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History of Mathura

Mathura During Sultanate And Mughal Regimes
A part from inscriptions and other fragmentary archaeological vestiges of its ancient glory, the first authentic contemporary record of Mathura that we find in existing literature is dates back to the year 1017 AD, when it was sacked by Mahmud of Ghazani in his ninth invasion of India. The original source of information respecting Mahmud's campaigns is the Tarikh-E-Yamini of Al Utbi, who was himself secretary to the Sultan, though he did not accompany him in his expeditions. He mentions by name neither Mathura nor Mahavan, but only describes certain localities, which have been so identified by Firishta and later historians. The place supposed to be Mahavan he calls "the Fort of Kulchand," a Raja, who (he writes) "was, not without good reason, confident in his strength, for no one had fought against him and not been defeated. He had vast territories, enormous wealth, a numerous and brave army, huge elephants, and strong forts that no enemy had been able to reduce. When he saw that the Sultan advanced against him, he drew up his army and elephants in a `deep forest' (Mahavan) ready for action. But finding every attempt to repulse the invaders fail, the beleaguered infidels at last quitted the fort and tried to cross the broad river which flowed in its rear. When some 50,000 men had been killed or drowned, Kulchand took a dagger, with which he first slew his wife and then drove it into his own body. The Sultan obtained by this victory 185 fine elephants besides other booty." In the neighbouring holy city, identified as Mathura, "he saw a building of exquisite structure, which the inhabitants declared to be the handiwork not for men but of Genii Gina, a Jain deity). The town wall was constructed of solid stone, and had opening on to the river two gates, raised on high and massive basements to protect them from the floods. On the two sides of the city were thousands of houses with idol temples attached, all the masonry and strengthened with bars of iron, and opposite them were other buildings supported on stout wooden pillars. In the middle of the city was a temple, larger and finer than the rest, to which neither painting nor description could do justice. The Sultan thus wrote respecting it: If any one wished to construct a building equal to it, he would not be able to do so without expending a hundred million dinars, and the work would occupy two hundred years, even though the most able and experienced workmen were employed.' Orders were given that all the temples should be burnt with naphtha and fire and levelled with the ground". The city was given up to plunder for twenty days. Among the spoil are said to have been five great idols of pure gold with eyes of rubies and adornments of other precious stones, together with a vast number of smaller silver images, which, when broken up, formed a load for more than a hundred camels. The total value of the spoil has been estimated at three millions of rupees, while the number of Hindus carried away into captivity exceeded 5,000.

Nizam-ud-din, Firishta, and the other Muhammedan historians take for granted that Mathura was at that time an exclusively Brahmanichal city. It is possible that such was really the case; but the original authorities leave the point open, and speak only a general term of idolaters, a name equally applicable to Buddhists. Many of the temples, after being gutted of all their valuable contents, were left standing, probably because they were too massive to admit of easy destruction. Some writers allege that the conqueror spared them on account of their exceeding beauty, founding this opinion on the eulogistic expressions employed by Mahmud in his letter to the Governor of Ghazni quoted above. It is also stated that, on his return home, he introduced the Indian style of architecture at his own capital, where he erected a splendid mosque, upon which he bestowed the name of `the Celestial Bride'. But, however much he may have admired the magnificence of Mathura, it is clear that he was influenced by other motives than admiration in sparing the fabric of the temple; for the gold and silver images, which he did not hesitate to demolish, must have been of still more excellent workmanship.
During the period of Muhammedan supremacy, the history of Mathura is almost a total blank. The natural dislike of the ruling power to be brought into close personal connection with such a centre of superstition divested the town of all political importance; while the Hindu pilgrims, who still continued to frequent its impoverished shrines, were not invited to present, as the priests were not anxious to receive, any lavish donation which would only excite the jealousy of the rival faith. Thus, while there are abundant remains of the earlier Buddhist period, there is not a single building, nor fragment of a building, which can be assigned to any year in the long interval between the invasion of Mahmud in 1017 AD and the reign of Akbar in the later half of the sixteenth century; and it is only from the day when the Jats and Marathas began to be the virtual sovereigns of the country that any continuous series of monumental records exist.
Nor can this be wondered at, since whenever the unfortunate city did attract the Emperor's notice, it became at once a mark for pillage and desecration; and the more religious are sovereign, the more thorough the persecution. Take for example the following passage from the Tarikh-i-Daudi of Abdullah (a writer in the reign of Jahangir), who is speaking of Sultan Sikandar Lodi (1488-1516 AD), one of the most able and accomplished of all the occupants of the Delhi throne: "He was so zealous a Musalman that he utterly destroyed many places of worship of the infidels, and left not a single vestige remaining of them. He entirely ruined the shrines of Mathura, that mine of heathenism, and turned their principal temples into saraes and colleges. Their stone images were given to the butchers to serve them as meat-weights, and all the Hindus in Mathura were strictly prohibited from shaving their heads and beards and performing their ablutions. He thus put an end to all the idolatrous rites of the infidels there: and no Hindu, if he wished to have his head or beard shaved, could get a barber to do it." In confirmation of the truth of this narrative, it may be observed that when the Muhammedan Governor Abd-un-Nabi, in 1661, built his great mosque as a first step towards the construction of the new city, of which he is virtually the founder, the ground which he selected for the purpose, and which was unquestionably an old temple site, but to be purchased from the butchers.

