No More Learning

9
2


## p. 458 (#496) ############################################

458
[сн.
AÇOK A
pious founder, also his regulations concerning the slaughter and treatment
of animals, have already received due notice. To the same sphere belong
his rules concerning prisoners, the reservation of capital punishment, and
the respite of the condemned during three days with a view to their spirit-
ual welfare and edifying works.
The official system remained for the most part unchanged'. The presence
of Açoka’s envoys even as far as the various Greek kingdoms is plainly con-
templated. The general term denoting the superior officials is mahāmātra,
while the lower, especially the clerkly ranks, are entitled yukta. The highest
local officers 'set over many hundreds of thousands of people’-corresponding
no doubt to the sthānikas of the Arthaçāstra - are mentioned as rājūkas,
and with them are associated pradeçikas, perhaps the pradeshtris whose
functions we have already defined. It is to these officers that a number of
the edicts are addresse 1. They are exhorted to adopt towards the people
under their charge the mild, patient, and benevolent principles of the
emperor himself : they are compared to nurses entrusted with the charge of
childern. An institution several times referred to is the anusamyāna, or
periodical tour, still a feature of Indian administration. This was not an
innovation on the part of Açoka, but a part of the system which he
inhertied? . However, he added to the duties of the touring officials, as early
as his thirteenth year, that of following his own example in making their
visitations the occasion of benevolent activity and religious propaganda.
For this purpose, however, he himself organised a special ecclesiastical
hierarchy of religious officers (dharma-mahāmatra), to whom these two
functions were primarily assigned, and who moreover superintended the
bounties of his own household, and those of his queens, his sons, and other
relatives, and organised the activities of the committees and councils
(parishad) at the head of the Buddhist, Jain, Ājivika and other sects. The
tolerance of all sects as regards liberty of residence in every district seems
also to be a feature of Açoka's own conception, as it is opposed to the rule
of the Arthaçāstra (19, p. 48).
Here we conclude our analytical appreciation of Açoka's rule. But
the personality which in so un-Indian a fashion pervades the whole of his
proclamations-a personality which in its rather highstrung, and by
consequence partly plaintive, energy recalls another flawless imperial saint,
the Roman Marcus Aurelius--can be communicated only in his own words :
and we are therefore justified in citing two of his edicts, one a normal
specimen of their tone, and the second the solemn review of his measures,
1 For a full discussion see Senart, Les Insctiptions de Pi yadasi. II, pp. 278 f.
2 Or rajjugrahākas, as in the Pāli book="land-measures,' the dypovou. O. Of Mega-
sthenes, concerning whom x'. sup. p. 374. 75. Cf. Bühler, Z. D. M. G. , XLVII, pp. 466-71.
3 This is implied by Açoka himself ( Rock Edict III): cf. Bühle 2. D. M. G. ,
XLI, p. 19.
1


