Cults and shrines in early historical

Mathura (c. 200 BCAD 200)

Upinder Singh

Abstract
This paper uses archaeological evidence to identify some of the multiple religious strands and layers
that mark the rich cultural landscape of ancient Mathura (in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh).
Focusing on the four centuries between c. 200 BC and AD 200, it identies what can be described in
retrospect as an important stage in the early history of popular Hinduism. The paper highlights the
importance of the old cults of the goddesses, yakshas, yakshis, nagas, nagis, and their interface with
emerging Puranic pantheons. It delineates the architectural forms of early temples in the Mathura
area, their sources of patronage and the religious dimensions of royal policy, bringing into focus the
great resilience of some of the older cults.

Keywords
Religion; Hinduism; Mathura; temples; Vaishnavism; goddesses.

The history of Hinduism has generally been constructed on the basis of frameworks
provided by religious texts, which are not always accurately reective of popular practice.
Apart from their elite authorship and the notorious problems of dating, brahmanical texts
reect a phase when the practices they mention have been accorded brahmanical sanction,
and hence conceal their much earlier origin. Further, traditions seeking to attain or having
attained the position of cultural dominance try to marginalize other traditions that may
have been very important at the time and in the process give us a distorted impression of
prevailing religious practice. Regional or local variations are not always clearly reected in
early texts, and there are some widely pervasive practices that nd no mention whatsoever.
This paper argues that archaeology can be fruitfully used to identify the roots and early
history of popular Hinduism. This includes the evidence of either polytheistic or
monolatrous worship, deities that came to be assigned places of prominence or
subordination in the Hindu pantheons, the devotional worship of images of deities in
religious shrines and cults which had more than a local signicance. Of course the
limitation of the archaeological perspective is that, although it gives us ample information
regarding the tangible forms, objects and material contexts of worship, it is less

World Archaeology Vol. 36(3): 378398 The Archaeology of Hinduism

# 2004 Taylor & Francis Ltd ISSN 0043-8243 print/1470-1375 online
DOI: 10.1080/0043824042000282803

Cults and shrines in early historical Mathura

379

forthcoming when it comes to the experiential, spiritual, emotional and theological aspects
of religious practice, and, like many texts, it tends to have an urban bias.
The focus of the paper is on the Mathura district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh,
especially on the city of Mathura and the sites of Sonkh and Mat (25km south-west and
14.5km north of Mathura respectively), between c. 200 BC and c. AD 200. In the sixth century
BC, Mathura was the capital of the Shurasena kingdom. Absorbed into the Mauryan empire
in the third century BC, Mathuras cultural eorescence is particularly marked during the
centuries when it came under the successive control of local rulers the Mitras and Dattas
(the late third century BC to the late rst century BC), the Kshatrapas (late rst century BC to
the rst quarter of the rst century AD) and then the Kushanas (the rst century AD to the late
second/early third century AD). Strategically poised at the entrance to the fertile Gangetic
plains, Mathura burst forth as a major cultural crossroad, a locus of the activity of political
elites, a ourishing city noted for specialized craft production (especially its ne cotton
textiles), a junction of major trans-regional trade routes, a centre of diverse religious
establishments and a trend-setter of sophisticated sculptural styles.

The archaeological prole of sites in the Mathura area

The Yamuna divides Mathura district into an eastern and western part; most of the
archaeological sites are located to the west of the river. The rst somewhat systematic
archaeological explorations, documentation and excavations (in Chaubara and Kankali
Tila mounds) of the Mathura area (Fig. 1) were conducted by Alexander Cunningham
between 1861 and 1882 (Cunningham, 1871, 1873, 1884, 1885). While other nineteenthcentury archaeological accounts of Mathura (e.g. Growse 1882) focused on the Buddhist
remains, Vogels reports (19089, 190910, 191011, 191112) brought out other key
aspects of the early religious history of the area, such as the worship of images of nagas,
yakshas and brahmanical deities.
In the post-independence decades, the Archaeological Survey of India carried out
excavations in dierent parts of Mathura city in 19545 and between 1973 and 1977, but
no full report has been so far published (IAR 19767: 889; Joshi 1989). A summary of its
sequence is given in Table 1.
Between 1966 and 1974, more intensive and extensive excavations were carried out at
Sonkh (25km south west of Mathura) by the Indian Art and Archaeology Research Team
of the Museum fur Indische Kunst, Berlin, under the direction of Herbert Hartel (Hartel
1993). Eight periods of occupation, divided into forty habitation levels, were identied. A
summary of the archaeological sequence is given in Table 2.1
The Mathura region is most strongly associated with the legend and worship of
Krishna, but between c. 200 BC and AD 200, its religious landscape was extremely diverse.
The details of sculptural and inscriptional discoveries in nineteenth- and early twentiethcentury accounts enable us to identify the location of some of the shrines, even though
structural remains are absent or near-absent. To give a few examples, the Katra was the
site of a Buddhist vihara from the early second century AD; the Jamalpur/Jail Mound was
the site of a Buddhist establishment and a shrine of the naga deity Dadhikarna; a Jaina
establishment stood on the Kankali Tila from the second century BC. There are other

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Upinder Singh

Figure 1 Important sites in the Mathura area (after Hartel 1993: 12).

mounds (e.g. Kota mound, a small village about 4.8km north of Mathura) where the
evidence of sculptures and inscriptions is ambiguous and suggests the existence of ancient
shrines of uncertain denomination.

