Puranic History of Lunar race Yadu dynasty from Shri Krishna &Balarama up to 6th Century A.D.of Mathura Rajay (shurasena desha) ---

Puranic History of Lunar race Yadu dynasty from Shri Krishna and Balrama up to 6th Century  of Mathura Rajay (Brajmandal )-----

Puranic /Ancient Yadus /Yadavas /Yaduvansis /Jadus /Jadavas /Jaduvansis of Lunar race clan of  Kshatriyas are presently , the modern Jadons , Bhatis , Chudasamas , Jadejas , Sarviyas , Raijadas ,Chhonkars , Banafars , Porchas , Jadhavas, Wadiyars  etc (1,2,3,4,).

In the ancient times the whole of the country lying between the Arabali.hills of Alwar and the river Jumna was divided between Matsya on the west and Surasena on the east border.Kaman ,Mathura ,and Bayana were all comes  in Surasena Janpada.The Surasenas were Jadavas ,or Jadovanshi to which race belonged both Krishna and antagonist Kansa ,the king of Mathura.
The Surasenas had a sepatate dialect ,known in ancient times as the Suraseni ,just as their descendants ,the present people of Braj ,have their own diatect of Braj Bhasha ,At the time of Alexander's invasion the Surasenas worshipped a God whom the Greeks identified with Herakles.Their chief towns were Methora and  Kleisoboras,or Mathura and Krishnapura ,between which flowed the river Jomanes or Jumna .
In course of time Krishna and Balrama became the chosen leaders of the rural masses who were groaning under the tyrannical oppression of Kamsa.Numerous anecdotes are recounted of the adventures ,exploits and achievements of these Vrishni princes (5).They are said to have received a good education acquired proficiency in the Sixty-four traditional branches of leaning , weaned away the people from the superstition worship of Indra and provided effective protection and relief to those who suffered the wrath of the god materialising in the form of unprecedented rains and floods (6).The puranic legend that that Balrama ordered the Yamuna to come to him and on being disobeyed ,plunged his plunged his ploughshare into its banks compelling it to follow him wherever he went and letting it go only after it had watered the whole country ,has been taken to allude to the construction by him of irrigation canals from the Yamuna (7).
Krishna is said to have annihilated the Naga chief , Kaliya , and to have forced him to leave this region.He and Balarama are said to have killed many Asura and Rakshasas ,foiled several attempts made by Kamsa on their own lives , led a formidable revolt against his rule , attacked him in his court at Mathura ,killed him with all his principal associates and brought Ugrasena out of prison and reinstated him on the throne (8).
Kamsa wives appealed to their father , Jarasandha ,who invaded the kingdom of Mathura with a large force.The siege of the city of Mathura lasted for 27 days but the resistance was so strong and the city so well fortified that he could not break through any of its four gates ,two of his principal general growing themselves in the Yamuna.The second invasion was also repulsed owing chiefly to the guerilla tactics of the Yaduvansis under Balarama 's leadership .It is said that in consequence of Jarasandh 's 18 persistent invasions of the Yaduvavsis ,realm in the last of which he was aided by Kalayavana , a terrible foreign king (probably non-Aryan from the north-west ), Krishna and his people --who found that their position in this region had become insecure --migrated to Dwaraka (on the west coast ) ,those left behind being routed.The entire region was devasted and after appointing his deputies Jarasandha returned to Magadha (9) .But the Jaduvansis ,under the leadership of Krishana , continued their struggle against the enemy from their new centre and ultimately succeeded in killing Jarasandha with the help their new allies ,the Pandavas (10).After an interregnum of a few years some Yaduvanshi principalities seem to have been set up once again in Mathura and the neighbouring region as there is reason to believe that the kingdom of Shurasena (covering the present district and an area still further south )with its capital at Mathura was under the occupation of the scions of the Yadu family before the period of Mahabharata war (11).It is said that during the tour of conquest undertaken in connection with Yudhishthir's Rajasuya the realm of the Shurasenas was the first to be subjugated by the Pandava army (moving southward from Indraprastha )(12) ,that the people of Shurasena brought gifts to Yudhishthir on the occasion of the Rajasuya ceremony (13) that during their exile the Pandavas passed through Shurasena on their way from Panchal to Matsya (14) and that the time of the Mahabharata War Shurasena was an important Janapada and was perhaps the only power in Madhyadesha which sided with the Kauravas (15).
In this great war the sympathies of the Yaduvansis were divided : Krishna was the non -combatant adviser of the Pandavas , Balrama was neutral ,several chiefs allied themselves with the Pandavas and several with the Kauravas among whom the most important was Kritavarma of the Andhaka branch of Yaduvansis , who was probably occupying Mathura at this time (16) . He was one of the three survivors on the Kaurava side at the end of the war in which he and his formidable warriors had played an outstanding role (17).