## p. 459 (#497) ############################################

xx)
THE EDICTS
459
which, published in the twenty-seventh year from his consecration, we have
ventured to designate as the testament of Açoka. '
ROCK EDICT IV
In the past, during many centuries, there has been steady growth in the practice of
taking life, ill. usage of living creatures, misbehaviour among relatives, misbehaviour
towards Brahmans and ascetics. But now through the pious observance of king
Piyadasi, dear to the gods, the signal of the drum has become a signal of piety, displaying
to the people sights of celestial cars, sights of elephants, bonfires, and other heavenly
shapes. In such wise as has not been before in many centuries, there has been at present,
owing to the inculcation of piety by king Piyadasi, dear to the gods, growth in abstinence
from taking life, in abstinence from ill-usage of living creatures, in proper behaviour
towards relatives, proper behaviour towards Brāhmans and ascetics, obedience to mother
and father, obedience to elders. In these and other manifold ways pious observance ' has
grown, and this pious observance king Piyadasi, dear to the gods, will make still to grow.
The sons, also and grandsons, and great-grandsons of king Piyadasi, dear to the gods,
will foster this pious observance until the end of timo. Standing fast by piety and
morality, they will inculcate piety. For this is the best action, inculcation of piety: pious
observance, again, is not found in an immoral person. Hence in this respect also growth
and no falling off is good. To this end has this been inscribed, that men may effect
growth in this respect and that falling off may not be suffered. This has been inscribed
by king Piyadasi, dear to the gods, having been consecrated twelve years.
PILLAR EDICT VII
Thus says king Piyadasi, dear to the gods :
The kings who were in the past wished thus : How may the people grow with the
growth of piety? ' The people, however, did not grow with a proper growth in piety.
In this matter thus says king Piyadasi, dear to the gods :
This thought came to me : In the past the kings had this wish : 'How may the
people grow with a proper growth in piety? ' The people, however, did not grow with a
proper growth in piety. Whereby then can the people be made to conform ? Whereby
can the people be made to grow with a proper growth in piety ? Whereby can I elevate
any of them by a growth in piety?
In this matter thus says king Piyadasi, dear to the gods :
This thought. came to me, 'I will publish precepts of piety, I will inculcate instruc.
tions in piety : hearing these, the people will conform, will be elevated, and will grow
strongly with the growth of piety. ' For this purpose precepts of piety were published,
manifold instructions in piety were enjoined, so that my officers in charge of large
populations might expound them and spread them abroad. The governors also in charge
of many hundred thousand lives, they also were ordered, “thus and thus catechise the
persons of the establishment of piety. '
Thus says Piyadasi, dear to the gods :
With the same object pillars of piety were made by me, dignitaries of piety wore
instituted, precepts of piety were proclaimed.
Thus says king Piyadasi, dear to the gods
:


## p. 460 (#498) ############################################

460
(CH.
AÇOK A
W
On the roads also banyans were planted, to give shade to cattle and men : mango.
gardens were planted : and at each half-koss wells were dug: also rest-houses were made
many watering stations also were made in this and that place for the comfort of eattle and
men. Little indeed is mere comfort : for with various gratifications the people have been
gratified both by previous kings and by myself. But, that they might conform with &
conformity in piety, for this reason was this done by me.
This says Piyadasi, dear to the gods :
Dignitaries of piety were appointed by me in charge of manifold indulgences, these
both for ascetics and for householders; also ever all sects were they appointed. Over the
affairs of the Sangha also were they set, these shall be appointed'; likewise over
Brābmans Ājivakas also were they set these shall be appointed'; Over Nirgranthas also
were they set, 'these shall be appointed. Over various sects also were they set, these
shall be appointed. ' According to circumstances such and such dignitaries were set over
such and such. Dignitaries of piety also were appointed over both these and all other
sects.
Thus says king Piyadasi, dear to the gods :
These and various other classes were appointed in charge of the distribution of
charity, both my own and that of the queens. And in my whole harem they carry out in
manifold fashions such and such measures of satisfaction, both here and in all quarters.
The same has been done as regards the distribution of charity on the part of my sons
the other princes, 'these shall be appointed over the distributions of charity with a view
to ensamples of piety and for conformity to piety. For this is an ensample of piety and
conformity to piety, when in the people compassion liberality, truth honesty, mildness,
and goodness shall thereby be increased.
Thus says king Piyadasi, dear to the gods :
Whatsoever good deeds have been done by me, thereto the people have conform-
ed, and those they copy. And thereby they have grown and will grow in obedience to
mothers and fathers, in obdience to venerable persons in conformity to the olil, in right
behaviour towards Brāhmans and ascetics, the poor and wretched, slave and servants.
Thus says king Piyadasi, dear to the gods :
This growth in piety is a growth in two respects, in the restraints of piety and
in considerateness. Now of these restraints by piety is a little thing, but considerateness
a greater. The restriant of piety is this, that I have had such and such creatures made
exempt from slaughter, and there are other restraints of piety which have been ordained
by me. But by considerateness there has been to a greater degree a growth in piety on
the part of men conducting to abstention from ill-usage to living creatures and to non-
taking of life. This was done to his end, that sons and grandsons may continue there in
as long as moon and sun endure, and that they may conform accordingly. For by so
conforming this life and the future life are secured. This Edict of Piety was inscribed by
me when I had been six and twenty years consecrated.
Thus says the dear to the gods :
Where there are stone pillars or stone slabs, there this Ediet of Piety is to be
instructed, that it may be permanent,


