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{{Short description|1st century Sanskrit inscription found near Mathura}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=December 2018}}
{{Infobox artifact
|image = 1st century CE Mora Well Inscription Sanskrit Mathura.jpg
|name = Mora Well Inscription
|image_caption = Ancient [[Sanskrit]] inscription<br>Mathura GMM Q.1
|material =
|size =
|writing = Sanskrit<ref name=salomon84>{{cite book|author=Richard Salomon|title=Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t-4RDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA84 |year=1998|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-509984-3|pages=84-88}}</ref>
|created = circa 15 CE
|period =
|place = [[Mathura]], [[Uttar Pradesh]]
|discovered =
|discovered_coords ={{coord|27.515040|N|77.587409|E|display=inline}}
|location = Government Museum, Mathura ({{coord|27.495382|N|77.679540|E|display=inline}})
| map =
{{Location map
| India
| float = center
| relief = yes
| label = Mora (Mathura)
| lat_deg = 27.515040
| lon_deg = 77.587409
}}
{{OSM Location map
| coord = {{coord|27.515040|N|77.587409|E}} 
| float = center
| zoom = 10
| width = 230 
| height = 150
| label = Mora
| label-pos = top
| caption = {{center|Location of Mora, near Mathura}}
| mark-coord = {{coord|27.515040|N|77.587409|E}}
| mark = Archaeological site icon (red).svg
| mark-size1 = 12
}}
|id =GMM Q.1
|registration =
}}
{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=270|caption_align=center
| align = right
| direction =horizontal
| header=Mora artefacts
| image1 = Mora Vrishni Mathura circa 15 CE.jpg
| image2 = Mora carved doorjamb, circa 15 CE, Mathura.jpg
| footer=The Mora inscription is associated with three statue remains and a decorated doorjamb, all thought to be related to the temple built for the Vrishni heroes.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Singh |first1=Upinder |title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century |date=2008 |publisher=Pearson Education India |isbn=978-81-317-1120-0 |page=437 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H3lUIIYxWkEC&pg=PA437 |language=en}}</ref> Left: torso said to be probably a figure of one of the five [[Vrishni heroes]], Mora, circa 15 CE, [[Art of Mathura]], [[Mathura Museum]].<ref name="SRQ">{{cite book |last1=Quintanilla |first1=Sonya Rhie |title=History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura: Ca. 150 BCE - 100 CE |date=2007 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-15537-4 |pages=211-213 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X7Cb8IkZVSMC&pg=PA212 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="VSA253">"We have actually discovered in the excavations at the Mora shrine stone torsos representing the Vrishni Heroes (...) Their style closely follows that of the free-standing Yakshas in that they are carved in the round. They are dressed in a ''dhoti'' and ''uttaraya'' and some types of ornaments as found on the Yaksha figures, their right hand is held in ''ahbayamudra''..." in "{{cite book |last1=Agrawala |first1=Vasudeva Sharana |title=Indian Art: A history of Indian art from the earliest times up to the third century A.D |date=1965 |publisher=Prithivi Prakashan |page=253 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nJo0AQAAIAAJ |language=en}}</ref><ref>This statue appears in Fig.51 as one of the statues excavated in the Mora mound, in {{cite book |last1=Rosenfield |first1=John M. |title=The Dynastic Arts of the Kushans |date=1967 |publisher=University of California Press |page=151-152 and Fig.51 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=udnBkQhzHH4C&pg=PA151 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Lüders |first1=H. |title=Epigraphia Indica Vol.24 |date=1937 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.56526/page/n247 199]-200 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.56526}}</ref> Right: Mora carved doorjamb, also circa 15 CE, found together with the Mora Well Inscription.<ref name="SRQ171">{{cite book |last1=Quintanilla |first1=Sonya Rhie |title=History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura: Ca. 150 BCE - 100 CE |date=2007 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=9789004155374 |page=171 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X7Cb8IkZVSMC&pg=PA171 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Quintanilla |first1=Sonya Rhie |title=History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura: Ca. 150 BCE - 100 CE |date=2007 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-15537-4 |page=206 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X7Cb8IkZVSMC&pg=PA206 |language=en}}</ref>
| footer_align = center
}}
The '''Mora Well inscription''' is an ancient [[Sanskrit]] inscription found in the village of Mora about {{convert|7|mi}} from [[Mathura]], [[India]].<ref name="Srinivasan1997p211"/><ref name=luders1961p154>Heinrich Lüders and Klaus Ludwig Janert (1961), Mathurā inscriptions, Göttingen : Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, {{oclc| 717966622}}, page 154, image on page 301</ref> It is notable for its early mention of ''[[murti|pratima]]'' (images), stone temple, and the [[Vrishni heroes|Pancaviras]].<ref name="Srinivasan1997p211"/><ref name="Quintanilla2007p260"/>

