The Silver Reliquary of Indravarman is an inscribed silver

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

reliquary dedicated by Apracaraja king Indravarman in the 1st century BCE,The item belongs to the Shumei Culture Foundation in Otsu, Japan and was loaned to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, when it was studied by Richard Salomon of the University of Washington, who examined and studied the inscriptions and published his results in Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol 116, No 3, 1996, pp 1418-452. which has been found presumably in the Bajaur area of

Gandhara Gandhara () was an ancient Indo-Aryan people, Indo-Aryan civilization in present-day northwest Pakistan and northeast Afghanistan. The core of the region of Gandhara was the Peshawar valley, Peshawar (Pushkalawati) and Swat valleys extending ...

.IMPORTANT: Kapisa formed the heart of ancient Kamboja. In fact, scholars assert that Kapisa is an alternative name for the Kamboja. See main article: Kapisa Province Believed to have been fabricated at

Taxila Taxila or Takshashila () is a city in the Pothohar region of Punjab, Pakistan. Located in the Taxila Tehsil of Rawalpindi District, it lies approximately northwest of the Islamabad–Rawalpindi metropolitan area and is just south of the ...

, the silver reliquary consists of two parts—the base and the cover—both being fluted,Fluting is an Iranian motif (Richard Salomon). and the cover being topped by a figure of long horned

Ibex An ibex ( : ibex, ibexes or ibices) is any of several species of wild goat (genus ''Capra''), distinguished by the male's large recurved horns, which are transversely ridged in front. Ibex are found in Eurasia, North Africa and East Africa. T ...

. It has been dated to around the eighth or ninth decades of the 1st century BCE and bears six inscriptions written in ''pointillē'' style, in Kharoshthi script and Gandhari/north-western

Prakrit Prakrit ( ) is a group of vernacular classical Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent from around the 5th century BCE to the 12th century CE. The term Prakrit is usually applied to the middle period of Middle Ind ...

. In form, the silver vessel is wholly atypical of

reliquaries and is said to have been a wine goblet, similar to others found in

and Kapisa regions. The vessel was later reused by

Apraca The Apracharajas ( Gandhari: 𐨀𐨤𐨿𐨪𐨕𐨪𐨗), also known as Avacarajas ( Gandhari: 𐨀𐨬𐨕𐨪𐨗), Richard Salomon, ''An Inscribed Silver Buddhist Reliquary of the Time of King Kharaosta and Prince Indravarman'', Journal of t ...

king Indravarman as a

Reliquary A reliquary (also referred to as a ''shrine'', ''Chasse (casket), chasse'', or ''phylactery'') is a container for relics. A portable reliquary, or the room in which one is stored, may also be called a ''feretory''. Relics may be the purported ...

to enshrine Buddhist relics in a stüpa raised by Indravarman. The inscriptions on the silver reliquary provide important new information not only about the history of the kings of Apraca dynasty themselves but also about their relationships with other rulers of the far north-western region of traditional India i.e. modern northern Pakistan and eastern

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

around the beginning of Christian era. The inscriptions on the silver reliquary have been investigated by Richard Salomon of the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

, in an article published in the ''Journal of the American Oriental Society.''

Form and function

The lower part of the reliquary with fluted surface, carination and small stem and foot is extremely similar to the "drinking goblets" that have been found in good numbers mainly in

(

) and Kapisa (Kapisi). The lower part of the reliquary resembles the ceremonial drinking cups depicted in ancient Gandharan art and culture relief. Gandharan art of Bacchanalian or Dionysiac drinking scenes are the motifs which represent assimilation of local folk traditions of remote river valleys of the

Kafiristan Kāfiristān, or Kāfirstān (; ; ), is a historical region that covered present-day Nuristan Province in Afghanistan and its surroundings. This historic region lies on, and mainly comprises, the basins of the rivers Alingar, Pech (Kamah), La ...

where viticulture and wine festivals are known to have been widely practiced. Similar customs are also well documented in recent times in the region of

Nuristan Nuristan, also spelled as Nurestan or Nooristan (Pashto: ; Katë: ), is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. It is divided into seven districts and is Afghanistan's least populous province, with a ...

