Gaumata

Gaumata was a Manda Jat King in the Persian Empire who defeated Cyrus the Great in 529 B.C. and later slain by Darius.

History

Bhim Singh Dahiya Thus we see that many Jat kingdoms in the north and east were free of the Persian empire which was an offshoot of the earlier Manda Jat empire. The defeat of Cyrus the Great and his death was a signal for the Jats under Persian Empire to take up the throne of Ecbatana. This was done by the Jats under their leader Gaumata. In the meantime Darius came and this second empire lasted for only six months because conspirators in the pay of Darius killed Gaumata in the Sokhyavati palace of Ecbatana. Darius wrote in his inscriptions; “Ahurmazda made myself emperor. Our dynasty had lost the empire but I restored it to its original position. I re-established sacred places destroyed by Magas. These Magas were the Magian priests of the Jat emperors who came to India along with them, as a result of war. They were called in India the Magas. The Taga Brahmans on the Yamuna river are their descendants. They are the Tagazgez of Masoudi.

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Bhim Singh Dahiya writes...It has been repeatedly suggested and not without reason, that this extraneous impetus and inspiration came from Iran of the Achaemenid emperors; some have suggested that the Mauryan columns are but Indian adaptations of the Achaemenian prototype. As repeatedly, attempts have been made to deny that extent of debt, not again without a certain amount of justice; but few have seriously doubted that West Asian art forms in general and Achaemenian impetus and inspirations directly in particular, were at work at the root'. Here we must remember that Nineveh, the mighty Assyrian capital, had fallen under the Manda Jats in 606 B.C. Ecbatana, on whose model Pataliputra was built, was planned and built by the Jats under Deoices Manda. No wonder that they copied their original models. The manner of the loss of the empire, the long struggles to recapture the same, crowned with temporary success under Gaumata Manda in 529 B.C., before Darius could succeed on the throne, the forced flight to India and in other directions, must have kept the memory like a burning torch to beacon and to guide the Jats when they formed yet another empire under the Mor clan. Like themselves, the Mauryan art of government, administration, welfare of the people, art and architecture, dress and manners, social and religious ideas-all were immigrants in India.

Behustun Inscription

Behustun Inscription Line-11 tells us : King Darius says: Afterwards, there was a certain man, a Magian [maguš], Gaumâta by name, who raised a rebellion in Paishiyauvada, in a mountain called Arakadriš. On the fourteenth day of the month Viyaxana (11 March 522 BC) did he rebel. He lied to the people, saying: 'I am Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, the brother of Cambyses.' Then were all the people in revolt, and from Cambyses they went over unto him, both Persia and Media, and the other provinces. He seized the kingdom; on the ninth day of the month Garmapada (1 July 522 BC) he seized the kingdom. Afterwards, Cambyses died of natural causes.

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Behustun Inscription Line-68 tells us : King Darius says: These are the men who were with me when I slew Gaumâta the Magian [maguš], who was called Smerdis [Bardiya]; then these men helped me as my followers:

• Intaphrenes [Vidafarnâ], son of Vayâspâra, a Persian;
• Otanes [Utâna], son of Thukhra [Thuxra], a Persian;
• Gobryas [Gaubaruva], son of Mardonius [Marduniya], a Persian;
• Hydarnes [Vidarna], son of Bagâbigna, a Persian;
• Megabyzus [Bagabuxša], son of Dâtuvahya, a Persian;
• Ardumaniš, son of Vakauka, a Persian.

References

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