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Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c3.s4.t2: Naga Ascendancy

Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jātaka Stories c3.s4.t2

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English

Naga Ascendancy

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The supremacy of Kāsī, however, does not appear to have been of long duration. We are now coming to a stage when, if however we read the indications correctly, Kāsī is coming in a close grip both from the North and from the East. In the North its old adversary Kosala was only waiting for a suitable opportunity. But before we advert to that struggle which paved the way for the down-fall of Kāsī, let us have a look on the other growing factor from the East, viz., Aṅga and the allied Nāgas. Under Manoja, the most powerful of the Kāsī monarchs, as we saw, Aṅga was a vassal state. The *Dadhivāhana Jātaka*¹⁰ presents before us, though in a curious garb, a king named Dadhivāhana as occupying the throne of Benares. This Dadhivāhana is probably a reminiscence of, if not identical with, the king of Aṅga, Dadhivāhana, known to the *Purāṇas* and to the Jaina Literature.¹¹

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¹⁰ J., II, pp. 101 ff.

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¹¹ See Raychaudhury, P. H. A. I., p. 77; for Jaina references see C. J. Shah, *op .cit.*, pp. 93, 96.

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But far more important than the Aṅga kings in this connection were the allied Nāgas, who, occupying the river settlements on the Yamunā and the Campā, seem to have begun, at this time, to take a prominent part in the political conflicts raging around them.

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The Nāgas were a branch of the Asuras.¹ The Asuras—the Assyrians—in India had a remarkable history reaching back to the so-called pre-historic times. Their history, so eminently traced by Dr. Banerji Śāstri, gives us an idea of their conflicts with the advancing Āryans and their consequent spread from the North-West and west to the Eastern confines of India and still further East beyond the seas. "The Vedic struggle drove the Asura from the Indus valley; the epic conflict routed them in the Madhyadeśa, and the subsequent re-adjustment lost them the Gangetic valley and pushed them southwards. The Nāgas were the spearhead and backbone of the Asura people in India. With the downfall of the Nāgas ended the organised Asura supremacy in India. And the remnants of Nāgas who once ruled Gośṛṅga in Khotān, had to seek shelter in places still bearing their name e.g., Nāgpur, Choṭā Nāgpur, and are completely absorbed and assimilated in the now firmly established Ārya-Asura-Dāsa body politic of India".²

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¹ Ananta Prasad Banerji Sastri, *Asura India*: The work was originally published in the form of a series of articles contributed to the J. B. O. R. S. Vol. XII. See also Fousböll, "In-dian Mythology", p. 1.

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² A. Banerji Śāstri, op. cit., pp. 96-8; "The Dāsas were the earliest settlers, next the Asuras, the latest the Aryans." *Ibid*., p. 34.

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The Jātakas, as is well known,³ in common with the Hindu mythology, represent the Nāgas in their animal character, not unoften blended with the human. Concealed behind these avowedly mythological legends lies a faint reminiscence of the Ārya-Asura conflict of the remotest period. What else does the Kulāvaka Jātaka⁴ signify in describing the war between the Asuras and the Devas? It is interesting to note that this conflict is said to have taken place round about the Sumeru mountain in the Trans-Himālayan region where the Asurabhavana-Asura realm—was situated. The Devas (Āryans) hurled the Asuras down, so says the story. The Asuras rose again. "Sakka (Āryan Indra) went into the great deep (samuddapiṭṭhe) to give them battle". But being worsted in the fight he turned back and fled away along crest after crest of 'the southern deep' reaching thence the Simbalivana (Śālmalidvīpa? Chaldia).⁵ He soon returned to his original place and the two camps were again ready:—

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³ Cf. J. Vogal, *Indian Serpent Lore*, pp. 132 ff.

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⁴ J., I, pp. 202 ff; cf. Rāmāyaṇa, I, 45, 15-45; MBH., I, 17 ff.

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⁵ See J. Przyluski in *Pre-Aryan and Pre-Dravidian in India*, pp. 7-8; N. L. De, *I. H. Q.*, II, p. 535; A. Bannerji Śāstri, *Asura India*, pp. 86-7.

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"Impregnable both cities stand between
In five-fold guard, watch Nāgas and Garulas
Kumbhāṇḍas, Goblins and the Four Great Kings".⁶

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⁶ J., I, p. 204-G. (?) The original gāthā has the mysterious names of the 'guards'; Uraga, Karoṭi, payassa ca hāri, madanayutā and the cature mahantā, which have been explained by the commentator and followed by the translator as above. These five guards do not all seem to be on the side of Sakka, but were divided between the Devas and the Asuras, the first four being the Asura tribes, and the four great kings the Devas (or Āryas). For a really interesting parallelism, cf. *Pāñcajanāḥ* of the Ṛgveda and later Vedic literature. *Ved. Ind.*, I, pp. 466-8.

