4.8 Sunga Dynasty (180
– 73 BC)
The
dynasty came into power when the last Mauryan ruler was assassinated by
Pusyamitra
Sunga. The dynasty ruled for nearly 100 years but over a smaller
geography
compared to that under the Mauryan dynasty. Pusyamitra fought many wars
with the
Yavanas (Greeks) who attempted to
invade from the present day northern Afghanistan. He was a Brahmin and
staunch
follower of Brahmanism faith. Under his rule, Buddhism went through a
decline
after reaching its heyday under Ashoka and his successors. He ordered
the persecution
of Buddhist followers and destruction of the stupas and monasteries.
Despite
the crackdown, Buddhism retained its followers and continued to get
practiced
in areas falling under his territory. Since Pusyamitra ruled only a part
of the
Mauryan Empire with the capital at Patliputra, Buddhism was flourishing
as
before outside the periphery of the dynasty. Though he supported
Brahmanism and
persecuted Buddhism, most of his successors from the same dynasty
favored
Buddhism. Inscriptions record that King Dhanabhuti–Vachiputa contributed
a torana (gate) and silakammamta (stone Building) to the Buddhist stupa
at Bharhut. His
son, Prince Vadhapala, made contributions for the erection of the vedika
(railing) that surrounded the
stupa. Inscriptions found in Mathura reveal that Vadhapala constructed a
railing there too [8]. A
magnificent railing was also built around the site of Buddha’s
enlightenment in
Bodhgaya, but only remains of it survive today. Based on the literary
and archaeological
evidences, it can be said that Buddhism suffered initially during this
dynasty
but got support from the later rulers.
4.9
Kanva Dynasty (73 - 28 BC)
The
last Sunga King Devabhuti was overthrown by his own minister Vasudeva Kanva. He
was a Brahmin and supposed to be descendants of sage Kanva. The Puranas
designate the kings of the Kanva dynasty as Sungabhirtyas
meaning the servants of the Sungas. It is probably because they had been in the
service of the Sunga Kings as ministers. The dynasty was very short-lived and soon
overtaken by Satvahanas, also known as Andhras.
Though Buddhism declined slightly in Sunga and Kanva period, the most famous
Buddhist monuments and works of arts belongs to these two dynasties; notable in
them are splendid sculptured monuments at Barhut and Sanchi.
The
Satvahanas, who overtook the Kanvas, had their political center in the Deccan of upper Godavari and Krishna.
Initially they started out as feudatories to the Mauryan
dynasty in Deccan but declared
independence with its decline. Though the exact time of beginning of Satvahana
Dynasty is not certain but most historians relate it to the time when Sunga
rebelled against the Mauryan Empire. It gives nearly 450 years of ruling period
over Deccan by this dynasty. The Satvahanas were great patrons of Buddhism and
under their rule, the religion flourished in southern India. Cave temples became
the main feature of this empire and one of the major features of Buddhism in
Deccan. It can be easily understood from the fact that out of approximately
1200 cave temples found in India, nearly 75 percent are Buddhist. Under the
Satvahanas, cave temples were built in the ghats
and mountain ranges along the west coast area. The caves are basically of two
types: the caves used for worship that contained stupa and the caves used as
quarters for the monks. The most famous cave temples of this period belong to Ajanta,
Bhaja, Nasik, Karli and Ellora.
As
the political center shifted towards Deccan under the Satvahanas, very little
is known about the Magadhan history in this entire period which stretched up to
3rd century AD. The literary as well as archaeological evidences are
very scanty. A clay seal discovered from the Basarh shows that the ruler of the
Magadha at the beginning of 3rd century AD had a matrimonial
alliance with the Western Kshatrapas. It is possible that during this period
small political centers led by Guptas and Lichchhavis could have come into
existence who’s amalgamation led to the foundation of the imperial power of the
Guptas in the 4th century AD. However before Guptas, the majority of
northern India were part of the dynasties that invaded the subcontinent from
western front and influenced the culture of the continent in a big way.
