Mathura

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Mathura district map

Mathura (मथुरा) is the legendary birthplace of Lord Krishna and covers a geographic expanse of 3329.4. Encompassing the coordinates of 27°41’North latitude and 77° 41’ East longitudes, Mathura, the erstwhile kingdom of the Solar and Lunar dynasties was the focal point of ancient Indian civilization and religion, which witnessed the convergence of Indian, Indo-Scythian and Hellenstic cultures. The district is strategically placed 145 Km southeast of Delhi and 58 Km north west of Agra.

As per epic Mahabharata and per Bhagavata Purana, Mathura was the capital of the Surasena Kingdom, ruled by Kansa the maternal uncle of Krishna.

Contents

History

A portrait of Maharaja Šúraséna or Shoorsena, the grandfather of both Krishna and Pandavas.

Mathura has an ancient history. As per the ASI plaque at Mathura museum, the city is mentioned in the oldest epic Ramayana. In the epic, the Ikshwaku prince Shatrughna, slays a deamon called Lavanasur and claims the land. Afterwards the place came to be known as Madhuvan as it was thickly wooded, Madhupura and later Mathura. The demon that Shatrughan killed in Ramayana was Lavanasur who was the progeny of a devout king Madhu who gets Lord Shiva's Trident in a boon in the Puranas. The Puranas ascribe the founding of the city to Ayu, the son of Pururuvas and the celestrial nymph Urvashi. The city might also have got its name from a famous Yadav king Madhu who reigned around 1600 BC.

In the 6th century BC Mathura became the capital of the Shursen (Surasen) republic[1]. The city was later ruled by the Maurya empire (4th to 2nd centuries BC) and the Sunga dynasty (2nd century BC). It may have come under the control of Indo-Greeks some time between 180 BC and 100 BC. It then reverted to local rule before being conquered by the Indo-Scythians during the 1st century BC. Archaeological evidence seems to indicate that, by 100 BC, there was a group of Jains living in Mathura . Mathuran art and culture reached its zenith under the Kushan dynasty which had Mathura as one of their capitals, the other being Purushapura (Peshawar). The dynasty had kings with the name of Kadphises, Kanishka, Huvishka and Vasudeva. All the Kushans were patrons of Buddhism except Vasudeo, mentioned on coins as Bazodeo. Kanishka even hosted the third Buddhist council, the first two being hosted by Ajatshatru and Ashoka the Great. The headless statue of Kanishka is in the Mathura museum.

Megasthenes, writing in the early 3rd century BC, mentions Mathura as a great city under the name Μέθορα (Méthora).[2]

The Indo-Scythians (aka Sakas or Shakas) conquered the area of Mathura over Indian kings around 60 BCE. Some of their satraps were Hagamasha and Hagana, who were in turn followed by the Saka Great Satrap Rajuvula.

The findings of ancient stone inscriptions in Maghera, a town 17 km from Mathura, provide historical artifacts that provide more details into this era of Mathura [3]. The 3 line text in these inscriptions are in Brahmi script and were tranlated as "In the 116th year of the Greek kings..." [4][5]

The Mathura lion capital, an Indo-Scythian sandstone capital in crude style, dated to the 1st century CE, describes in kharoshthi the gift of a stupa with a relic of the Buddha, by Queen Nadasi Kasa, the wife of the Indo-Scythian ruler of Mathura, Rajuvula. The capital also mentions the genealogy of several Indo-Scythian satraps of Mathura.

Rajuvula apparently eliminated the last of the Indo-Greek kings, Strato II, around 10 CE, and took his capital city, Sagala.

The Mathura Lion Capital inscriptions attest that Mathura fell under the control of the Sakas. The inscriptions contain references to Kharaosta Kamuio and Aiyasi Kamuia. Yuvaraja Kharostes (Kshatrapa) was the son of Arta as is attested by his own coins.[6] Arta is stated to be brother of King Moga or Maues.[7] Princess Aiyasi Kambojaka, also called Kambojika, was the chief queen of Shaka Mahakshatrapa Rajuvula. Kamboja presence in Mathura is also verified from some verses of epic Mahabharata which are believed to have been composed around this period.[8] This may suggest that Sakas and Kambojas may have jointly ruled over Mathura and Uttar Pradesh. It is revealing that Mahabharata verses only attest the Kambojas and Yavanas as the inhabitants of Mathura, but do not make any reference to the Sakas.[9] Probably, the epic has reckoned the Sakas of Mathura among the Kambojas (Dr J. L. Kamboj) or else have addressed them as Yavanas, unless the Mahabharata verses refer to the previous period of invasion occupation by the Yavanas around 150 BCE.