Goddesses, votive tanks and shrines

The abundance of stone and terracotta images of early historical Mathura indicates
goddesses, yakshas, yakshis, nagas and nagis formed important features of the religious
landscape. The mother goddess or goddess label shelters a number of distinct and
dierent goddesses, most of whom may always remain anonymous to us. These terms are
used here only as a convenient abbreviation for female gurines whose attributes suggest
some sort of cultic or ritualistic signicance as objects of worship, votive oerings, or as
part of the paraphernalia of domestic rituals with the additional caveat that the
discernment of such a signicance is often subjective.
The importance of the worship of images of goddesses in early historical Mathura is
represented in an abundance of carved ring stones and disc stones, terracotta images and
plaques. A number of mother goddess gurines have been discovered in stratied
contexts in the course of Mathura excavations (Joshi and Margabandhu 19767). They
form the earliest objects of cultic signicance, and make their appearance in the later part

Cults and shrines in early historical Mathura

381

Table 1 The Mathura cultural sequence

Period

Chronology

Features, remarks

Sixthlate fourth century

II

Late fourthsecond century

III

Secondlate rst century

IV

Firstthird century

Fourthsixth century

AD

AD

BC

BC

BC

Gradual growth in village settlement; painted grey

ware (PGW) and associated wares found at the site of
Ambarish Tila, close to the Yamuna, north of
Mathura city.
Beginnings of urbanism; pottery assemblage marked
by northern black polished ware (NBP); size of
settlement increases to about 3.9 sq. km with a mud
fortication wall (the Dhulkot) anking three sides
and the river on the east; coinage, prolic specialized
crafts such as terracottas, copper and iron working,
and beads; NBP is found at sites such as the Katra,
Saptarishi Tila, Bhuteshwar and Govindanagar, all of
which seem to have been part of the urban settlement
of Mathura.
Accentuation of urban features; ceramic assemblage
dominated by a red ware, with some grey ware as well;
beginning and gradual increase in the number of burnt
brick structures; inscribed coins, seals and sealings;
increased stylistic sophistication in terracottas and
other craft items; fortication wall falls into disuse.
Urban eorescence; red wares, including pots with
painted and stamped designs, a more limited quantity
of ne red polished ware including sprinklers; great
variety and technical nesse in artefacts; fortication
wall strengthened, enlarged and supplemented with an
inner fortication.
No regular archaeological sequence identied or
established for these or subsequent centuries.

of Period II. The goddess gurines of succeeding centuries display greater stylistic
renement, technical innovations and increase in number and variety. They usually have
prominent breasts and broad hips, and wear ornaments such as applique necklaces,
bracelets, ear-rings and girdles. Some are crowned by a profusion of rosettes, while others
have more elaborate head-dresses consisting of a mass of conical sprouts or grass blades
encircled by a cluster of cactus-like plants (Plate 1).
At Sonkh, the rst female gurines, some of which may have had a cultic signicance,
appear in Period II. The cultic signicance is more discernible in Period III, whose nds
include some terracottas depicting a female gure holding a sh and a female gure with
an attendant in adoration. A plaque found in Period IV levels could represent the earliest
depiction of Durga Mahishasuramardini (the goddess Durga killing the bualo demon
Mahisha) at the site. Yakshas and nagas, mother goddesses, and Durga are represented
at subsequent levels (Hartel 1993: 88.).
The goddesses are sometimes associated with terracotta artefacts that are referred to in
archaeological literature as votive tanks and shrines. The Sonkh excavations yielded 266
fragments of such objects (ibid.: 195.). The bulk of them belong to Period III, and Hartel

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Upinder Singh

Table 2 The Sonkh cultural sequence

Period

Levels

Description of Period

Chronology

Period I
Period II

4037
3629

c. 800400 BC
c. 400late second century BC

Period III

2825

PGW and BRW

Pre-and early Maurya,Maurya and
ShungaCultural Phase
Mitras of Mathura

Period IV

2423

Kshatrapas and Ramadatta

Period
Period
Period
Period

2216
1512
118
71

Kushanas
Guptas to early medieval
Medieval levels
Mughals to Jats, late fortress levels

V
VI
VII
VIII

Late secondlate rst

century BC
End of rst century BCearly
rst century AD
Firstthird century AD
Fourthtenth century
Tenthsixteenth centuries
Sixteentheighteenth
centuries

Plate 1 A Mathura mother goddess found at NBP levels in the 19745 excavations (courtesy:
Archaeological Survey of India).