## p. 461 (#499) ############################################

xx)
DYNASTIC SUCCESSORS
461
The dynastic successors of Açoka are by the Brāhman and Buddhist
traditions diversely reported according to the following scheme :
Brāhman Sources,
Buddhist Sources.
Al.
A.
(Pargiter, Dynasties of the Kali Age,
(Divyāvadāna, XXIX. )
pp. 27-30. )
1. Kuņāla or Suyaças, reigned 8 years. 1. Kuņāla.
*2. Bandhupālita, son of Kuņāla, reigned 2. Samprati, son of 1.
8 years.
*3. Indrapālita.
3. Bșihaspati, son of 2.
*4. Da ona, son of 3, reigned 7 years.
4. Vțishasena, son of 3.
5. Daçaratha, son of 4, reigned 8 years. 5. Pushyadharma, son of 4.
6. Samprati or Sangata, son of 5, reigned 6. Pushyamitra, son of 5.
9 years.
*7. Çāliçūka, son of 6, reigned 13 years.
8. Devadharman or Devavarman or Soma-
Çarman, son of 7, reigned 7 years.
9. Çatadhanvan of Çaçadharman, son of 8,
reigned 8 years.
10. Bțihadratha, reigned 7 years.
B.
B.
(Tāranātha, History of Buddhism,
(Rājatarangiņi, 1, 108 f. )
trans. Schiefner, pp. 48 f. )
Jaloka in Kashmir, son of Açoka.
1. Kunāla.
2. Vigataçaka.
3. Virasena,
The meagre and conflicting lists are evidently no material for
history : but they supply certain indications which may hereafter be
verified. One of the Buddhist sources includes in the dynasty the name
of Pushyamitra, really the founder of the succeeding line of the Çungas : he
was commander-in-chief to Bșihadratha and he availed himself of a
grand review of the army to overthrow and slay his master”. Lest this
error of the Buddhists should lead us wholly to prefer the Brāhman ac-
counts, let us observe that the latter differ in numerous particulars, some
naming more kings than others, and all presenting diversities of spelling :
moreover, none of them justifies in detail the total of 137 years which they
unanimously ascribe to the whole Maurya dynasty.
The existence of some of the kings named in the list is avouched
by independent evidence. Daçaratha is known by three inscriptions
bestowing on the Ājīvaka sect caves in the Nāgārjunï bills3 : Samprati is
1 The names accompanied by an asterisk appear only in certain recensions of
the Puranic list.
2 Bāņa's Harshacharita (trans. Cowell and Thomas), p. 193.
3 Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, I, pp. 103-4, 134-5.


## p. 462 (#500) ############################################

462
[сн. xx
AÇOK A
3
mentioned in the Jain tradition as a convert of their patriarch Suhastin? .
Jaloka is celebrated in the history of Kashmir, as a great propagator of
Çaivism and for a time a persecutor of the Buddhists, further as having
freed the country from an invasion of Mlecchas, who would be Greeks,
and a conqueror who extended his dominions as far as Kanyākubja or
Kanauj.
The extreme confusion reigning in the legends is probably, as was
indicated long ago, to be explained by a division of the empire, perhaps
beginning after Samprati? . The Buddhists will then give the western
line, as indicated by the fact that Vïrasena is represented as ruling in
Gandhāra and further by the fact that Sophagasenus, or Subhāgasena,
with whom Antiochus the Great renewed an ancestral friendship in 206
B. C. ", is indicated by his name as a member of this line. This series will
then have been terminated by the Greek conquest of the Punjab under
Euthydemus and his successors. At Pataliputra the second line may have
held out a little longer, until about the year 18+ B. C. , when it was overthrown
by Pushyamitra, whose power may have centered about Ujjain, and who,
as is indicated in the drama of Kālidāsa called the Malavikāgnimitra,
succeeded to the struggle with the Greeks. But descendants of Açoka
were as late as the seventh century A. D. , if we may trust the statement of
Hieun Tsiang, still in possession of small dominions in Eastern India : for
he relates that shortly before his visit Pūraņvarman, King of Magadha,
a descendant of Açoka, had restored the Bodhi. tree, which had been
destroyed by Çaçãnka, otherwise named Narendragupta, of Karņasuvarņa,
or Bengal
.
1 See Jacobi's notes in S. B. E. XXII, p. 290 (Kalpasutra).
2 Lassen, Ind. Alt. II, pp. 283 ff.
3 Taranātha, op. cit. p. 50.
4 Polybius, XI, 34 ; v. sup. Chapter XVII, 397.
5 See the translations of Julien (I, pp. 463-4), Beal (II, p. 118), and Watters
(IJ,
p. 115).


