How a Silk-Weavers Guild from Mandsaur Reclaimed a Damaged Sun Temple

This is the story of a silk-weavers guild from Mandsaur who restored a magnificent Surya Mandir in 473 CE

IN MARCH 1884, John Faithfull Fleet, the first Epigraphist of the (British) Government of India sent a team of copyists to Mandsaur. Over the past several decades, various archaelogical digs in the region had yielded a glut of inscriptions and copperplate records related to the Gupta Era. A momentous discovery among these was the Mandsaur Stone Inscription. The moment Fleet read its copy, he realised that this was no ordinary inscription. And so, he personally travelled to Mandsaur in February 1885 to “ascertain its full and conclusive bearing.”

John Fleet’s team found the inscription on a dark sand-stone slab “built into a wall on the right hand half-way down a small flight of steps leading to the river in front of a mediaeval temple of… Mahadeva, at the Mahadeva-Ghat, which is on the south bank of the [Siwana] river” opposite the Mandsaur Fort.

In one shot, the inscription helped to decisively establish the accurate dating of the Gupta Dynasty. Until its discovery, archeologists, epigraphists and history scholars were busy untangling the laybrinthine problem of fixing the correct geneaology of the Gupta kings. This singular inscription solved the issue almost overnight.

Fleet published its full text, translation and commentary first in 1886 in the Indian Antiquary, Vol 15. Technically known as Gupta Inscription No. 18, Plate XI, it unravelled a whole new world almost the moment it was published. For the next two-odd decades, the Mandsaur inscription became the subject of intense discussions in the historical-scholarly community. In fact, an interpretation of sorts was published as recently as 1986 in The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

Apart from establishing the near-accurate chronology of the Gupta emperors, the Mandsaur Stone Inscription presents a heartwarming tapestry of Hindu culture and society of the Golden Age of Bharatavarsha’s history.

Dated 473 CE, it records the restoration of a magnificent Surya Mandir in Mandsaur by a guild of silk-weavers. Unremarkable at the superficial level, its real significance is couched in its details spread over twenty-four verses that display impressive prowess in Sanskrit versification.

A Brief History of Mandsaur or Dashapura

MANDSAUR IS AN ANCIENT city predating even the Gupta Empire. Its original name, Dashapura survived in its corrupt form, Dashor, up to the early 20^th century. John Fleet makes an interesting revealtion in this regard: “in some bilingual sanads or warrants, of about a century and a half ago, I found this form, Dashor, used in the vernacular passages, while the Persian passages of the same documents give the form Mandasor. So also, Pandits still habitually use the form Dashapura in their correspondence.”

However, the colonial British administration preferred to use Mandsaur over Dashapura and spelled it variously as Mandesar, Mandesor, Mandesur, Mandisore, Mandosar, Mandsaur, Mundesor, and Mundesoor.

Dashapura is mentioned in the Puranic, literary and folk annals. One legend traces its founding to Dasharatha, which is highly unlikely. Kavikulaguru Kalidasa extols the beauty of the city in his fabled Meghadoota. But a more realistic explanation is found in its very name.

Dashapura was originally a Vishaya (a taluk or district) comprising ten (Dasha) hamlets. Astonishingly, Fleet found the same administrative divisions in his own time as well: “…just as now the township includes from twelve to fifteen outlying hamlets or divisions; Khilchipur, Jankupura, Rampuriya, Chandrapura, Balaganj, &c.”

Another pioneering archeologist and history scholar, Bhagwanlal Indraji supplies the historical reason for the change in nomenclature from Dashapura to Mandsaur. The original name of Mandsaur was Manda-Dashapura, meaning “the distressed or tormented Dashapura.” This name change occurred in order to memorialise the savage ravaging inflicted upon Dashapura by the Turushkas who not only razed the city but destroyed all its temples. John Fleet writes from personal experience how the Hindus of Mandsaur had preserved this painful memory till the end of the 19^th century: “even to the present day, the Nagar Brahmans of Mandsore will not drink the water there.”

When we fast forward to the disastrous breakup of the Maratha Empire, we notice that the British had parcelled out Mandsaur to the Gwalior Princely State. It was ruled by Madho Rao II Sindia when the inscription was found.

At the height of the glory and prestige of the Gupta Empire, Dashapura was also fabled as Paschimapura, one of the greatest cities of Western India. The Mandsaur stone inscription narrates Dashapura’s splendour in picturesque and life-like detail bringing the city and its inhabitants alive before our eyes.

What is notable about the inscription is the fact that it was authored at the beginning of the decline of the Gupta Empire. It would take more than century before it went extinct.

And now, we’ll narrate the full story of the Mandsaur Stone Inscription.

The Silk-weavers Guild from Lāṭa-Desha

AROUND THE first decade of the fifth century, a large guild of silk-weavers from Lāṭa-Desha (roughly corresponding to the general region of Navsari, Surat, Bharuch, Bhavnagar) migrated to Dashapura because they were “manifestly attracted by the virtues of the kings of that country.”