During the glorious reign of Akbar, the one bright era in the dreary annals of Imperial misrule, there was full toleration at Mathura as in all other parts of his dominions. Of this an illustration is afforded by the following incident, which is narrated by the court historian Badauni: "among the persons held in high favour at the Court was a Shaikh, by name Abd-un-Nabi who occupied the distinguished position of Sadr-us-Sadar. A complaint was made to him by Kazi Abd-ur-Rahim of Mathura that a wealthy Brahman had appropriated some materials that had been collected for the building of a mosque, and not only used them in the construction of a temple, but, when remonstrated with, had, in the presence of a crowd of people, foully abused the Prophet and all his followers. The Brahman, when summoned to answer the charge, refused to come; whereupon Ab-ul-Fazl was sent to fetch him, and on his return reported that all the people of Mathura agreed in declaring that the Brahman had used abusive language. The doctors of the law acoordingly gave it as their opinion—some that he should be put to death, others that he should be publicly disgraced and fined. The Shaikh was in favour of the capital punishment and applied to the Emperor to have the sentence confirmed; but the latter would give no definite reply to him. The Brahman meanwhile was kept in prison, the Hindu ladies of the royal household using every endeavour to get him released, while the Emperor, out of regard for the Shaikh, hesitated about yielding to them. At last Abd-un-Nabi, after failing to elicit any definite instructions, returned home and issued orders for the Brahman's execution. When the news reached the Emperor, he was very angry, and though he allowed Abd-un-Nabi to retain his post till his death, which occurred in 1583, he never took him into favour again."

Jahangir, on his accession to the throne, continued to some extent his father's policy of religious tolerance; but in the following reign of Shahjahan, we find Murshid Ali Khan, in the year 1636, made a commander of 2,000 horse, and appointed by the Emperor as Governor of Mathura and Mahavan, with express instructions to be zealous in stamping out all rebellion and idolatry. The climax of wanton destruction was, however, attained by Aurangzeb, the Oliver Cromwell of India, who, not content with demolishing the most sacred of its shrines, thought also to destroy even the ancient name of the city by substituting for it Islampur or Islamabad.
Mathura was casually connected with two important events in this Emperor's life. Here was born, in 1639, his eldest son, Muhammad Sultan, who expiated the sin of primogeniture in the Oriental fashion by ending his days in a dungeon, as one of the first acts of his father, on his accession to the throne, was to confine him in the fortress of Gwalior, where he died in 1665. In the last year of the reign of Shahjahan, Aurangzeb was again at Mathura, and here established his pretensions to the crown by compassing the death of his brother Murad. This was in 1658, a few days after the momentous battle of Samogarh, near Agra, in which the combined forces of the two princes had routed the army of the rightful heir, Dara. The conquerors encamped together at Mathura, being apparently on the most cordial and affectionate terms; and Aurangzeb, pretending that for himself he desired only some sequestered spot where, unharrased by the toils of government, he might pass his time in prayer and religious meditation, persistently addressed Murad by the royal title as the recognized successor of Shahjahan. The evening was spent at the banquet; and when the wine cup had begun to circulate freely, the pious Aurangzeb, feigning religious scruples, begged permission to retire. It would have been well for Murad had he also regarded the prohibition of the Quran. The stupor of intoxication soon overpowered him, and he was only restored to consciousness by a contemptuous kick from the foot of the brother who had just declared himself his faithful vassal. That same night the unfortunate Murad, heavily fettered, was sent a prisoner to Delhi and thrown into the fortress of Salim-garh, adjacent to Red Fort. He, too, was subsequently removed to Gwalior and there murdered.

