Mede and Madra

B y H a e i t K e i s h n a D e b .

The Medes, when they first appear in history, naniely, in Assyrian records of the 9th century B.C., are designated Amadai, no doubt because in their country flowed the river known as Amordus to classical geographers, conformably to a common Iranian custom of naming a people after a river.^ Later, they are referred to as Madai, wath the prosthetic a left out, a process to which we have many Iranian analogies. Mela Pomponius (1st cent. A.D.) mentions the Amardi as a nation near the Caspian Sea. Clearly, therefore, there was an r-element in the name which we have not found in Assyrian renderings ; and we should take the Assyrian 3Iadai as equivalent to Ma{r)dit, wMch is sufficiently near to Sanskrit Madra to Justify enquiry as to whether they can be identified. For the early history of the Medes, the leading literary authority is Herodotus (I. 95 ff.). His account describes the Medes as revolting from Assyrian domination about 1700 B.C. when they “dwelt in scattered villages without any central authority.” There was a judge in every village; but every judge was not as just in his judgments as Deioces who managed so to increase his reputation as an upright man that he was soon chosen by his neighbouring villages chief arbiter in their disputes. Deioces, when he felt himself indispensable, withdrew from his position whereupon lawlessness prevailed. With a view to end the state of “ anarchy, ” the Medes assembled from all quarters and elected Deioces as their king. His son Phraortes succeeded him and extended Median rule over Persia but perished in an attempt to conquer the Assyrians who, although now" possessing a shrunken territory with no allies, w'ere internally as flourishing as ever, with their headquarters at Nineveh. After Phraortes came Cyaxares who was of a still more warlike disposition. He engaged in war with Lydia but w^as overawed by a solar eclipse to conclude peace.^ He was called back from his first campaign against Nineveh by a great Scytho-Cimmerian invasion against which, however, he could not hold his own. For 28 years, out of the 40 assigned to his reign, the Scythians dominated Asia, till at length he got rid of them by a treacherous trick and not only recovered his lost dominions but extended his empire and destroyed Nineveh.

^ e,g. India (Hapta-Hindu); Margiana, etc. ~ Identified with that foretold by Thales (28th May 585 B.C.). The accuracy of this account is tested by some inscriptions. That Cyaxares, and not Deioces, was the real founder of the Median monarchy is proved by the fact that, in the time of Darius, as attested by his Bahistan inscr. (col. 2), a Median usurper Fravartes, as well as a Sagartian usurper Chitratakhma, pretended to be the offspring of Cyaxares (Uvakhshatra). The historicity of Deioces is proved by a reference which Sargon makes to Dayukku, a Median chief whom Sargon claims to have deported to Syria (713 B.C.)’ Sargon’s inscrs, further confirm, Hdt.’s assertion that the Medes at that time “ lived, like the Greeks, in small states, each of which obeyed a ‘city lord’ of its own.” ^ Deioces’ position apparently was due to his reputation for honesty, as related by Hdt. ; so that virtue must have been regarded by these Median city states as the primary qualification for office. Phraortes seems to have been. like Deioces, nothing more than a republican head; and Hdt.’s statement regard­ ing the occasion of his death, which must be placed towards the close of the reign of Assurbanipal, although incapable of direct verification owing to paucity of epigraphic records of the period, is indirectly corroborated by what we know of the splendour of Nineveh at that period. Sargon and his successors down to Assurbanipal represent the Medes as tributary to them ; and, w'hen they withheld their “ tributes, ” they w'ere regarded as “ rebels. ” We must remem­ ber however that, in their inscriptions, the Assyrians are noto­ riously prone to magnify their o^vn achievements; and what we find denominated “ tribute” may have been merely some payment for freedom from molestation. The Medes who joined hands with Cimmerians and other tribes against Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal were, to all appearance, independent and could be reckoned as rebels onh" from the standpoint of Assyrian vanity. They presently became rulers; for, as epigraphic testimony indicates, Cyaxares destroyed Nineveh in 606 B.C. and established the Median monarchy. The monarchy, how­ ever, was short-lived. Astyages, son of C^^axares, w'as the last of the race and was supplanted by Cyrus about 550 B.C.^ There is a controversy as to the propriety of apphdng the designation Mada to the Median kings who are designat­ ed Manda bj^ Nabonidus. Prof. Sayce believes that the Man- das were different from the Madas, the former being monarchical and the latter republican in their constitution.® Prof. Meyer takes the Mandas to be a nomadic Median tribe in the desert. The controversy need not detain us. It is enough for our pur-