## p. 463 (#501) ############################################

CHAPTER XXI
INDIAN NATIVE STATES AFTER THE PERIOD OF
THE MAURYA EMPIRE
a
The inscriptions of Açoka give us, for the first time in history, a
comprehensive survey of India from the Hindu Kush to Ceylon; but it
would be a mistake to assume that even Açoka, the most powerful of the
Mauryas, maintained full political control over an empire of so vast, an
extent. His edics clearly show that there were certain well-defined grades
in the influence which he claimed to exercise in different regions. There
were first of all the king's dominions', by which we must no doubt
understand the provinces of the empire-the central government of Pātali-
putra (the United Provinces and Bihār) and the viceroyalties of Takshaçilā
(the Punjab), Avanti or Ujjayini (Western and Central India north of the
Tāpti), and Kalinga (Orissa and the Ganjām District of Madras). Over
all kingdoms and peoples in these provinces the emperor was supreme.
He was the head of great confederation of states which were united under
him for imperial purposes, but which for all purposes of civil government
and internal administration retained their independence. He was the link
which bound together in association for peace or war powers which were
the natural rivals of one another.
Beyond 'the king's dominions' to the north-west and to the south
lay 'the border peoples,' whom the emperor regarded as coming within his
sphere of influence. On the north-west, in the North-West Frontier
Province and in the upper Kābul valley, these are called in the inscriptions
Gandhāras, Kāmbojas, and Yavanas (Yonas); and on the south, beyond
the limits of the provinces of Avanti and Kalinga, there were the Rāshtri-
kas of the Marāthā country, the Bhojas of Berār, the Pefenikas of the
Aurangābād District of Hyderābād, the Pulindas, whose precise habitat is
uncertain, and the Andhras, who occupied the country between the
Godāvari and the Kistna.
Açoka's relations with these frontier peoples are most clearly indica-
ted in the Jaugada version of Kalinga edicts. It was addressed by him
463


