European Visitors To Mathura And Their Accounts
The French traveller and physician Francois Bernier was in Hindustan between 1656 and 1668 and closely followed the contemporary events at Mughal court. While travelling between Agra and Delhi- in 1663 he left an account about Mathura and its surroundings like this: "Between Delhi and Agra, a distance of fifty or sixty leagues, there are no fine towns such as travellers pass through in France; the whole road is cheerless and uninteresting; nothing is worthy observation but Maluras, where an ancient and magnificent temple of idols is still to be seen; a few tolerably handsome caravansaries, a day's journey from each other; and a double row of trees planted by order of Jehan-Guyre, and continued for one hundred and fifty leagues, with small pyramids or turrets, erected from kosse to kosse, for the purpose of pointing out the different roads. Wells are also frequently met with, affording drink to travellers, and serving to water the young trees."
Another French traveller named Tavernier, covering his first journey from Delhi to Agra in 1659, calls Mathura as the Shah ki Sarai and gives the name Mathura to the temple of Keshava Deva: " From Dehly to Badelpoura, 8 coss; From Badelpoura to Peleul-ki-sera, 18 coss; From Peleul-ki-sera to Cotki-sera, 15 coss; From Cotki-sera to Cheki-sera, 16 coss."
"At Cheki-sera there is one of the grandest pagodas in India with an asylum for apes, both for those commonly in the place and those from the neighbouring country, where the Banias provide them with food. This pagoda is called Mathura; formerly it was held in much greater veneration by the idolaters than it is at present, the reason being that the Jumna then flowed at the foot of the pagoda, and the Banias, both those of the place and those who came from afar in pilgrimage to perform their devotions there, were able to bathe in the river before entering the pagoda, and after coming out of it before preparing to eat, which they must not do without bathing; besides, they believe that by bathing in running water their sins are more effectually removed. But for some years back the river has taken a northerly course, and flows at a good coss distance from the pagoda; this is the reason why so many pilgrims do not visit it now."
While on his second journey about Mathura, Tavernier wrote like thus: "After the pagodas of Jagannath and Benares, the most considerable used to be that of Muttra, about 18 coss from Agra, on the road to Delhi. It is one of the most sumptuous buildings in all India, and was visited by the greatest concourse of pilgrims; but at present scarcely any are to be seen there, the idolaters having gradually lost the devotion which they had for this pagoda, since the river Jumna, which used to pass close to it, has changed its course, and now flows half a league away. For when pilgrims have bathed in the river it takes them too much time to return to the pagoda, and during that period they may encounter something which renders them impure and unclean.
Although this pagoda, which is very large, is a hollow, it is visible from more than 5 or 6 coss distance, the building being very elevated and magnificent. The stones which were used in its construction are of a red colour, and are obtained from a large quarry near Agra. They split like our slates, and some of them, which are 15 feet long and 9 or 10 feet wide, are of 6 fingers in thickness, that is to say, they are split by the quarrymen to the required size; beautiful columns are made of them also. The fortress of Agra, the walls of Jahanabad, the palace of the Emperor, the two mosques, and some houses of the great nobles are built of the same stone.
Returning to the pagoda, it is seated on a great platform of octagonal shape, faced with cut stone, around which there are two courses of animals, chiefly monkeys, carved in relief. One of the courses is only 2 feet from the ground floor, and the other 2 feet from the level of the platform. It is reached by two staircases of fifteen or sixteen steps each, the steps being only 2 feet long, so that two persons are unable to ascend side-by-side. One of these staircases leads to the great gate of the pagoda, and the other behind the choir. But the pagoda occupies scarcely half the platform, the other half serving as a grand area in front. Its form, like those of the other pagodas, is that of a cross, and in the middle there rises a lofty dome, with two other little smaller at the sides. On the exterior of the building, from base to summit, there are numerous figures of animals such as rams, monkeys and elephants, carved in stone, and all round are niches containing different monsters. From the foot of each of the three domes up to their summit, at intervals, there are windows from 5 to 6 feet high, and at each a kind of balcony where four persons can sit.
