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Tribes in Ancient India c9: Chapter V. The Śūrasenas

Tribes in Ancient India c9

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Chapter V. The Śūrasenas

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The Śūrasenas are not mentioned in the Vedic literature, but in the *Mānavadharma-śāstra* they are spoken of in high terms as belonging to the Brahmarṣi-deśa, or the country of the great Brahmanical seers, whose conduct was an example to all Aryans.¹ Accordingly at the time of Manu’s Code (between the second century B.C. and the second century A.D.), the Śūrasenas were among the tribes who occupied a rank in Indo-Aryan society second only to that of the small population of the narrow strip of Brahmāvarta. Therefore they must have belonged to the Vedic people, though probably they had not acquired sufficient political importance in very early times to find a mention in the *Ṛgveda* or the subsequent Vedic literature. They claimed descent from Yadu, a hero whose people are repeatedly referred to in the *Ṛgveda*²; and it is probable that the Śūrasenas were included among the Ṛgvedic Yadus.

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¹ *Manusaṃhitā*, II, 19; and see Matsya chapter.

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² *Vedic Index*, II, 185.

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Manu also pays a high tribute to the martial qualities of the Śūrasenas, inasmuch as he advises a king when arranging his troops on the battle-field, to place the Śūrasenas in the very front line.³

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³ *Manusaṃhitā*, VII, 193.

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In an enumeration in the *Mahābhārata*⁴ of the various peoples of Bhāratavarṣa, the Śūrasenas are mentioned along with the Śālvas, Kuru-Pañcālas and other neighbouring tribes; and we read in the *Virāṭaparvan* (Chaps. I and V) that the Pāṇḍavas passed through the Śūrasena country on their way to Virāṭanagara, from the Dvaitavana forest, where they had sojourned during their exile. It is easy to locate the Śūrasenas, inasmuch as their capital, Mathurā, has been a great city from the early times of Indo-Aryan history down to the present day. They must have occupied ‘the Muttra district and possibly some of the territory still farther south’,⁵ according to the *Cambridge History of India*. Prof. Rhys Davids says⁶: ‘The Śūrasenas, whose capital was Madhurā, were immediately south-west of the Macchas, and west of the Jumna’.

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⁴ *Mbh.*, *Bhīṣmaparvan*, Chap. 9, p. 822.

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⁵ *Cambridge History of India*, Vol. I, p. 316.

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⁶ *Buddhist India*, p. 27.

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In the *Rāmāyaṇa*,⁷ we read that Sugrīva, when sending out his monkey generals in search of Sītā, told those who were going towards the north to search the country of the Śūrasenas. In the Bhagavadgītā section of the Mahābhārata, the Śūrasenas are mentioned as forming part of the army of Duryodhana in the Kurukṣetra war. They guarded Bhīṣma, and took a prominent part in the battle, to the point of having their army destroyed.¹ Elsewhere in the Mahābhārata,² we read that Sahadeva, while proceeding southwards in the course of his conquests before the Rājasūya sacrifice, conquered the country of Śūrasenas.

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⁷ *Kiṣkindhyā Kāṇḍa*, 11-12, 43rd sarga.

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¹ Bhīṣmaparvan, Chap. 106, p. 974; Ibid., Chaps. 107-121, pp. 906-993; Droṇaparvan, Chap. 6, pp. 998-9; Ibid., Chap. 19, p. 1009; Karṇaparvan, Chap. 5, pp. 1167-8.

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² Sabhāparvan, Chap. 31, pp. 242-3.

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In the Pāli Buddhist Tripiṭaka, Śūrasena is mentioned as one of the sixteen ‘mahājanapadas’ which were prosperous and had an abundance of wealth.³ One of the Jātaka stories narrates how the Śūrasenas, along with the Pañcālas, Matsyas and Madras, witnessed a game of dice between Dhanañjaya Korabba and Puṇṇaka Yakkha.⁴

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³ Aṅguttara Nikāya, I, p. 213; Ibid., IV, pp. 252, 256 and 260.

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⁴ Fausböll, Jātaka, Vol. VI, p. 280.

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The capital of the Śūrasenas, as we have seen, was Mathurā on the Jumna, at present included in the Agra division of the United Provinces. It lay on the upper Jumna, about 270 miles in a straight line north-west of Kauśāmbī. In the Pāli Buddhist literature, the name is Madhurā; Rhys Davids in his Buddhist India (p. 36) says that it is tempting to identify it with the site of the modern Mathurā, in spite of the difference in spelling. In the Lalitavistara,⁵ the city of Mathurā is mentioned as having been suggested as a possible locality for the birth of the Bodhisattva, when various places were being discussed by the gods in the Tuṣita heaven. From this it is evident that at the time that the Lalitavistara was composed, that is, in the early centuries of the Christian era, Mathurā was one of the most prominent cities of India.

