The ruins of Ancient Madhyamika or Nagari are situated at a distance of about eight miles to the north of Chittor was one of the old and very important historical towns of Rajasthan, then known by the name of Madhyamika.[1]
Before its name contracted into Nagari it was also known as Tambavati Nagari.[2] Archaeological explorations at the site account for its known antiquity. Certain casual references in the literature throw some welcome light on its importance. The site has yielded a large number of Punch Marked Coins on the basis of which the earliest habitation is datable to Mauryan times or even earlier than that i. e., sixth or fifth century B. C.[3]
Madhyamika finds a mention in the Mahabharata in connection with the conquest of Nakula over the Vatadhanas. They are sought to be identified with the Sung as on the ground that Vata and Sunga both mean a banyan tree and are synonymous terms.[4]
However, the all-important reference to Madhyamika occurs in the Mahabhasya of Patanjali.[5] He makes a pointed mention of the siege of Madhyamika by he Greeks. The memory of Greek invasion was still fresh when Patanjali was writing his Mahabhasya on the grammar of Panini illustrating the use of imperfect tense.[6]
It has been observed that the Indo-Greeks in their attack on Pataliputra had to safeguard their rear by capturing Madhyamika or Nagari, and so impressed were the Indians of that period by this Indo-Greek exploit and probably also by the brave resistance put up by the besieged that the event became a stock example of Sanskrit Grammar”.[7]
The proof that Madhyamika is a correct reading and has to be interpreted as the name of a city is due to Professor Kielhorn.[8] The identification of the Greek King in question has been one of the hotly debated issues. However, researches tend to attribute this exploit to Menander.[9] It is given to understand and that silver coins of Menander were met with at Nagari.[10]
We can hazard some guess regarding the probable routes of the Greek advance in this region. From Takshasila and Pushkalavati the centre of the Greek dominion in the north-west they seem to have followed two routes. The first linked the Panjab with Patna with Sakala; Mathura, Prayaga and Banar as falling respectively enroute. The other ran along the Sindhu and went up to the fringes of the river. In the accounts of Strabo and Periplus the Greeks are credited with the conquest of the Indus delta and Gujr at as far as Barygaza of Broach.[11]
If there be some element of sober history in this, [12] the Greeks are likely to have followed the second route, i.e., along the river Indus and from Sindh they might have followed the sea-route to arrive in Gujrat and Broach. They were thus established an important route of the ancient times viz., Ujjain Vidisa-Kausambi-Pataliputra. It was perhaps by this route that the Greeks penetrated into Western Rajputana and besieged Madhyamika which was about eighty miles away from Ujjain. Madhyamika in all probability must have been a place of great importance in this region which the Greeks could not neglect.[13]
About this time the Sunga dynasty seems to have been at the helm of affairs of the contracted Magadha empire. Owing to the paucity of evidence it has not been possible to identify the political power of Madhyamika besieged by the Greeks. It is not unlikely that Sibis may be this people as evinced by the find of their coins datable to the second century B. C.[14]
A certain Gajayana, Sarvatata the son of a lady of the Parasara Gotra is said to have constructed the Pujasilaprakara for the divinities of Samkarshana and Vasudeva and performed an asvamedha sacrifice at Madhyamika.[15] Gajayana Sarvatata has been suggested to be a Kanva king.[16] It is doubtful, however, that the Kanva kingdom was extensive enough to include a place so distantly situated as Madhyamika. Moreover his name fails to find a mention in the geneological list of the dynasty. A remarkable find of Madhyamika consists of a series of coins belonging to the Sibis.[17]
They bear the Brahmi legend- Majhimikaya-Sibi-Janapadasa (i.e., the coin of the Sibi Janapada of Madhyamika). It has led the scholars to conclude that during the second century B.C., the Sibis were inhabiting Madhyamika and the territory adjoining Chittore was known as, Sibi Janapada.[18]
The existence of the Sibis in Madhyamika about the second century B.C. assumes significance in the light of the fact that originally they are said to have been living in the Panjab where alexander had to contend with them. According to the Greek accounts of Alexander’s campaigns the Sibis (Siboi)[19] are to be located near the confluence of rivers Akesines (Chenab) and Hydaspes (Jhelum) Curtius writers to inform that Alexander’s troops had to subjugate the tribes of Siboi and Agalassoi in order to prevent them from joining the powerful nation of Maloi (Malavas) who dwelt further south and were known to be preparing for strenuous resistance.