(pre-Islamic Kafiristan) which area had formed integral parts of ancient Kapisa. Bajaur, the presumed provenance of the silver reliquary, was part of the ancient Kapisa. In this very region of Kafiristan or ancient Kapisa, the heirloom silver wine cups Called ''ürei'' in Waigali. with features very similar to those of old Gandhara and Kapisa goblets are still found and before the

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

ization of Kafiristan, these silver wine cups were important ritual objects and symbols of social status. Martha Carter associates the well attested wine festival tradition of the valleys of

Hindukush The Hindu Kush is an mountain range in Central and South Asia to the west of the Himalayas. It stretches from central and eastern Afghanistan into northwestern Pakistan and far southeastern Tajikistan. The range forms the western section of ...

with Dionysiac scenes in Gandharan art in general and heirloom silver cups of the modern

Nuristanis The Nuristanis are an Indo-Iranian ethnic group native to the Nuristan Province (formerly Kafiristan) of northeastern Afghanistan and Chitral District of northwestern Pakistan. Their languages comprise the Nuristani branch of Indo-Iranian la ...

with Gandharan goblets in particular which is quite persuasive.It is worthy of note here that the warlike, highly independent and militarily dominating Siyah-posh clans like Kam/Kamoj/Kamtoj of Kafiristan/Nuristan the modern representatives of the ancient Kambojas of Kapisa territory (See: Mountstuart Elphinstone, "An account of the kingdom of Caubol", fn p 619; Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1843, p 140; Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1874, p 260 fn; Die altpersischen Keilinschriften: Im Grundtexte mit Uebersetzung, Grammatik und Glossar, 1881, p 86, Friedrich Spiegel; Political History of Ancient India, 1996, p 133, fn, Dr H. C. Raychaudhury, Dr B. N. Banerjee; The Achaemenids and India, 1974, p 13, Dr S Chattopadhyaya; Vishnu Purana, p 374, fn, H. H. Wilson; The Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Medieval India, Numdo Lal Dey). According to Dr Richard Salomon, "if the association is even approximately correct, it may explain what the new silver reliquary originally may have been. It was undoubtedly a ceremonial silver drinking cup of Indo-Iranian king Kharaosta and later of his successor prince Indravarman who converted it into a sacred reliquary for the bones of Buddha". The Nuristani customs represents the survival in remote region of a local (Bajaur) tradition of ritual wine drinking which, in Buddhist world of Gandhara, may have been assimilated to and rationalized by the cosmological realm of the 'Sadamattas', who dwell on the slope of Mt Meru. The figure of Ibex topping the cover of the reliquary definitely implies Trans- Pamirian (Central Asian) influence and establishes a proof of ''early migration'' of people (

Kambojas The Kambojas were a southeastern Iranian peoples, Iranian people who inhabited the northeastern most part of the territory populated by Iranian tribes, which bordered the Indian subcontinent, Indian lands. They only appear in Indo-Aryan langua ...

) from the Transoxian region (i.e., the Parama Kamboja of Central Asia or Scythian region) into the

Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...

valley. The Ibex motif is quintessentially characteristic of

Iranian Iranian () may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Iran ** Iranian diaspora, Iranians living outside Iran ** Iranian architecture, architecture of Iran and parts of the rest of West Asia ** Iranian cuisine, cooking traditions and practic ...

and

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

n (''Scythian'') art and culture. It reflects the arrival and assimilation, by whatever geographic route or routes, of this ancient Central Asian/Iranian motif into the Gandharan world in Pre-Christian times. And lastly, the fluting in the surfaces of the silver reliquary is also an Iranian motif. Thus the Ibex motif combined with wine drinking culture of the goblet itself amply illustrates the influx of regional and extra-regional cultural elements into the eclectic art and culture of Gandhara of the Indo-Iranian/Indo-Scythian period which is indeed reflected in the silver reliquary of prince Indravarman.