1 The quotation is from Sayce. 2 Cf. Meyer’« arts. ‘Media,’ ‘Persia.’ ‘Cyaxares’ in Encyclo. Britt. (11th edition.) 3 Probably, Mada (of Darius) and Manda (of Nabonidus) are side- forms of an original Marda (= “ the right,” in Medic) through the form Maddu; see Bertin, Cuneiform Inscriptions, pp. 28, 82. pose if we know that from Deioces to Cyaxares(c, 700-625 B.C.) the Medes, i.e. Ma(r)das hved under a repubhcan government. Arrian states in his Indica (1.1-3) that “the Indians bet­ ween the rivers Indus and Cophen (Kabul) were in ancient times subject to the Assyrians, afterwards to the Medes, and finally submitted to the Persians and paid to Cyrus ^ the son of Camby- ses, the tribute that he imposed on them.” Prof. Jackson ^ has brought forward corroborative evidence so far as Cyrus’ domini­ on over this region is concerned. It will therefore be hardly a hazard to take Arrian's assertion on trust so far also as it makes the same region subject to the Medes before the Persians and subject to the Assyrians before the Medes. And, since the Medes established themselves by revolting from Assyria, Median rule over this area may beheld to have begun about 700 B.C. Let us turn now to the Indian evidence concerning the Mad­ ras. Our earliest references to the tribe occur in the latter portion of the Aitareya Brahmana and in the BrhadaranyakaUpanisad- texts assigned by Vedic specialists to the period 700-600 B.C.- In the Ait. Br. (VIII.14) five forms of earthly government are des­ cribed as obtaining in five different localities; and it is stated that, in the north, beyond the Himalayas, dwell the Xorthern Kurus and the Northern Madras among whom the “ peoples” (/anapacZs^) are consecrated to rulership, the form of government being denominated vairajya, whereas in every othei' region the “ kings ” (rdjmmh) are spoken of as being so consecrated. The enu­ meration being strictly symmetrical, the employment of the w ord janapada for raja must signify, as was first pointed out by Mar­ tin Haug,® that vairajya was a kind of jion-nionarchical govern­ ment. This inference is borne out by a passage* in theKauti- liya Arthasastra (V1IT.2) wherein is cited the opinion of ])re- Mauryan political thinkers favouring vairajya, on account of its dependence on popular approval and a consequent liability to enjoyment by rulers and ruled alike. Kautilya, of course, mon­ archist as he is, disapproves of this form of government and pic­ tures the miseries of a people living under vairajya, no doubt of a degenerate variety. Etymologically, the term has been ex­ plained variously. Sayana, commenting on the Ait. Br. text, ex­ plains it in one place as visesena rdjatvam, and in another place as ilarebhyo bhujpatibhyo vaiHstyam. Martin Haug, K. P. Jayaswal and R. C. Majumdar ^ equate it with “ kingless government.’' R. Shamasastri® takes it to mean “foreign rule” If however we look to Vedic uses of vi-raj, we get at its primary meaning, “ to shine, to be illustrious” That this meaning is appro­ priate to the text w'e are discussing ® follows from Rigveda, 1, 188,