Each balcony is covered by a small canopy, and some are sustained by four columns, other by eight, but then they are in pairs and in contact with one another. Around these domes there are also niches full of figures which represent demons, one with four arms, another four legs; some of them have the heads of men on the bodies of beasts, with horns and long tails which twine round their legs. There are, finally, numerous images of monkeys, and it is a terrible thing to have before the eyes so many ugly representations. The pagoda has but one door, which is very high, and on both sides there are many columns and images of men and monsters. The choir is enclosed by a screen of stone columns 5 to 6 inches in diameter, and no one may enter these except the principal Brahmans, who have access by a small secret door which I could not see. When I visited this pagoda I asked some Brahmans, who were there if I might see the great Ram Ram, that is to say the great idol.They replied that if I gave them something they would go to ask leave of their Superior; this they did as soon as I had placed two rupees in their hands. I waited less than half an hour when the Brahmans opened a door inside the middle of the screen, for on the outside there is none, the screen itself being closed. I saw across it, at about 15 or 16 feet from the door, as it were a square altar covered with a piece of old brocade of gold and silver, and on it the great idol which they call Ram Ram. Only the head, which is of black marble, can be seen, and he has for eyes what appear to be two rubies. All the body from the neck to the feet is covered by a robe of red velvet with some embroidery, and the arms cannot be seen. There are two other idols beside him 2 feet in height or thereabouts; they are arranged in the same manner, save that they have the faces white, and they are called Becchor. I also saw in this pagoda a machine 15 to 16 feet square and about 12 to 15 feet high, covered with painted calico on which all kinds of demons are represented. This machine was supported on four small wheels, and I was told that it was the car on which their great god is placed at the solemn days when he goes to visit the other gods, and is taken to the river by the people on the occasion of their principal festival."
Father Tieffenthaller, who visited Mathura in 1745, after mentioning the two mosques (lama Masjid and Katra Masjid) goes on to describe the streets as narrow and dirty and most of the buildings as in ruins; the fort very large and massive, like a mountain of hewn stone, with an observatory, which was only a feeble imitation of the one at Jaypur, but with the advantage of being much better raised. The only other spot that he particularizes is the Visrant (or Vishram) ghat.
When Father Tieffenthaller visited Vrindavan, in 1754, he noticed only one long street, but states that this was adorned with handsome, not to say magnificent, buildings of beautifully carved stone, which had been erected by different Hindu Rajas and nobles, either for mere display, or as occasional residences, or as embellishments that would be acceptable to the local divinity. The absurdity of people coming from long distances merely for the sake of dying on holy ground, all among the monkeys–which he describes as a most intolerable nuisance–together with the frantic idolatry that he saw rampant all around, and the grotesque resemblance of the Bairagis to the hermits and ascetics of the earlier ages of Christianity, seem to have given the worthy missionary such a shock that his remarks on the buildings are singularly vague and indiscriminating.
The metalling of the Delhi road was done in 1860 as a principal famine relief work; which was not only a boon at that time, but still continues as a source of the greatest advantage to the district. The old imperial thoroughfare, which connected the two capitals of Mughals, Agra and Lahore, kept closely to the same line, as is still shown by the dozens of surviving ponderous kos minars, which may be seen still standing at intervals of about three miles, and nowhere at any great distance from the way side.