Contents of inscriptions

Apracarajas' relations with yuvaraja Kharaosta

The inscriptions refer to several well-known historical figures and also introduce some previously unknown persons. Noteworthy among the former are prince Indravarman and king Khara(y)osta who is to be identified with ruler Kharahostes or Kharaosta who had been known from numismatics and Mathura Lion Capital inscriptions. The ''Inscription no. II'' also establishes that king Kharaosta was also the original owner and the silver vessel was later inherited by Apraca dynasty. Thus it very offers tantalizing hints of some close relationship between king Kharaosta and the Apraca kings of Bajaur.

Bajaur, the home of Aspasioi clan

The territory around the findspot for the silver reliquary was the stronghold of the warlike Indo-Iranian people called AspasioiArrian calls them Aspasioi. The people derived their name from Iranian ''Aspa'' = ''horse''. Pāṇini calls them Aśvayanas. (Aspasian) who had formed the western branch of the AshvakasFrom Sanskrit ''Ashva'' = ''horse''. Arrian calls them Assakenoi. They were the eastern branch of the Ashvakas mentioned as Ashvakayanas by Pāṇini's Ashtadhyayi, Ashvakas in Mahabharata. of the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

texts.It is also important to note that the name of one of the kings of Apraca dynasty is Aspavarman. This king has also been referred to simply as Aspa i.e. Aspa-bhrata-putrasa. Aspavarman was son of Apraca king Indravarman. The "Aspa" part of the name (Aspavarman) alludes to connections with the Aspasians or Aspasioi of Arrian.Many kings of Apraca dynasty have used Varman as the surname or last name. Varman as surname implies Kshatriya caste and has been used by Ksatyriya lineages in ancient times (See entry "Varman" in ''Monier Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary''; See also entry "Varman" in: ''Cologne Digital Sanskrit English Dictionary''). It is worthy to note that the Kambojas have repeatedly been described as Kshatriyas in ancient Indian texts (See:

Pāṇini (; , ) was a Sanskrit grammarian, logician, philologist, and revered scholar in ancient India during the mid-1st millennium BCE, dated variously by most scholars between the 6th–5th and 4th century BCE. The historical facts of his life ar ...

's Astadhyayi Sutra 4.1.168-175; Harivamsa 14.19-20; Vayu Purana, 88.127-43;

Manusmriti The ''Manusmṛti'' (), also known as the ''Mānava-Dharmaśāstra'' or the Laws of Manu, is one of the many legal texts and constitutions among the many ' of Hinduism. Over fifty manuscripts of the ''Manusmriti'' are now known, but the earli ...

X.43-44;

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; , , ) is one of the two major Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epics of ancient India revered as Smriti texts in Hinduism, the other being the ''Ramayana, Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the events and aftermath of the Kuru ...

13.33.20-21); Cf also: (Mahabharata 13.35.17-18); Kautiliya's

Arthashastra ''Kautilya's Arthashastra'' (, ; ) is an Ancient Indian Sanskrit treatise on statecraft, politics, economic policy and military strategy. The text is likely the work of several authors over centuries, starting as a compilation of ''Arthashas ...

11.1.1-4. Thus the fact that many kings of the Apraca dynasty used Varman last name indicates that the Apraca dynasty belonged to Kshatriya lineage and hence most likely belonged to the Ashvaka branch of the Indo-Iranian Kamboja tribe. Prashant Srivastava of the University of Lucknow, has in a research monograph highlighted the significant role played by the family of the Apraca kings in ancient Indian history, and connected this family of the Apraca kings with the Ashvaka clan. But, the Ashvaka clan was none else than a sub-branch of the greater Kamboja tribe spread on either side of the

. (See Ashvakas.) These people, identified as sub-branch of the

, had earlier offered stubborn resistance to Macedonian invader

Alexander Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here ar ...

in 326 BCE and later also constituted an important component of the grand army of

Chandragupta Maurya Chandragupta Maurya (Sanskrit: elp:IPA/Sanskrit, t̪͡ɕɐn̪d̪ɾɐgupt̪ɐ mɐʊɾjɐ (reigned 320 BCE – c. 298 BCE) was the founder and the first emperor of the Maurya Empire, based in Magadha (present-day Bihar) in the Indian ...