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⁵ Ed. Lefmann, pp. 21-2.

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The Greek historians make mention of Mathurā. It was noticed by Arrian, on the authority of Megasthenes, as the capital of the Śūrasenas; and Ptolemy also mentions it.⁶ The town was surrounded by numbers of high mounds, one of which has since yielded numbers of statues and inscribed pillars, which prove that it represented the remains of at least two large Buddhist monasteries dating from the beginning of the Christian era.⁷

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⁶ Cunningham, Ancient Geography, (Majumder's Ed.), p. 429. The Greek writers also make mention of another city of the Śūrasena country, named Cleisobora (= Kṛṣṇapur = Bṛndāban).

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⁷ Cunningham, Ancient Geography, p. 374.

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In the fifth century A.D., Mathurā was visited by the Chinese pilgrim Fā-Hien, who passed through a succession of monasteries filled with a number of monks.¹ It was also visited later by Hsüan Tsang who described the country as being above 5,000 li in circuit, the capital being above twenty li in circuit. The soil, according to him, was very fertile, and agriculture was the chief industry: mango trees were grown there in orchards. The country also produced a fine striped cotton cloth, and gold. Its climate was hot, the manners and customs of the inhabitants were good. There were Buddhist monasteries, and deva-temples, and the professed adherents of the different non-Buddhist sects lived pell-mell.²

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¹ Legge, *Travels of Fā-Hien*, p. 42. ² Watters, *On Yuan Chwang*, Vol. I, p. 301. ³ Eliot, *Hinduism and Buddhism*, Vol. II, p. 159. ⁴ Rhys Davids, *Buddhist India*, p. 36. ⁵ Book III, Chap. I, p. 157, S. C. Vidyābhūṣaṇa’s edition. ⁶ *Aṅguttara Nikāya*, II, 57; *Vimānavatthu Comm.*, pp. 118-9. ⁷ Rhys Davids, *Buddhist India*, p. 37. ⁸ Smith, *Early History of India*, 4th Ed., p. 18; and Rapson, *Ancient India*, p. 174. ⁹ Eliot, *Hinduism and Buddhism*, Vol. I, p. 113.

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Buddhism was predominant in Mathurā for several centuries.³ The king of Mathurā in the Buddha’s time bore the title of Avantiputto, and was therefore related to the royal family of Ujjayinī in Avanti. In the *Majjhima Nikāya* (II, pp. 83ff.) we read that king Avantiputto went to Mahākaccāna, one of the Buddha’s most influential disciples, and discussed with him the pride of the Brāhmaṇas, and their view that they were vastly superior to all other castes. Mathurā was the residence of Mahākaccāna, ‘to whom tradition attributes the first grammatical treatment of the Pāli language, and after whom the oldest Pāli grammar is accordingly named’.⁴ In Kaccāyana’s Pāli Grammar we read that the distance from Mathurā to Saṅkassa was 4 yojanas.⁵ A famous stūpa was built at Mathurā in honour of Moggaliputta Tissa (*Cambridge History of India*, Vol. I, p. 506).

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Mathurā was visited by the Buddha,⁶ but we do not find many references to the city in his time; whereas it is mentioned in the *Milindapañho* as one of the most famous places in India; so that the time of its greatest growth must have been between these dates.⁷

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Besides Buddhism, the Jaina cult was also practised at Mathurā which was one of the few centres of the cult in the centuries immediately before and after the Christian era.⁸ The Jains seem to have been firmly established in the city from the middle of the second century B.C.; while many dedicatory inscriptions prove that they were a flourishing community at Mathurā in the reigns of Kaniṣka, Huviṣka and Vāsudeva.⁹

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Mathurā was also known in the time of Megasthenes (300 B.C.) as the centre of Kṛṣṇa worship¹; it was well known as the birthplace of the hero Kṛṣṇa.² Cunningham points out³ that Śūrasena was the grandfather of Kṛṣṇa, and after him Kṛṣṇa and his descendants, who held Mathurā after the death of Kaṃsa, were called the Śūrasenas.

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¹ Cambridge History of India, Vol. I, p. 167.

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² See, e.g. Hopkins, The Great Epic of India, p. 395, n. 1.

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³ Ancient Geography, p. 374.

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Another cult which arose in Mathurā was the Bhāgavata religion, the parent of modern Vaiṣṇavism⁴; but in the Śaka-Kushan period, the city had ceased to be a stronghold of Bhagavatism.⁵ The paucity of Bhāgavata inscriptions at Mathurā probably indicates that Bhagavatism did not find much favour at the royal court, because from the first century B.C. to the third century A.D., the people were usually Buddhists.⁶

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⁴ Cambridge History of India, Vol. I, p. 526.