Cults and shrines in early historical Mathura

383

describes the rst century BC as the most inventive phase for votive tanks. These artefacts
vary in shape and size and are associated with one or more of the following features: lampcups and/or birds and lamps on their rim; houses built around a courtyard structure or a
structure (probably a shrine) raised on a platform supported with pillars and approached
by a staircase or ladder; a lotus plant standing upright in the tank; gures of snake, frog or
sh at the base of the tank; mother goddesses seated along the wall, carrying a child in
their arms and a bowl in their lap. Most of the varieties were clearly supposed to be lled
with water. The votive shrines can be seen as miniature representations of popular shrines,
apparently connected with the worship of goddesses and nagas.
Votive tanks and shrines have been found at many other sites in the subcontinent, from
Taxila in the north-west to Chirand in the east to Kolhapur in the south, in contexts
ranging from the third century BC to the third century AD (Ghosh 1989: 277). At Sonkh on
the other hand, they were discovered from the third century BC to medieval levels, showing
that such objects were a part of the paraphernalia of domestic rituals or worship for over a
thousand years.2

The worship of yakshas and yakshis

The yakshas were deities connected with water, fertility, trees, the forest and the
wilderness. The evidence of literature and sculpture graphically illustrates the metamorphosis of the yaksha from a benevolent, powerful deity who was the focus of exclusive
worship to a terrifying, demonic creature, reduced to the position of a subsidiary,
attendant gure associated more with fertility than wealth (see Coomaraswamy 1980;
Mitterwallner 1989). Yakshis or yakshinis, the feminine counterparts, were originally
benign deities connected with fertility. Many of the Shalabhanjikas a generic term for
sensuous sculptural representations of women grasping the branches of a tree of various
ancient religious establishments were also yakshis. The literary image of the yakshi in the
texts of the brahmanical, Buddhist and Jaina traditions, on the other hand, is generally
demonic and frightening (Sutherland 1992: 137.). In spite of their eventual absorption,
marginalization and demonization in the dominant religious traditions, the sheer
pervasiveness of the presence of yakshas and yakshis in these texts illustrates just how
important and widespread their worship once was.
Although the worship of yakshas and yakshis probably goes back to an older rural milieu,
between the third century BC and second century AD they occur in the urban landscape, and
cannot be described or dismissed (as they often are) as the focus of minor, exclusively rural,
folk cults. The imposing stone images from the Mathura area and elsewhere were the
products of urban ateliers, nanced by auent urban patrons. They reect the existence of
iconographic conventions and artisanal skills, and imply community worship in shrines. The
money-bag that the yaksha sometimes holds in his left hand (in the images found at Besnagar
and Pawaya in central India) connects him with wealth. The yaksha himself increasingly
takes on an urbane look, and it is dicult to distinguish between some of the yaksha gures
and portraits of sophisticated and wealthy mortal men of substance.
The most celebrated of the Mathura yakshas is the colossal grey sandstone gure (2.59m
high) discovered at Parkham village, south of Mathura city (Plate 2). Generally assigned

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Upinder Singh

on stylistic grounds to the second/rst century BC, the palaeography of the inscription on
its pedestal, however, suggests a third century BC date. The inscription (Luders 1961: 177
8) states that this image, made by Gomitaka, pupil of Kunika, was set up by eight
brothers, members of the Manibhadra puga (congregation). It also indicates that it
represents the yaksha Manibhadra, who, according to a variety of textual and epigraphic
references, was a tutelary deity of merchants and travellers, and was especially worshipped
in important trading centres. It may be added that the torso of a gure of Kubera (king of
the yakshas) was found in Parkham village, and a relief gure of the same deity was
obtained from somewhere in the same district (ibid.: 179).
Two fragments of a colossal Yaksha image were found at Baroda, not far from
Parkham which, when intact, must have been a towering gure, about 3.65m or so in
height. Stylistically similar to the Parkham yaksha, it seems to belong to the same period
or maybe a little earlier. Yaksha gures have also been discovered in a stratigraphic
context in the course of excavations at Mathura (IAR 19767: 55).

Plate 2

The Parkham yaksha (courtesy: Archaeological Survey of India).

Cults and shrines in early historical Mathura

385

The worship of female deities associated with fertility and childbirth, protectresses of
children who had the power of warding o disease, is an important aspect of popular
Hinduism all over India today. In the early historical period, these functions were
associated with a number of yakshis. A colossal 1.57m x 1.06m red sandstone image in the
Mathura Museum represents the yakshi Lavaya seated on a wicker stool. The image was
found at Jhinga-ka-nagla and can be assigned on stylistic grounds to the second/rst
century BC. Of the same period is the fragment of a colossal yakshi standing under an
Ashoka tree that was obtained from Vrindaban (Srivastava and Misra 1973: 84). The
synopsis of the 19745 Mathura excavations refers to two yakshi gures found in Period
III levels (c. rstthird century AD) (IAR 19745: 50). Yakshis are also very well
represented in smaller stone and terracotta statuettes of the Mathura area.
The colossal stone yakshas and the profusion of smaller stone and terracotta yakshas and
yakshis indicate the importance of the yaksha cult both in the public and in the domestic
domain. Although the earliest stone images of these deities can be dated to the third/second
centuries BC, they seem to represent cults whose antiquity goes back to an earlier time,
dicult to estimate. Colossal images of yakshas and yakshis disappear around the turn of
the millennium, but small statuettes continue to be found in large numbers thereafter. Their
worship had not died out but had been pushed from the public into the domestic sphere.

