The Lost Grandeur of Vidiśā: Ancient India’s Epicenter of Dharma, Trade, and Empires

Illustration of the ancient city of Vidisha

Note

The following essay has been adapted from Sri B.C. Law’s in-depth, scholarly study of the history of Vidiśā published in the 1952 edition of the Journal of the Ganganath Jha Research Institute. The full list of references are provided in that study.

Introduction

Vidiśā is not a city but an expression of Sanatana Dharma’s eternity, immortalised by Kavikulaguru Kālidāsa in his Meghadūta. It was also known as Vaiśyanagar from which it derived its older name, Besnagar; its inhabitants were known as the Vaidisās. Our sacred lore and Kavya corpus has celebrated its glory throughout the centuries in vivid and evocative prose and verse. It is located at the fork of the Vidiśā (Bes) and the Vetravatī (Betwa) rivers.

According to Srimad Rāmāyaṇa (Uttarakāṇḍa, Ch. 121), the city was bestowed upon Śatrughna by Sri Rāmachandra. The Garuḍapurāṇa describes Vidiśā as a city abounding with wealth and happiness (sarvasampatsamanvitam). It was home to various janapadās (nānājanapadākīrṇam), jewels (nānāratnasamākulam), opulent mansions and palaces and was teeming with prosperity and grandeur (śobhāḍhyam). It was an hub of several Dharmas (nānādharmasamanvitam), sects and schools.

On the eve of Independence, Vidiśā was known as Besnagar; it was a ruined city, part of the former Princely State of Bhopal whose official religion was Islam and whose state motto was Nasr min Allah: Victory from Allah. At various points in history, Vidiśā had been administered by the Gwalior State as well.

When we investigate the Puranic and Buddhist literature, several interesting facts emerge. Also known as Vaidīśa, the city was located on the banks of the river Vidiśā which originated in the Pāripātra mountain. The Mahābodhivaṃsa tells us that it lay at a distance of fifty yojanas from Pāṭaliputra.

According to the Samantapāsādikā, the Pali commentary on the Vinaya-pitaka, the route from Pāṭaliputra to Ujjayinī passed through Vidisa. Vidiśā was also a major commercial and sacred centre of the Avanti-Desha, modern Ujjain. The Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa mentions Vidiśā as one of the Aparānta (western) borders of Avanti. It also mentions Vidiśā and Vetravatī among other rivers originating in the Pāripātra mountain.

Vidiśā was one of the great cities included in the dominions of Puṣyamitra, the founder and the greatest monarch of the Śuṅga dynasty. In fact, it displaced the primacy of Ujjayinī as his gubernatorial headquarters, a status it held till the end of the Śuṅga Empire. At other periods in history, Vidiśā served as the capital of Eastern Malwa.

The Fabled Daśārṇa-Desha

Kalidasa’s Meghadūta (verses: 25-26) mentions Vidiśā as the capital of the Daśārṇa-Desha which in turn, was one of the Sixteen Janapadas of Jambudvīpa. The Daśārṇas have an honourable role in the Mahābhārata. Their heroic army fought in the Kurukshetra War as allies of the Pāṇḍavas and occupied the site on the river Daśārṇa; this is the modern Dhasan river originating in the Begumganj tehsil in the Raisen district in Madhya Pradesh. It flows through the Bundelkhand region of both Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh before emptying into the Betwa river.

From the Vindhyapāda, Kalidasa’s cloud messenger embarks on a journey to the Daśārṇa-Desha. The Kavikulaguru wields his poetic brush to paint a fantastic panorama of this Desha:

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…the Dasharna country will have the hedges of its gardens coloured white with the Ketaka flowers opened at their apexes; the sacred trees of its villages will be disturbed by the nest-making of the domestic birds; the Jambu forests that skirt this country will be dark with their ripe fruit; swans will halt there for some days. O Cloud, when you reach its capital Vidisha, famed throughout all lands, you will immediately obtain the entire fruit of your lovemaking since you will drink the sweet water of Vetravati with its undulating ripples, its face full of the knitting of eyebrows, in a charming manner on account of your thundering on the borders of its banks.

In the ancient times, there were two countries named Daśārṇa: the western Daśārṇa that included eastern Malwa and the kingdom of Bhopal, and the eastern Daśārṇa which belonged to Chhattisgarh. Vidiśā was also one among many small Yadava kingdoms.

The temple of Bhailaswāmī (Surya) which was situated on the banks of Vetravatī at Bhilsa was one of the great pilgrimage centres before the Turushkas razed it to the ground. Vidiśā is ten kilometres from the renowned Sāñchī. This opens up a related chapter. Three inscribed labels on the railing of the Sāñchī Stūpa I inform us of a village named Kārpāsigrāma in the vicinity of Vidiśā; as the name indicates, it was a thriving centre of cotton production and trade.

Primacy

Vidiśā was transformed into a flourishing nucleus of Bauddha Dharma during Ashoka’s regime. He recognised its centrality and made it one of his capitals. It lay exactly in the middle of the line of communication between the western and eastern seaports. It was also the halting place on the route that led to Dakṣiṇāpatha.

At its peak in ancient India, Vidiśā was fabled for ivory work. One of the sculptures at Sāñchī was chiselled by the ivory-workers of Vidiśā. The Periplus mentions that Dosarene (Daśārṇa) gave its name to a species of ivory made in Vidiśā; Greek maritime traders referred to it as Dosarenic. Vidiśā was also famous for sharp-edged swords.

