History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c14.s2: II. Identification of the Bhāra Śivas

History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Nāga–Vākāṭaka Imperial Period c14.s2

Language: English

II. Identification of the Bhāra Śivas

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10. After a century of Kushan domination, a Hindu king in the person of the Bhāra Śiva king was consecrated to Hindu sovereignty with the holy waters of the Ganges. The significance of this statement is that after an interregnum of hundred years he became the first legal king. In this connection we may recall the Purāṇic statement about the foreign kings in India in those days, namely that they were not consecrated kings: naiva mūrdhābhishiktās te.

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Now, is it possible that the Purāṇas will fail to record these Mūrdhābhiṣikta kings, consecrated to the throne with Vedic hymns and Vedic rites, a line of lawful kings, who performed not one or two but ten aśvamedhas in the sacred land of the Āryas—an achievement which was not to the credit of any of the ancient dynasties of the Kali Age whom the Purāṇas have described? The Śuṅgas performed two, and the Śuṅgas are in the Purāṇic list of the Emperors. The Sātavāhanas performed two, and the Sātavāhanas have been recorded. The Bhāra Śivas, who performed ten, could not have been left out. And in fact, they have not been left out.

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11. We have in the Vākāṭaka inscriptions one of the Bhāra Śivas named, and we have in that name that he was a Nāga king—of the Bhāra Śivas—[i.e. of the dynasty of the Bhāra Śivas]—Mahārāja Śrī Bhava Nāga’. The Purāṇas describe, after mentioning the fall of the Āndhras and their contemporaries the Tukhāra-Muruṇḍa dynasty [i.e. the dynasty we now call the Imperial Kushan], the rise of Vindhyaśakti on the Kilakilā, that is, the Vākāṭaka dynasty in Bundelkhand, ‘Kilakilā’ being a river near Panna.¹ The Purāṇas in explaining the importance of the rule of the son of Vindhyaśakti begin to describe the Nāga Dynasty. The Nāga Dynasty arose at Vidiśā, the well-known seat of a viceroyalty under the Śuṅgas.

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¹ To Rai Bahadur Hira Lal I am indebted for the information that the Kilakilā is a small river near Panna. I have since ascertained, through the kind offices of Mr. Śaradā-Prasad of Satnā (Rewah) that one crosses it on the road Satnā-to-Pannā, about 4 miles E. of Pannā, and the river enters the town of Pannā. It still bears its original name. It finally falls into the Ken under the name Mahāur. Probably the entire table-land of Pannā was termed Kilakilā at the time. It agrees with the contemporary designations of other territorial units like Kosalā and Mekalā. [Since the above information I have personally seen the river and found it called ‘Kilkila’ on two tablets on its bridges in Pannā, erected in 1870 A.D., marked ‘Kilkila Bridge’.]

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12. The Purāṇas divide the Nāga dynasty of Vidiśā into two parts:

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(A) Those kings who flourished before the end of the Śuṅgas, and (B) those kings who flourished after their end.

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We must recall here that the Matsya and the Bhāgavata chronicle¹:

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¹ Pargiter, Purāṇa Text, p. 38.

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‘Suśarmāṇam praśahya (or, pragṛhya) taṃ
‘Śuṅgānāṃ ch=aiva yach=chheṣaṃ kṣapitvā tu balaṃ tadā.’

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‘[The Āndhra king] having taken Suśarman (the Kāṇva king) a prisoner and having destroyed whatever had been left of the Śuṅga power at that time.’

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This statement would refer to the Śuṅga power which had been left in Vidiśā, their ancestral home. And as the Purāṇas here are dealing with the Vaidiśa kings, the statement about the Vaidiśa Nāgas coming into power before and after the Śuṅgas, must refer to the Āndhra or Sātavāhana period when the Sātavāhanas become the emperors of Āryāvarta in addition to their being the emperors of Dakṣiṇāpatha, i.e. about 31 B.C.²

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² J.B.O.R.S., I, 116: Pushyamitra: acc. 188 B.C. Śuṅgas: 112 years } 157 Kāṇvas: 45 years } 31 B.C.

