An Imperial History Of India/Introduction
By K.P. Jayaswal - the Sanskrit Text, Revised by Rahul Sankrityayana
Publisher - Motilal Banarasi Dass, The Punjab Sanskrit Book Depot, Sasdmrha, Lahore| Wikified by Laxman Burdak |
INTRODUCTORY
1. History of India from the pre-Mahabharata War down to 320-348 A.D. (the beginning of the Gupta Period) is chronicled in the Puranas. For the subsequent period we have been dependent on inscriptions; and it had been believed that there was no text or written history for it. The inscriptions left certain 'blanks', and gave us a fragmentary view. It is therefore a matter of no small satisfaction to recover a text which turns out to give a connected history where we needed it most. From 78 A.D. we have in our new text a connected history down to the close of the eighth century. And what is still more gratifying is the imperial feature of that history. Some of the matters of great importance that this written record discloses are:
(1) a full and complete history of the Imperial Gupta epoch (348 A.D. to 500 A.D.), describing its break-up (500 A.D.),
(2) imperial history from (a) Vishnuvardhana ( 520-535 A.D.) , then following the (b) imperial family of the Maukharis (555-600 A.D.) down to (r ) his descendants' re-rise in the person of Prabhakaravardhana and Harshavardhana (606 647 A.D. ), [with a full history of Sasanka, who was a Brahmin by caste and a popular leader rising from Bengal],
(3) history of a Revived Gupta Empire, following the death of Harshavardhana, with its decline and fall,
(4) then a vivid description of two popular elections of kings in Bengal and the rise of Gopala.
Numerous important details, e.g., that Mahapadma Nanda had been the Prime Minister of Magadha before his kingship, that there was a short-lived r e p u b 1 i c in Bengal after Sasanka come in as additions to our knowledge. Further, Indian Imperial history for the first time receives personal touches when the author gives his estimate of character of individual emperors. All this welcome information is stored in a long section^-which is a book by itself, being in 1000 slokas in the MahSyana work entitled Arya-Manjusri-Mulakalpa, published [Part III] in the year 1925 by the late MM. Ganapati Sistrl of the State of Travancore in the Trivandrum Sanskrit Series (No. 84) .
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Possibly some of the Indian scholars, trained to suspect every written book in Sanskrit, would have darkly hinted (as a big historian did to my knowledge when the Arthasastra was discovered) that 'the book was a 'Southern forgery'. But fortunately the book was translated in Tibetan in the eleventh century A.D. and the present text agrees word for word with that translation.
My friend Bhadanta Rahula Sankrityayana has collected a unique library from Tibet, including an original Sanskrit manuscript which had been taken from India and translated there. He was fortunate enough to obtain a complete set of Buston's works from the Dalai Lama, which is not available even in the rich Russian collection. Thanks to the help and co-operation of Rev. Sankrityayana, and his Tibetan Library (deposited at the Patna Museum) , I have been able to get all important passages of the Manjusn-Mulakalpa compared with the Tibetan text, and to derive benefit from Buston (b. 1289 A.D. d.1363 A.D.) for the purpose of following some passages and obtaining additional light on the history of Skanda Gupta.
2. According to the Manjusri-Mulakalpa, Indian history is a succession of empires from the time preceding the Buddha to c. 750 A.D. where it stops. To take the period from 78 A.D., it consists of the following successions:
(a) Saka dynasty (Sakavamsa, i.e., Kushans) ,
(b) Naga-Senas, or, Nagas and Prabha-Vishnu, i.e., Vishnuvriddha Pravara-sena (Vakataka),
(c) Guptas (up to Budha Gupta) ,
(d) Vishnu (vardhana) and one descendant,
(e) Maukharis,
(f) Srikantba dynasty, [ Aditya (vardhana) , Rajya (vardhana) etc.],
(g) Imperial Valabhi dynasty (two generations),
(h) Imperial 'Gauda dynasty' i.e., Later Guptas: Adityasena to Vishnu-Gupta.
It will be at once noticed that (d), (e) and (g) go to fill up blanks in Indian History.
The Mulakalpa, 'edited' in the Sanskrit original by the late MM. Ganapati Sastri, is a poor production as an edition. The editor took no pain to correct even ordinary orthographical mistakes. He was
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unfamiliar with the Buddhist technical terms, and in preparing his letterpress he misread numerous words or preserved the misreadings, e.g. the well-known तायि ('saviour') as तापि ('ascetic') . Dr, Ganapati Sastri was under the disadvantage of possessing a single manuscript from which he edited the text. We are, however, thankful to get the text even in its present form. Practically the whole of the historical section, Chapter 53 in Part III, has been compared by Rev. Rahula Sankrityayana, with the result that we are better situated than we would have been if we had only the Sanskrit or only the Tibetan text before us. I am combining the results of the two versions, indicating their difference wherever important and necessary.