The Indo-Scythian satraps of Mathura are sometimes called the "Northern Satraps", as opposed to the "Western Satraps" ruling in Gujarat and Malwa. After Rajuvula, several successors are known to have ruled as vassals to the Kushans, such as the "Great Satrap" Kharapallana and the "Satrap" Vanaspara, who are known from an inscription discovered in Sarnath, and dated to the 3rd year of Kanishka (c 130 CE), in which they were paying allegiance to the Kushans.[10]

Mathura served as one of the Kushan Empire's two capitals from the first to the third centuries. The Mathura Museum has the largest collection of redstone sculptures in Asia, depicting many famous Buddha figurines. Fa Hien mentions the city, as a centre of Buddhism about A.D. 400; while his successor Hsuan Tsang, who visited the city in 634 AD, which he mentions as Mot'ulo, and writes that it contained twenty Buddhist monasteries and five Brahmanical temples [11]. Later, he went east to Thanesar, Jalandhar in the eastern Punjab, before climbing up to visit predominantly Theravada monasteries in the Kulu valley and turning southward again to Bairat and then Mathura, on the Yamuna river [12].

The city was sacked and many of its temples destroyed by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1018 and again by Sikandar Lodhi, who earned the epithet of But Shikan, the destroyer of idols. The Keshav Dev temple was partially destroyed by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, who built the city's Jami Masjid (Friday mosque) on the same site, re-using many of the temple's stones. It was won over from the Mughals by the Jat kings of Bharatpur but subsequently the area was passed on to the Marathas. The main Krishna shrine is presently the Dwarkadeesh temple, built in 1815 by Seth Gokuldas Parikh, Treasurer of Gwalior.

Jat Khaps in Mathura district


  • Source: Jat Bandhu, April 1991

Inscriptions at Mathura

There are some other inscriptions of Kumara Gupta I, which are not noticed by Fleet. An image of a Jaina Tirthankara was dedicated at Mathura by Kumara Gupta I, in 432 AD. In the same year, a grant or transfer of land was recorded on a copperplate in Bengal. This plate has been recovered in a fragmentary condition and nothing can be known from it beyond the name of the reigning sovereign, the date, and the name of the Vaisya, which is read as Khasapara by Bannerjee and as Khadapara by Basak. [13]

Mathura Inscription of Chandragupta II

II. Mathura stone pillar inscription of Chandragupta II, year 61 (ASI)
  • (Line 8.)-By him who is the son,-accepted by him, (and) begotten on the Mahâdêvî Dattadêvî,- of the Mahârâjâdhirâja, [the glorious] Samudragupta,-
  • (L. I.)-[Who was the exterminator of all kings; who had no antagonist (of equal power)] in the world; [whose fame was] tasted [by the waters of the four oceans]; who was equal to (the gods) [Dhanada and Varuna and Indra and Antaka]; who was [the very axe] of (the god) Kritânta; who was the giver of [many] millions of [lawfully acquired cows] and gold; [who was the restorer of the ashvamêdha-sacrifice, that had been long in abeyance];-
  • (L. 5.)-Who was the son of the son's son of the Mahârâja the illustrious Gupta; the son's son of [the mahârâja, the illustrious] Ghatôtkacha; (and) the son of the Mahârâjâdhirâja [the glorious Chandragupta (I.)], (and) the daughter's son of Lichchhavi, begotten on the Mahâdêvî Kumâradêvî;-
  • (L. 11.)-[By him, the most devout worshipper of the Divine One, the Mahârâjâdhirâja, the glorious Chandragupta (II.)], . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,
(The rest of the inscription is entirely broken away and lost.)

From: Fleet, John F. Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum: Inscriptions of the Early Guptas. Vol. III. Calcutta: Government of India, Central Publications Branch, 1888, 27-28.