## p. 464 (#502) ############################################

464
(ch.
INDIAN STATES
to the officers of the state at Samāpā, no doubt the city on the site of
which the ruined fort of Jaugada in the Ganjām District now stands :
If you ask, “With regard to the unsubdued borderers what is the King's com-
mand to us ? ” or “What truth is it that I desire the borderers to grasp ? '—the answer
is that the King desires that 'they should not be afraid of me, that they should trust
me, and should receive from me happiness, not sorrow. ' Moreover, they should grasp
the truth that 'the King will bear patiently with us, so far as it is possible to bear with
us, and that ‘for my sake they should follow the Law of Piety, and so gain both this
world and the next. And for this purpose I give you instructions. (Kalinga Edict I,
trans. V. A. Smith, Asoka”, p. 178. )
The emperor's attitude towards these neighbours is one of general
benevolence. They are not his subjects : they are unsubdued'; but in
the interests of peace and good government he is concerned in their welfare
and their good conduct. He is prepared to bear with them patiently 'so
far as it is possible': that is to say, he trusts that punitive expeditions
or annexations may not be necessary.
The region occupied by the southern 'border peoples' includes what
is now known to ethnologists as the Central Belt and still contains the
largest groups of primitive tribes to be found in India. In the course
of twenty-two centuries the policy of the government remains unchanged
in regard to these representatives of the earliest inhabitants of the sub-
continent. They continue to govern themselves in accordance with their
traditional constitutions and are only subject to such control as may be
deemed to be indispensable :
The policy of the Government of India is to permit no sudden restrictions that
may alter the accustomed mode of life of these tribes, but rather to win confidence by
kindness, and thus gradually to create self-supporting communities, acknowledging
the state as arbitrator of those questions hitherto dicided by might rather than by
justice. (Imp. Gaz. III, p. 124).
Beyond the zones of border peoples lay realms of whose complete
independence there is no question. On the north-west Açoka's sphere
of influence ended at the frontiers of Yavana king Antiochus, i. e.
the Selucid monarch Antiochus II theos; and on the south it probably did
not extend much beyond the locality of his southernmost group of inscrip-
tions at Isila, the modern Siddāpura in the Chitaldroog District of
N. Mysore. The apex of the peninsula was occupied by the ancient
Dravidian kingdoms of the Sātiyaputas, the Chēras, the Chõlas, and
the Pāndyas. With these independent nation's Açoka's relations were
merely such as might be expected to exist between friendly powers.
But, while the invaluable testimony of the edicts thus enables us
to estimate the character and the extent of Maurya rule at its height, we


## p. 465 (#503) ############################################

XXI]
KINGDONS ON THE CENTRAL ROUTE
465
have no such trustworthy guide for the period of its declined. Its
end, according to the Purāņas, came about through a revolt which placed
the Cungas on the imperial throne. It seems certain, however, that
the Çungas succeeded to a realm already greatly diminished. The history
of India at this time is still confined to the regions which were once known
as 'the king's dominions' and 'the border peoples'; but these are no
longer under the immediate rule or under the indirect control of any
one power.
Political conditions in the 2nd and 1st centuries E. c. were ex-
tremely complicated. The causes of this complication were twofold -
internal strife and foreign invasions; and both of these were the natural and
inevitable result of the downfall of imperial rule. In Central India
and in the land of the Ganges the supremacy of the later Mauryas and of
their successors, the Çungas, was disputed by the Andhras of the Deccan
and the Kalingas of Orissa ; and, now that the frontiers could no longer
be held securely against hostile pressure from without, torrents of invasion
burst into North-Western India through the channels which led from
Bactria and from Eastern Irān.
The chief kingdoms of Northern India lay along the routes which
connected Pātaiiputra, the former capital of the empire, with the Kābul
valley on the one hand and with the delta of the Indus on the other; and
these routes were continuations of others which passed through Irān
to the West. When, at the height of their power, the Maurya and
the Seleucid empires were coterminous, intercourse by land between India
and the Western World was unimpeded. But already during the reign
of Açoka revolts in the Seleucid empire had led to the establishment
of hostile powers in Bactria and Parthia, which controlled the two
great lines of communication. The extension of the Yavana power from
Bactria through the Kābul valley to the Jumna in the first quarter of
the second century B. C. and the invasion, a century later of the Çakas
from Seistān into the country of the lower Indus (Çakadvipa or Indo-Scy-
thia), a position commanding the route through Central India, are described
elsewhere? The land-ways which united India with the West had thus
become increasingly difficult from the middle of the third century to
the early part of the first century B. C. ; but by sea commerce was still
maintained with Mesopotamia (Babylon) and Egypt (Alexandria) through
the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea ; and the ports on the west coast were
connected with Pāțaliputra through Ujjayinī, the great emporium of the
period. But the isolation of the sub-continent was now almost complete.
The attempt to make India a great world power had failed ; and its history
now becomes a complex struggle within its own borders of elements both
native and foreign, such as was to recur many centuries later on the down-
1 Chapter XX, pp. 460-61 ff, ? Chapters XXII and XXIII.


