Mora Well Inscription

The Mora Well inscription is an ancient Sanskrit inscription found in the village of Mora about 7 miles (11 km) from Mathura, India.[9][10] It is notable for its early mention of pratima (images), stone temple, and the Pancaviras.[9][11]

Mora Well Inscription
Ancient Sanskrit inscription
Mathura GMM Q.1
WritingSanskrit[1]
Createdcirca 15 CE
Discovered27.515040°N 77.587409°E / 27.515040; 77.587409
PlaceMathura, Uttar Pradesh
Present locationGovernment Museum, Mathura (27.495382°N 77.679540°E / 27.495382; 77.679540)
IdentificationGMM Q.1
Mora (Mathura)
Mora (Mathura) (India)
Location of Mora, near Mathura
Mora artefacts
The Mora inscription is associated with three statue remains and a decorated doorjamb, all thought to be related to the temple built for the Vrishni heroes.[2] Left: torso said to be probably a figure of one of the five Vrishni heroes, Mora, circa 15 CE, Art of Mathura, Mathura Museum.[3][4][5][6] Right: Mora carved doorjamb, also circa 15 CE, found together with the Mora Well Inscription.[7][8]

Description

The Mora Well Inscription makes an early mention of pratima (murti, images), stone shrine (temple) and calls the five Vrishnis as bhagavatam.[9][11][12] It is dated to the early decades of 1st century CE during the reign of Sodasa, probably circa 15 CE.[9]

Identification

The Mora Well inscription does not use specifically sectarian language, and various interpretations have been given.[13]

The Hindu Puranas, such as the medieval Vayu Purana in section 97.1-2, name Samkarsana, Vasudeva, Pradyumna, Samba and Aniruddha as "heroes of the dynasty of the Vrishni".[9][12][13] The inscription may also signify the growth of Bhagavatism in 1st millennium BCE to Vaishnavism by the early centuries of the common era, and a process by which heroes and heroic ideas attract devotion.[9] There is no mention of these heroes in ancient Brahmanical literature,[13] but some scholars, such as Chandra, state that the five Vrishnis mentioned in the inscription is a reference to the Pandavas of the Mahabharata.[13]

According to Sonya Quintanilla, the Mora inscription is not sectarian and may not necessarily relate to the roots of Vaishnavism. It could be cross-sectarian – Jainism and Hinduism, or equally possibly reflect early Bhagavata movement, states Quintanilla.[13] According to Rosenfield, the Mora well inscription refers to the five Vrishni heroes, but their exact identity is unclear. They – including Vasudeva and Krishna – may have been ancient kings in the Mathura area, who became deified because of their heroic accomplishments. They "personified certain qualities of Vishnu and thus in effect [were deified as] his avatars", states Rosenfield, and this may be "an extremely early form of Vaishnavism now called Pancaratra system" also found in Besnagar, Nanaghat and Ghasundi.[14] Another explanation is that of Luders, who relying on Jain texts dated between 9th and 12th-century CE, states that the Vrishnis may have been the five Jain heroes led by Akrūra.[13] The cult of the Vrishnis may have been cross-sectarian, much like the cult of the Yakshas.[13][14]

Reign of Sodasa

The inscription mentions the name of the Great Satrap Rajuvula,[15] and was apparently made by his son,[16] the Great Satrap of Mathura Sodasa.[17]

The discovery of the Mora Well Inscription in the 19th-century led archaeologists to excavate the Mora Mound in 1911-12, near the Mora well.[18] They found large inscribed bricks of a round brick building with the name of a female, probably the daughter of king Brihasvatimitra from Kausambi of late 2nd century BCE. In the mound were also found two male torsos, as well as a lower half of a female torso with inscribed names Kanishka and Tosha, confirming the possible link between the inscription stone and the mound.[18]

Inscription

The discovered inscription is incomplete.[10] The opening is hybrid Sanskrit, while the remaining three lines are standard Sanskrit.[1] It reads:[11][10]

1. mahaksatrapasa ramjuvulasa putrasa svami ...
2. bhagavatam vrsnina[m] pamcaviranam pratima[h] sailadevagr[he] ...
3. ya[s] tosayah sailam srimadgrham atulam udadha samadhara ...
4. arcadesam sailam pamca jvalata iva paramavapusa ...

