Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c16.s1.t3: The Aśvamedha Sacrifices
Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c16.s1.t3
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The Aśvamedha Sacrifices
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After the victorious wars with Vidarbha (Berar) and the Yavanas Pushyamitra completed the performance of two horse-sacrifices. These sacrifices are regarded by some scholars as marking an early stage in the Brāhmaṇical reaction which was fully developed five centuries later in the time of Samudra Gupta and his successors. Buddhist writers are alleged to represent Pushyamitra as a cruel persecutor of the religion of Śākyamuni. But the probative value of the *Divyāvadāna*, on which some modern writers place their chief reliance in regard to the matter, is seriously impaired by the representation of the "persecuting" monarch as a Maurya, a descendant of Aśoka himself.¹ Moreover, the prime motive which is said to have inclined the king to a vicious policy is, according to this Buddhist work, *personal glory and not religious fanaticism*. Pushyamitra did not dispense with the services of pro-Buddhist ministers, and the court of his son was graced by Paṇḍita-Kauśikī.² The *Mahāvaṁsa*³ admits the presence, in Bihar, Oudh, Mālwa and adjacent provinces, of numerous monasteries with thousands of monks in the age of Duṭṭhagāmaṇi of Ceylon (C. 101-77 B.C.) which is partly synchronous with the Baimbika-Śuṅga period. The Buddhist monuments at Bhārhut erected "during the sovereignty of the Śuṅgas" do not also bear out the theory that the Śuṅgas, among whom Pushyamitra is included by the *Purāṇas*, were the leaders of a militant Brāhmaṇism. Though staunch adherents of orthodox Hinduism, kings of the line of Pushyamitra do not appear to have been as intolerant as some writers represent them to be.
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¹ *IHQ*, Vol. V, p. 397; *Divyāvadāna*, 433-34.
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² *Mālavikāgnimitram*, Act I.
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³ Geiger, trans., p. 193.
Cites (3)
- Divyāvadāna — Sanskrit
- Mālavikāgnimitra — Kālidāsa, Sanskrit
- Mahāvaṃsa — Pāli