It is not known whether Kritavarma continued to rule over the Mathura region after the conclusion of the war .The Yaduvansis emerged still more powerful and came to hold a vast tract (18) including the present district Mathura.The entire realm was divided in to a number of principalities held by different branches of the Yadu dynasty ,which were consolidated into a Confederacy of republics by Krishna who was made the supreme head (Sangha-mukhya or Gana-mukhya ,sometimes raja ) of this corporation , the controlling body  or assembly of the Yaduvansis being known as the Dashrhi and their assembly hall in Sudharma (19).
These Yaduvansis are credited with carrying the banner of Aryan culture into large area in the south-western and southern part of India.They themselves appears to have been lax in the observance of the Aryan Dharma and to have had unrestricted intercourse with the Non -Aryan , some of whose customs they adopt and with whom they even intermarried .This feature from orthodoxy facilitated the Aryanisation of the so -called outsiders but led to the Yaduvanshi branches being termed Asura in the Epics and the Puranas and to some Kuru ministrels labelling Krishna a Vratya (one outside the pale )(20).
A fratricidal struggle destroyed the Yaduvansis and their stronghold on the west coast , Krishna himself dying soon after .Vajra (a great-grandson the nearest male heir of Krishna )was installed on the throne of Mathura by Arjuna as the chief of the Jadavas and several other Jadava princes were set up in different principalities and were made to acknowledge Vajra as their overlord (21).
The list given in the Puranas ,of the noteworthy kingdom which continued to exist in the centuries following the Mahabharata War includes Shurasena where twenty-three (23) Shurasena kings of the Shurasena or the Yadava lineage are said to have reigned one after the other (beginning probably with Vajra )till the time of the Nanda (fourth century B.C.) .But the names of these rulers and history of this region under them are not known (22) .It appears that in this period the Mathura district was one of the centres of the Vedic religion and was a part of Brahmarshidesha , that section of Aryavart (inside Madhydesha ) which was note for the noble ,pious and Orthodox  conduct of its people .The boundaries of this Shurasena country (which was probably split up into two adjoining divisions ) seems to have been the Chambal in the south ,the southern boundary of Kuru (some 80 km to the north of Mathura ) in the north , Matsya in the West and south Panchal in the east (23). Shurasena, usually paire with its neighbour Matsya ,also figures in the list of the sixteen premier states mentioned in the early Buddhist and Jain literatures (24).
About the middle of the sixth century B.C.the last tirthankara ,Mahavira ,is said to have visited Mathura where he had many devotees , including the members of the Yadu royal family(25). Mathura also played a significant role in the development of Buddhism but in the early stages only a few notable converts hailed from this region.It is said that Avantipura (probably the son of a princess from Avanti ) the king of the Shurasenas at Mathura , was among the chief devotees of the Buddha and that it was through his help that Buddhism gained ground in this region (26).
The celebrated grammarian , Panini (who lived about the middle of the fifth century B.C.{27}) also refers to the Andhakas and Vrishnis as Yadu Kshatriyas clans and to their Sangha (republician federation ) the leaders of which were Rajanya (members of such families as were entitled to be consecrated to rulership )(28).His allusion to Vasudeva (Krishna ) as the object of bhakti (devotion ) throws light on the antiquity of the Krishna cult which seems to have been prevailing at that time (29) ,at least in the Mathura region which was probably being governed as a republican state by a descendant of Krishna himself .
A hundred years or so later this Yadu danasty of the Shurasenas of Mathura is said to have been uprooted , along with the other kshatriya ruling dynasties of northern India ,by the Nanda king of Magadha ,probably Mahapadma (circa 350 B.C.)(30).
A quarter of a century later the Nanda themselves were ousted by Chandragupta Maurya who established a powerful and extensive empire which include the Mathura region (31).
It appears that although the ruling family of the Shurasenas had been overthrown to the stock did not lose it entity as a people and even retained the Republican form of government  ,as Kautilya (Chandragupta Maurya's minister ) mentions the Corporation of the Vrishnis and that of the Kukuras (32) ,both the terms being synonymous with the term Shurasenas .Kautilya also alludes to Krishna and Balarama (Samkarshana ) as deities associated particularly with cows (33) and to Vraja which , according to him ,denoted herds of cows etc.
Megasthenes ,the Greek ambassador to the court of Chandragupta maurya ,probably passed through Mathura about 300B.C.He is reported to have written : Herakles is held in especial honour by the Sourasenoi, an Indian tribes who posses two large cities , Methora and Cleisobora ,and through whose country flows a navigable river called the Iobares (34).No doubt is entertained as to the river being the Yamuna.Methora the city of Mathura and the Sourasenoi the Shurasenas of this region.