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13. The kings before 31 B.C. in the Nāga dynasty, according to the Purāṇic chronicles, were:

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(1) Śeṣa, ‘king of the Nāgas’, ‘conqueror of his enemy’s capital’ (Surapura³—according to the Brahmāṇḍa).

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³ Surapura may be Indrapura, now Indor Kherā in the Bulandshahr district, where a large number of the so-called Mathurā coins have been found. See A.S.R., XII, p. 36 ff.

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(2) Bhogin—son of King Śeṣa.

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(3) Rāmachandra, chandrāṃśu,⁴ as the second descendant, i.e. a grandson of Śeṣa.

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⁴ I do not read Chandrāṃśu separately, as the Viṣṇu Purāṇa does not read it so.

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(4) Nakhavān (or, Nakhapāna), i.e. Nahapāna.

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It is noteworthy that the Viṣṇu Purāṇa omits this name from the list, evidently for the reason that it was not to be read in the line of the Nāgas.

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(5) D h a n a -, or D h a r m a - v a r m a n (D h a r m a, according to the Vishnu).

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(6) V a ṅ g a r a.¹ The Vāyu and the Brahmāṇḍa without naming him call him the fourth descendant, i.e. he was the fourth descendant from Śeṣa; probably D h a r m a (5) was the third descendant of Śeṣa.

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¹ This name, as a name, is traceable in a village-name Vaṅgara [near Nāgaudh] in the Khoh copper-plate of Mahārāja Hastin. G.I., page 105.

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The Purāṇas, after this, make the definite division from the next king, the Bhāgavata omitting the previous names altogether and the Vāyu and the Brahmāṇḍa stating that the next kings flourished ‘after the end of the Śuṅga Dynasty’,² that is, after the conquest by the Sātavāhanas of Nahapāna, and their arrival in Central India and their conquest of the Kāṇvas and the Śuṅgas. These post-Śuṅgan Nāgas were:

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² भूति[भूत]नन्दिस्यापि वैदिशे तु भविष्यति शृङ्गानां तु कुलस्यान्ते । [Pargiter's PT., p. 49, n. 15.]

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(7) B h ū t a N a n d i o r B h ū t i N a n d i.

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(8) Ś i ś u N a n d i.

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(9) Y a ś o N a n d i [younger brother of Śiśu Nandi]; other kings are left unnamed.

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14. Before proceeding further we should notice here that the Vāyu calls these Vaidiśa Nāgas ‘V r i s h a’³—Śiva’s bull, i.e. ‘N a n d i’, with which the names of the kings coming after the close of the Śuṅga dynasty end. It seems that the title Bhāra Śiva, which was taken up later, is connected conceptually with the ‘V r i s h a’ of the Vāyu and the ‘N a n d i’ of the names.

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³ वृषान् वैदिशकांश्चापि भविष्यांश्च निबोधत । (II. 37-360.)

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15. There is a positive confirmation of the existence of these post-Śuṅgan Nāgas in the first century A.D. At P a d a m p a w ā y ā, which is the site of P a d m ā v a t ī, a statue of Yaksha Manibhadra was dedicated by some members of a public body in the fourth year of the reign of ‘K i n g S v ā m i n Ś i v a N a n d i’.⁴

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⁴ Archæological Survey of India Report, 1915-1916, p. 106, plate LVI.