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⁵ H. C. Ray Chaudhuri, Early History of the Vaiṣṇava Sect, p. 99.

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⁶ Ibid., p. 100.

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Mathurā, then, was a city in which many divergent religious sects flourished side by side. To the Hindus its sanctity was, and still is, very great. As the birthplace of Kṛṣṇa, it was and is one of the seven holy places of Hinduism.⁷

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⁷ Cambridge History of India, Vol. I, p. 316.

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In the semi-legendary accounts of the Purāṇas, we find some details regarding Mathurā. In the Viṣṇupurāṇa for instance, we read that Lavaṇa, son of the monster Madhu, was killed by Śatrughna who founded the city of Mathurā.⁸ The demons attacked Mathurā, the home of the Vṛṣṇis and Andhakas;⁹ and the Vṛṣṇis and Andhakas, being afraid of the demons, left Mathurā and established their capital at Dvārāvatī.¹⁰ Mathurā was also besieged by Jarāsandha, king of Magadha, with a huge army of 23 akṣauhiṇīs.¹¹ At the time of his ‘great departure’ (mahāprasthāna), Yudhiṣṭhira installed Vajranābha on the throne of the city.¹²

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⁸ 4th Aṃśa, Chap. 4.

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⁹ Brahmapurāṇa, Chap. 14, śloka 54.

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¹⁰ Harivaṃśa, Chap. 37.

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¹¹ Ibid., Chap. 195, śloka, 3.

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¹² Skandapurāṇa, Viṣṇukhaṇḍa; Bhāgavata Māhātmya, Chap. I.

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The earlier rulers of Mathurā find a place in the Purāṇas,¹³ but only in the general summary of those dynasties which were contemporary with the Purus. On the eve of the rise of the Gupta power, says the Vāyupurāṇa (Chap. 99), seven nāga kings reigned in Mathurā. They were followed by Magadha kings.¹⁴

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¹³ Cambridge History of India, Vol. I, p. 526.

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¹⁴ Viṣṇupurāṇa, 4th Aṃśa, Chap. 23.

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As regards Buddhist semi-historical records, we read in the *Lalitavistara*¹ of a king of the Śūrasenas named Suvāhu, who had his capital at Mathurā. He is said to have been a heretic, but a great king of Jambudīpa (India).² Mathurā is also mentioned in the earliest chronicle of Ceylon, the *Dīpavaṃsa*,³ where we are told that sons and grandsons of Prince Sādhina reigned ‘over the great kingdom of Madhurā, the best of towns’.

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¹ Ed. Lefmann, pp. 21-2.

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² Romantic Legend of Sākya Buddha, p. 29.

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³ Oldenberg, Dīpavaṃsa, p. 27.

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In the *Ghata Jātaka* we read that in Upper Madhurā there reigned a king named Mahāsāgara, who had two sons, Sāgara and Upasāgara. On his death the elder son became king and the younger Viceroy (= heir-apparent?). Upasāgara quarrelled with Sāgara and went to Uttarāpatha in the Kamsa district, to the city of Asitañjana which was ruled over by King Mahākamsa, who had two sons, Kamsa and Upakamsa, and one daughter, Devagabbhā. It was foretold that this daughter would bear a son who would kill his maternal uncles. Believing this prediction, on the death of King Mahākamsa the two brothers kept their sister in a separate round tower specially built for her, so that she should remain unmarried. But despite their precautions, Devagabbhā and Upasāgara saw each other, fell in love, and contrived to meet. When her brothers discovered the intrigue, they gave Devagabbhā in marriage to Upasāgara, and a daughter was born soon afterwards. The two brothers were pleased, and allotted to their sister and brother-in-law a village named Govaḍḍhamāna. In course of time, Devagabbhā gave birth to ten sons, and her serving woman Nandagopā to ten daughters. Devagabbhā, however, secretly exchanged her ten sons for the ten daughters of her maid. When the boys grew up, they became plunderers and their fosterfather, Andhaka-Veṇhu, was often rebuked by King Kamsa. At last Andhaka-Veṇhu told the king the secret of the birth of the ten sons. An arena was prepared for a wrestling match in the city. When the ten sons entered the ring and were about to be caught, the eldest of the ten, Vāsudeva, threw a wheel which cut off the heads of Kamsa and Upakamsa, and himself assumed the sovereignty of the city of Asitañjana.⁴ The Jātaka story ends with the accession of Vāsudeva to the throne of Mathurā. The *Petavatthu Commentary* gives a different story of the adventure of the ten sons who were born to the king of Uttara-Madhurā.⁵

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⁴ Jātaka (Fausböll), Vol. IV, pp. 79 foll.

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⁵ Petavatthu Comm., III ff.; see also B. C. Law, Buddhist Conception of Spirits, 2nd Ed., p. 99.