==Description==
The Mora Well Inscription makes an early mention of pratima (murti, images), stone shrine (temple) and calls the [[five Vrishnis]] as ''bhagavatam''.<ref name="Srinivasan1997p211"/><ref name="Quintanilla2007p260"/><ref name=Vemsani203>{{cite book|author=Lavanya Vemsani |title=Krishna in History, Thought, and Culture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4fw2DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA202 |year=2016|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-61069-211-3|pages=202–203}}</ref> It is dated to the early decades of 1st century CE during the reign of [[Sodasa]], probably circa 15 CE.<ref name="Srinivasan1997p211">{{cite book|author=Doris Srinivasan|title=Many Heads, Arms, and Eyes: Origin, Meaning, and Form of Multiplicity in Indian Art|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vZheP9dIX9wC&pg=PA211 |year=1997|publisher=BRILL Academic|isbn=90-04-10758-4|pages=211–214, 308-311 with footnotes}}</ref>

===Identification===
The Mora Well inscription does not use specifically sectarian language, and various interpretations have been given.<ref name="SRQ211"/>

The Hindu [[Puranas]], such as the medieval ''[[Vayu Purana]]'' in section 97.1-2, name Samkarsana, Vasudeva, Pradyumna, Samba and Aniruddha as "heroes of the dynasty of the Vrishni".<ref name="Srinivasan1997p211"/><ref name=Vemsani203/><ref name="SRQ211"/> The inscription may also signify the growth of Bhagavatism in 1st millennium BCE to Vaishnavism by the early centuries of the common era, and a process by which heroes and heroic ideas attract devotion.<ref name="Srinivasan1997p211"/> There is no mention of these heroes in ancient Brahmanical literature,<ref name="SRQ211"/> but some scholars, such as Chandra, state that the five Vrishnis mentioned in the inscription is a reference to the [[Pandava]]s of the ''[[Mahabharata]]''.<ref name="SRQ211"/>

According to Sonya Quintanilla, the Mora inscription is not sectarian and may not necessarily relate to the roots of [[Vaishnavism]]. It could be cross-sectarian – Jainism and Hinduism, or equally possibly reflect early Bhagavata movement, states Quintanilla.<ref name="SRQ211"/> According to Rosenfield, the Mora well inscription refers to the five [[Vrishni heroes]], but their exact identity is unclear. They – including Vasudeva and Krishna – may have been ancient kings in the Mathura area, who became deified because of their heroic accomplishments. They "personified certain qualities of [[Vishnu]] and thus in effect [were deified as] his avatars", states Rosenfield, and this may be "an extremely early form of Vaishnavism now called Pancaratra system" also found in Besnagar, Nanaghat and Ghasundi.<ref name="JMR151">{{cite book |last1=Rosenfield |first1=John M. |title=The Dynastic Arts of the Kushans |date=1967 |publisher=University of California Press |page=151-152 and Fig.51 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=udnBkQhzHH4C&pg=PA151 |language=en}}</ref> Another explanation is that of Luders, who relying on Jain texts dated between 9th and 12th-century CE, states that the Vrishnis may have been the five Jain heroes led by [[Akrura|Akrūra]].<ref name="SRQ211"/> The cult of the Vrishnis may have been cross-sectarian, much like the cult of the Yakshas.<ref name="SRQ211">{{cite book |last1=Quintanilla |first1=Sonya Rhie |title=History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura: Ca. 150 BCE - 100 CE |date=2007 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-15537-4 |pages=211-213 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X7Cb8IkZVSMC&pg=PA212 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="JMR151"/>