4.10 Society and later
lot of invaders in Indian subcontinent [8]
From
8000 BC onwards, the Indian subcontinent saw a continuous influx of different human
groups starting from the Negroids, Australoids (Dravidians) and then the dominant
Indo-Aryans from the northwestern front and the Mongoloid groups of humans from
the eastern front. As these groups migrated to subcontinent from different
regions of the world at different time scale, they had distinct physical,
cultural and religious attributes. As a result of these differences, ethnic,
religious and occupational superiorities were deeply penetrated into the
consciousness of these human groups. By the end of Mauryan Empire, the overall society
was broadly shaped with respect to its social and religious behaviors and Brahmanism,
Buddhism, Jainism and Shaivism coupled with totemism / animism were some of the
major spiritual branches followed by these populations. As the human populations
residing in the subcontinent during the peak of Mauryan Empire could have made around
25% of the entire world population, the existing spiritual branches had large
followers and became rich enough to influence and absorb many human groups who
invaded the subcontinent after Mauryan Empire. In the series of invaders, the
first lot was of Greeks, known as Yavana in
the Indian literatures, who successfully invaded the subcontinent after the decline
of the Mauryan Empire. Of all the Greek Kings recorded in the history of India,
Menander I Soter (known as Milinda in
Indian literatures) is particularly important. From 160-140 BC, he ruled over an
area that extended from central India to Afghanistan with capital at Sakala (Sialkot
in Pakistan). By the time of Milinda, Buddhism had already spread in these
regions due to the efforts of Ashoka whereby he sent Majjhantika as an emissary
to establish Buddhist order there. The same is evident from the remains of many
Buddhist stupas, dating to 2nd century BC, in northwestern India
with ‘Dharmarajika Stupa’ of Takshila dating to the time of Ashoka. King
Milinda too got influenced from Buddhism and held a number of debates with
Buddhist monk Nagasena before converting to the religion. The contents of their
debate were collected and recorded as Milindapanha.
In the reign of Milinda, Buddhism continued to flourish in the northwestern
India. It is evident from the inscriptions on the reliquary, discovered in 1937
from Shinkot in the Swat River valley, which reads ‘the remains were enshrined
in it during the reign of King Milinda’. The inscriptions further suggest that
many Greeks of this region were converted to Buddhism by the 1st century
BC. It must be noted that Greek Buddhists were present at the time of Ashoka
also. Amongst the Buddhist missionaries sent by Ashoka, one was Greek named
Yona Dhammarakhita. He went to Aparantaka
(present day Konkan and Malabar) to spread Buddhism. Greek donors are also
mentioned in the inscriptions at Sanchi suggesting that some Greeks must have
converted to Buddhism soon after their arrival in India i.e. at the time of
Chandragupta Maurya.
After
Yavanas, the subcontinent was invaded by the Sakas. Maues was their first king. He conquered much part of
northern India around 100 BC. He died when he was on an expedition to conquer
Mathura. After his death, the Sakas broke into smaller groups and ruled the
areas in semi-autonomous manner with the help of the governor-generals known as
Ksatrapa and Mahaksatrapa. The important of Sakas were Kusuluka and his son
Patika and Rajula. The Sakas
patronized Buddhism. According to the copper plate found from the stupa at
Takshila, King Patika built stupas in areas where none existed and installed
the relics of Buddha in them. According to the inscriptions on a pillar found
in Mathura, Ayasia Kamuia (wife of Mahaksatrapa Rajula) along with her
relatives and the women in the palace commissioned the building of a stupa with
a relic of Buddha in it. Rajula’s son, Sudasa too gave support in the form of land
for building cave-temples to two monks who belonged to the Sarvastivadin school of Buddhism. After Sakas, the next one to
invade India was Parthians who also
patronized Buddhism. A number of Parthians monks were responsible to carry
Buddhism to China.
