Avantivarman (855-883 A.D.)

A Broad-minded King

The accession of Avantivarman (855-83 A.D.) on the throne of Kashmir ushered in a period of peace and prosperity. His was an Age of Consolidation and Enlightenment: He did not have the ambition of going on expeditions and conquering many lands. He was wise enough to realise that these vain, glorious expeditions outside the valley sapped the resources of the Kingdom. He did not try to regain control over the neighbouring states. Thus there was peace and Kashmir reached the apex in philosophy and literature.

He was quite broad-minded and even though he had his own son yet he appointed his step-brother as his heir-apparent. No doubt he was fortunate in having a devoted Prime Minister, who was, as Bamzai, the renowned historian writes, guided by a Sanskrit verse, which means the following:

"This is the time to do good, while fortune, fickle by nature, is present. How can there be again time for doing good since misfortune is always imminent".

This minister always anticipated the wishes of his king and met them quickly. Once Avantivarman went to worship Bhutesha and saw a vegetable Utpala-shakha placed as an offering by the priests. The king enquired the reason for such a poor offering. To which they replied that a Damara, named Dhanava, who was a friend of Sum, had taken control of the villages belonging to the god. This upset the king but out of regard for the m in ister he did not speak anything but left the worship pretending bad health. The minister understood the true reasons and called Dhanava in his presence and beheaded him. The king's anger subsided and he resumed his worship.

Kashmir was very affluent and so numerous temples were built there. Sura built a temple of Shiva and Parvati at Sureshvariksetra, which was called Auramatta after his name. He founded the town of Surapura (Harapor near Shopian) locality and therein the watch station also which was formerly high up on the Pir Panjal pass. His wife and sons also built temples.

At a distance of 18 miles from Srinagar on the Srinagar-Jammu highway are seen two magnificent temples at a distance of half a mile from each other and remind us of the glorious period of Avantivarman's rule (855-883) during which he founded the city of Avantipur and got these temples built.

The first and the larger is the temple of Siva Avantisvara which remains mutilated and in ruins. The temple made of stone is situated in a courtyard almost 200 ft. by 160 ft. and 170 ft. internally enclosed by a massive stone wall, the western face of which is adorned by a row of fluted columns. In the middle of this wall is the gateway which is divided into two chambers by a cross-wall. The base on which the shrine in the centre of the courtyard stands is 57'4" and 10 ft. high. It has 16 ft. square platform on its four corners. It has a stair on each of its four sides. The sanctum has been destroyed.

The only part of the building that exists is the temple base, which is decorated with a series of projecting facets. In the rear are found two ruined subsidiary shrines in the courtyard.

Scattered about in the courtyard are large number of fragments of the temple. The most interesting of these are (i) spandrel of the arch in front of the southern stair, (ii) the flower-and-vase capital, (iii) the spandrel of another arch by its side and (iv) the base of a pilaster decorated with two seated rams and a dancing girl who plays upon a small hand-drum.

Avantiswami Temple. Half a mile further up is the small but decorated and better preserved temple of Avantiswami-Vishnu. It was laid buried under silt and debris and has been brought out.

The temple, dedicated to Vishnu, stands in the centre of the paved courtyard, 17 ft. by 148 ft. which is enclosed by a wall in the form of a colonnaded peristyle of cells. The entrance is in the middle of the west wall. It is divided by a wall into two chambers and is approached by a flight of steps bounded on either side by a plain rail and a side-wall. The front pilasters of the side-walls bear figures of Vishnu and his consort carved in relief.

R.C. Kak in his "Ancient Monuments of Kashmir" says that the wall surface of the entrance is both externally and internally ornamented purposely with sculptured reliefs. The larger female figures on the right and left hand walls of the outer chamber represent the goddesses, Ganga and Yamuna, easily recognized by their respective vehicles, the crocodile and the tortoise. The scenes in the rectangular panel on the right-hand pilaster of the wall represent probably a king and his two queens seated in "sportive fashion" on a sinhasana (lion throne), here symbolised by two lions facing on each side of a panel. The scene in front the lions has been replaced by two standing females. In the coutern panel the king has his right hand in the abhayarundie (attitude of granting immunity from fear), and the lady on the right is admiring her own charm, reflected in a round pocket mirror which she holds in her right hand. In the other two panels the figures are seated on separate cushions, here all the three occupy a single long cushion... The central shrine is built on a double base having torus moulding and a cyme rects cornice. The base is intact, but the sanctum which measures 33 sq. ft. externally, has almost disappeared".

