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History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c21.s1: I. Kushans at Bhīṭā

History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Nāga–Vākāṭaka Imperial Period c21.s1

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I. Kushans at Bhīṭā

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Bhīṭā as exposed by the spade¹ offers itself as an epitome of Indian history for at least sixteen centuries, if not more. The site had been occupied from about the Tenth Century B.C. to the Tenth Century A.D. In these two millennia, we are here concerned with the remains of the Kushan-to-Gupta Period. Sir John Marshall found that the site discloses two military attacks on it, both of which fall within our period. To quote his words: (regarding the fourth stratum)

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¹ *Excavations at Bhīṭā* by Sir John Marshall, A.S.R., 1911-12, pp. 29 ff.

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(a) ‘That the house was hurriedly deserted, owing to some catastrophe, in the Kushana period, and afterwards suffered to fall to ruin, seems manifest from the coins and other articles left lying on the floors, and by the subsequent accumulation of débris in the rooms and court, but how long the edifice had been standing when this happened, it is impossible to determine with any degree of certainty.’

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(b) [Regarding the fifth stratum] ‘This second evacuation, which took place in the early Gupta epoch, seems to have been as precipitate as the first and to have resulted from some hostile attack on the city; for many missiles, such as catapult and sling balls, were found in the houses and lanes and most of the houses themselves were burnt, while in the house which I am describing, even the sacred images of the gods were abandoned to their fate.’²

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² Ibid., p. 34. Cf., p. 37, ‘Like the houses of Nāgadeva and Jayavasuda, this one must also have been deserted hastily in the Kushana times, as indicated by the minor objects found on the floors’ [re-Building No. 23].

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The exact period of the first attack is indicated by the finds on the original floor of the house of the fourth stratum which is to be distinguished from the débris above reaching the fifth stratum. Seventeen copper coins of Kanishka and Huvishka were found on the floor of the fourth stratum and three clay sealings [Nos. 19, 20, and 73], the characters of which are in the early Kushan script. The débris were three feet deep when a new building thereon was constructed. Sir John has given the date of this construction as the end of the Third Century A.D. We can be certain that this new construction was done a short time after the date of the seal of Nāgadeva (No. 5), which Sir John Marshall has described as having late Kushan script. This was found two feet above the floor of the fourth stratum (p. 48). The débris, according to Sir John, had accumulated in the natural course (p. 34). A further and still more positive datum is afforded by the fact that in the excavations although no Kushan coins later than those of Huvishka were found, a mould (No. 35, p. 65) for minting gold coin of Vāsudeva was discovered. This shows that the sack must refer to the early years of Vāsudeva, not a single coin of whose reign has been found there. We might note here that seventeen coins of his predecessor, Huvishka, seven coins of Kanishka, and three coins of Kadphises II were found in different parts of the excavations. In the period after the sack, we have such names as Nāgadeva [about 200 A.D.] and Amātya Nāgadāma [No. 40, cir. 200 A.D.]. A large number of ‘anonymous Kosam’ coins were recovered but they have not been published. They may include coins of the Bhāraśivas. The seal of Amātya Nāgadāma closely agrees in script with that of the Bhāraśiva coins. The title Amātya, which is on several seals of the period, denotes a reversion [by the Bhāraśivas] to the old Hindu system of government. It seems that in the Bhāraśiva period the town was under their Amātyas.

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The second military operation against the city in the early Gupta epoch must refer to the first Āryāvarta War of Samudra Gupta in the first few years of

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Attack in the Bhāraśiva Period.

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Rudrasena who has got one coin only (No. 100) to his credit in the excavations.¹

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¹ His son Prithivīsheṇa has also only one (No. 73).

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Bhīṭā is 10 miles S.S.W. from Allahabad.² It is on the southern bank of the Jumna. The City stood at the gate of the Chedi country. We find it fortified before the Maurya time, according to the excavations. The name of the place was Sahajāti, which is found in a terracotta seal matrix in the house called by Sir John Marshall the ‘House of Guild’. It is seal No. 1 which is the oldest record found at Bhīṭā. It is in Māgadhī and reads Sahajātiye nigamasa. Every letter of the seal is at least a century older (if not earlier still) than Aśoka’s letters. Sir John’s reading (Sahijitiye) is incorrect. The town of Sahajāti is mentioned in the Vinaya Piṭaka (Chullavagga, Chap. XII) where at the time of the Second Council (about 100 years after the Buddha’s death) the Venerable Revata is approached by the brethren of Vaiśālī who reach it by a boat.³ Sahajāti was in the Chedi country and it was so in the time of the Buddha’s disciple Chuṇḍa.⁴ Numerous seals, found in the house of the President of the City Corporation, from Government Civil Officials and Military Officers and a Vākāṭaka prince [see below] prove that it was probably a military station in the Bhāraśiva and the Vākāṭaka period, as it evidently had been before. The seals would have been attached to government orders and also probably to orders for drawing money from the President who acted also as the State bank. The seals cover several generations. The city had grown as a commercial station, being situated almost at the terminus of the Jumna,

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² Cunningham, Vol. III, p. 46.

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³ Rāhula Sāṅkṛtyāyana, Buddhacharyā, pp. 559 and 561, where the identification has been suggested.

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⁴ Aṅguttara Nikāya, VI, 5, 4, 5; X, 1, 3, 4; X, 2, 4, 5.

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There is no warrant for Sir John’s supposition that the old name of Bhīṭā was Vichīgrāma of which a sealing (not seal-matrix) was discovered in the excavations. A matrix (No. 11) with the personal (man’s) name Vichī found in another place proves only this that a man of the name of Vrischi lived there.

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and serving as the internal port for transport between the Doab and Central India via the ancient Deccan Road.¹

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¹ Bhadanta Sāṅkṛtyāyana has drawn my attention to the other two towns in the Chedi country occurring in the Pāli Canon, namely, Bhaddavatikā and Sahañ-chanikā. Bhaddavatikā is Ptolemy's Badraotis which falls in Chedi. Is Sahañ-chanikā the same as Chanakā of the Purāṇas?

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