The Siboi are described as a rude folk, wearing skins of wild bears, armed with clubs and branding with the mark of clubs their oxen and mules. The Macedonian Greeks took them to be the descendants of Herakles who is said to have invaded Indian in the remote past. Strabo, however, rightly rejects this legend.[20] In all likelihood these Sibis are the same as the Siv as of the Rgveda who were defeated by Sudas along with several other tribes.[21]
A king of the Sibis is mentioned in the Aitareya Brahamana.[22] The Jatak as connect them with Sovira which is practically the same locality as where the Greeks met them. The Mahabharat a puts them with the Trigart as and Malavas as conquered by Nakula,[23] and as paying tribute to Yudhisthira along with the Trigart as and Yaudheyas.[24]
Varahamihira locates them in the north with the Malavas and the people of Taxila[25] and with the Arjunayan as and Yaudheyas.[26] Patanjali refers to Sibayah and Vasativyah together as names of countries and Sivapura (Sivipura) again as a township in the north.[27]
This Sivipura or Sibipura has been almost successfully identified with Shorkot in the Jhang District of West Pakistan below the confluence of Jhelum and Chenab. An inscription dated 83 (G.E.-A.D. 402-3) recovered from Shorkot refers to Sivipura and hence Shorkot should be the area to mark the ancient capital of the Sibis.[28]
Thus in the third quarter of 4th century B.C. the Sibis were living in upper Panjab. But in the 2nd century B.C. they are found in Madhyamika or Nagari. There may be two alternative explanations for this interesting event of history. (A) Firstly that the Sibis migrated from Panjab to Rajputana (b) or else the Sibis of Madhyamika were different from the Sibi of Panjab and were altogether an independent branch of this former hypothesis seems to be highly probable. It is resuscitated by the fact that some other contemporary tribes of Panjab viz., Malavas and Arjunayan as also had to migrate from their original homeland.[29]
Fomented by the Greek onslaught and thrust they appear to have embarked upon the adventure of migration. Greek tradition accounts for the fact that they were the people attached more than others to freedom and autonomy.[30]
This migration from the fertile lands of the Panjab to the dreary Rajputana bears testimony to the love of liberty of these people. The preference for migration to submission was a settled practice amongst smaller Indian republics. The Vrshnis, according to the Jatak as and the Mahabharata, left Mathura and went to Dvaraka closely after the invasion of Alexander they are likely to have been very when pressed by Jarasandha.[31]
If this migration of the Sibis followed well there in Madhyamika about the beginning of second century B.C., and hence it were perhaps they who once again bore the brunt of the Greek invasion at Madhyamika, as mentioned by Patanjali. After the Sibis, the Malavas seem to have occupied Madhyamika. Their coins are also found at Nagari.[32]
It was originally suggested by the identifiers of the site that Madhyamika was deserted in the beginning of the Christian era to be rehabitated in the 7th or 8th centuryA.D.[33] This view, however, ought to be revised in view of certain literary references and subsequent archaeological finds.[34]
The discovery of Western Kshatrap coins from Madhyamika inclines to suggest their sway over this ancient town. With the rise of Western Kshatraps in the third century A.D. they were quite likely to extend their hold at Madhyamika which was in close vicinity of their centre of power. However, the Malavas did not allow them to rule peacefully. From the Nandasa inscription,[35] a place near Nagari we gather the information that a Malava ruler named Shri Some raised the standard of revolt and celebrated in 225 A.D. Ekashashtiratra sacrifice to proclaim the independence of his republics.[36]
The enemy may have been none other but the Western Kshatrap ruler. After the disappearance of the Malavas from the scene of Madhyamika it seems to have formed a part of the Huna territory. Jain author Somadeva refers to a tradition that the Huna King conquered Chitrakuta, a place near Nagari. A fragmentary inscription of about the sixth century A.D. mentions a rajasthaniya (governor) of Mandsore and Madhyamika under the king of Malava-Rajasthan region.[37]
Varahamihira as noted above is acquainted with Madhyamika in the 6th century A.D. Curiously enough Madhyamika is known to some early medieval texts also. In the 11th century it is mentioned by Abhayadeva suri in the Vipakasutra.[38] Referring to Kumarapala Chalukya (1144-83 A. D.) Madhyampuri is located three kosas away from Chitrakuta durga.[39]
It is obvious that Madhyamika which was the capital of the Sibis in the 2nd century B.C. retained its importance even in the succeeding centuries.[40] Also from the religious point of view Madhyamika seems to have been an important place. There is evidence to show that it had been an important centre of activity of three great religions viz., Vaishnavism, Jainism and Buddhism.