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How remarkably this conflict corresponds to the Ārya-Asura conflict on the Sindhu-waterways terminating in the Dāsarājña battle on the Paruṣṇī (Rāvī), as described by Dr. Banerji?¹ To notice further: The North-western outpost of the Nāgas is also known to the *Daddara Jātaka*,² which locates them in the Daddara mountains. These mountains are evidently connected with the present Dārdistān, to the north of Kāśmīr.³ Then again Varuṇa, the Vedic Sea-god of the Asuras⁴—an Asura *par excellence*—is familiar to the *Jātakas*.⁵ The intimate connection of the Nāgas with water, whether in lakes, rivers, islands or seas, is known.⁶ "My children are of a watery nature," says the Nāga mother in the *Bhūridatta Jātaka*.⁷ Their repute as great builders is sung in many a *gāthā* of the *Jātakas*.⁸ At the same time their terrible nature is recognised.⁹ The names of individual Nāga kings are sometimes given: Canda, Maṇikaṇṭha, Saṅkhapāla, and Dhataraṭṭha.¹⁰ Thus we see that the *Jātakas* preserve, in not a small degree, faint traces of a remarkable, though much-neglected, chapter of Ancient Indian annals.

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¹ *Asura India*, pp. 38 ff.

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² J., III, pp. 16-17.

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³ Cf. "The Nilamata Purāṇa records the occupation of Kāśmir by the Nāgas" *Asuar India*, p. 92.

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⁴ Ibid., pp. 76 ff.

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⁵ J., VI, pp. 257 ff.

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⁶ J., I, p. 472; II, p. 111; III, pp. 87-8; IV, pp. 454 ff; VI, p. 164-G. 750

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⁷ J., VI, p. 160.

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⁸ J., IV, p. 464-GG, 244-7; VI, pp. 173-4 GG. 767-71, 269-GG. 1164-70 Cf. *Asura India*, pp. 20-1.

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⁹ J., VI, p. 162.

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¹⁰ J., I, p. 472; II, p. 283; V, p. 162;

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Let us proceed with our narrative. We had stopped at a point where Kāśī was beginning to show signs of decline. It was most probably at this time, as we said, that the Nāga settlers on the Ganges-Jumna Valley—their eastern-most river settlement—must have again been roused to activity and tried to assert their erstwhile personality by interfering with the political conflicts of the time. The invasion of Benares by a Nāga king narrated in a story is in point. Dhataraṭṭha, the Nāga king, wanted to marry the Benares Princess Samuddajā. He marched with a great host towards the city and:

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"Benares city prostrate lay
Before these wild invading bands
Rising their arms all begged
And prayed: give him the daughter he demands.¹¹"

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¹¹ J., VI, pp. 165-6-GG, 753-9.

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The marriage was duly accomplished, and the two kings became intimate friends. It appears thus, that the Nāgas had as yet no direct aim at power, but wanted simply the alliance with other Royal powers. For, the same thing can be discerned from another incident, where the Nāga king Campeyya intercedes in the Aṅga-Magadha conflict, sets the Magadhan king over both the kingdoms, and receives from him a tribute in return of his services.¹²

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¹² J., IV, pp. 454-5.

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We cannot however say with certainty as to whether we are to read here the rise of the Śiśunāgas—the so-called ‘first historical dynasty of Magadha, as there is a division of opinion among scholars regarding the origin of the Śiśunāgas.¹ It is not our business here to enter into the merits of the controversy. But what is of immediate importance for our present purpose is to recognise the fact that the Jātakas do preserve a record, though a dim one, of the period when Kāsī’s power was fast declining and the Nāgas were beginning to establish their influence on the Magadhan politics. This influence, it is possible, and even probable, might have later on terminated in the final occupation of Magadha by the Śiśunāgas. These findings, if proved correct, would seem to favour the view that makes the Śiśunāgas as coming after Bimbisāra, who was, according to that view, a scion of the Haryaṅkakula.² But the problem still remains unsolved.

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¹ Jayaswal, J. B. O. R. S., I, pp. 67 ff; J. A. S. B., 1913, accepts the Paurāṇic accounts making the rise of the Śiśunāgas prior to Bimbisāra. His view is challenged by others who relying mainly on the Ceylonese accounts, take the Śiśunāgas as coming later than Bimbisāra, Bhandarkar, C. L., 1918, pp. 67 ff; Pradhan, Chronology of Ancient India, pp. 211 ff; Raychaudhury, P. H. A. I., pp. 81-2.

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² Ibid. Haryaṅka was a king of Aṅga: See A.B.O.R.I. xix, p. 82.

Cites (6)