragments of male and female figures, animals, grotesques, and decora tive patterns, showing that the sculptures here must have been far more varied in design than at most of the other sites. One of the uprights has a well-executed and decently draped figure of a dancing-girl, with the right hand raised and two fingers placed upon her chin. The lower part of the post has been broken away, carrying with it her feet and the third of the three groups at the back. Of the two groups that remain, the upper one represents two seated figures, appa rently a teacher and his disciple, with two attendants standing in the back-ground, and has a single line of inscription below, recording the donor's name. The second group shows a sacred tree, enclosed with the conventional rails, and a pilgrim on either side approaching in an attitude of veneration. The only other sculpture deserving special notice is a small bas-relief that represents a capacious throne resembling a garden chair of rustic wood-work, with a foot-stool in front of it and some drapery spread over the seat, on which is placed a relic casket. In the back-ground are two figures leaning over the high back of the chair. Their peculiarly furtive attitude is characteristic of the style; almost every group includes one or more figures peeping over a balcony, or a curtain, or from behind a tree. On this stone was found a copper coin so much corroded that no legend was visible, but bearing is its centre a running figure, which was the device employed both by Kanishka and Huvishka. I had great hopes of discovering another inscription here, as ,I had picked up a small fragment with the letters , that is,'Budhanam,' cut very clear and deep; but my search was unsuccessful. Digging in the field some twenty paces from the base of the mound, I came upon the original pavement only two or three feet below the surface, with three large square graduated pedestals, ranged in close line, one overthrown, the other two erect. A capital, found by General Cunningham in 1872, measuring 3ft. x 2 x 2, and carved with four winged lions and bulls conjoined, probably belonged to one of the pillars that had surmount ed these pedestals. Thay have been put in the local museum, together with the antiquities above described and the knee of a colossal statue found by General Cunningham in sinking the well through the centre of the mound. A large dry tank, adjoining the mound, is proved to be also of Buddhist construction, as I had anticipated ; for I found in one of the mounds on its margin a broken stone inscribed with the letters that is, 'Danam Chh.'

Between the Kankali Tila and these Chauwara mounds, all the fields are dotted with others, so close together and so much worn by time that they can scarcely be distinguished from the natural level of the ground. One that I searched, after an exploration extending over several days, yielded nothing beyond a few arabesque fragments and, at a depth of six feet below the surface, a small pediment containing in a niche, flanked by fabulous monsters and surmounted by the mystic wheel, a figure of Buddha, canopied by a many-headed serpent and seated on a lion throne. A mound immediately adjoining the pillar that marks the boundary of the township of Mathura and the villages of Maholi and Pali-khera, lying due south of the Kankali Tila and east of the Girdhar pur mound, has yielded a strange squat figure of a dwarf, three feet nine inches high and two feet broad, of uncertain antiquity ; and at another mound, just outside the Pali-khera village site, I came upon the counter-part of Colo nel Stacey's so-called Silenus, which he found in 1836 and placed in the Asiatic Society's Museum in Calcutta, where it still is. A full description of this curious sculpture will be given in another chapter. On further excavating the mound, in which I found it, I discovered in situ three bell-shaped bases of large columns at 13 feet distance from one another, at the three corners of a square; the fourth had completely disappeared. In clearing the space between them I came upon some small figures of baked clay, glazed, of a bluish colour, similar in character to the toys still sold at Hindu fairs ; also a few small fragments of carved stone and some corroded pieces of metal bangles. According to village tradition-this khera was the fort of a demon, Nonasur; the exploration proves it to have been a Buddhist site; it adjoins a temple court, of the early part of the 17th century, now occupied by a married Bairagi as an ordinary dwelling house. Close by, on the border of the hamlet of Dhan sinh, is a small Buddhist rail (now reverenced as the village Devi) with the usual figure of Buddha's mother under the sal tree on its front, and three roses at the back. A few paces further on is the central portion of a very large Buddhist pillar, with a head on either side, the exact counter-part of one that I extracted from the Chhatthi Palna at Mahaban.

The hill known as the Kans ka Tila just outside the south, or, as it is called, the Holi Gate of the city, is supposed to be the one from the summit of which the tyrant of that name was tumbled down by Krishna. General Cunningham suggests that this might be one of the seven great stupas mentioned by the Chinese pilgrims, and adds that on the north of the city there are two hills still bearing the names of Anand and Vinayaka, titles which they specify. But in this it appears that he was misinformed, as no such localities can be traced. Of the hills to the north of Mathura, the most conspicuous are the Kailas and Mahal or Jaysinhpura khera sometimes called the Ganes from the Ghat of that name which is immediately below it. An Anant tirtha, easily to be confounded with Anand, is noted in the Mathura Mahatmya ; and the fact that Vinayaka, besides its Buddhist meaning, is also an epithet of Ganes, may have given rise to an error in the other name. The Kans ka Tila certainly appears to be pri marily of natural formation and hence to have been selected as the river boundary of the old city wall. The whole country, indeed, has been broken up into heights and hollows of indefinite number and extent : but most ancient Buddhist sites must be looked for at a greater distance from the river and outside the modern city, in what is now open country at the back of the katra, and in the direction of Maholi, the ancient Madhu-puri, where the aboriginal Madhu held his court. Subsequently to his defeat, the Aryan city was built in the neighbourhood of the present Katra and the temple of Bhutesvar ; and, being the seat of the new Government, it appropriated in a special way the name which formerly had denoted, not the capital, but the whole extent of territory. This view is confirmed by observing that, philologically,' Mathura appears a more fitting name for a country than for a city, and one that could be applied to the latter only inferentially. The present city is the third in order and has for its centre the Fort; as the second had the temple of Bhutesvar, and the first the grove of Madhu-ban. Thus, speaking generally, the further we move back from the city in the direction of Maholi, the elder will probably be the date of any antiquities that may be discovered.

References