The Surasenas continued to be a notable people down to the time of Magasthenes  ( 300 B.C.) But at that time they must have formed an integral part of the Maurya Empire (Magadhan empire ).Mathura ,the capital of the Surasena , was also known at the time of Megasthenes,(the Greek ambassador to the court of Chandragupta Maurya ,) as the centre of Krishna worship  and the Surasena kingdom then became an integral part of the Magadhan empire.
About the beginning of the second century B.C.,the great Maurya empire of Magadh collapsed , the downfall being attributed to internal intrigue by the general Pushyamitra Sunga.The Mathura region ever came under the sway of the Sungas ;by the middle of the second century B.C., the Sunga empire itself had become a prey to family feuds and foreign invasions and was fast breaking up (35).During this independent rule of its own local rulers (who may have been the scion of the ancient Shurasenas or of the Yadavas /Jadus , Mathura once again enjoyed the position of a capital city and seems to have prospered considerably .
The Sakas (Scythians ) ,the Kushanas ,the Nagas (the Arjunayanas , Yaudheyas , Kuninadas ,etc .,)  Kings ruled over Mathura till to the middle fourth century.The last Naga king was probably Ganapatinaga ,he was overthrown by the Gupta emperor Samudragupta about the middle of the 4th century.In this period a line of princes ,probably belonging to the Yadava or modern  Jadon  kshatriya clan ,seems to have been ruling at Bayana (in  the adjoining district of Bharatpur )from some time in the third to about the close of the fourth century {as is attested to by an inscription dated Sambat 428,or 371 A.D.discovered there (36) which might have held the whole or a part of the Mathura district as a feudatory of the Guptas .The Guptas emperors  Chandragupta II Vikramaditya (376-413A.D.), Kumargupta I (414-455 A.D.) , Skandagupta (455-476 A.D.) .After Skandagupta's death the dominating power of the Guptas began to crumble --the successors were weak and , particularly after Budhgupta (crica 500A.D.) ,the decline and disintigration of the empire was rapid (37).It seems that during the latter half of the 5th century the Mathura district was included in the Antravedi -vishya (Ganga-Yamuna Doab province )the governor of which towards the close of Scandagupta 's reign ,was Sharvanaga ,who was probably a scion of the old ruling family of the Nagas of Mathura and who might have made Mathura itself the headquarters of his government (38) .

About the beginning of the 6th century after having occupied the north -west frontier region and Punjab ,the Humse under their chief Toramana penetrated into Madhydesha ,advancing by way of Mathura on to Gwalior and Malwa.Mathura was at this time a prosperous city full of magnificent Brahmanical ,Jain and Buddhist temples , stupas , monasteries and other buildings which were burnt down or otherwise destroyed by these barbarous invaders who appear to have halted here for some time ,several hoards of their money having also been discovered here.This was the first of the great devastations to which the city was subjected (39).The region probably remained under the subjugation of the Hunas even after the death (circa 515A.D.) of Toramana and till his son and successor , Mihirakula (who had over run a large part of northern India extending his rule at least as far as Gwalior )was defeated and driven out from Madhyadesha about 533 A.D.by the king Yashodharman of Malwa who now appears to have held sway over this region through only far a short time (40).
The Huna invasions not only destroyed the art treasures of Mathura but proved particularly fatal to Buddhism in this region where it began to decline rapidly( 41).But Buddhist sculptures subsequent to 600A.D.are rarely known to be forthcoming from Mathura .