Around
50-100 AD, the Parthians were defeated by Kushanas
under the leadership of Kujula Kadphises. The third in succession line
was King
Kanishka who created an empire that stretched from central Asia into
Afghanistan and included the northern part of India. His empire has been
largest
in south Asia since Ashoka’s time. The main capital of the Empire was
Purushapura
(Peshawar in Pakistan) with other regional capitals at Bagram (in
Afganistan),
Takshila and Mathura. Kanishka was a great patron of Buddhism and
established
the world famous ‘great stupa of Kanishka’ in the capital Purushapura.
He organized the 2nd Fourth Buddhist Council belonging to the
Sarvastivada
tradition of Buddhism around 78 AD in Jalandhar (or Kashmir). Kanishka
was
succeeded by Vasiska, Huviska and Vasudeva. Huviska constructed ‘Huviska
vihara’
in Jamalpur situated at the outskirts of Mathura. The stupa was
decorated with
beautiful carvings. As Mathura was one of the capitals of Kushana
dynasty, the
Mathuran art and culture touched its zenith in this period. The region
also emerged
as a prominent Buddhist center in northern India during this period. It
is evident
from the fragments of fences, pillars and Buddhist images that have been
found
in ruins with inscriptions related to various schools of Buddhism. The
inscriptions found around Mathura indicate that a number of schools of
Nikaya Buddhism had monasteries there. Mathura
remained a Buddhist center for long time evident from the notes of
Chinese
travelers Fa-xian and Huan Tswang who visited India around 4th and 7th
century AD.** The Kushana period witnessed a marked change in Buddhist
culture.
By this time, the effect of Greeks converting to Buddhism started
appearing
visibly on the religion. The Buddhist temples appeared in Greek
decorative
patterns with Corinthian columns and capitals. The images of Buddha
influenced
by the Greek type of sculptures appeared in Gandhara and Mathura. Both
places
became famous as the first two places where Buddha was portrayed in
human form.
During the period, the Buddhist carving advances further and the life of
the
Buddha were portrayed in sculptures. All such arts finally resulted in a
number
of beautiful Buddhist caves in Maharashtra under the Satvahana dynasty,
who
were contemporary of the Kushanas. As the emergence of Gandharan art
portrayed
Buddha in human form, his independent images later served as an object
of
worship for Buddhists and thus beginning a new era of idol worship in
India. By
300 AD, the strength of the Kushana dynasty gradually waned occupying
only a
small part of northern India. (** The archaeological evidences show rise
of
Mathura as a center of Krishna cult in later period. It is attested from
the sculptures
of Krishna, earliest of which dates to 100-200 AD even though Krishna as
a
legendary figure is mentioned in the central story of Mahabharata dating
1200-900 BC. It is believed that till the time of Kusana dynasty,
Krishna cult
was of literary nature only and did not stand as a rival to Buddhism
which had
deep roots in the entire north Indian subcontinent [9] .)
In
the entire period stretching from the 1st century BC to 300 AD,
Buddhism got royal patronage in northern India under different dynasties that invaded
from the northwestern front and in southern India under Satvahanas. Buddhism
rose and become faith of all occupational classes residing across subcontinent
from the time of Ashoka till 300 AD against Brahmanism whose caretakers restricted
it to only three occupational classes who spoke Sanskrit and lived in the regions
which was north of the Vindhyas. Though Buddha emerged as the chief deity of
aboriginal populations too, who formed a majority of the Shudra or labor class,
still the population would have continued with worship of their aboriginal
deities that included Shiva and other sacred animal gods and thus co-existence
of both in their society.
4.11 Gupta Empire of Magadha and Ujjain - click here to read
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References:
[8] Hirakawa,
A. (1993). A history of Indian Buddhism: From Sakyamuni to early Mahayana, pp.
223-235 (P. Groner, Eds.). New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
[9] Bhattacharya,
S. K. (1996). Krishna cult in Indian art, p. 27. New Delhi: M D Publications.
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Index Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10
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