Indian Antiquary Vol 42

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 258

246
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(SEPTEMBER, 1913.
the literary-historical suppositions of my honored friend and to build further on the same, as I have done many times on other occasions. His first proposition, that the Indians did not show any literary activity during the first and second centuries of our era, in consequence of the inroads of the different foreign races, is contradicted by the clear proof provided by the prasasti of the Sudarsana lake and the Nâsik-inscription No. 18. I think, I must further add that the extinction of the intellectual life of the Indians during the first two centuries by the Scythians and other foreigners is improbable for other reasons also. In the first place, never had the foreigners brought under their sway, in the long run more than a fifth part of India. To the east of the district of Mathura, no sure indications of their rule have been found, and the reports of the Greeks ascribe to the Indo-Scythian kingdom no further extent in the east or, south. In India proper, the kingdom could permanently possess only the Panjab, besides the high valleys of the Himalaya, the extreme west of the North-western Provinces, the Eastern Rajputânâ, the Central Indian Agency, with Gwalior and Malwâ, Gujarat with Kathiâwâr, as well as Sindh. No doubt, temporarily these limits are further extended in several cases, as the inscriptions from the reign of Nahapana prove for the western border of the Deccan, and several traces of war might present themselves in further removed districts. The rulers of such a kingdom could indeed have exerted a considerable influence, on the east of India, but they would never have been able to suppress the literary and scientific life of the Indians. Secondly, however,--and this is the most important point--the very will to show a hostile attitude towards the Indian culture, was wanting in the foreign kings of the time, as the sayings and authentic docnments inform 19. They themselves, as well as their comrades of the same race, were far inferior to the Indian, in point of civilisation and culture, and the natural result was that they could not escape the influence of the Indian civilisation, but were themselves Hinduised. Their willingness to appropriate the culture of their subjects is shown by the very fact that the descendants or successors of the foreign conquerors immediately began to bear Indian names, even in the second generation. Huvishka's successor is indeed a Shahi, but he is named Vasudera. Nabapâna's daughter is named Dakshamitrd and his son-in-law, the son of Dinika, a Saka, is named Ushavad&ta or Usabbadata, i, e., Rishabhadutta. The son of Chashtana is Jayad Amah. The leaning of these kings to the Indian systems of religion is equally indisputable. According to the Buddhist tradition, Kanishka is one of the greatest patrons of Buddhism and even became a Buddhist himself. The latter fact is indeed shown to be improbable by the inscriptions on his coins. On the other hand, there is no doubt that he built a stilpa and a vihdra in Purasbapura--Peshawar, So also it is proved from the inscriptions that Huvishka had founded a tihdra in Mathura.85 Ushavadata and his consort, according to the Nasik and Karle inscriptions,88 made grants to Buddhists and Brâhmaņas without distinction, and the former, just like a pious Indian, carried out numerous works of public utility, for the sake of merit. The Mathurâ inscriptions further show that under Kanisbka and his successors, by the side of Buddhism, many other systems of religion also, like Jainism, were not only tolerated, but enjoyed a high prosperity. These inscriptions as well as numerous archeological finds also prove that the national Indian architecture and sculptures in Mathurî were on a high level, and one of the newest discoveries of Dr. Führer permits us to conclude that even the dramatic art was cultivateil in the city of gods. The inscription No. 18, out of the collection prepared by me for the next number of the Epigraphia Indioa, says that the song of the actors of Mathur (Mathurdnan saildlakanash), who were known as Cbandaka brothers, dedicated a stone-blab, for the red ein ption of their parents, at the holy place of the adorable Naga-prince, Dadhikarņa.' If Mathuri had its, company of actors, then it would not bave been in want of dramas. All these circumstances make it impossible in my opinion to look upon the times of the Indian popular migration as a period of wild barbarism. The conditions appear to be in no way essentially different from those of the times when there were national rolers. The Indians of the north-west and the west had indeed to obey foreign suzerains and to pay them tributes and taxos; in return for which, however, they had the triumph of exerting sway on their subjugators, through their high culture and of assimilating the same with themselves. The conditions necessary for literary activity must have been in existence, when an Urhavadáta noted his great deeds in a mixture of Sanskrit and Prakrit itself.87
* Cansingham, Arch. Sury, Rep. Vol. III, plate XIV, No. 12. Arch. ewo. Rop. West Ind., Vol, IV., p. 99 % » Arch. Surv. Rop. West Ind., l. c No. 5, 1. 3. ff.