References--

1-History of The Rajpoot Tribes by Metclfe C.T. ,pp72-73.
2-Tod 's Rajasthan ,Vol .I.,pp.85-87.
3-Census Report of the North -Western Provinces ,for 1865 ,Vol.I.,pp.64,65.
4-Supplementry Glossary ,Vol.I.,p.129.
5-Ibid.,pp.797-804.,
6-Ibid .,
7-Conybear .,etc.,op.,fir.p.18 footnote., 8-Mahabharta ,Sabha-purva , pp.797-803 ;Bajpai ,op.cit.pp.29-42 ;Maninder and Pusalker ,op.cit.,p.298. ,
9-Ibid .,pp.296 ;Pargiter ,op.cit .,p.282 ; Mahabharta ,Sabha-purva ,ch .14;Bajpai ,op.cit.,pp.42-44.,
10-Ibid .,p.48., Pargiter ,op.cit.,p.283 ., 11-Majumdar and Pusalker ,op.cit.,p.325.,
12-Mahabharta ,Sabha-purva ,ch .31,vv.1-2.
13-Ibid .,ch.52, v.13.,
14-Ibid .,Virata-parva ,ch .5 ,v.4.,
15-Ibid ., Bhishma-parva ,ch.9,vv.29 ,52; Majumdar and pusalker ,op.cit.,p.302.,
16-Ibid.,
17-Ibid .,p297.,Mahabharata ,Bhishma-parva ,ch .18.; Drona-parva ,che.91, 93 ,141 ,157 ,161 ,; Karna-parva ,ch .47.,
18-Pargiter ,op.cit.,p.293.,
19-Agrawala ,V.S.,:India as known to Panini ,ii ed .,Varansi ,1963 .,pp.433-434 .,454 .; Mahabharta ,Adi -parva ,ch .129 ,v.10;Bajpai ,op.cit ,pp.55-58 ; Majumdar and Pusalker ,op.cit.,Vol.II ,p.12 ., Mukerjee ,op.cit.,p.67.,
20-Ibid .,pp.68 ,122 ; Majumdar and Pusalker ,op.cit.,V.I, p.315.,
21-Majumdar and Pusalker ,op.cit.,p.299 ; Pargiter ,op.cit.,p.284.
22-Ibid .,pp.285-286; Majumdar and Pusalker ,op.cit .,p.325.
23-Macdonell and Keith ,op.cit.,Vol.,II,pp.121 ., 125, 126;Bajpai ,K.D.:Mathura .p.1., 24-Majumdar and pusalker ,op.cit.,Vol.II,pp.1, 11.,
25-Ibid .; Braja Bharti .Vol.XV,No.2,p.5., 26-Majumdar and pusalker ,op.,Vol.II.,p.12., Agrawala ,V.S.: Mathura-Kala ,pp.7-8.; 27-Agrawala ,V.S.:India as known to Panini ,pp.265-467 .
28-Ibid .,p.454.,
29-Ibid .,pp.360-362.,
30-Sastri ,K.A.N.,ed :A Comprehensive History of India ,Vol.II,p.5 , Majumdar and Pusalker ,op.cit., Vol.II,p.32.,
31-Ibid ,p.61 .,Sastri ,op.cit.,p.6., 32--Shamasastry ,R (Tr):Nautilus's Arthasastra ,(Mysore ,1961 ),p.11,1407.,
  33-Ibid.,pp.422,453., 34-McOrindle ,J.W.;Ancient India as described by Magasthenes and Arrian ,(Calcutta ,1960 ),p.206 (from Indika of Arrian ).Pliny spells the name of the river as Jomanes which is nearer the correct form . cf.ibid .,pp.130 ,142.
35-Ibid .,PP. 104-105 ,108, 134;Narain ,op.cit.,PP.87,89,91 ; Allan ,op.cit.,pp.CVIII.CXVI.
36-Archaeological Survey of India ,Vol.XX.,pp.81-82.
37-Majumdar and Pusalker .Op.cit.,Vol.III,p.31; Bajpai ,op.cit.,p113.
,38-Ibid .,p.112.
39-Ibid .,p.114;Dutt and Bajpai ,op.cit.,p.391.
40-Majumdar and Pusalker ,op.cit.,pp.37-40.
41-Dutt and Bajpai ,op.cit.,p.391.

Author-Dr Dhirendra Singh Jadaun
Village-Larhota near Sasni
District-Hatharas ,Uttar Pradesh
Associate Prof in Agriculture
Shahid Captain Ripudaman Singh Govt.College ,Sawai madhopur 'Rajasthan ,322001.