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A king of Mathurā named Brahmamitra was probably contemporary with king Indramitra of Ahicchatra, for both names are found in the dedicatory inscriptions of queens on pillars of the railing at Buddhagayā, which is generally assigned to the earlier part of the first century B.C.¹ Rapson points out ² that in the second century B.C. Mathurā was governed by native princes whose names are known from their coins; and it passed from them into the possession of one of the families of Śaka satraps, c. 100 B.C. Menander (Milinda), king of Kabul and the Punjab, presumably occupied Mathurā,³ and many of his coins have been discovered there.⁴ Numismatic evidence seems to prove ⁵ that the Hindu kings of Mathurā were finally replaced by Hagāna, Hagāmāsha, Rājuvula, and other Śaka Satraps who probably flourished in or about the first century A.D. In the second century A.D. Mathurā was under the sway of Huvishka, the Kushān king. This is evidenced by a splendid Buddhist monastery which bears his names.⁶

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¹ Cambridge History of India, Vol. I, p. 526.

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² Ancient India, p. 174.

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³ Smith, Early History of India, p. 199.

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⁴ R. D. Banerjee, Prācīna Mudrā, p. 50.

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⁵ Smith, op. cit., p. 227.

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⁶ Ibid., p. 271.

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The epigraphic evidence that in the first century B.C. the region of Mathurā had passed from native Indian to foreign (Śaka) rule is confirmed and amplified by the evidence of coins. A Muttra (i.e. Mathurā) inscription, according to R. Chanda, records the erection of a toraṇa, vedikā and catuḥśāla at the Mahāsthāna of Vāsudeva, in the reign of the Mahākṣatrapa Soḍāsa.⁷ The Mathurā nāga statuette inscription is evidence of serpent worship in Mathurā, which is important in view of the story of Kāliya nāga and his suppression by Kṛṣṇa, recorded in the Purāṇas compiled during the Gupta period.⁸

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⁷ Early History of the Vaiṣṇava Sect, pp. 98-9.

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⁸ Ibid., p. 100.

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Brown ⁹ says that cast coins were issued at the close of the third century by the kingdoms of Mathurā, Ayodhyā and Kauśāmbī, some of which bear the names of local kings in the Brāhmī script. In the ruins of Mathurā, many ancient copper coins along with many coins of the Greek and Śaka rulers were discovered.¹⁰ Among the coins discovered in this region, those of the Arjunāyanas are of special interest.¹¹

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⁹ Coins of India, p. 19.

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¹⁰ Prācīna Mudrā, pp. 105, 106.

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¹¹ Cunningham, Coins of India, pp. 89-90; see also R. D. Banerjee's Prācīna Mudrā, p. 109.

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The Pre-Kushan sculptures of Muttra are the most instructive, because they all emanate from the same school. These sculptures may be divided into three main classes, the earliest belonging approximately to the middle of the second century B.C., the second to the following century, and the last being associated with the rule of the local Satraps. The sculptures of the third class are more exceptional. Their style is that of the early school in a late and decadent phase, when its cut was becoming conventionalised and lifeless. A little before the beginning of the Christian era, Muttra had become the capital of a satrapy either subordinate to, or closely connected with, the Scytho-Parthian kingdom of Taxila. As a result, there was an influx there of the semi-Hellenistic Art, too weak in its environment to maintain its own individuality, yet still strong enough to interrupt and enervate the older traditions of Hindusthan . . . As an illustration of the close relations that existed between Muttra and the north-west, the votive tables of Loṇa-śobhikā is particularly significant, the stūpa depicted on it being identical in form with the stūpas of the Scytho-Parthian epoch at Taxila, but unlike any monument of the class in Hindusthan.¹ Sir Charles Eliot points out ² that we need not feel surprise if we find in the religious thought of Muttra elements traceable to Greece, Persia or Central Asia, because we know that the sculptural remains found at Mathurā indicate the presence of Graeco-Bactrian influence.

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¹ Cambridge History of India, Vol. I, p. 633.

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² Hinduism and Buddhism, Vol. II, p. 158.

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Smith remarks ³ that Mathurā was probably the original site of the celebrated iron pillar at Delhi, on which the eulogy of a powerful king named Chandra is incised. As Rapson says, we possess a most valuable monument of the Śaka Satraps of Mathurā, which was discovered by Bhagavānlāl Indrajī, who bequeathed it to the British Museum. ‘It is in the form of a large lion carved in red sandstone and intended to be the capital of a pillar. The workmanship shows undoubted Persian influence. The surface is completely covered with inscriptions in Kharosṭhī characters which give the genealogy of the Satrapal family ruling at Muttra. These inscriptions show that the Satraps of Muttra were Buddhists’.⁴

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³ Early History of India, p. 386.

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⁴ Rapson, Ancient India, pp. 142-3, 158.

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