A Melting Pot of Darshanas

Bāvari, a renowned Brahmana Acharya visited Vidiśā with his sixteen brahmin pupils. The Skanda Purāṇa refers to Vidiśā as a tirtha, which should be mandatorily visited after visiting Somanatha.

During the Buddhist period, Vidiśā and Sanchi abounded with Buddhist structures. Scholar and historian B.C. Law gives us a rather extensive list along with their legends and donors.

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There were 18 donors belonging to Vidiśā who contributed substantially towards the construction of Buddhist religious edifices at Bhilsa. In the Bharhut Stūpa the votive label on the Pillar No. 1 shows that it was the gift of Cāpādevī, wife of Revatimitra, a lady from Vidiśā. There are also references to the gift of Vāsiṣṭhī, the wife of Veṇimitra from Vidiśā; the gift of Phagudeva from Vidiśā; the gift of Anurādhā from Vidiśā; the gift of Āryamā from Vidiśā; and the gift of Bhūtarakṣita from Vidiśā. The Nīlakaṇṭheśvara temple at Udayapur in Bhilsa has been referred to in the Udayapura praśasti which is engraved on a slab of stone. The Vedisagirimahāvihāra which is said to have been built by Aśoka’s wife Devī for the residence of her son, was probably the first Buddhist religious foundation which was followed by the erection of Stūpas at Sāñchī, five and a half miles south-west from Bhilsa. Mahinda the son of Aśoka by Devī stayed in this monastery for a month. He came here to see his mother who welcomed her dear son and fed him with food prepared by herself. He went to Ceylon from the Vedisa mountain. Vedisa also contained a monastery called Hatthālhakārāma.

The Profound Heliodorus Pillar

In 1877, Alexander Cunningham chanced upon an ancient stone pillar fully smeared with Kumkum in Besnagar, about six kilometres from Vidiśā. The local villagers used to worship it as Khambha Baba. Little did Cunningham know that it was the sacred Stambha erected by the Greek ambassador Heliodoros – son of Dion – who embraced the Vaishnava Pantha and became a Bhagavata. He arrived at the court of the Śuṅga king, Bhāgabhadra ruling Vidiśā around 108-113 BCE. He inscribed some of the profound teachings of the Vaishnava Pantha on the pillar, which is surmounted by the Vigraha of Garuda and dedicated it to Krishna-Vasudeva. Heliodorus had visited Vidiśā as a Greek envoy and became a devout Sanatani; this is one of the most profound instances of how “conversion” into Sanatana Dharma occurred in ancient India.

Political History

The Mahābodhivaṃsa tells us that the Śākyas took refuge at Vidiśā to escape the terrible vengeance of the Kosala king, Viḍūḍabha.

The aforementioned Heliodorus Inscription by itself is a first-hand testimony to the diplomatic relations that existed between Antialcidas, the Greek Satrap of Takshashila and the Śuṅga king of Vidiśā.

The city’s history is intertwined with the Śuṅga dynasty for which a wealth of inscriptional and literary evidence exists. The aforementioned Bhāgabhadra, the king of Vidiśā, is specifically named as Kāśīputra Bhāgabhadra in inscriptions, indicating that his mother was from Kāśī. The Śuṅgas originally ruled as feudatories of the Mauryas at Vidiśā. Both Puṣyamitra and Agnimitra belonged to Vidiśā.

According to Puranic lore, when the Śuṅga dynasty ended, a king named Śiśunandi took over the reins of Vidiśā. The Kāṇvas who succeeded the Śuṅgas have left behind their imprint on Vidiśā in the form of coins and inscriptions.

Mahakavi Kalidasa’s Raghuvamśa informs us that the two sons of Śatrughna named Śatrughātin and Subāhu, were respectively made the governors of Mathurā and Vidiśā. Indeed, in his celebrated drama, Mālavikāgnimitra, the hero Agnimitra is the king of Vidiśā.

The Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa narrates the story of a svayaṃvara at Vidiśā, which escalated into a military conflict. Its central actors were Avīkṣit, the son of Karandhama (who was the king of Vaiśālī) and Vishala, the monarch of Vidiśā. Avīkṣit was captured in the war and was rescued by Karandhama.

When we fast forward to the Gupta Era, we find that Vidiśā was the capital before Chandragupta II moved it to Ujjayinī.

Vidiśā Coinage

From the ancient times, Vidiśā boasted of a rich heritage of coinage. The copper kārṣāpaṇa was the standard currency even before the Mauryan Empire was established; this standard endured continuously till the start of the Gupta Era – for more than 600 years.

B.C. Law supplies us with rather eye-opening details:

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Punch-marked coins were found at Besnagar (ancient Vidiśā) which had its own individual marks on its coinage. They contained strata reaching down to the 4th century A.D. The kārṣāpaṇas found at Besnagar seem to have been struck on river bank. A zig-zag sign appears on them denoting a river bank. Dr. Bhandarkar opines that owing to the enhancement of the price of copper the weight of copper kārṣāpaṇas was reduced at some periods in the ancient town of Vidiśā.

In reality, this essay has opened only a few niches into the glorious history of Vidiśā, which like all such ancient cities, is in a rather pathetic condition. One wonders when Hindus will wake up from their Dīrghatamas – prolonged stupor.

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