The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c30.68

v1.c30.68

Mathurā (Muttra) on the upper Jumna, about 270 miles in a straight line N.W. of Kauçāmbī, may perhaps have been another of the feudatory kingdoms. This sacred city, the Μόδουρα ἡ τῶν Θεῶν of Ptolemy (VII, 1, 50), was a stronghold both of the worship of Kṛishṇa and of Jainism; and it was the capital of the Çūrasenas, one of the leading peoples of the Midland Country. Its earlier rulers find a place in the Purāṇas, but only in the general summary of those dynasties which were contemporary with the Pūrus (p. 316); and coins have preserved the names of at least twelve later kings who reigned during the Çuṅga period². One of these, Balabhūti, is associated by the style and type of his coinage with Bahasatimitra of Kauçāmbī, whose daughter was married to a king of Mathurā (p. 525). The two kings were almost certainly ruling at about the same time; and it seems reasonable to assume, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, that they were both feudatories of the Çuṅgas. Another king of Mathurā, Brahmamitra (Pl. V, 6) was probably contemporary with king Indramitra of Ahicchatra (Pl. V, 4); for both names are found in the dedicatory inscriptions of queens on pillars of the railing at Buddh Gayā, which is assigned by archaeologists to the earlier part of the first century B.C. (p. 626).