.They find pre-eminent mention as Kambojas in the Rock Edicts V as well XIII of king

Ashoka Ashoka, also known as Asoka or Aśoka ( ; , ; – 232 BCE), and popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was List of Mauryan emperors, Emperor of Magadha from until #Death, his death in 232 BCE, and the third ruler from the Mauryan dynast ...

(reign 273 BCE to 232 BCE) located in Shabaz Garhi in Peshawar Valley and Mansehra District of North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan. According to Dr Bailey, the dynastic/geographic title Apraca/Apaca/Avaca may underlie the modern toponym Bajaur.

Kharayosta or Kharaosta king vs Apraca dynasty

The inscriptions provide important new information on the history of

dynasty of Bajaur, including the names of several previously unknown persons, and on their relationship with Indo-Iranian king Kharayosta—the ''Yuvaraya Kharaosta'' " Kamuio" of the Mathura Lion Capital inscriptions or ''Kharaoṣta (Kharahostes)'' of the coins. Prince Kharaosta in the Bajaur silver vessel has been described as ''Yagu-raja'' as contrasted to ''Yuva-raja'' of the Mathura Lion Capital Inscriptions or the Kshatrapa of the coins. First part ''Yagu-'' of the title ''Yagu-raja'' used by Kharaosta (''Kamuio'') is a form of ''Yauvuga or Yauga'' or ''Yaüvasa''—a Kushana title, which is identified with popular Turkic title ''Yabgu'' (i.e. tribal chief). Since this reference pertains to pre-Christian and therefore, pre-Kushana/Pre-Turkic times, this conclusively proves that the use of a title is no proof of a ruler's ethnic affinities. The silver reliquary definitely indicates some sort of connections between prince Kharaosta (Khara(y)osta) and the Apraca kings of Bajaur but it is hard to say if the connections are merely of succession only or were formed by blood or ethnic bonds also. The ''inscription no. II'' on the silver reliquary was inscribed by ''yaguraja'' Khara(y)osata who was the first owner of the silver vessel and the ''inscriptions no. III, IV, VI and VI'' on the same reliquary were later inscribed by Apraca king Indravarman which show the latter as the owner of the same vessel. Inscriptions also verify that Apraca king Indravarman had later converted the silver vessel to a

Reliquary for the stüpa he had raised in Bajaur. The connection of Apraca kings with ''Yagu-raja Kharaosta'' has raised chronological questions which call into doubt previously established norms about him and also seem to require a considerably earlier date for the Mathura Lion Capital Inscriptions (in which he is twice mentioned as Yuvaraja Kharaosta), than is usually attributed to him. Kharaosta is believed to have been the ruler of Cukhsa—a territory comprising districts of Peshawar, Hazara, Attock and Mianwal in northern Pakistan. The Apraca kings of Bajaur are believed to have been an important allies of Kharaosta in helping to protect his borders from ever-present threat of invasion from the west. It does not, therefore, seem unlikely that Arta (''Mahakshatrapa''), Kharaosta Kamuio (''Yuvaraja''), Aiyasia Kamuia (''Agramahisi—the chief queen of Rajuvula''),

Maues Maues (Greek language, Greek: ; (epigraphic); Kharosthi: , , called , on the Taxila copper plate; also called , in the Mathura lion capital inscription,) was the first Indo-Scythian king, ruling from 98/85 to 60/57 BCE. He invaded Indi ...

or Moga (''Gandhara king'') as well as the rulers of Apraca dynasty of Bajaur were probably all related and were connected by some sort of familial connections. The fact that Kharaosta and his daughter Aiyasi have both been referred to as Kamuias in the Mathura Lion Capital inscriptions may also hold a clue that the Apraca dynasty was also probably a Kamuia (Kamboja) dynasty. The surname Kamuia is a Kharoshthised/Prakritised form of

Pali Pāli (, IAST: pāl̤i) is a Classical languages of India, classical Middle Indo-Aryan languages, Middle Indo-Aryan language of the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pali Canon, Pāli Can ...

Kambojika or

Kamboja. See main article: Kamuia

Footnotes

References

Bibliography

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