The worship of nagas and nagis

Another major aspect of iconic worship in the Mathura area was the worship of serpent
deities nagas and nagis (or naginis) who, like the yakshas, were associated with water
and fertility. Such images were found from dierent parts of the district such as
Chhargaon, Khamni, Itauli and Baldev, all of which belong stylistically to the early
centuries AD (Vogel 19089). Vogel noted that ancient naga images in the Mathura district
were being worshipped as Dauji or the god Baladeva/Balarama and that modern images of
Balarama which were being manufactured in large numbers at Mathura and Brindaban
were in fact imitations of ancient naga images. He suggested that the plough-wielding,
snake-canopied god Baladeva may have been a naga deity who came to be absorbed into
the Krishna cult.
The imposing nature of some of the naga images belonging to the early centuries AD and
the technical nesse of their carving make it apparent that they represent more than a simple
folk cult. The impressive seven-hooded Chhargaon naga image (dated in year 40 of the
Kanishka era, i.e. AD 118, in king Huvishkas reign) was a majestic 2.33m in height (Plate 3).
It bears an inscription recording its installation near a tank by Senahastin and Bhondaka.
The Jamalpur mound yielded a profusion of Buddhist remains and was the site of a
major vihara (monastery) established by the Kushana king Huvishka in AD 125. An
inscription on a stone slab discovered here refers to its installation in the place sacred to
Dadhikarna, lord of the nagas, by the Chandaka brothers, chief among whom was
Nandibala, the sons of the actors or dancers of Mathura. The date on the inscription,
tentatively read as the year 26 of the Kanishka era (AD 104), suggests that a naga shrine
existed at this place before the setting up of the Buddhist vihara. An inscription on a pillar
base, presumed to have belonged to the Buddhist vihara, records that this was the gift of

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Upinder Singh

Plate 3

The Chhargaon Naga (courtesy: Archaeological Survey of India).

Devila, a servant of the shrine of Dadhikarna. The fact that the donative inscription of the
Dadhikarna shrine and Buddhist donative records here and elsewhere describe their aim in
similar terms the promotion of the welfare and happiness of all sentient beings
indicates an element of shared religious vocabulary and sentiment.
Many other images and inscriptions indicate that the naga cult enjoyed considerable
patronage in the Mathura region in the early centuries AD (Luders 1961: 38, No. 12; 1267,
No. 95; 1489, No. 102; 164, No. 124; 2089, No. 182). The inscribed base of a statuette of
a standing naga gure was reportedly found on the Bhuteshwar mound. The pedestal of a
headless naga statuette, inscribed with the name Dadhikarna was recovered from the
Yamuna. An epigraph on the pedestal of a naga image accompanied by two nagis from the
mound of Ral Bhandar (c. 13km north-west of Mathura) refers to a tank and a garden
having been made for the revered Bhuminaga. The inscribed pedestal of a slab depicting a
nagi and a male gure with a spear in his left hand and the right raised in the protection-

Cults and shrines in early historical Mathura

387

granting abhayamudra from Girdharpur Tila may record the gift of a cloak-maker. An
inscription on a sculpted stone slab in the British Museum, originally from Mathura,
possibly representing a naga and nagi, records the construction of a small temple (harmya)
in a village.
Like the yakshas and yakshis, the nagas and nagis were the focus of an ancient cult that
was prevalent in many parts of the subcontinent, and which attracted the patronage of
urban elites. The nagas and nagis too were gradually dethroned (in about the third century
AD, a little later than the yakshas) in urban centres from their position as major focuses of
exclusive worship in the public realm to become attendants of other deities and objects of
worship in the domestic sphere. In the story of Krishna subduing the Kaliya naga we can
perhaps see an allegorical reference to the ultimate victory of Vaishnavism over the once
very popular naga cult.

Pantheons old and new

The turn of the millennium was a momentous time from the point of view of the religious
history of ancient India. Coomaraswamy (1980: 36 ) argued persuasively that the worship
of the yakshas and yakshis implied temples, puja (devotional worship with oerings) and a
cult, and that the worship of yakshas and yakshis, nagas and nagis and goddesses was the
natural source of the bhakti (devotional) elements that became so pervasive in Indian
religions during the ensuing centuries. The period between c. 200 BC and AD 200 was a
time of equipoise, when the older cults of the yakshas, nagas and goddesses jostled with
the cults of newer brahmanical deities and pantheons, and held their ground. But, during
the succeeding centuries, they were eventually displaced as major focuses of worship in the
urban public domain by the deities associated with Puranic Hinduism.
A rough method of assessing the relative importance of various brahmanical and nonbrahmanical focuses of worship in the Mathura area is by collating the details of
acquisition of stone sculptures in the catalogues of the Mathura Museum (Srivastava 1999;
Srivastava and Misra 1973; Vogel 1910, updated by Agrawala 1949). These catalogues
arrange the images according to type and dynastic periods; the entries under the Shunga
and Kushana period headings are relevant here, roughly corresponding to c. 200 BC and
AD 200 (see Table 3).
It may be noted that the stone images are dominated by yakshas, yakshis, nagas and
representations of Kubera (king of the yakshas), Hariti (a yakshi, consort of Kubera), the
Matrikas (the Mothers) and Vasudhara (a goddess associated with wealth and prosperity,
usually represented in association with a vase or a sh). These were clearly very popular
during the period up to the second century AD, but there is a marked decline in
representations of all of these in stone sculptures of subsequent centuries. V. S. Agrawala
(1965) has pointed out that the iconographic conventions of images of many brahmanical
deities were settled by the rst century AD. The most numerous images from the Mathura
area are those of Shiva, Vishnu, Surya (the sun god) and the goddesses Durga and Lakshmi.
The Shaiva images include representations of the deity in the anthropomorphic or linga
(phallic) forms and in a combination of the two (the mukha-lingas and vigraha lingas).
One of the earliest representations is an architectural fragment found at Bhuteshwar (c.