1 Cambridge Hist, of India, p. 332. 2 Ibid, pp. 113, 149, 697. 3 Transl. Ait. Br., p. 518. * The passage is found first in Shamasastris 2nd ed. of the K.A. (1919): vairajyamtu prakrticittagrahanapehsi yathasthitam anyair bhujyate. ® Corporate Life in Anc. India, p. 89. ® TransL, K.A. 4-6: pracinam barhir ojasa sahasravlram astrnan j yatraditya virajatka\\ (4) .virat sanirad bibhvlh prabhvir bahvis ca bhu- yasis ca yah | duro ghrtany aksaran |j (5) surukme he supe- sasadhi sriya virajatah \ usasaveha sidatah j| (6) Here we find the terms virat, samrat, etc., associated with vi-raj denoting to shine, to be illustrious ” ; and the same meaning should be ap­ plicable to the text of the Rigvedic Ait. Br. (VIII) wherein virat, samrat. etc., are spoken of together, and the form of gov­ ernment pertaining to the virat receives the designation vairajya. Vairajya, therefore, denotes primarily a form of government in which the ruling element rules by reason of its shining or illustrious character - an aristocracy, as the earlier Greek philo­ sophers would call i t ; the authority, however, was ultimately derived from the janapacki- or the body of the people ; and this representative or universal character of the rule finds its ana­ logue in the parallel conception of the All-pervading Universal Virat figuring in the famous purusa-sukta (Rigveda, X, 90). The Northern Madras, therefore, lived about 700 B.C. under a republican form of government like what we find prevailing among the Medes or Ma(r)das about the same time. The location of these Madras “ beyond the Himalayas ” agrees ex­ actly with Arrian’s location of the Medes “ between the rivers Indus and Kabul ” for the Himalayas terminate here on the other side of the Indus. Sufficient as these indications may appear for the identi­ fication of Mede with Madra, they may be supplemented by what we know of their religion and philosophy. In the Brha- daranyaka Upanisad (III, 7), Uddalaka Aruni is represented as going to the house of Patancala Kap5’a in the land of the Madras in order to study sacrifice ; and in a story given in the Sankhayana Srauta Sutra (XVI, 27, 6), ^vetaketu, son of Udda laka, reproaches his father for his excessive devotion to sacrifice, to the detriment of his own interests. Uddalaka replies, forbid­ ding his son to speak like th at; for he had learnt the true method of sacrifice which it was his ambition to discuss with every Brah­ min by caste {brahmabandhu).^ The Madras, therefore, were considered adepts at sacrifice ; and Uddalaka’s reference to ‘ Brahmins by caste ’ seems to indicate that sacrificial ceremonies were at a low ebb among the Brahmins of inner India, so that it was necessary to proceed to the land of the Madras to learn sacrificial method. Recalling the resemblances between the sacrificial rites of Indians and Parsees, and remembering that

^ The Vedic Index places the N. Madras a little too far east, under long. 76°, together with the N. Kurus. The N. Kurus dwelt, as Ait. Br. VIII. 23, testifies, in a somewhat inaccessible region; not so the N. Mad­ ras who were connected with the Kambojas who in their turn, adjoined the Gandharas. 2 Cf. Ksatrabandhu (J ags, 42, p. 196). the Persians derived these largely from the Magi who were, according to Herodotus (I, 101), a Median tribe, we can scarcely wonder at Uddalaka's visit to the “ land of the Madras ” or Medes who were settled “ be^veen the rivers Indus and Kabul.” The mention of Kabandha Athravana in connexion with this