REFERENCES
[1] The identification of the site with Madhyamika rests on the find of Sibi coins from there.
[2] Archaeological Survey of India, Report, VI, p. 197.
[3] Ibid., VI, pp. 200-1.
[4] Dasharatha Sharma, Rajasthan Through the Ages, Vol. I, p. 50.
[5] II, p. 199 (ed. Kiel horn).\
[6] Arunadyavanah Saketam; Arunadyavanah Madhyamikam,
[7] Dasharatha Sharma, op. cit., p. 48.
[8] Indian Antiquary, VII, 266.
[9] A. K. Narain, Indo-Greeks, Oxford, 1957, p. 82 f.; Cf. W. W. Tarn, The Greeks in Bactria and India.
[10] G. H. Ojha, Rajputane ka Itihasa, 1937.
[11] W. W. Tarn, op. cit.
[12] Cf. A. K. Narain, op. cit., pp. 68-69, 89.
[13] S. N. Dube, Ancient Madhyamika, Rajasthan History Congress 1968, pp. 29-33.
[14] J. Allan, Catalogue of the Coins of Ancient India in the British Museum, London, 1936, Intro. p. cxxv.
[15] Epigraphia Indica, XXII, p. 204.
[16] Ibid., p. 205.
[17] Archaeological Survey of India. Report, VI, pp. 200-1: XIV, pp. 145-7.
[18] Dasharatha Sharma, op. cit., pp.49-50.
[19] . J. W. McCrindle, The Invasion of India by Alexander the Great, West minister, 1893, p. 366.
[20] Comprehensive History of India, Vol. II (Ed. K.A: N. Sastri) Calcutta, 1957, p. 395.
[21] Vedic Index. II, pp. 381-2
[22] Allan, op. cit., p. cxxiv.
[23] Sabhaparva, xxxii, 7.
[24] . Ibid., lii, 11.
[25] Brbatsamhita, xvi, 26.
[26] Cf. V. S.Agrawal, India as Known to Panini.
[27] Cf, V. S.Agrawal, India as known to Panini.
[28] Vogel, J. P. H. Soc. Vol. I, p. 174.
[29] See Comprehensive History of India, Vol. II, p. 126.
[30] McCrindle, op. cit., p. 154.
[31] K. P. Jayaswal, Hindu Polity, Bangalore, 1955, p. 66.
[32] Archaeological Survey of India, Report, VI, pp. 200-1.
[33] Ibid., p. 201.
[34] S. N. Dube, Ancient Madhyamika, Rajasthan History Congress 1968, pp. 29-33.
[35] See Archaeological Survey of India, Report, VI, p. 201.
[36] Bhandarkar Commemoration Volume, p. 246.
[37] See Epigraphia Indica, XLII, pp. 34-8; See also Dasharatha Sharma, op. cit., P. 50.
[38] Jain Agama Sahitya me Gujrat, p. 187.
[39] See Jinavijaya Muni, Kumarapalacaritrasamgraha, pp. 5-47; See also, G. S. Gai, op. cit., pp, 180-1.
[40] Dasharatha Sharma, op. cit., p. 50.