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Upinder Singh

Table 3 Number of stone images and reliefs

Yakshas (including Kubera, sometimes with goddesses/yakshis, including Hariti)
Nagas and nagis
Shiva (in anthropomorphic and linga forms)
Vishnu
Matrikas
The yakshi Hariti
Durga (including Durga-Mahishasuramardini)
Surya
Lakshmi (including Gaja-Lakshmi)
Vasudhara
Brahma
Balarama
Ganesha
Agni
Garuda
Navagrahas
Karttikeya
Indra
River goddesses
Sarasvati (?)
Kinship triads depicting Vasudeva-Krishna, Ekanamsha and Balarama
Krishna lila

57
46
30
28
26
22
18
16
15
10
4
4
3
3
5
2
2
2
2
1
1
1

second century BC) showing the worship of a lingam on a platform under a pipal tree
encircled by railing, by two-winged gures (Srivastava 1999: 47, GMM 52.3625) (Plate 4).
Shiva images of rst and second centuries AD indicate an already diverse (albeit formative)
iconographic base. The early Mathura images depict Shiva alone or with the bull, Shiva
with his consort Parvati, and in various forms including Chaturvyuha Shiva (Shiva with
his three emanations), Ardhanarishvara (the god who is half woman) and Harihara (Shiva
with Vishnu).
The Vasudeva-Krishna cult was an important connecting link between Mathura and the
brahmanical tradition. That Mathura was an important centre of the worship of the
Vrishni heroes in the early centuries AD is reected in kinship triads depicting VasudevaKrishna, his brother Baladeva or Balarama and their sister Ekanamsha. Their relative size
and position indicate that initially Balarama was more important than Krishna. An
inscription found in the terrace of a well at Mora (Luders 19378: 194) refers to the
installation of images of the ve viras (heroes) by a woman named Tosha during the reign
of king Shodasa (i.e. in the late rst century BCearly rst century AD). Fragmentary
sculptures of two male and one female gures were also found at Mora. The male gures
may represent two of the Vrishni heroes. The inscription on the pedestal of the female
statue, dated in the reign of the Kushana king Kanishka, suggests that it may have been
commissioned and installed at the place by one of Toshas descendants about a century
later, suggesting a custom of the installation of donor images at religious shrines. Tosha is
described as the wife of a kalavada of Mathura. The meaning of the term kalavada is
unclear. Luders (ibid.: 202) translates it as a high-ranking ocial, while Sircar (1966: 139)
suggests a possible connection with the Sanskrit kalyapala, a vintner.

Cults and shrines in early historical Mathura

389

Another inscription (possibly originally from Mora), inscribed on a door-jamb,

belonging to the reign of the ruler Shodasa, refers to a torana (gateway) and vedika
(railing) which formed part of a mahasthana (a large temple) of Vasudeva. Pandit Radha
Krishnas excavations at Mora resulted in the discovery of several fragments of very large
inscribed bricks of the third/second century BC (Vogel 191112: 127). The legend on one of
the bricks reads: Made by order of Yashamata, daughter of Brihasvatimita, the kings
consort and the mother of living sons. Archaeological evidence indicates that Mora was
an important religious centre in early historical Mathura, and that the shrine or shrines
here attracted the patronage of urban social and political elites such as Tosha and
Yashamata over several centuries.
The Kushana period marks an explosion in the number and varieties of Vaishnava
images produced in Mathura, and the city becomes the premier centre of the creation and
dissemination of Vaishnava plastic art (Srinivasan 1989: 390). Most frequent are the
depictions of Vasudeva-Krishna, but there are also a large number of small stone
statuettes of the god Vishnu (usually four-armed), Vishnu on garuda (the mythical bird
who is his vehicle) and in anthropomorphic varaha (boar) form. The avatara (incarnation)
concept is in its infancy, and the chaturvyuha (the four emanations of Vishnu) concept
becomes visible in the late Kushana period. Reference may also be made to a colossal
Narayana image found at Mathura (ibid.: 389).
Among the goddesses at Mathura, apart from the anonymous mother goddesses,
Matrikas and yakshis, the benevolent Lakshmi and the militant Durga stand out. Lakshmi
is also depicted on the coins of local kings of Mathura, and appears in her Gaja-Lakshmi

Plate 4 Architectural fragment with relief carving of winged creatures worshipping a Shiva linga.