visit fits in with the identity of Vedic atharvana with Iranian athrava. Both Uddalaka Aruni and his son ^vetaketu are prominent teachers of the later Vedic period and often figure as authorities on questions of ritual and philosophy ; and it is possible that they owed something to the Madras for their training in these matters. We have seen that the Medes adopted monarchy about 625 B.C. Quite in harmony with this, we find the Madras living under monarchy in the Buddhist Jatakas ; and Bimbisara of ^lagadlia, a contemporary of Buddha, marries a Madra princess who probably becomes the mother of Ajatasatru. Madra prin- cosses were I’enoMned for their beauty in the early Buddhist ])eriod; and Madra women are characterized as white ” in the Maliabharata (VIII)^ This is a definite indication of their distinctive nationality, specially since the reference to the whiteness of their com­ plexion is made not by way of conventional compliment but in course of Karna's diatribe against the Madras. The adverse remarks convey some valuable hints. The Punjab, designated the •' Aratta ” country', is pictured as aland of the heterodox, to be shunned by ail good people. It is described as inhabited by Madras (or rather, Madrakas) and Vahlkas. The former are made out to be foreigners (Mlecchah) in chapter 40, while the latter are assigned an indigenous, though mythical, origin in chapter 44. The Madras are declared to be devoid of all good­ ness : they possess no redeeming feature. This attitude stands in striking contrast with that of Panini (2.3.73 ; 5.4.67) who asso­ ciates Madra with what is good (bhadra) and auspicious (tnahgala). Panini belonged to the Taxila region ; and if, when he was writing his grammar, the Punjab had already been under the heels of the Madras as foreign settlers, the grammarian would hardly have bestowed praise on them. In fact, his admiring reference to the name Madra connects him rather closely with the period of Svetaketu. We must imagine a Madra settlement in the Punjab, after Panini’s time, in such force as to render the land heterodox. It looks as if this was the direct result of the Indian expedition of Darius (c. 500 B.C.). The Hindus, it seems, applied the designation Madra or Madraka to the Persians of the Achae- menian period, in the same way as the Greeks used to call them either Persians ” or “ Medes.” The other period of foreign domination, namely, that beginning with the advent of Deme- trios (e. 200 B.C.), is not to be thought of because, in that

1 Cf. H. C. Ray in J.A.S.B., 1922, p. 257ff. case, a Yavana settlement would be mdicated in these chapters of the Mahabharata. But no such indication exists. Not that the Yavanas are ignored. They are mentioned, just as the Kosalas, Magadhas and others living outside the Punjab are mentioned, for comparison with the Madrakas. And these Yavanas are praised for their wisdom, for their attachment to their own laws. This argues only some acquaintance with Grecian culture such as was quite natural abovit the time of Darius’ invasion. Panini’s allusion to the Greek script as Yavandni {Upi) attests a similar knowledge. That the Madras of the Mbh. (VIII) are Persians (“ Medes ” ) follows also^ from the reasons adduced by Duryodhana for his choice of Salya, the Madra prince, as charioteer to Karna (Mbh., VIII, ch. 32). Duryodhana persuades Salya to accept the position of charioteer by a flattering reference to Salya’s hereditary regard for truth, to his particular skill in archery, to hjs exceeding ability in horsemanship. Salya’s other name Artayani, disclosed in this connexion, has, significantly, an Iranian look.^ And Hdt. informs us that the education of a Persian child consisted principally in learning to ride, to shoot and to tell the truth.

1 A genuine old-Indian proper name beginning with Arta- (as conn, with rta = ‘truth’) may be said not to exist. The Vedic Index knows only one name with Arta- as its first element, yiz.. Artabhaga Jaratkarava in Br. Ar. Up. (iii. 2, 1. 13), the designation Artabhagl-putra applied to a pupil of 6auhgl-putra in the genealogical list of the same Upaniaad being a derivative of Artabhaga. Curiously enough, here also the epithet associated with the name Artabhaga is a derivative of a name (JmatJcaru) appearing to possess Iranian affinities, being com­ parable to the name Zarathusfra. The origin of this latter name is not yet settled; but philologists confidently assume that -ustra is present as its last element (see Etic. Britt., lied., s.v. ‘Zoroaster'). That leaves zarath-OT zarat- as the previous element; and analogously, we may split up Jaratkaru into jarat- and -karu. Zarat may not be unrelated to lar, the Persian word for ‘ gold ' ; so that zarathiistra may mean “ golden camel,” and jaratkaru may signify “ gold-artisaii ” or “ goldsmith.” The activities of Zoroaster connect him closely with Bactria, a land of golden- hued camels. A pecuhar legend centres around the name Jaratkaru in the Mbh. (I) where he is said to have married a homonymous wife, the sister of Vasuki, the “ Serpent,” and whom he deserted when she was with child by him. This child, Astika by name, afterwards induced Janame- jaya to abandon the Serpent-sacrifice. The story of VyusitaSva, father of (the eponymous) Madra, given in Mbh. I. 121, just before the story of Uddalaka, seems to be connected with the Persian Vishtasp.