## p. 466 (#504) ############################################

466
[CH.
INDIAN NATIVE STATES
99
ܪܙ
fall of the Mughal empire.
No detailed account of this period of turmoil can be written. All
that we can attempt, with the aid of such fragments of historical evidence
as have been preserved, is to disentangle the various elements involved in
the struggle and to estimate their mutual relations. These may best be
understood if we consider the means of communication then available.
Roads in the ordinary sense of the word did not exist ; but there was
a net-work of well-beaten routes throughout ; and along these armies in
war, like merchants and pilgrims in peace-time, made their way from one
city to another. Through this system ran the two great arteries which
have been already mentioned. The chief stages on the more northern of
these are described in Chapter xxii, p. 490, in connexion with the progress
of the Yavana invasions. The course of the central route, which joined the
northern route at Kauçāmbi, was as follows .
From (1) Hyderabad in Sind to Ujjain (Ujjayini) 500 miles.
(2) Broach (Bhộigukaccha) N. E. to Ujjain 200
Ujjain E. to Besnagar (Vidiçā)
120
Besnagar N. E. to Bhārhut
185
Bhārhut N. E, to Kosam (Kauç bi)
80
Kosam E. to Benares (Kāçi)
100
Benares E. to Patna (Pāțaliputra)
135
It is in the monuments and coins of the kingdoms of Vidicā, Bhārhut,
and Kauçāmbi that we find the most unmistakable traces of the Çungas
and their feudatories. That the first Çunga king reigned at Pāțaliputra
is assumed in literature (p. 467) and may be inferred from the description
which the Purāņas give of the origin of the dynasty. We are told that
Pushyamitra, the commander-in-chief of Brihadratha, the last of the
Mauryas, slew his master and reigned in his stead ; and it was believed in
the seventh century A. D. that his military coup d' e'lat took place on the
occasion of a review of the forces? . If the chronology of the Purānas may
be trusted, this event happened 137 years after the occassion of Chandra-
gupta, i. e. , c. 184 B. C. , and the reign of Pushyamitra lasted for thirty-six
years'. Fortunately in this instance the statements of the Purānas may be
checked to some extent by evidence supplied from other sources. The
Çungas came into conflict with other
who
were eager to share in
the spoil of the Maurya empire - Andhras, Yayanas, and Çakas- and what
we know of the history of these peoples is in accordance with the view that
powers
1 For the military importance of this state of affairs which 'made the ordinary
business of peace time. . . a regular training for campaigning and which «explains the
extraordinary promptitude with which the wars of the Indian army have been so
frequently entered on,' see Chesney, Indian Polity, Chapter XVII (quoted in Imp. Gas.
III. pp. 402-3).
2 Harshacharita (trans. Cowell and Thomas), p. 193.
3 The alternative statement of some versions, ésixty years,' is manifestly due
to textual corruption.