PIn Codes of villages in Mathura district

• Aring 281501, • Bajna 281201, • Baldeo 281301, • Barsana 281405, • Bharatpur 281001, • Bisawar 281302, • C O D 281002, • Chata 281401, • Chatta Bazar 281001, • Chaumuha 281406, • Dampier Nagar 281001, • Darwaza 281001, • Deeg Gate 281001, • Drishnapuri 281001, • Farra 281112, • Gayatri 281003, • Girraj Bhagh 281503, • Gokul 281303, • Gopi Nath Bazar 281121, • Goverdahan 281502, • Jait 281402, • Jalesar R S 281304, • Janamasthan 281001, • Jugsena 281308, • Kosikalan 281403, • Krishnanagar(mathura) 281004, • Lal Darwaza 281001, • Latipura 281503, • Lol Bazar 281121, • Mahaban 281305, • Mant 281202, • Mathra Cantt 281002, • Mathura 281005, • Mathura Chowk 281001, • Mathura H O 281001, • Raya 281204, • Refinary 281005, • Refinary Nagar 281006, • Roberts Line 281002, • Sadabad 281306, • Sadar Bazar 281002, • Sahpau 281307, • Sancharka 281001, • Sankat Mochan 281001, • Shergarh 281404, • Sonai 281206, • Sonkh 281123, • Sri Banke Behariji 281121, • Sukh 281001, • Surir 281205, • Tapo Bhumi 281003, • Vrindaban 281121, • Adooki 281006, • Agaryala 281404, • Ahamadpur 281201, • Ahamadpur 281201, • Airakhera 281204, • Ajhai Kurd 281406, • Airakhera 281204, • Akosh 281301, • Akosh 281301, • Anyour 281502, • Anyour 281502, • Arrua 281202, • Arrua 281202, • Arya Samaj Road]] 281001, • Atasbangar 281406, • Awakhera 281201, • Bachchgaon 281123, • Bad 281006, • Badhauta 281504, • Bakla 281001, • Baldeo S.o. 281301, • Bandi 281301, • Baramai 281302,, • Barari 281005, • Barauth 281201, • [[Barchawali 281403, • [[Bardhaun 281204, • Barsana S.o. 281405, • Bathain Kalan 281403, • Bati 281004, • Bhadanwara 281205, • Bhaderua 281122, • Bhadraban 281202, • Bhagosa 281502, • Bhainsa 281005, • Bhalai 281205, • Bharana Kalan 281502, • Bharatia 281302, • Bharatpur Darwaza 281001, • Bhidoni 281205, • Bhooreka 281205, • Bisawali 281204, • Bisawar S.o. 281302, • Bishambhara 281401, • Brij Accadamy E.d.s.o. 281121, • Bukharari 281403, • Chaumuhan S.o. 281406, • Chhata Bazar 281001, • Chhatikara E.d.s.o. 281001, • Chhinparai 281203, • Dalauta 281404, • Dangoli Banger 281202, • Dautana 281401, • Deoseras 281502, • Dhamsinga 281401, • Dhanajeewana 281122, • Dhangaon 281005, • Edalgarhi 281201, • Farah S.o. 281122, • Fonder 281123, • G.b. Jatipura 281121, • Gadhya Latipur 281122, • Gajoo 281206, • Garhumrao 281302, • Gayatri Tapo Bhoomi 281003, • Gidoh 281403, • Gokul S.o. 281303, • Goverdhan S.o. 281502, • Goverdhan S.o. 281502, • Gudera 281206, • Gurkul E.d.s.o. 281121, • Harnaul 281202, • Hatana 281403, • Hathia 281405, • Hayatpur 281305, • Jab 281403, • Jabra 281202, • Jatwari 281404, • Jhanrautha 281301, • Jhudawai 281122, • Jikhangaon 281501, • Junsuti 281501, • Kadauna 281403, • Kamai 281405, • Karab 281504, • Karahari 281205, • Karnar 281403, • Khairakothi 281205, • Khamani 281501, • Kharauth 281403, • Khirari 281504, • Khonthra 281123, • Kolahar 281201, • Kosi Kalan S.o. 281403, • Kosi Khurd 281005, • Kotban 281403, • Krishna Nagar S.o. 281004, • Krishna Puri 281001, • Kumhan 281206, • Ladhpur 281401, • Leela Dham 281121, • Lohban 281204, • Loi Bazar 281121, • Madaura 281301, • Madem 281204, • Magna 281301, • Magorra Edso 281001, • Mahaban S.o. 281305, • Maharana 281405, • Mahmadpur Parasoli 281502, • Mahrauli 281502, • Managarhi 281201, • Manav Sew Shangh 281121, • Maninabalu 281204, • Mant S.o. 281202, • Matholi 281201, • Mathura Chawk 281001, • Midhawali 281302, • Mudseras 281502, • Musmuna 281203, • Nagaura 281204, • Nagla Bali 281301, • Nainu Patti 281123, • Nandgaon E.d.s.o. 281403, • Nasitte 281202, • Nauhjhil S.o. 281203, • Nawali 281205, • Ol 281122, • Paingaon 281401, • Paintha 281502, • Palson 281502, • Panigaon 281204, • Parasoli 281201, • Parkham 281122, • Parkhamgujar 281406, • Patlauni 281301, • Pchahara 281201, • Pelkhu 281504, • Phalen 281403, • Pingari 281122, • Prem Nagar 281003, • R.d. Bazar 281001, • Radhakund 281504, • Raipura Jat 281122, • Rajagarhi Khawal 281205, • Ral 281504, • Raman Rati 281121, • Ranwari 281401, • Raya S.o. 281204, • Refinery Nagar 281006, • Regimental Bazar Edso 281001, • Sahpur 281403, • Sardargarh 281204, • Sehi 281406, • Senwa 281404, • Shall 281201, • Shergarh S.o. 281404, • Sihora 281305, • Siriya Ki Nagaria 281204, • Siwal 281502, • Son 281123, • Sonai S.o. 281206, • Sonkh S.o. 281123, • Sri Bankey Bihari Ji 281121, • Sri Krishna Janam Sthan 281001, • Sukh Sancharak 281001, • Surir S.o. 281205, • Tasinga 281302, • Tentigaon 281202, • Udhar 281204, • Usfar 281004, • Vairani 281301, • Vrindaban S.o. 281121,