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Upinder Singh

form (anked by two elephants) on coins of Rajuvula, Shodasa and Toranadasa (Singh
1989: 147, 150). At Sonkh, a relief carving of Lakshmi on an architectural fragment was
found at pre-Kushana levels, and seems to be the oldest stone sculptural piece found at the
site (Hartel 1993: 247) (Plate 5). That the worship of this goddess associated with good
fortune and prosperity was not a local phenomenon is indicated by the discovery of a
terracotta Gaja-Lakshmi plaque in the context of an apsidal temple in a late NBP level
(Phase IV D, dated c. 20050 BC) at the site of Atranjikhera, in Uttar Pradesh.
Special note may be taken of representations in which deities who formed the focus of
independent worship are associated with each other, for instance a slab showing Lakshmi
along with Hariti and child, and a stele with representations of Kubera, Lakshmi and
Hariti (Srivastava and Misra 1973: 70, Nos. 57.4349, 61.5371). A relief sculpture, 712 in
height and 10 in length, assigned to the rst century AD, depicts four gures standing
with their hands in abhayamudra Shiva-Ardhanarishvara, Vishnu, Gaja-Lakshmi and
Kubera (Agrawala 1949: 142, GMM. No. 2520). We can see in such sculptures the earliest
signs of pantheon formation.
While iconic worship dominated religious practice in early historical Mathura, there are
some indications of the remains of sacricial activity as well, in the form of pits containing
ash, animal bones and pottery discovered in residential structures (IAR 19745: 49). The
more dramatic and unequivocal evidence of the performance of brahmanical sacrices comes
from the stone yupas (sacricial posts) discovered at Isapur, on the left bank of the Yamuna,
opposite the Vishrant Ghat. A girdle rope with a noose at the end, representing the rope to
which the sacricial animal was tied, is clearly carved on both pillars. An inscription on one
of the pillars dated in year 24 in the Kushana king Vasishkas reign and in pure Sanskrit
states that the pillar was set up by a Brahmana named Dronala while performing a sattra
(sacrice) of twelve nights (Luders 1961: 1256; Vogel 191011: 408). The stone yupas of
Isapur were evidently stone copies of the wooden posts actually used in the sacrice; they are
suggestive of a grand sacrice and a yajamana who had considerable resources.
That Isapur had diverse religious associations is indicated by the discovery of three
fragmentary donative inscriptions, one on a Jaina image (Luders 1961: 1245, Nos. 913).
The variety of stone images found at sites such as Isapur from the early centuries AD to the
early medieval period illustrates the diverse focuses of popular worship in the Mathura
area.

Sonkh
The discoveries at the site of Sonkh include the remains of two ancient temples. Located in
the south-western section of the excavated area, Apsidal Temple No. 1 was the central
focus of the residential structures and streets around it. The temple, oriented roughly in an
eastwest direction, was a small structure, renovated and enlarged over time (Hartel 1993:
647). Roughly nine structural phases, belonging to the rst and second centuries AD were
identied. The temple began as a small squarish structure, about 3.05 x 3.30m. It
developed into an apsidal structure, about 9.70 x 8.85m, standing on a raised platform,
enclosed by a thick wall on its northern, western and southern sides, with a room-like
structure in the entrance area on the eastern side. On the oor of the apse was a 60cm-high

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391

Plate 5 Laksmi standing on lotus (courtesy: National Museum, New Delhi).

plinth covered with a slab, probably used as an altar for an image. A Matrika plaque (19 x
13.6 x 3.7cm) carved on mottled red sandstone was found on the oor at its base, and may
have been the central cult image which was probably re-installed in the various structural
phases (Hartel 1993: 245). A large number of plaques depicting Durga as Mahishasuramardini were found in or around the temple. In its last structural phase, just before it fell
into disuse, the apsidal shrine seems to have reverted to its squarish shape, measuring
about 3.80 x 3.80m.
Remains of the much more elaborate Apsidal Temple No. 2 were discovered 400m
north of the main excavated area at Sonkh. The structural phases of the temple ranged
from the beginning of the rst century BC to the second century AD and clearly reect a
stage when brick was supplemented by stone in early temple architecture. In its most
developed form (Hartel 1993: 41317), the brick temple can be visualized standing high
above the surrounding buildings on a 15 x 11.50m brick platform, with a pond to its east.

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Upinder Singh

The apsidal cella had a vaulted roof, and a slanting wooden roof probably ran around the
temple and covered the space between the cella and the surrounding row of brick pillars
(Fig. 2). Hartel suggests that the vault carried pinnacles, probably green-glazed. The
entrance was furnished with an arch-shaped carved stone tympanum above the doorway.
To the north of the temple was a row of cells arranged on three sides of a courtyard. The
entire temple complex was enclosed by a stone railing, for the most part carved on both
sides. The beautifully carved remains of a stone gateway, consisting of two pillars
supporting a superstructure of three architraves with voluted ends, were found on the
southern side of the railing. An architectural fragment belonging to the bottom lintel of
the gateway bears a relief carving of a naga and nagi seated on thrones, surrounded by
attendants and people with hands folded in obeisance. This and the other depictions of
nagas in stone sculptures and reliefs, terracotta naga gurines and moulds, inscriptions
found in the temple area and the discovery of the top half of a four-sided, seven-hooded
stone naga image (143cm in height up to the stumps of the thighs) leave no doubt that
Apsidal Temple No. 2 was a magnicent naga temple.
Sonkh thus provides evidence of an early historical multi-temple urban complex and
reveals the architectural form of the shrines. It also proves that naga and Matrika images
were worshipped in structural temples, and we can infer that many of the images found in
and around Mathura were similarly enshrined and worshipped.