## p. 467 (#505) ############################################

xxi]
ÇUÑGAS
467
36 years.
8
7
Pushyamitra was actually reigning during the period thus attributed to him.
The origin of the Çurgas is obscure. Their name, which means 'fig-
tree,' may perhaps be tribal. According to Pāṇini (iv, 1, 117) they
claimed to be descendants of Bharadvāja, the purohita of Divodāsa, king
of the Tșitsus (p. 82); and, as Bharadvāja is associated with Vitahavyal
from whom the Vītihotras (p. 316) probably derived their name, the two
peoples may have belonged to the same region, that is to say, to the
countries which, under the Maurya empire, were included in the viceroyalty
of Ujjain. It is with the kingdom of Vidiça, which forms part of this region,
that the Çungas are especially associated in literature and inscriptions.
The dynastic list of ten Çunga kings is as follows? :
1. Pushyamitra reigned
6. Pulindaka reigned
3 years.
2. Agnimitra reigned
7. Ghosha reigned
3
3. Vasujyeshţha (Sujyretha) r.
8. Vajramitra reigned 9 or 7
4. Vasumitra (Sumitra) reigned 10
9. Bhāga (Bhāgavata) reigned 32
5. Odraka (Andhraka etc. ) r. 2 or 7
10. Devabhuti reigned
10
When allowance is made for the uncertainty as to the length of the
fifth and eighth reigns and for the fact that the computation is by whole
years without regard to fractions, the total duration ascribed to the
dynasty, viz. 112 years, may well be correct ; and, if so, the rule of the
Çungas came to an end c. 72 B. C.
In Buddhist literature Pushyamitra figures as a great persecutor of
the Buddhists, bent on acquiring fame as the annihilator of Buddha's
doctrine. He meditated the destruction of the Kukkuțārāma, the great
monastery which Açoka had built for 1000 monks to the south-east of
Pāțaliputra ; but, as he approached the entrance, he was met with the
roar as of a mighty lion and hastily withdrew in fear to the city. He then
went to Çākala (Siālkot) in the E. Punjab and attempted to exterminate
the Buddhist community there, offering a reward of 100 dināras for the
head of every monk. The end of this persecutor of the faith was brought
about by superhuman interposition".
Underlying such legends we may no doubt recognise certain historical
facts, Pushyamitra was regarded as a champion of the Brāhman reaction
which set in after the triumph of Buddhism during Açoka's reign. He
was remembered as a king of Magadba and as suzerain over dominions
in the Punjab which had owned the sway of his Maurya predecessors. The
subsequent fate of his chief capital, Pāțaliputra, is obscure ; but Çākala
was soon - within his own lifetime as it would seem-to be wrested from
the Çungas by the Yavanas and to become the capital of king Menander
(p. 495).
1 Vedic Index, II pp. 97-8, 316-7.
: Cf. Kali Age, pp. 30-3, 70.
3 Divyavadana, pp. 433-4.


## p. 468 (#506) ############################################

468
[CH.
INDIAN NATIVE STATES
Some of the events of Pushyamitra's reign are also reflected in the
earliest of Kālidāsa's dramas, the Malavikāgnimitra, the plot of which turns
on the love of Agnimitra, king of Vidiçā and the viceroy of his father
Pushyamitra, for Mālavikā, a princess of Vidarbha (Berār) living at his
court in disguise. The play was produced before another viceregal court
at Ujjain on the occasion of the Spring Festival in some year c. 400 A. D.
during the reign of Chandragupta II Vikramāditya. Like nearly all
Sanskrit dramas, it is little more than a story of intrigue. Its main interest
is anything but historical ; but some of its characters represent real
personages, and certain references to the history of the adjacent kingdom
of Vidiçā are appropriately introduced in the last Act. It would be un-
reasonable to suppose that these had no foundation in fact.
The first of these references is to a war between Vidiçā and Vidarbha
in which the former was victorious. As a result Vidarbha was divided
into two provinces separated by the river Varadā, the modern Wardha,
which is now the boundary between Berār and the Central Provinces. It
seems clear from what is known of the general history of this period that
any such incursion of the Çungas into this region must inevitably have
brought them into collision with the Andhras, whose power had at this
time extended across the Deccan from the eastern coast (p. 477). It has been
assumed therefore with much probability that Yajñasena, the prince of
Vidarbha in the play, must have been either an Andhra or a feudatory of
the Andhras.
The other incidental references in the Malavikāgnimitra confirms
the account of a Greek invasion of the Midland Country given by the
Yuga Purāņa and supported by statements which appear as grammatical
illustrations in Patañjali's commentary on Pāṇini (p. 491). The Yarana
successors of Alexander the Great in the Punjab had evidently forced their
way through the Delhi passage and attacked the very centre of the Çunga
deminions. In the play a messenger comes to Agnimitra with a letter
from Pushyamitra announcing his intention to perform the horse sacrifice,
the traditional Kshatriya rite whereby a king asserted his title to exercise
suzerainty over his neighbours. The horse, as was the custom, had been
Eet free to roam withersoever he would for a year as a challenge to all
opponents ; and he was guarded by Pushyamitra's grandson, Vasumitra,
the son of Agnimitra; attended by a hundred princes. The challenge was
accepted by a body of Yavana cavalry, who tried to capture the horse as
he wandered along the right bank of the river Sindhu ; and a conflict
ensued in which the Yavanas were defeated by the Çungas. Pushyamitra's
claim was thus maintained ; and he proposed to celebrate this triumph by
the performance of the sacrifice which Agnimitra, as one of the monarchs
1 See Chapter XXIV,