===Reign of Sodasa===
The inscription mentions the name of the [[Northern Satraps|Great Satrap]] [[Rajuvula]],<ref name=JRAS>{{cite book |title=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland |date=1911 |publisher=Cambridge University Press for the Royal Asiatic Society |page=151 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1LssAAAAIAAJ |language=en}}</ref> and was apparently made by his son,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gupta |first1=Parmanand |title=Geography from Ancient Indian Coins & Seals |date=1989 |publisher=Concept Publishing Company |isbn=9788170222484 |page=58 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LzHpZ5N5MhcC&pg=PA58 |language=en}}</ref> the Great Satrap of [[Mathura]] [[Sodasa]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chakravarti |first1=N. p |title=Epigraphia Indica Vol.24 |date=1937 |page=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.56526/page/n238 194] |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.56526}}</ref>

The discovery of the Mora Well Inscription in the 19th-century led archaeologists to excavate the Mora Mound in 1911-12, near the Mora well.<ref name="Rosenfield1967p151"/> They found large inscribed bricks of a round brick building with the name of a female, probably the daughter of king Brihasvatimitra from Kausambi of late 2nd century BCE. In the mound were also found two male torsos, as well as a lower half of a female torso with inscribed names Kanishka and Tosha, confirming the possible link between the inscription stone and the mound.<ref name="Rosenfield1967p151">{{cite book|author=John M. Rosenfield|title=The Dynastic Arts of the Kushans|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=udnBkQhzHH4C&pg=PA151|year=1967|publisher=University of California Press|pages=151–152|id=GGKEY:0379L32LPNJ}}</ref>

==Inscription==
The discovered inscription is incomplete.<ref name=luders1961p154/> The opening is [[Epigraphical Hybrid Sanskrit|hybrid Sanskrit]], while the remaining three lines are standard Sanskrit.<ref name=salomon84/> It reads:<ref name="Quintanilla2007p260">{{cite book|author=Sonya Rhie Quintanilla|title=History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura: Ca. 150 BCE - 100 CE|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X7Cb8IkZVSMC |year=2007|publisher=BRILL Academic|isbn=90-04-15537-6|page=260}}</ref><ref name=luders1961p154/>

<blockquote style="background-color:none;margin-right:5em;margin-left:0em;border-left:solid 6px #FFE0BB;padding:1.0em">
<poem>
1. mahakṣatrapasa rāṁjūvulasa putrasa svāmi ...
2. bhagavatāṁ vr̥ṣṇīnā[ṁ] paṁcavīrāṇāṁ pratimā[ḥ] śailadevagr̥[he] ...
3. ya[s] toṣāyāḥ śailaṁ śrimadgr̥ham atulam udadha samadhāra ...
4. ārcādeśāṁ śailām paṁca jvalata iva paramavapuṣā ...
</poem>
– Mora Well Inscription, 1st century CE
</blockquote>

==Translation==

Sonya Quintanilla translates it as,<ref name="Quintanilla2007p260" />

{{quote|
<poem>
. . . of the son of [[Northern Satraps|mahakṣatrapa]] [[Rajuvula|Rāṁjūvula]], svāmi . . .
the images of the holy [[Vrishni heroes|paṁcavīras]] of the Vr̥ṣṇis. . .
the stone shrine... whom the magnificent matchless stone house of Toṣā was erected and maintained...
five objects of adoration made of stone, radiant, as it were with highest beauty...
</poem>
}}

==See also==
*[[Hindu temple]]
*[[Hindu temple architecture]]
*[[Mountain Temple inscription]]

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Mathura Museum}}
{{Hindu inscriptions and arts|state=autocollapse}}

[[Category:1st-century inscriptions]]
[[Category:19th-century archaeological discoveries]]
[[Category:Indian inscriptions]]
[[Category:Mathura]]
[[Category:Sanskrit inscriptions in India]]

Mora Well Inscription - Revision history

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