In spite of the agreeable reminiscences which a man of Aurangzeb's temperament must have cherished in connection with a place where an act of such unnatural perfidly had been successfully accomplished, his fanaticism was not a wit mitigated in favour of the city of Mathura. In 1668, a local rebellion afforded him a fit pretext for a crusade against Hinduism. The rebel armed peasants had mustered at Sahora, a village in the Mahavan pargana, where (as we learn from the Maasiri-i-Alamgiri) the Governor Abd-un-Nabi advanced to meet them. "He was at first victorious, and succeeded in killing the ringleaders; but in the middle of the fight he was struck by a bullet, and died the death of a martyr." It was he who, in the year 1661, had founded the Jama Masjid, which still remains, and is the most conspicuous building in the city which has grown up around it. He was followed in office by Saif-Shikan Khan; but as he was not able to suppress the revolt, which began to assume formidable dimensions, he was removed at the end of the year 1669, and Hasan Ali Khan appointed Faujdar in his place. The ringleader of the disturbances, a Jat, by name Gokula, who had plundered the Sadabad pargana, and was regarded as the instrument of Abd-un-Nabi's death, fell into the hands of the new Governor's Deputy, Shaikh Razi-ud-din, and was sent to Agra and there executed. A few months earlier, in February of the same year, during the fast of Ramazan, the time when religious bigotry would be most inflamed, Aurangzeb had descended in person on Mathura. The temple specially marked out for destruction was one built so recently as in the reign of Jahangir, at a cost of thirty-three lakhs, by Bir Singh Deva, Bundel, of Orchha. Beyond all doubt this was the last of the famous shrines of Keshav Dev. To judge from the language of the author of the Maasir, its demolition was regarded as a death-blow to Hinduism. He writes in the following triumphant strain: "In a short time, with the help of numerous workmen, this seat of error was utterly broken down. Glory be to God that so difficult an undertaking has been successfully accomplished in the present auspicious reign, wherein so many dens of heathenism and idolatry have been destroyed! Seeing the power of Islam and the efficacy of true religion, the proud Rajas felt their breath burning in their throats and became as dumb as a picture on a wall. The idols, large and small alike, all adorned with costly jewels, were buried under the steps on Nawab Kudsia Begam's mosque (Jama Masjid located in front of Agra fort), so that people might trample upon them for ever." It was from this event that Mathura was called Islamabad in Islamic circle for some period. In 1707 Aurangzeb died, and shortly after began the rule of the Jats of Bharatpur. They restored the old cultural glory of Braj, the land of Lord Krishna.

The Early History of Mathura

The founding of the Mathura city is ascribed to Shatrughna, the younger brother of Rama, who attacked and killed the Demon Lavansur, the son of Madhu, who had held sway over the area. Shatrughna cleared the forest of Madhuvan and celebrated his victory by founding the city of Mathura. This name is variant of Madhura from Madhu. The building of a city by Shatrughna would suggest that Mathura began as a royal capital and later developed into a commercial centre. We are told that Shatrughna had two sons, one of whom was Shurasen and his descendants ruled Mathura. The other version mentions Shurasenas as descendants of Sura of the Vrishni clan, who in turn were part of the Yadav lineage. The Yadavas are also called Madhavas which would link them with Madhu and thus make them the original settlers of the region. The Bhagwata Purana narrates the story of Krishna as member of Andhaka-Vrishnis clan. His story starts from the episode of his birth to the eventual migration away from Mathura. Here his portrayal is that of a pastoral hero and the incarnation of divinity. The episodes thread together the topography of the region. The story does not end with the defeat of Kansa but continues to the animosity of Jarasandha, who seeks revenge. A close relative of Kansa, Jarasandh attacked Mathura. The city was subjected to eighteen campaigns before it was conquered. Ultimately the Yadavas led by Krishna fled to the south-west to Dwarka in Saurashtra. Thus the original inhabitants of Mathura were ousted by the power based in Magadh The geographical link between Saurashtra and Mathura is certainly feasible. The route from Mathura to Dwarka linked the mainland to the sea which was and still is beneficial for international trade.