3. The (A)MMK (I adopt this abbreviation for the text; the Sanskrit version will be indicated by S., and Tibetan by T.) was written in Bengal. Geographically it is to Gauda and Magadha that the author pays his greatest attention. In fact his history from the Naga (C. 140 A.D.) and Gupta times (350 A.D.) to the beginning of the Pala period (750 A.D.) is a survey from Gauda written from the point of view of Gauda, showing an intimate concern with Gauda and the provinces in the proximity of Gauda. To him Gauda means the whole of Bengal and includes generally Magadha.
4. The author brings his history down from two different points to the beginning of the Pala Period. Once he starts with Sakas, pauses with the Guptas and comes down right to Gopalaka after finishing the Gupta line. Then, again, he starts with the Naga dynasty (Bharasiva) , deals with Samudra [Gupta] and his brother in Gauda, and with Sasanka whose name for some reason he conceals but whose history he makes un- mistakable, and then comes down to the Gopalas, 'the dasajivins (sudras) . He does not know the later and the great Pala kings (whom he would not have left unnamed had he known them) and their patronage of Mahayana. I would therefore regard the work as one of circa 770 A.D. (the death of Gopala) , or roughly 800 A.D.
5. It was translated into Tibetan about 1060 A.D. by the Hindu Pandita Kumarakalasa in co-operation with the Tibetan interpreter Sakya-blo-gros. The translation forms part of the Skangyur (rgyud D). The date of Sakya-blo-gros is fixed by that of Subhuti-sri-santi, a companion of Dipankara Srijnana (Atisa). Subhuti-sri-anti, and Sakya-blo-gros together translated the Pramana-
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Vārttiku which is in the Stanhgyur, Dipankara reached Tibet in 1042 and died in 1054 A.D.1
6. The history is put in the prophetic style in the mouth of the Buddha, who undertakes to narrate the future vicissitudes of his Doctrine and Church, and in that connexion royal history is dealt with. It is not strictly speaking, history proper as in the Puranas, but a secondary reference, the primary note being the history of Buddhism. This prophetic form of history was adopted in several Mahayana sutras which have been cited by B u s t o n. A commentary on one of them (Abhisamayalankara) says that a particular historical prophecy came to be true, that is, the author of that sutra came to know of the event as a past event. In many places the writer of the MMK forgot to use the future tense and used the legitimate past tense in the narration. All such passages I have put in the past tense. The language and style has a striking resemblance with the Yugapurana in the Garga-Samhita.
7. The historical narration is a lengthy one, the chapter covering 1005 verses in the printed S. MMK (pp. 579-656; Patala-visara 53) and about 25 less in T. MMK (rgyud D, Ch. XXXVI, pp. 425b & 483b). The learned editor of the S. AMMK has left the verses unnumbered. For convenience of reference I have numbered them. I shall refer in my summary to the verses so marked. The Tibetan text ends at verse 989 with its first line (atah avichi-paryantam na raja tatra vidyate). T. MMK is a word-for-word and termination-for-termination translation, hence the task of comparison becomes easy. T. MMK has 3 verses extra after verse 829.
8. Except for the opening 9 lines of prose [which is not to be found in T.] the whole text of the historical section is in anushtubh verses. Their language is Gatha Sanskrit which makes their understanding at places a matter more of guessing than of Sanskrit construction.
8a. In some cases it is evident from the context that the MS from which the Tibetan translation was made, was defective.
9. The length of life of many kings is exaggerated. I have left them out in my summary except where it seems to be reasonable or otherwise important. I also omit the history of future births of the virtuous and sinful kings and their careers in paradise or hell, which is
1. Rahula Sinkrityayana, Journal Asiatique, 1934; तिब्बत में बौद्धधर्म
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an important concern of the Buddhist religious historian but none of the present-day historian.
10. The name of the chapter, rather the section (parivarta ), is Rajavyakarana-parivarta, literally 'the Section on the Kingly Exposition' but technically 'the Section on the Prophecy about Kings'. Dynastic names as a rule are omitted. I have supplied them [in square brackets]. In many places the names of kings at times very important ones are denoted by their initials only e.g., H. for Harshavardhana, R. for Rajyavardhana, S. for Skanda Gupta. This makes the task of identification at times impossible.
11. Our Buddhist historian often gives castes of the rulers. For instance, he notes that the king who defeated Sasanka ("Soma") was a Vaisya by caste, 'Soma' was a Brahmin, the Gopalas (Palas) were of servile caste, etc. Our authority is very full on Sasanka and supplies certain details which were badly wanted. A most important fact which we gather from the author is that after Harshavardhana and Sasanka and before the rise of the Palas there was an Imperial Dynasty in the East with its seat at Benares and in Magadha. This seems quite natural, as without it we would have found the Chalukyas come up to the North. Our new datum helps us to correct the erroneous view of V. Smith that after Harsha there was no imperial power in the North. Another fact of importance is that the Buddhist historian specially notes the imperial position of rulers.