The devakula at Mat

In the village of Mat, on a mound covered with jungle, locally known as Tokri Tila, Pandit
Radha Krishna made the dramatic discovery of a number of fragments of colossal images,
three bearing inscriptions, some of which clearly represented Kushana royalty, including
the emperor Kanishka. A broken image of a majestic monarch seated on a lion-throne had
an inscription at the base between the feet. The inscription belongs on palaeographic
grounds to the early years of Kanishkas reign or a little earlier (rst century AD), and its
reading and translation is not free from problems. But its purport is clear it records the
construction of a temple (devakula), garden, tank, well, assembly hall and a gateway
during the reign of a Kushana king whose name cannot be read with certainty (perhaps
Vema) (Luders 1963: 1312, No. 98). A later Sanskrit inscription inscribed on the
pedestal of a broken image (probably representing a Kushana prince), belonging to the
reign of the Kushana king Huvishka, appears to record the repair of the temple mentioned
in the earlier inscription. The last line of the inscription refers to some sort of provision
being made for the Brahmanas, described as regular guests at the place (Luders 1961: 139
40, No. 99).
Radha Krishnas excavations at Mat (described in Vogel 191112: 1202) revealed the
traces of a rectangular plinth, 100ft x 59ft, with remains of steps leading up to it on the
south east. Traces of a circular temple were identied on the western part of the plinth.
South of the plinth were the masonry foundations of a rectangular enclosure which may
have contained a series of rooms, and to the west were the remains of a tank, constructed
of large bricks of the same dimensions as the temple, within which some naga and other
images were found.

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393

Figure 2 A reconstruction of what Apsidal Naga Temple at Sonkh might have looked like (after
Hartel 1993: 422).

Was the devakula a shrine where deied kings were worshipped (of the kind mentioned
in Bhasas drama, the Pratima-natakam) or was it a royal temple dedicated to some other
deity or deities, also housing images of Kushana royalty? Vogel was quite denite on the
point that the royal images were found outside the shrine proper. Further, there was the
discovery of the almost life-size lower half of a dhoti-clad standing image (1.12m height),
accompanied by a dwarf behind which is a lion, which, according to V. S. Agrawala, could
possibly represent the god Shiva. Agrawala (1949: 1267, 152) also suggested that another
fragmentary image found at Mat, depicting the lower half of a female gure standing
against a lion couchant, could perhaps be identied as Durga. These two images would
suggest that the Mat shrine was a Shaiva shrine, perhaps built during the time of Vima
Kadphises, who is known from his coins to have been a devotee of Shiva. The Shaiva
aliations of the shrine are further supported by the reference to Sarva and Chandishvara
(i.e. Shiva) in the preamble to an inscription (No. 99) found at Mat.
The evidence from Mat has to be seen in conjunction with that from two sites in
Afghanistan Rabatak and Surkh Kotal. The former has yielded an important inscription

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Upinder Singh

in the Bactrian language and script, reecting the claims of Kushana kings to divine status
(Mukherjee 1995). There is a striking similarity between the devakula at Mat and the bago
lango at Surkh Kotal (Fussman 1989). At Surkh Kotal, the statues of the Kushana kings
were found in situ, not in the cella, but in the south-eastern corner of the courtyard. While
two of the temples at Surkh Kotal seem to have been re temples, there is uncertainty
about the cultic aliations of Temple A. The fact that an (admittedly small in size) image
depicting Shiva, Parvati and Nandi has been found at the site together with the evidence of
trishulas (tridents) engraved in a later period on the stone steps of the shrines staircase is
strongly suggestive that the main cult image in Temple A was Shaiva. This would tie in
with Agrawalas interpretation of the sculptural fragments at Mat with Shiva and Parvati,
although the interpretation is not free from problems and there are other possibilities
(Roseneld 1993: 1501). Whether the tantalizing but inconclusive evidence from Mat and
Surkh Kotal reects a Kushana tradition of royally endowed monumental temples where
deied kings, or gods, or both, may have been worshipped, we are looking at a striking
innovation in the theory and practice of kingship.

Political elites and the patronage of Brahmanas

The phenomenon of the Kushana kings spreading their municence in dierent directions
and the reputation of Kanishka as a patron of Buddhism have distracted attention from
certain other facts, which anchor the kings of this dynasty to the brahmanical tradition.
Although there are a handful of early Sanskrit inscriptions belonging to the rst century BC,
the use of Sanskrit, or a dialect very close to Sanskrit, as the language of epigraphs really
took o in the rst century AD, during the time of the Kshatrapas (cf. the inscriptions of the
time of the Kshatrapa Shodasa) and the early Kushanas. Mathura seems to have been an
important epicentre of this phenomenon. During the Kushana period, the use of Sanskrit
gradually spread to Buddhist donative records as well (Salomon 1998: 878).
The circuit between political elites, urban elites and Brahmanas is well revealed by a
stone inscription found in a eld opposite the Chaurasi Jaina Temple in Mathura in a well
called Lal Kuan (Konow 19312). The inscription, in mixed Prakrit and Sanskrit, refers to
the eastern hall of merit (punya-shala-prachini) being given as a permanent endowment
under the custom of akshaya-nivi (an investment, the capital of which could not be
touched) by a person described as the Kanasarukamana, lord of Kharasalera, and a
Vakanapati. The donation was a monetary one 500 coins called puranas were invested
with a guild whose name is not clear and 550 puranas with a guild of samitakaras (perhaps
our-makers). From the interest of this endowment, 100 Brahmanas were to be served
food in the open hall and a specied number of food items were to be provided to
destitute, hungry and thirsty people. The fact that the inscription is dated in a Macedonian
month of Gorpiaios in the year 28 suggests that the donor was a foreigner from the northwest. Judging from the fact that the merit accruing from the gift was to accrue to the
Kushana emperor Huvishka, the donor seems to have been a subordinate of this Kushana
king.
The depiction of a great variety of deities on Kushana coins is conventionally interpreted
as a reection of their religious eclecticism, catholicism, or as indicative of an attitude of