The Mahabharata mentions the Shurasenas as among those who fled from Jarasandh. A statement in Manusmriti implies that the Shurasenis were good warriors. Jaina and Buddhist texts also refer to the importance of Mathura. Jaina sources describe Shurasena as one of the arya-janapadas lying to the south of the Kuru and the east of the Matsya. Its capital was at Mathura which was listed among the ten most important capitals of Janapadas. Buddhist texts list the Shurasena as one of the sixteen maha-janapadas and state that it had close links with Machchha/Matsya. The capital of the Shurasena was the city of Mathura, and was situated on the bank of Yamuna. In one Buddhist text the king of the Shurasen Janapada is called Avaniputta and is described as sympathetic to Buddhist teachings. Another post-Maurayan Buddhist text refers back to an earlier period describing Mathura as the place of residence of a famous courtesan and a city of rich traders and businessmen.
The historicity of the Shurasen is further attested by Greek and Latin writers quoting Megasthenes. Arrian writes that the God Herakles was held in special honour by the Sourasenoi–an Indian tribe which possessed two large cities, Mathura and Cleisobora and through whose country flowed a navigable river called the lobaras. Pliny writes that the river Jomanes flowed through the Palibothri into the Ganges between the towns of Methora and Calisobora. Ptolemy refers to a Modoura–the city of the Gods.
According to the popular Hindi saying Mathura occupies a unique place in the three traditional worlds (Teen lok se Mathura nyari). This saying may have been derived from the heretical character of the city in Maurya-Shung times. It was only in the later times that this place became a centre of the Krishna cult. Mathura enjoyed an important place because of the strategic and geographically advantageous position. The later importance of Mathura was derived more from its being a place of pilgrimage than from its being a centre of crafts, commerce, arts and administration.

Mathura as an Ancient Urban Centre

In the immediate neighbourhood outside the walled city, monasteries, stupas, shrines, tanks and wells were built for the use of priests, monks, devotees, travellers and the general public as suggested by inscriptional data. This was further confirmed by the travel accounts of the Chinese travelers and by an impressive brick-built complex exposed at the site of the Jaina establishment of Kankali Tila. The numerous images recovered from Mathura mounds show diversity in more than one respect bespeaking cosmopolitan (Sarvabhauma) character of ancient Mathura. Patanjali's observation regarding Mathura, namely that the natives of this city were more prosperous than those of Shankasya and Pataliputra becomes meaningful in the light of the rich haul of remains, ruins and antiquities recovered from its mounds, wells and riverbed Lastly, but not the least important, the following references about the city of Mathura are available in the Harivansha Purana:

Sa Puri paramodara satta-prakara torana
Sphita rastra-sanakirna samrddhbala-vahana
Udyana-vana sampanna susima-supratisthita
Pramsu prakara vasana parikhakula nekhala
Calattalaka keyura prasadavara kundala
Susamvrtta dvaravatfi cattvarodgarhasini
Ardhachandra pratikshasha Yamunatira shobhita
Punya-panavati durga ratna sanchaya garvita
(Harivansha Purana I chap. 55)

"The verses quoted above in praise of ancient Mathura distinctly refer to the crescent-shaped, we established, well demarcated, prosperous and cosmopolitan city of Mathura on the bank of Yamuna wit its high defences and moats as known to the authors of Harivansha-Purana."

Growth and Metamorphosis of Ancient Mathura into a Metropolis

Approachable through land routes and a navigable river (Yamuna) and situated in fairly hospitable surrounding, the locality of Mathura was from an early age a natural and convenient area for human settlement. Recent archaeological excavations have indicated development of a township from a village around Ambarish Tila (situated near the Yamuna and in the northern part of the present city). The beginning of a rural settlement around Ambarish Tila is datable to about 6th century BC. Surprisingly, the habitation at Sonkh (near Mathura) may safely be pushed back to about BC 800. Although the planned urbanization of Mathura at large scale began from 4th century BC. The great grammarian Panini (Ashtadhyayi fame) mentions Mathura in 4th century BC, hence Mathura might have been a well-known locality in his times. Panini also refers to Andhaka-Vrishni Sangha, Vasudeva Vargya (i.e. a member of the society of Vasudeva) and Vasudevaka (i.e. worshipper or a follower of Vasudeva).
Rich traders with money comparatively freely available to them could have patronized religion. For example, the Yaksha was the divinity worshiped by the merchants and traders as a caravan leader. His images were installed on the highways. The communication of Mathura's society with other parts of the sub-continent had loosened the barrier and stringency of caste system. Further, heterogeneous elements were introduced into the society of the region with the extension of the Schytho-Parthian rule to Mathura during the first century BC. Mathura, as a part of the Schytho-Parthian dominions of the north-western India, became further exposed to influences from the west. Mathura gradually became a cultural centre and a political metropolis of the Schytho-Parthian dominion in the sub-continent. It became a part of the north-west.
Mathura by the end of first century AD emerged as an important trading centre for internal and also external (Indo-Roman) trade. It began to serve as a halting station for merchants and those travelling by caravans carrying goods from Central Asia and North Indian localities to Indian ports. It was natural both for the fortune-seekers from rural areas to migrate to Mathura and thereby for Mathura to have a populous and complex society. Manu-Smriti refers to the people around Mathura as `well-skilled in fighting with bare arms'. This treatise speaks several times of the power of the Surasenas. The famous Jaina text Milinda-panha, datable to first century AD aptly included Madhura (Mathura) in its list of notable cities.