References

  1. ↑ Mathura History The Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1909, v. 18, p. 64.
  2. ↑ Megasthenes, fragment 23 "The Surasenians, an Indian tribe, with two great cities, Methora and Clisobora; the navigable river Iomanes flows through their territory" quoted in Arrian Indica 8.5. Also "The river Jomanes flows through the Palibothri into the Ganges between the towns Methora and Carisobora." in FRAGM. LVI. Plin. Hist. Nat. VI. 21. 8-23. 11.
  3. ↑ Bulletin of the Asia Institute, publisher,Wayne State University Press, p.70
  4. ↑ Kushāṇa studies: new perspectives, author-Bratindra Nath Mukherjee, publisher:Firma KLM, isbn 8171021093, p.13
  5. ↑ Ancient Indian coins, author:Osmund Bopearachchi, Wilfried Pieper, publisher- Brepols, 1998, isbn 2503507301
  6. ↑ Kshatrapasa pra Kharaostasa Artasa putrasa. See: Political History of Ancient India, 1996, p 398, Dr H. C. Raychaudhury, Dr B. N. Mukerjee; Ancient Kamboja, People and the Country, 1981, p 307, Dr J. L. Kamboj; Ancient India, 1956, pp 220–221, Dr R. K. Mukerjee; Kambojas Through the Ages, 2005, p 168, S Kirpal Singh.
  7. ↑ Ancient India, pp 220–221, Dr R. k. Mukerjee; Kambojas Through the Ages, 2005, pp 168–169, S Kirpal Singh; Ancient Kamboja, People and the Country, 1981, pp 306–09, Dr J. L. Kamboj; Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, Vol II, Part 1, p 36, D S Konow
  8. ↑ Dr Jayaswal writes:"Mathura was under outlandish people like the Yavanas and Kambojas... who had a special mode of fighting" (Manu and Yajnavalkya, Dr K. P. Jayswal); See also: Indian Historical Quarterly, XXVI-2, p 124. Prof Shashi Asthana comments: "Epic Mahabharata refers to the siege of Mathura by the Yavanas and Kambojas (see: History and Archaeology of India's Contacts with Other Countries, from Earliest Times to 300 B.C., 1976, p 153, Shashi Asthana). Dr Buddha Prakash observes: "Along with the Sakas, the Kambojas had also entered Indian mainland and spread into whole of North India, especially in Panjab and Uttar Pradesh. Mahabharata contains references to Yavanas and Kambojas having conquered Mathura (12/105/5)....There is also a reference to the Kambojas in the Mathura Lion Capital inscriptions of Saka Satrap (Kshatrapa) Rajuvula found in Mathura " (India and the World, p 154, Dr Buddha Parkash); cf: Ancient India, 1956, p 220, Dr R. K. Mukerjee
  9. ↑ Mahabharata 12.101.5.
  10. ↑ Source: "A Catalogue of the Indian Coins in the British Museum. Andhras etc..." Rapson, p ciii
  11. ↑ Mathura Template:1911.
  12. ↑ Hsuan Tsang 1911.
  13. ↑ http://www.third-millennium-library.com/readinghall/UniversalHistory/INDIA/Gupta_Dynasty/5-Kumara-Skanda.html

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