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The script of the inscription is earlier than that of the early Kushans. The 'i'-vowel-marks do not curve and are straight; seriph is not developed. The style of the Yaksha image is also early. The script will place the record in the first century A.D. Śiva Nandi would be one of the unnamed kings coming after Yaśaḥ Nandi. As the Purāṇas generally omit the names when a dynasty comes under an overlordship, Śiva Nandi was probably the king superseded by Kanishka. It is stated in the Purāṇas that Padmāvatī passed under a ruler named Vinvas-phāṇi who is to be identified with the viceroy of Kanishka, Mahākshatrapa Vanaspara (§ 33). Śiva Nandi up to his fourth year was an independent king, for the inscription is dated in his regnal years and not in the Kushan Era. Under the Kushans the dating was universally in their imperial era. The royal style 'svāmī' is exactly after the fashion of the earlier Sātavāhanas.¹ It was a term denoting 'sovereign' which was borrowed from Hindu politics, and which was adopted by the early Śaka rulers of Mathurā, for instance, in the Āmohini inscriptions of Samvat 42 of the reign of 'Svāmī' Mahākshatrapa Śoḍāsa—a style which went out of use at Mathurā since the rule of Kanishka.

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¹ See Lüders, List No. 1100 for Puḷumāvi. Cf. No. 1174 for Nahapāna. See below § 26 A.

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16. It seems that from the time of Bhūta Nandi when the dynasty was re-established as treated by the Bhāgavata, they made Padmāvatī their capital. A famous Śivalingam called Svarṇabindu was established there, and seven centuries later in the time of Bhavabhūti it was popularly alleged (ākhyāyate) that it had no human origin. The platform of the Svarṇabindu Śiva has been discovered by Mr. Garde at Pavāyā.² An image of Nandi with human body and bull's head has also been found there, and also a number of sculptures in the ‘Gupta style’.

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² A.S.R., 1915-1916, p. 100 ff. On the description of Padmāvatī, see Khajuraho inscription, E.I., Vol. I, page 149. The description (1000-1 A.D.) is worth quoting. It runs:—'There was on the surface of the earth a matchless (town), decorated with lofty palaces, which is recorded to have been founded here between the golden and silver ages by some ruler of the earth, a lord of the people, who was of the Padma dynasty, (a town which is) read of in histories (and) called Padmāvatī by people versed in the Purāṇas. This most excellent (town) named Padmāvatī built in an

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17. Let us take a series of coins which, in my opinion, belongs to this early Nāga dynasty. Some of the coins are generally assigned to Mathurā. In the British Museum there are coins of Śeshadāta, Rāmadāta¹ and Śiśu-chandra-dāta. The script of the Śeshadāta coin is the oldest and belongs to the first century B.C. In the same series there are coins of Rāmadāta. These three kings, in my opinion, are identical with Śeṣha-Nāga, Rāma-chandra and Śiśu-Nandi of this dynasty. Amongst themselves they are connected by their coinage—a fact already recognised.² The coins of Śesha and Śiśu are intimately connected with those of Virasena, as already pointed by Prof. Rapson (J.R.A.S., 1900, page 115). Virasena's coin, reproduced by Prof. Rapson, has a serpent rising over the throne, on which is seated a female figure holding a jar in her up-raised right hand, the figure being evidently that of Gaṅgā. Another coin of Virasena, reproduced by General Cunningham, has a nāga standing by a male figure. The Nāga figures there, on the analogy of the coins of Nava Nāga (§ 20), complete the name as ‘Virasena Nāga’. The *Vrisha* or Nandi, serpent and *triśūla* are prominent on the Nāga coins.

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¹ Mr. Carlleye found at Indor Kherā a coin of ‘Rāma’ (Rāmasa) without the addition of dāta. A.S.R., Vol. XII, p. 43.

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² Rapson, J.R.A.S., 1900, p. 109.

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18. The word ‘dāta’ in Śiśu cham. dāta³ and Śesha dāta, Rāma dāta, etc. may not correspond to ‘datta’, as hitherto held, but to ‘dātṛi’ or ‘dātva’, which is evident in Śiśuchandra dāta—meaning ‘liberal,’ ‘sacrificer,’ ‘protector,’ ‘donor’. This is further evident from the legend ‘Rāmasa’—without dāta—on some coins of the series.⁴

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³ J.R.A.S., 1900, pl. opposite p. 97, fig. No. 14.