The phenomenal rise of Mathura during Kushana times is well documented in Lalitavistara, which is considered to have been in existence in the first century AD. This treatise refers to the city of Mathura like thus: `Which is prosperous, and large and beneficial, and (a place where) alms are easily obtainable and which is abounding in men' (Iyam Mathura Nagari riddha cha, sphita cha, Kshema cha, subhiksha chakirna bahujanarnanvasya cha). After Kushanas, Mathura's economic power started declining. However, the school of Mathura art continued to flourish as there were demands for their products from outside. Mathura also maintained its position as a great religious centre. It could have still served as an emporium for internal trade. Outside elements had played great role in the growth of Mathura into an important centre of trade and industry. Frenetic socio-economic activities accentuated its transformation into an important city of a vast empire—a metropolitan of the orient. Barriers of thoughts, language, and religion had lost their significance in that microcosm of the ancient Mathura due to freedom of movement in a large territory and consequent growth of commerce. Even geographically and ethnically unrelated groups found themselves rubbing shoulders and in a position to influence one another. One such group had been formed by the people of Mathura. Their contribution enriched the mosaic of oriental culture.

Daily Life in Ancient Mathura

We get an idea of daily life in ancient Mathura from various statues, tablets and stone inscriptions. Women used to adorn themselves profusely. Elaborate headdresses, turbans, makeup, skirts, tops, gowns, short tunics and heavy jewellery prove that not only women were respected in the society but they also freely flaunted their wealth and body. From donative inscriptions we can derive some idea of the vocations followed by many of the residents of ancient Mathura. A good number of donors of Buddhist structures were bhikshus (monks), shishyas (pupils), shishyani (female pupils), shrarnan (ascetic), priest (devakulika) etc. Even gandhikas (perfumers), shresthin (merchants or bankers), suvarnakara (goldsmiths), rayagini (dyer) and cotton-dealers find mention as donors to Buddhist and Jain shrines. Entertainers of various types also were followers of the faiths: actors, dancers (natakkars) and courtesans (ganikas) were also donors. From the epigraphic data, we see that Buddhist and Jaina religious establishments in Mathura were supported by people who followed a wide range of professions from mighty generals to humble smiths. The presence of the lower professions among the donor rolls suggests a high level of prosperity in the area. The economic position of craftsmen was strengthened by the various guilds, which were known to have had considerable power and influence in the traditional economic system.

Mathura- a Nodal Point of Transit Trade

Literary and archaeological evidence reveals a phenomenal transformation in the fortunes of Mathura an' its environs from the age of the Buddha, when it suffered from bad roads, dust storms, infestations o fierce dogs and bestial Yakshas and niggardliness in alms-giving to the period, between the second century BC and the third century AD, when it attained the position of a leading metropolis `rising beautiful the crescent moon over the dark streams of the Yamuna' and celebrated for its magnificence, prosperity munificence and teeming population. In the latter stages Mathura became a great centre of power, trade, and commerce, religious and cultural movements, aesthetic excellence and artistic creativity. Its zenith attained under the Kushanas, when Mathura served as one of their principal capitals and the chief stronghold for the expansion and control of their territorial possessions in the mainland India.
The rise of Mathura was due to its strategic geographical location and network of communications The city commanded the gateway to the rich alluvial Ganga plain, to the central and southern India, an' to the flourishing ports of the western seaboard. It traditionally had served as the focus for the ethnic' migrations from the north-west and as a conduit for their further movements to the south and west. I nodality was evidenced in its linkages to the principal sub-continental highway system: the Uttarapatha (Northern or Northwestern highway) and the Dakshinapatha (Southern Route). Mathura was a strategic vulnerable outpost of the central Ganga based power system. Inevitably, the north-western invaders, Greeks, Shakas and Kushanas gravitated towards it in their drives for conquest of territories and control trade routes of northern India. Its metropolitan character developed the trade routes of Mathura. Regional nodal linkages led it to other smaller- and lesser-known towns. Mathura exerted an integrative effets on the whole of Shurasena region and its neighbouring territories. These routes also served as arteries for commerce as well as pilgrimage and cultural missions. The developing institutional structures of urban economy characterized by local professional, industrial and mercantile guilds and institutions 1' Sresthin (the business-magnate-cum-banker) and Sarthavaha (the caravan-leader) made Mathura a great economic hub. All these factors contributed to Mathura's transformation from a regional metropolis into subcontinental pivot of trade and communication. The coinage of the Shungas, local rulers, and the Kushana promoted economic exchange both within and beyond Mathura region.