## p. 469 (#507) ############################################

XXI]
THE LATER ÇUNG AS
469
owe
of his realm, was invited to attend. An allusion to this sacrifice may
perhaps be preserved in another grammatical example used by
Patañjali? ; and, as we have seen (p. 269), it is probably to the solemn
recitation of the suzerain's lineage on such occasion that we
the
dynastic lists preserved in the Purāņas.
Unfortunately we cannot be certain as to the river on whose banks
the encounter between the Yavanas and the Çungas took place ; but the
choice seems to lie between the Kāli Sindhu, a tributary of the Charman-
vati (Chambal) flowing within a hundred miles of Madhyamikā (near
Chitor), which was besieged by the Yavanas (p. 491), and the Sindhu, a
tributary of the Jumna which would naturally be passed by invading forces
on the route between Mathurā (Muttra) and Prayāga (Allahābād).
Of Agnimita nothing is known beyond such information as may be
gleaned from the Malavikāgnimitra and the Purāņas. The combined
evidence of these two sources may be interpreted to mean that, after ruling
at Vidiçā as his father's viceroy, he was his successor as suzerain for a
period of eight years. Whether the Agnimitra, whose coins are found in
N. Panchāla and who was therefore presumably king of Ahicchatra, can
be identified with the Çunga king of that name is uncertain (p. 473 Pl. V,3).
The fate of the fourth king in the list, Vasumitra, or Sumitra who as
a youthful prince guarded the sacrificial horse and defeated the Yavanas, is
told in the Harshacharita : 'Sumitra, son of Agnimitra, being over fond of
the drama, was attacked by Mitradeva in the midst of actors, and with a
scimitar shorn, like a lotus stalk, of his head? Who Mitradeva was
we can only conjecture ; but it seems not improbable that he may have
been the king's minister and a Kanva Brāhman of the same family as
Vasudeva, who is said to have brought about the fall of the dynasty
through the assassination of the last king Devabhuti. It may be that we
have here an indication of the growth of that influence, which so often in
Indian history has transferred the real power in the state from the prince
to the minister, from the Kshatriya to the Brāhman.
The next name in the list appears in many disguises in the mss.
as Odruka, Andhraka, Bhadraka, etc. Mr. Jayaswal has given good reasons
for supposing that the original form from which all these varieties
are derived was Odraka, and he has shown further that this name is
most probably to be restored in the Pabhosā inscr. no. 904, which should
therefore be regarded as dated 'in the tenth year of Odraka. ' If these acute
and plausible suggestions may be accepted, we must conclude that the
region of Pabhosā -- the ancient kingdom of Kauçāmbi, as seems most
likely (p. 472) - was included at this period in the sovereignty of the
1 Bhandarkar, Ind. Ant. , 1872, p. 300.
2 Trans. Cowell and Thomas, p. 192.


## p. 470 (#508) ############################################

470
(CH.
INDIAN NATIVE STATES
Çungas ; but at the same time we must recognise that an error has crept
into the text of the Purāņas, which, as they stand, assign either two or
seven years to this king.
There appears to be no reason for doubting that the last king but ore,
the Bhāga or Bhāgavata of the Purāṇas, is the Bhāgabhadra, in the
fourteenth year of whose reign the Besnagar column was erected by
Heliodrous, son of Dion, the Yavana ambassador who had come to
the court of Vidică from Antialcidas, king of Takshaçilā (p. 503). This
identification enables us to bring the histories of the Çungas and the
Yavanas into relation with each other, and to determine, naturally within
limits of possible error, a fixed point in their chronology. If the duration
of reigns as given in the Purāņas, confused though it is by textual corrup-
tions, be approximately correct, the fourteenth year of king Bhāgabhadra
(within a few years of 90 B.