There is a beautiful cellular colonnade in the temple. It comprises sixty-nine cells, each of which measures on the average 3'8" by 4' 10".

During the excavation of this temple a large number of antiques had been found. A large number of them have been found in the Srinagar Museum. Amongthe number of large jars is one which bears an inscription mentioning the name of Avantivarman. This is important; it is a proof of the correct identification of the site. Manohar Kaul in his book "Kashmir, Buddhist Hindu and Muslim Architecture" quotes Ferguson in connection with the two temples:

"The characteristic that seems most clearly to distinguish the style of the temples at Martand from those of Avantivarman is the greater richness of detail which the latter exhibit; just such a tendency, in fact, towards the more elaborate carvings of the Hindu style as one might expect from their differences". Comparing the carving of a fragment of a pillar he (Ferguson) says that it "is elegant in itself, and almost as interesting historically, as the Doric, in as much as if it is compared with the pillars of the tomb of Mycene. It seems difficult to escape the conclusion that the two forms were derived from the same source. At all events, there is nothing common between the Peloponnesus and Kashmir, so far as we know, that so nearly resemble it".

At the court of Avantivarman, scholars and poets enjoyed honour and patronage. Among these are Bhatta Kallata, the pupil of Vasagupta, the founder of Spandasastra branch of Kashmir Saiva Philosophy, Kavi Ratnakara and Anandavardhana. Their extant works occupy high position in old Sanskrit literature of Kashmir.

Once the country was in the cruel clutches of a great monster-famine. Everybody was grieved. The king was helpless and no plan could be devised to mitigate the suffering.

But then God sent an angel in the form of a man Suyya. His birth was unknown. When a baby he had been left in an earthern pot covered with a lid which a Candala woman picked up while sweeping. Her name was Suyya. She gave it to a Sudra for rearing up. The baby grew up into an intelligent boy and acquired some education. He became a teacher. He was generally surrounded by a crowd of sensible men. When the people complained of Famine, he told them that he could get rid of this monster provided he had the means. The king summoned him but he didn't reveal his scheme. The people thought him mad but the king kept the treasury at his disposal. Suyya took many pots, full of money, in a boat and went towards Madavarajya, the southern district of the valley. He threw some of money at a village called Nandaka (Nandi on the Veshan river), meaning `the place of money', which was submerged with flood water and then quickly came back. Then he went to Yakshadara (Dyara-gul, meaning `the place of money', near Khadanyar below Baramulla) and threw lot of money into the river. Everyone except the king thought that he had gone crazy. But the famished people who had watched Suyya throwing money in the water, immediately jumped into the river to find the coins and thereby clear the bed of rocks which had rolled down from the hill side and blocked the river. Consequently the water flowed down.

Previously the Jhelum and the Sindh met near Trigam turning large areas into a swamp. But Suyya regulated the course of the river so that the water flowed right into the Wular lake. The tributaries also were directed usefully. Suyya had many villages reclaimed by having circular embankments raised all round them to keep out the water so that they looked like round bowls (kunda). As a result of these projects hundreds of villages were reclaimed and crop grew unprecedentedly. One kharwar of paddy which used to sell for 200 dinars in prosperous times-now was sold for 36 dinars.

Suyya built the present town of Sopur on the bank of the river Jhelum in his name. He prohibited killing offish and water-fowl in the Wular lake. He granted the village Suyya a Kundala to the Brahmins in honour of his mother Suyya and constructed the bond Suyya-setir after her name.

The minister of Famine visited the valley off and on. Due to the floods king Lalitaditya had got drained out some water with great effort but later the drainage works had been neglected with the result that floods were ruining the country very often. The price of grain had gone up, one kharwar (192 Ibs.) of paddy selling at 1050 dinars in famine stricken areas. Thus Suyya was the angel of prosperity for Kashmiris and thus Avantivarman's rule was notable for internal peace and prosperity.

Listening in the end the recital of the Bhagwat Gita, the amiable prince passed away near the shrine of Jyeshteswara at Tripher, on the 3rd day of the bright hall of Asada in the year 3595 (June 883 A.D.).