Ancient Sites at Mathura

At present there is no important ancient temple, stupa or monastery at Mathura. Only till recently there were mounds throughout the region. Many of the sculptures or carved stone pieces unearthed from these mounds hear inscriptions, which often record the names of the monasteries and temples. Presuming that after the demolition of a particular temple or stupa many of the sculptures originally housed therein continued to lie on that very site for centuries altogether, or remained buried under the debries, the provenance of a sculpture may he accepted as a place, where it was originally installed. Working on the above lines the following would be the tentative identification of some of the ancient sites at Mathura.

Jain Establishment	Sites/Places
Vodva Stupa	Kankali Tila
Buddhist Establishments
Yasa Vihara	Katra Keshavdev
Stupa	Katra Keshavdev
Vihara of Amohassi	Katra Keshavdev
Another Stupa	Jail/Jamalpur Mound
Huviska Vihara	Jail/Jamalpur Mound
Sri Kunda Vihara	near Huviska Vihara Saptarishi Tila
Guha Vihara	Bharatpur Gate
Apanaka Vihara	Maholi Mound
Khanda Vihara	Madhuvan, Maholi
Pravaraka Vihara	Near Kans Khar
Kraustukiya Vihara	Mata-ki-Gali
Chutaka Vihara	Jamuna-bagh
Svarnakara Vihara	Sadar Baazar
Rausika Vihara	Ancient Alika, possibly modern Aring in Mathura district
Shri Vihara	Gaughat
Madhuravanaka Stupa	Chaubara Mound
Vihara of Dharma-hastika	Village Naugava, about 7.25 Km, south west of Mathura
Vihara of the Mahasanghika School	Palikhera
Vihara of Pusyada	Sonkh
Ladyaskka Vihara	Mandi Ramdas
Chaitya-kuti of the wife of Dharmaka	Mathura Junction
Uttara Hausa Vihara	Anyor, near Govardhan
Brahmanical Sites
Chatussala temple of Vasudeva	Katra Kesavadeva
Vaisnava temple of Gupta times	Katra Kesavadeva
Temples of Kapileswara and Upamitesvara	near Rangeshwar Mahadev
Sacrificial Ground	Ishapur across Yamuna
Temple of Dadhikarna Naga	Jail/Jamalpur Tila
Temple of Panchviras of Vrisnis	Village Mora
Tank of Senahasti and Bhondika	Chhadgaon, south of Mathura city