12. The author, after the Sunga and Kadphises period, divides his history geographically:
(1) of Northern India (Uttara-Dik, verses 549-585), (S., pp.,621 624; T., 452B-454B);
(2) of Western India (Paschat Desa, verses 586-609), (S., pp. 624-626; T., pp. 454B-455B) ;
(3) of Mid-India, (Madhyadesa; "Madhyama Kings', verses 610-621), (S., p. 626; T. 455B-456A) ;
(4) of Southern India (Dakshina Dik, verses 621-636), (S., pp. 626-628; T., pp. 456A-457A) ;
(4a) of the Archipelago (636-640), ('Dvipersbu', S., p. 628; T.,457A);
(5) of Eastern India (Purva Dik, verses 640-683), (S., pp. 628-647; T., pp. 457A-469A) ;
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(6) Minor references of Hindu Central India (Madhyadesa, verses 903-912), (S., p. 648; T., 470A), and of Miscellaneous Provinces (913-924), (S., p. 649; T., 470B). At verse 924 royal history ends; then there is a summing up of the scheme (925-932) ; and from 933 up to the end of 955 a history of Buddhist clergy and their condition is detailed, and then from 956 to 980 political Brahmanas and a few Sudras are described, and finally from 981 to 988 the four heavenly Maharajas and Gods. The passage from 989 to the 1005 is not in the T. MMK. It deals with semi-divine beings etc. and is clearly a later addition. 2 Our interest ends with verse 980 where the history of leading monks, Brahmins and Sudras closes.
In the beginning verses 1 to 344 detail the biography of the Buddha (supposed to be given by himself) up to his Nirvana* From verse 335 royal history begins with an enumeration of the ruling contemporaries of the Buddha who had come in personal contact with the Prophet. Thus from verse 345 (S., p. 605; T., p. 442) to verse 932 (S., p. 650; T., p. 471B) about 600 verses (taking into account some extra verses to be found in T. MMK) are devoted to history. But that history is an enlargement of history proper by the explanatory verses as to the Mahayana Mantra and magical processes which particular kings are alleged to have practised to attain greatness, and by invisible history of those princes in paradise or hell. Although the real matter in the 600 verses is cut down by about fifty per centum, we are immensely lucky in getting about 300 slokas as new data on Indian History. The account of the punishment of bad kings in after life will not interest the present-day materialist reader. Our Buddhist writer does not forgive, like the modern historian, the wickedness and arbitrariness in kings. He would have thrown into the waste-paper basket all modern histories as so many veiled and covert panegyrics on force and fraud and virtue less greatness. His outlook is different. He emphasizes the relentless law of morality, the avenging principle of KARMA and he follows the rascally kings to their tortures in hell. This, to follow the current of the time, I have omitted in my analysis. Yet the material so curtailed is unexpectedly large.
I have divided our data into parts and sections, giving descriptive
2. T. AMMK has not got also the first seven lines of the next chapter of the printed AMMK at p. 657 (up to Manjusri Kumarah vedittvyah].
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captions to each. The importance of the sections has been pointed out in the comments attached to each section.
The MMK history seems to have been from one pen. It is not a book which has grown from generation to generation. Restricting ourselves to the historical section, it has drawn upon two classes of earlier literature. One of them was purely historical, drawing from which is evident in the section dealing with the Imperial History of Madhyadesa from the Saka-vamsa down to the break-up of the Imperial Guptas. Here, religious interest is wholly lacking (except for the reign of Baladitya) . The author has utilized at least three such temporal histories, one of which had been composed about 700 A.D. and which was very full on a century for the whole of India North (Himalayan States) , South, East, West, Central (Mid) India, and the Colonies. His other source-books, of temporal nature, were two independent books on the Gupta dynasty, from the beginning down to the end of the Later Guptas, which must have been available in the early Pala period when the MMK was written and which was probably the record kept up from generation to generation in the royal archives of the Guptas. We should recall here that Yuan Chwang actually saw political records being maintained yearly, when he visited India in the middle of the 7th century. Two long extracts in the MMK from two different sources are given, one for the Magadha branch and the other for a Bengal (Gauda) branch of the Guptas. Then, the author is largely indebted to the sacerdotal history maintained by his own Church. This literature has been availed of not only by the MMK, but by various Mahayana texts which have been cited by Buston in his critical historical survey Chos-hbyung, e.g., Chandra-garbba-pariprichchha (which cites full details of the great war of Skanda Gupta3), Lankavatara-sutra, Kalachakra, etc. and by Taranatha amongst others.
Our author has two rest-points for his history one is the end of Harshavardhana's reign, the disruption of the empire of Mid-India (Madhyadesa) and the dissolution of the Nepal Kingdom under Amsuvarman's successor; and the other is the elections in Bengal, first of a popular leader as king, and then, of Gopala the Sudra. The author has utilized good and reliable material for the successive empires from 78 A.D. to 770 A.D.
3. See below the comments on the section of the Gupta Imperial History.
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The basis of such dynastic Manuals was the system noted by Yuan Chwang mentioned above, which goes back at least to the time of Kharavela (2nd century B.C.) as is evident from his inscription noting each year's important events.