Here was the "delectable alley of trees, the most incomparable ever beheld," which the Emperor Jahangir enjoys the credit of having planted. That it was really a fine avenue is attested by the language of the sober Dutch topographer, John de Laet, who, in his India Vera, written in 1631, that is, early in the reign of Shahjahan, speaks of it in the following terms:- "The whole of the country between Agra and Lahore is well-watered and by far the most fertile part of India. It abounds in all kinds of produce, especially sugar. The highway is bordered on either side by trees which bear a fruit like the mulberry, and," as he adds in another place, "form a beautiful avenues," "At intervals of five or six coss," he continues, "there are saraes built either by the king or by some of the nobles. In these travelers can find bed and lodging; when a person has once taken possession he cannot be turned out by any one." The glory of the road, however, seems to have been of short duration, for even so late as 1825, Bishop Heber, on his way down to Kolkata, was apparently much struck with what he calls "the wildness of the country", but mentions no avenue, as he certainly would have done had one then existed. Thus it is clear that about the middle of 19th century administrators of the district were the only persons entitled to the traveller's blessing for the magnificent and almost unbroken canopy of over-arching boughs, which extended for more than thirty miles from the city of Mathura to the border of the Gurgaon district, and formed a sufficient protection from even the mid-day glare of an Indian summer's sun. Alas! now nothing remains even of that glory. Though the country has now generally been brought under cultivation, and can scarcely be described as even well wooded, there are still here and there many patches of waste land covered with low trees and jungle, which might be considered to justify the Bishop's epithet of wild-looking.
Victor Jacquemont, who came out to India on a scientific mission on behalf of the Paris Museum of Natural History, and passed through Agra and Mathura on his way to the Himalayas in the cold weather of 1829-30, writes about Mathura region like this: "Nothing can be less picturesque than the Yamuna. The soil is sandy and the cultivated fields are intermingled with waste tracts, where scarcely anything will grow but the capparis aphylla and one or two kinds of zyzyphus. There is little wheat; barley is the prevailing cereal, with peas, sesamum and cotton. ….The villages are far apart from one another and present every appearance of decay. Most of them are surrounded by strong walls flanked with towers, but their circuit often encloses only a few miserable cottages."
Further narrating about the city of Mathura Jacquemont concludes: "The streets are the narrowest, the crookedest, the steepest and dirtiest that I have ever seen."
Mons. Victor Jacquemont, who passed through Vrindavan in the cold weather of 1829-30, has left rather a fuller description of the religious town. He says, "This is a very ancient city, and I should say of more importance even than Mathura. It is considered one of the most sacred of all among the Hindus, an advantage which Mathura also possesses, but to a lesser degree. Its temples are visited by multitudes of pilgrims, who perform their ablutions in the river at the different ghats, which are very fine. All the buildings are constructed of red sandstone, of a closer grain and of a lighter and less disagreeable colour than that used at Agra: it comes from the neighbourhood of Jaipur, a distance of 200 miles. Two of these temples have the pyramidal form peculiar to the early Hindu style, but without the little turrets which in the similar buildings at Benares seem to spring out of the main tower that determines the shape of the edifice. They have a better effect, from being more simple, but are half in ruins." (The temples that he means are Madan Mohan and Jugal Kishor). "A larger and more ancient ruin is that of a temple of unusual form. The interior of the nave is like that of a Gothic church; though a village church only, so far as size goes. A quantity of grotesque sculpture is pendant from the dome, and might be taken for pieces of turned wood. An immense number of bells, large and small, are carved in relief on the supporting pillars and on the walls, worked in the same stiff and ungainly style. Many of the independent Rajas of the west, and some of their ministers (who have robbed them well no doubt) are now building at Vrindavan is the largest purely Hindu city that I have seen. I could not discover in it a single mosque. Its suburbs are thickly planted with fine trees, which appear from a distance like an island of verdure in the sandy plain." (These are the large gardens beyond the temple of Madan Mohan, on the old Delhi Road). "The Doab, which can be seen from the top of the temple, stretching away on the opposite side of the Yamuna, is still barer than the country on the right bank."
Jacquemont, who saw the sarai of Chhata town in the year 1829, describes it as "a large fortress, of fine appearance from the outside, but it will not do to enter, for inside there is nothing but misery and decay, as everywhere else, except perhaps at Mathura and Vrindavan."