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 '''Mathura During  Sultanate And Mughal Regimes'''<br />
-A part from inscriptions and other fragmentary archaeological vestiges of its ancient glory, the first authentic contemporary record of Mathura that we find in existing literature is dates back to the year 1017 AD, when it was sacked by Mahmud of Ghazani in his ninth invasion of India. The original source of information respecting Mahmud's campaigns is the Tarikh-E-Yamini of Al Utbi, who was himself secretary to the Sultan, though he did not accompany him in his expeditions. He mentions by name neither Mathura nor Mahavan, but only describes certain localities, which have been so identified by Firishta and later historians. The place supposed to be Mahavan he calls "the Fort of Kulchand," a Raja, who (he writes) "was, not without good reason, confident in his strength, for no one had fought against him and not been defeated. He had vast territories, enormous wealth, a numerous and brave army, huge elephants, and strong forts that no enemy had been able to reduce. When he saw that the Sultan advanced against him, he drew up his army and elephants in a `deep forest' (Mahavan) ready for action. But finding every attempt to repulse the invaders fail, the beleaguered infidels at last quitted the fort and tried to cross the broad river which flowed in its rear. When some 50,000 men had been killed or drowned, Kulchand took a dagger, with which he first slew his wife and then drove it into his own body. The Sultan obtained by this victory 185 fine elephants besides other booty." In the neighbouring holy city, identified as Mathura, "he saw a building of exquisite structure, which the inhabitants declared to be the handiwork not for men but of Genii Gina, a Jain deity). The town wall was constructed of solid stone, and had opening on to the river two gates, raised on high and massive basements to protect them from the floods. On the two sides of the city were thousands of houses with idol temples attached, all the masonry and strengthened with bars of iron, and opposite them were other buildings supported on stout wooden pillars. In the middle of the city was a temple, larger and finer than the rest, to which neither painting nor description could do justice. The Sultan thus wrote respecting it: If any one wished to construct a building equal to it, he would not be able to do so without expending a hundred million dinars, and the work would occupy two hundred years, even though the most able and experienced workmen were employed.' Orders were given that all the temples should be burnt with naphtha and fire and levelled with the ground". The city was given up to plunder for twenty days. Among the spoil are said to have been five great idols of pure gold with eyes of rubies and adornments of other precious stones, together with a vast number of smaller silver images, which, when broken up, formed a load for more than a hundred camels. The total value of the spoil has been estimated at three millions of rupees, while the number of Hindus carried away into captivity exceeded 5,000.<br />
+A part from inscriptions and other fragmentary archaeological vestiges of its ancient glory, the first authentic contemporary record of Mathura that we find in existing literature is dates back to the year 1017 AD, when it was sacked by Mahmud of Ghazani in his ninth invasion of India. The original source of information respecting Mahmud's campaigns is the Tarikh-E-Yamini of Al Utbi, who was himself secretary to the Sultan, though he did not accompany him in his expeditions. He mentions by name neither Mathura nor Mahavan, but only describes certain localities, which have been so identified by Firishta and later historians. The place supposed to be Mahavan he calls "the Fort of Kulchand," a Raja, who (he writes) "was, not without good reason, confident in his strength, for no one had fought against him and not been defeated. He had vast territories, enormous wealth, a numerous and brave army, huge elephants, and strong forts that no enemy had been able to reduce. When he saw that the Sultan advanced against him, he drew up his army and elephants in a `deep forest' ([[Mahavan]]) ready for action. But finding every attempt to repulse the invaders fail, the beleaguered infidels at last quitted the fort and tried to cross the broad river which flowed in its rear. When some 50,000 men had been killed or drowned, Kulchand took a dagger, with which he first slew his wife and then drove it into his own body. The Sultan obtained by this victory 185 fine elephants besides other booty." In the neighbouring holy city, identified as Mathura, "he saw a building of exquisite structure, which the inhabitants declared to be the handiwork not for men but of Genii Gina, a Jain deity). The town wall was constructed of solid stone, and had opening on to the river two gates, raised on high and massive basements to protect them from the floods. On the two sides of the city were thousands of houses with idol temples attached, all the masonry and strengthened with bars of iron, and opposite them were other buildings supported on stout wooden pillars. In the middle of the city was a temple, larger and finer than the rest, to which neither painting nor description could do justice. The Sultan thus wrote respecting it: If any one wished to construct a building equal to it, he would not be able to do so without expending a hundred million dinars, and the work would occupy two hundred years, even though the most able and experienced workmen were employed.' Orders were given that all the temples should be burnt with naphtha and fire and levelled with the ground". The city was given up to plunder for twenty days. Among the spoil are said to have been five great idols of pure gold with eyes of rubies and adornments of other precious stones, together with a vast number of smaller silver images, which, when broken up, formed a load for more than a hundred camels. The total value of the spoil has been estimated at three millions of rupees, while the number of Hindus carried away into captivity exceeded 5,000.