The king in question was Kumara Gupta I, son of the legendary Chandragupta Vikramaditya. His underling, Bandhuvarman was the governor of Malwa to which Dashapura belonged.

Over the next two decades, the silk-weavers’ guild earned distinction and respect in the city and contributed abundantly to its progress and prosperity. Some of them embraced other professions: archery, storytelling (roughly corresponding to today’s Katha-Vachaks), philosophy, astrology, astronomy and military. Still others became ascetics.

The inscription repeatedly extols their accomplishments and purity of character: “the guild shines gloriously all around through those who are of this sort [i.e., those who embraced other professions], and through others who, overcoming the attachment for worldly objects; being characterised by piety and possessing most abundant goodness…”

A stupendous climax of the contribution of this guild of silk-weavers was the construction of a magnificent Surya Mandir in Dashapura in 436-7 CE. It appears that Bandhuvarman, “the high-shouldered King” inaugurated it. The guild sought no public donations but built it with the “stores of wealth acquired by the exercise of their craft.” It appears to have been a truly imposing temple going by its description, which is worth quoting in some detail:

“a noble and unequalled temple of the bright-rayed Sun, was caused to be built by the silk-cloth weavers, as a guild, with the stores of wealth acquired by the exercise of theircraft ; a temple which, having broad and lofty spires, and resembling a mountain, and white as the mass of the rays of the risen moon, shines, charming to the eye, having the similarity of the lovely crest-jewel, fixed in its proper place, of this city of the west [Pashcimapura].”

The demise of Kumara Gupta I inaugurated an ugly saga of internecine wars for the Gupta throne that lasted for more than three decades. An unfortunate fallout of all this was the fact that the Sun Temple fell into disrepair. It was finally repaired and restored to even greater glory in 473 CE, the year in which the silk-weavers guild had the pious event inscribed on stone.

The inscription does not mention the exact nature of disturbances that had caused damage to the temple; it simply says, “in the course of a long time, under other kings, part of this temple fell into disrepair ; so now, in order to increase their own fame, the whole of this most noble house of the Sun has been repaired again by the munificent corporation.”

A Priceless Cultural Treasure

THE MANDSAUR STONE INSCRIPTION, housed in the Yashodharman Museum, has been hailed as one of Classical India’s greatest cultural treasures. It simultaneously illuminates a host of realms: the political condition of the era, the harmonious social structure, the devotional life of our people, economic activity characterised by business guilds and the brilliant evolution of Hindu temple architecture — the Gupta Era was the real gym that perfected temple architecture in all its dimensions and facets.

To cite a random instance, the Gupta Era was perhaps the last in which Surya or Aditya (Sun) enjoyed such primacy. The post Gupta epochs were gradually dominated by the Trimurtis, Ganesha, Devi, etc.

Historian and scholar R.C. Majumdar has written a short but valuable commentary on the Mandsaur inscription and lauds it as an exemplar of the system of business guilds that operated in an unbroken manner since Kautilya’s time.

“This highly interesting inscription couched in verses that recall the best days of Sanskrit Kavya Literature has preserved for us a vivid account of one of the best specimens of the ancient guilds that constituted such a remarkable feature of ancient Indian society. It invalidates the notion, too generally entertained, that guilds were stereotyped close corporations of craftsmen, busy alone with their own profession and little susceptible to culture or progress. It portrays… a picture of a guild of silk-weavers, proud of their own profession, and true to their own organisation, but displaying within these limits an activity and keenness for all-round progress…”

An even more valuable insight from Majumdar relates to the social mobility represented by the silk-weavers guild. As noted earlier, in their pristine form in their original home in Lāṭa-Desha, all members were silk-weavers but after migrating to Mandsaur, they branched off to other professions.

“…it distinctly points to the mobility of the body, and more importance is evidently attached to the unity of the guild, than the place where it settles. This is an evidence of the high state of guild-organisation, for none but a fully organised body could thus shift from place to place and yet retain its unity and public confidence.”

Such examples abound throughout the history of the Classical Era, which show a highly fluid Hindu society that offered unhindered scope for inter-Varna movements. This flexibility was disrupted and destroyed by Islamic invasions.

We observe the same phenomenon even today in a largely diminished form. The classic example is the Marwari community whose members continue to migrate to the remotest parts of Bharatavarsha but retain their ties to their ancestral homes and community.

On another plane, the Mandasor Stone Inscription is an early example of Hindu civilisational and cultural resilience. The silk-weavers guild patiently waited for thirty-five years for the political instability to end and then revived the temple on a much grander scale. We see the same story in Somanath where five years after Mahmud of Ghazni’s destruction, the temple was rejuvenated in a more audacious manner by the Hindu community of the city. The underlying thread in all such cases is the same: as a united community, Hindus can build, revive and manage their sacred structures sans governmental interference.

Postscript

The Mandsaur Sun Temple still exists in a dilapidated condition at Khilchipura, about 30 Kms southwest of Mandsaur. It is worse than a pale shadow of its past. Derelict. Forgotten. Uncared for. The contrast with its sacred celebrity described in the inscription and its present reality exacerbates the pain of the pious pilgrim who visits it.

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