Cults and shrines in early historical Mathura

395

toleration (see, e.g., Mukherjee 1988: 28990 ). Such an interpretation is premised on a

misperception of ancient Indian cults as mutually exclusive, aggressively antagonistic
religious denominations. It also displays a lack of reection on the religious dimensions of
royal policy and the political dimension of royal religious patronage. The dispersed
patronage and the impressive variety of religious symbols that the Kushanas sought to
identify themselves with can best be interpreted as a version of Hocarts (1970[1936]: 89)
idea of incorporative kingship associated with polities that were not highly centralized, in
which the king incorporated the divinities worshipped not only by his subordinates but also
his subjects. Seen in this way, Kushana policy was just an exaggerated version of the royal
policies pursued by many other dynasties of ancient India. In later centuries, even in the
case of dynasties that adopted consistent sectarian symbols on their coins and seals, royal
patronage was not generally restricted by narrow sectarian boundaries.

Conclusions
The archaeological evidence from the Mathura area between c. 200 BC and AD 200 clearly
indicates the importance of goddesses, yakshas, nagas and deities associated with Puranic
Hinduism, in both temple and domestic contexts. The images display a certain level of
iconographic standardization, and it is clear that certain cults had a trans-regional
importance. While the earliest structural temples at Sonkh indicate they were an integral
part of the urban settlement, at Mat there is striking evidence of a royal shrine, situated
distant and aloof from the main settlement.
The post-third-century period saw the displacement of these old cults and the eventual
triumph of the brahmanical tradition. The historical processes that lay behind the
multiple religious accommodations, incorporations, displacements and marginalizations
are not easy to identify. At a general level, the features that gave brahmanism its
position of dominance were the social dominance and prestige of the Brahmanas within
the caste hierarchy and their links with political power. Royal patronage did play an
important role in dening dominant cults, not as much by direct patronage of religious
establishments, but indirectly through the patronage of Brahmanas. The fact that
dynasties with as varied origins and backgrounds as the Kushanas in the north and the
Satavahanas in the Deccan extended patronage towards Brahmanas points to an
underlying thread that helps explain some of the patterns in the religious history of
ancient and early medieval India.
In spite of the many changes in the religious landscape of Mathura over the centuries,
what is equally striking are certain elements of continuity. A large, eighteenth-century
Shiva temple marks the spot of the second-century BC Shaiva shrine at Bhuteshwar. Even
more striking is the evidence that, while the older cults and their images were jostled out of
the urban milieu (ruralized) by the gods and goddesses of Puranic Hinduism, they were
not exterminated. Sometimes, the old images were reinterpreted. The Nagaraja once
enshrined in Apsidal Temple No. 2 at Sonkh is still being worshipped in the village, but as
the goddess Chamunda. Old naga images are today worshipped as Balarama. The nagas
and the goddesses associated with fertility, children and the warding o of diseases have
held their ground in villages across India. But the most amazing reection of the

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Upinder Singh

Plate 6

The modern Parkham yaksha.

continuity and resilience of the older cults in popular Hinduism comes from the village of
Parkham. The imposing colossal image of the yaksha, which once stood next to the village
tank, was removed from the village to the Mathura Museum many years ago. But, in the
month of Magh (January), a Jakhaiya Mela (i.e. yaksha fair) is held in the village, and
hundreds of people from surrounding villages converge at Parkham to worship the
Jakhaiya. On this occasion, a small yaksha image a poor substitute for the original is
brought out, placed in a makeshift enclosure next to the tank, and worshipped (Plate 6).
The broken right hand of the colossal Parkham yaksha was probably raised in the
protection-granting abhaya mudra. His diminutive modern incarnation raises his left hand
in what looks like a cheerful wave. Nevertheless, on three consecutive Sundays in January
in Parkham, the yaksha regains some of the importance he once enjoyed in the Mathura
area over two thousand years ago.

Notes
1 The Sonkh sequence is largely based on dynastic/political phases, which, according to
the excavators, could in many cases be identied on the basis of numismatic nds and

Cults and shrines in early historical Mathura

397

which, according to them, provided clear dividing lines between the various
archaeological levels. The term Shunga cultural phase is used instead of Shunga
phase. This is because of the possible objection that the rule of the Shungas did not
extend to Mathura. The use of this term is the reason why there is a discrepancy between
the chronology given in this table and the chronology of political history.
2 The making and use of such artefacts for household rituals continued till fairly recent
times in Bengal (Dilip K. Chakrabarti personal communication).
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Upinder Singh is Reader in the Department of History, St. Stephens College, University of
Delhi and author of Kings, Brahmanas, and Temples in Orissa: An Epigraphic Study AD
3001147 (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1994) and Ancient Delhi (New Delhi:
Oxford University Press, 1999). Her most recent book is The Discovery of Ancient India:
Early Archaeologists and the Beginnings of Archaeology (New Delhi: Permanent Black,
2004).