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⁴ A.S.I., Vol. XII, p. 43.

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unprecedented manner, was crowded with lofty rows of streets of palaces, in which tall horses were curvetting: with its shining white high-topped walls, which grazed the clouds, it irradiated the sky; (and) it was full of bright palacial dwellings that resembled the peaks of the Snowy Mountain.’

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19. There are also coins of Uttama dāta and Purusha dāta,¹ Kāma dāta and Śiva dāta (mentioned by Prof. Rapson as Kāmadatta and Śivadatta in J.R.A.S., 1900, p. 111), and also of Bhava dāta [illustrated in J.R.A.S., 1900, p. 97, pl., fig. No. 13, which, read by Prof. Rapson as Bhīmadāta, really reads as of Bhavadāta]². Against these there are the unnamed kings of the line in the Purāṇas amongst whom figures Śiva Nandi of the Pavāyā inscription who can now be easily identified with Śiva dāta of the coins.

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¹ V. Smith, C.I.M., pp. 190, 192.

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² Cf. V. Smith, C.I.M., p. 193.

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21. Thus we have the following names of the dynasty against which we have coins of this connected series:—

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| (1) | Śeṣa, Nāgarāja | .. | (coins) Śeṣa dāta. |
| (2) | Rāma chandra | .. | ,, Rāma dāta. |
| (3) | Śiśu Nandi | .. | ,, Śiśu chandra dāta. |
| (4) | Śiva Nandi (from inscription: one of the unnamed kings of the Purāṇas) | .. | ,, Śiva dāta.³ |
| (5) | Bhava [Nandi ?] [one of the unnamed kings] | .. | ,, Bhava dāta. |

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³ Described by Prof. Rapson as Siva-datta in J.R.A.S., 1900, p. 111.

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22. Whether the early Nāga princes, Śiśu Nāga and others, ruled at Mathurā or not we cannot say. For, Mathurā was the mart where coins from adjoining territories, e.g. Padmāvatī, Vidiśā, Ahichhatra, etc., came. We have, however, the Purāṇic datum that they ruled at Vidiśā and that the first king, Śeṣa, was the conqueror of his enemy's capital. In view of the fact that the Brahmāṇḍa gives Surapura as the description of the town conquered, we would be authorised in assuming that he took Indrapura, now in the Buland-shahr district, a very important town in those days⁴ where a number of coins of these early Nāgas have been found. We do find Śiva Nandi's rule extending up to Padmāvatī. In any case, the political connection of Mathurā with Vidiśā had been very old, and it was again firmly established in the later Nāga history. The presumption that the earlier Nāgas played a part in ousting the Mathurā satraps is not discounted by the fact that we have a line of kings at Mathurā with ‘Mitra’-ending names in coins found there in the period succeeding the satraps, as these coins seem to be later.¹

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⁴ A.S.R., Vol. XII, p. 36 ff.

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¹ Vincent Smith, C.I.M., p. 190.

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§ 22A. Approximately the following table will represent the chronology of the Vidiśā Nāgas:

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The time of the kings after 31 B.C.—probably henceforth at Padmāvatī—would be as below:

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C. 10 B.C.–10 B.C. Bhūta Nandi (No coins). 10 B.C.–A.D. Śiśu Nandi (Many coins). C. 25 A.D.–30 A.D. Yaśaḥ Nandi (No coins).

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[The unnamed kings in the Purāṇas: under whom will come, c. 50 A.D., Śiva Nandi (from the inscription of his 4th year and from coins as ‘Śiva dāta’); c. 80 to 175 A.D., comes the Kuṣan rule with the withdrawal of the Nāga kings to Purikā and Nāgapura-Nandi-vardhana in the Central Provinces (§§ 31A, 44).]

Linked texts (8)

Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Brahmāṇḍapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Vāyupurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Matsyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Viṣṇupurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Padmāvatī
Indor-Khera
Vangara