A Buddhist Mathura As Seen By The Chinese Travellers
Mathura's association with Buddhism is amply corroborated by the accounts of the foreign travellers. The Greek writer Megasthenes, Pliny and Ptolemy who either visited or wrote about Shurasena or Mathura in their records are silent over this issue as by that time Buddhism was not popular,
although efforts were being made to propagate it. One important figure responsible for establishing the association of Buddhism with Mathura in the pre-Christian centuries is Bhadra Kapilani, who was the wife of Mahakasyapa, one of the main disciples of the Buddha. Mathura was her native place. One Mahadev, associated with the second Buddhist council was the son of a Brahmana of Mathura. The Tibetan and Chinese translations of Vasumitra reveal that the second council, of Vaishali was called to discuss the five dogmas of Mahadev.
The Chinese traveller Fa-hien who visited the place in the beginning of the 5th century AD furnished significant data in his travel memories. The mission of his journey was to collect the original Buddhist texts and commentaries. Starting from Lanchow in central China he covered most of the distance on foot and passing through the Gobi desert and other difficult routes reached Mathura which he recorded as the first kingdom with the capital of the same name, situated on the Jamuna. According to him everybody from highest to lowest rank had faith in Buddhism and it was so from the time of the Buddha.
Fa-hien further informs that the religious establishments were in possession of copper plate grants testifying the evidence of their historicity. There were twenty monasteries on both sides of the river and 3000 monks resided in them. The number of monks and priests is sometimes stated as ten thousand. Besides, he saw six stupas (relic towers) out of which the most important and venerable was of Shariputra. The stupas commemorate the sacred memory of Ananda and Mudgalaputra, the great teacher of Samadhi or meditation. The stupa of Ananda was more popular among women (probably due to the fact that he persuaded the Buddha to permit the women folk into the Sangha). The remaining three stupas were to pay respect to the holy books, the Tripitakas i.e. Abhidharma, Sutra and Vinaya.
Fa-hien speaks of the happy and cordial conditions of the place. The rulers and the court officials showed much regard to Buddhism and they derived pleasure in serving the monks and feeding them. `At the end of the meal they spread carpets on the ground, and sat down facing the president not venturing to sit on couches in the presence of priests', an arrangement handed down from the days of the Buddha.
Hiuen-Tsang (also pronounced as Yuanchwang) followed Fa-hien after about 200 years and spent about sixteen years in India. Like his predecessor he also collected a large number of Buddhist texts besides several other items of ritualistic interest and Buddhist figures. On his return to China he translated 75 texts into Chinese and went on writing for 19 years. Some of his translations are as valuable as the original sources; as the original books are now not available. He has also handed over detailed account of his memoirs of wide travels in India. These supply valuable informations for the study of contemporary society. He commenced his journey at the age of 26 and remained in India between 629 and 645 AD. This tall and handsome pilgrim was a man of high determination and firm conviction.
Three stupas built by Ashoka were also seen by him besides several spots where the four former Buddhas left their footprints. The stupas built in the memory of the disciples of the Buddha were also held in great reverence. These consist of the holy relics of Shariputra, Mudgalayana, Purvamaitrayaniputra, Upali, Ananda, Rahula, Manjushri and other Bodhisattvas. Shariputra was respected by the followers of Abhidharma and Mudgalayana by those who practiced Dhyana or contemplation. The followers of Sutras paid homage to Maitrayaniputra and those who had faith in the three Pitakas worshipped Upali. The new entrants to the Sangha honoured Rahula while the followers of Mahayanism paid respect to all Bodhisattvas. The traveller reveals that five or six lis i.e. about a mile and a quarter to east of the city was a monastery on the hill credited to have been built by Upagupta and it housed his nails and hair as relics.
About the general conditions Hiuen-Tsang gives an appreciable remark. People were happy and prosperous and the land was fertile and yellow in colour, mango yield was in abundance. The climate of the region has been recorded as hot while his predecessor mentioned it as moderate. It appears that the season of the visit of one Chinese traveller differed from the other. The citizens were of high intellect, honest and of good character. They believed in the merits of deeds (karnaphala). We can derive the conclusion that Buddhism was prevalent in Mathura in those times although its decline had begun. From here the Chinese traveller proceeded to Kanyakubja, the capital city of northern India in the time of Harshavardhana, of whom he speaks in high admiration.