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 Nizam-ud-din, Firishta, and the other Muhammedan historians take for granted that Mathura was at that time an exclusively Brahmanichal city. It is possible that such was really the case; but the original authorities leave the point open, and speak only a general term of idolaters, a name equally applicable to Buddhists. Many of the temples, after being gutted of all their valuable contents, were left standing, probably because they were too massive to admit of easy destruction. Some writers allege that the conqueror spared them on account of their exceeding beauty, founding this opinion on the eulogistic expressions employed by Mahmud in his letter to the Governor of Ghazni quoted above. It is also stated that, on his return home, he introduced the Indian style of architecture at his own capital, where he erected a splendid mosque, upon which he bestowed the name of `the Celestial Bride'. But, however much he may have admired the magnificence of Mathura, it is clear that he was influenced by other motives than admiration in sparing the fabric of the temple; for the gold and silver images, which he did not hesitate to demolish, must have been of still more excellent workmanship.<br />
 During the period of Muhammedan supremacy, the history of Mathura is almost a total blank. The natural dislike of the ruling power to be brought into close personal connection with such a centre of superstition divested the town of all political importance; while the Hindu pilgrims, who still continued to frequent its impoverished shrines, were not invited to present, as the priests were not anxious to receive, any lavish donation which would only excite the jealousy of the rival faith. Thus, while there are abundant remains of the earlier Buddhist period, there is not a single building, nor fragment of a building, which can be assigned to any year in the long interval between the invasion of Mahmud in 1017 AD and the reign of Akbar in the later half of the sixteenth century; and it is only from the day when the Jats and Marathas began to be the virtual sovereigns of the country that any continuous series of monumental records exist.<br />
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 During the glorious reign of [[Akbar]], the one bright era in the dreary annals of Imperial misrule, there was full toleration at Mathura as in all other parts of his dominions. Of this an illustration is afforded by the following incident, which is narrated by the court historian Badauni: "among the persons held in high favour at the Court was a Shaikh, by name Abd-un-Nabi who occupied the distinguished position of Sadr-us-Sadar. A complaint was made to him by Kazi Abd-ur-Rahim of Mathura that a wealthy Brahman had appropriated some materials that had been collected for the building of a mosque, and not only used them in the construction of a temple, but, when remonstrated with, had, in the presence of a crowd of people, foully abused the Prophet and all his followers. The Brahman, when summoned to answer the charge, refused to come; whereupon Ab-ul-Fazl was sent to fetch him, and on his return reported that all the people of Mathura agreed in declaring that the Brahman had used abusive language. The doctors of the law acoordingly gave it as their opinion—some that he should be put to death, others that he should be publicly disgraced and fined. The Shaikh was in favour of the capital punishment and applied to the Emperor to have the sentence confirmed; but the latter would give no definite reply to him. The Brahman meanwhile was kept in prison, the Hindu ladies of the royal household using every endeavour to get him released, while the Emperor, out of regard for the Shaikh, hesitated about yielding to them. At last Abd-un-Nabi, after failing to elicit any definite instructions, returned home and issued orders for the Brahman's execution. When the news reached the Emperor, he was very angry, and though he allowed Abd-un-Nabi to retain his post till his death, which occurred in 1583, he never took him into favour again."
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 Jahangir, on his accession to the throne, continued to some extent his father's policy of religious tolerance; but in the following reign of Shahjahan, we find Murshid Ali Khan, in the year 1636, made a commander of 2,000 horse, and appointed by the Emperor as Governor of Mathura and Mahavan, with express instructions to be zealous in stamping out all rebellion and idolatry. The climax of wanton destruction was, however, attained by Aurangzeb, the Oliver Cromwell of India, who, not content with demolishing the most sacred of its shrines, thought also to destroy even the ancient name of the city by substituting for it Islampur or Islamabad.<br />
 Mathura was casually connected with two important events in this Emperor's life. Here was born, in 1639, his eldest son, Muhammad Sultan, who expiated the sin of primogeniture in the Oriental fashion by ending his days in a dungeon, as one of the first acts of his father, on his accession to the throne, was to confine him in the fortress of Gwalior, where he died in 1665. In the last year of the reign of Shahjahan, Aurangzeb was again at Mathura, and here established his pretensions to the crown by compassing the death of his brother Murad. This was in 1658, a few days after the momentous battle of Samogarh, near [[Agra]], in which the combined forces of the two princes had routed the army of the rightful heir, Dara. The conquerors encamped together at Mathura, being apparently on the most cordial and affectionate terms; and Aurangzeb, pretending that for himself he desired only some sequestered spot where, unharrased by the toils of government, he might pass his time in prayer and religious meditation, persistently addressed Murad by the royal title as the recognized successor of Shahjahan. The evening was spent at the banquet; and when the wine cup had begun to circulate freely, the pious Aurangzeb, feigning religious scruples, begged permission to retire. It would have been well for Murad had he also regarded the prohibition of the Quran. The stupor of intoxication soon overpowered him, and he was only restored to consciousness by a contemptuous kick from the foot of the brother who had just declared himself his faithful vassal. That same night the unfortunate Murad, heavily fettered, was sent a prisoner to Delhi and thrown into the fortress of Salim-garh, adjacent to Red Fort. He, too, was subsequently removed to Gwalior and there murdered.