– Mora Well Inscription, 1st century CE

Translation

Sonya Quintanilla translates it as,

. . . of the son of mahaksatrapa Ramjuvula, svami . . .
the images of the holy pamcaviranam of the Vrishnis . . .
the stone shrine... whom the magnificent matchless stone house of Tosa was erected and maintained...
five objects of adoration made of stone, radiant, as it were with highest beauty...

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See also

References
  1. Richard Salomon (1998). Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages. Oxford University Press. pp. 84–88. ISBN 978-0-19-509984-3.
  2. Singh, Upinder (2008). A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Education India. p. 437. ISBN 978-81-317-1120-0.
  3. Quintanilla, Sonya Rhie (2007). History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura: Ca. 150 BCE - 100 CE. BRILL. pp. 211–213. ISBN 978-90-04-15537-4.
  4. "We have actually discovered in the excavations at the Mora shrine stone torsos representing the Vrishni Heroes (...) Their style closely follows that of the free-standing Yakshas in that they are carved in the round. They are dressed in a dhoti and uttaraya and some types of ornaments as found on the Yaksha figures, their right hand is held in ahbayamudra..." in "Agrawala, Vasudeva Sharana (1965). Indian Art: A history of Indian art from the earliest times up to the third century A.D. Prithivi Prakashan. p. 253.
  5. This statue appears in Fig.51 as one of the statues excavated in the Mora mound, in Rosenfield, John M. (1967). The Dynastic Arts of the Kushans. University of California Press. p. 151-152 and Fig.51.
  6. Lüders, H. (1937). Epigraphia Indica Vol.24. pp. 199-200.
  7. Quintanilla, Sonya Rhie (2007). History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura: Ca. 150 BCE - 100 CE. BRILL. p. 171. ISBN 9789004155374.
  8. Quintanilla, Sonya Rhie (2007). History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura: Ca. 150 BCE - 100 CE. BRILL. p. 206. ISBN 978-90-04-15537-4.
  9. Doris Srinivasan (1997). Many Heads, Arms, and Eyes: Origin, Meaning, and Form of Multiplicity in Indian Art. BRILL Academic. pp. 211–214, 308-311 with footnotes. ISBN 90-04-10758-4.
  10. Heinrich Lüders and Klaus Ludwig Janert (1961), Mathurā inscriptions, Göttingen : Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, OCLC 717966622, page 154, image on page 301
  11. Sonya Rhie Quintanilla (2007). History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura: Ca. 150 BCE - 100 CE. BRILL Academic. p. 260. ISBN 90-04-15537-6.
  12. Lavanya Vemsani (2016). Krishna in History, Thought, and Culture. ABC-CLIO. pp. 202–203. ISBN 978-1-61069-211-3.
  13. Quintanilla, Sonya Rhie (2007). History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura: Ca. 150 BCE - 100 CE. BRILL. pp. 211–213. ISBN 978-90-04-15537-4.
  14. Rosenfield, John M. (1967). The Dynastic Arts of the Kushans. University of California Press. p. 151-152 and Fig.51.
  15. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Cambridge University Press for the Royal Asiatic Society. 1911. p. 151.
  16. Gupta, Parmanand (1989). Geography from Ancient Indian Coins & Seals. Concept Publishing Company. p. 58. ISBN 9788170222484.
  17. Chakravarti, N. p (1937). Epigraphia Indica Vol.24. p. 194.
  18. John M. Rosenfield (1967). The Dynastic Arts of the Kushans. University of California Press. pp. 151–152. GGKEY:0379L32LPNJ.
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