Nagseni Kishtwar : Unraveling the Myth of Nagsena and its Reality

Authored By: Anil Kumar Bhagat

Tehsil Nagseni, situated in district Kishtwar is approximately 30 kilometers towards north along the Kishtwar – Paddar road. This picturesque region boasts breathtaking natural beauty, cultural richness, and historical importance, making it a notable destination. The importance of this region is amplified by its connection to a prominent Buddhist figure, the Great Buddhist Monk ‘NAGSENA’, adding a layer of spiritual and cultural significance.

According to the Kishtwar history books written by various authors, the Monk Nagsena was born in village Kunja near Galigad. Following his early education at home, Nagsena continued his studies at Nagseni Pargana and subsequently travelled Patliputra Patna, Bihar to pursue higher education, further broadening his knowledge and spiritual pursuits. Upon completing his advance studies in Patliputra Patna, Nagsena returned to Nagseni and subsequently journeyed to Sagala, (now Sialkot in Pakistan) to engage in a profound philosophical discussion with Greek King Milinda (King Menander). The King Menander (Milinda) is one of Alexander’s Indo-Greek successors who ruled the Bactrian kingdom in Northwestern India around 150 B.C. King Milinda was harassing the Buddhist order by skillfully disputing points of doctrine the defeating Buddhists representatives in debate. Emerging triumphant in the debate, Nagsena convincingly converted King Milinda to the Buddhist faith, leaving an enduring legacy.

One can read in many books published on Kishtwar history that Nagsena was born in Kunja village of Galigad, Trigam pargana of Kishtwar. In some books authors designated his father Sonuttara Brahmin as the King of the middle Himalayan belt which extends from Kishtwar to Udhampur. If that’s the case, then the Brahmin Sonuttara should have been declared the first historical king of Kishtwar.

“The Sacred Books of The East” translation of Milind panha translated by various oriental scholars reads that ‘There is a Brahman village, venerable Rohana, called Kajangal, at the foot of the Himalaya Mountains, and there dwells there a Brahman called Sonuttara. He will have a son called Nagsena. Further it reads that Kajangal is a famous place in Buddhist story. It is at the extreme limit, to the East, of the Buddhist Holy Land, the ‘Middle Country’. Bodhgaya is a village in the state of Bihar and is most revered of all Buddhist scared sites. Kajangal was probably a village situated at the foot of Himalayas near Rajmahal District, Bihar.

Further it reads that “and on that day the Brahman (Sonuttara), on his way back from his work in the fields saw the Elder (Rohana). This proves that Sonuttara Brahman was an ordinary farmer and not a King. Further it reads that Arhat Rohana used to visit the house of Sonuttara Brahmin for seven years for alms but every time he returned empty handed. It’s astonishing to note that if Brahmin Sonuttara was a king, how could he let Rohana leave empty handed from his doorstep every day for seven long years? Reason is that the Sonuttara Brahman was an ordinary Brahman and after great hardships he earns bread for his family because Kajangala is in Bihar and from ancient times it frequently observes droughts and floods. One point, which is very important to bring in lime light, is that why writers of Kishtwar history had ignored Nagsena’s father Sonuttara Brahman whom they have declared as a King of Kishtwar in 2nd B.C. to 1st B.C. Nothing had been written by any historian or writer about King Sonuttara Brahmin except declaring him as king of middle Himalayas.

J.N. Ganhar and P.N. Ganhar in their book Buddhism in Kashmir and Ladakh writes that a Kashmiri writer of a newspaper ‘The Daily Martand’ few years ago writes in an article that Mehander’s guru Nagsena resided at Kishtwar. But when called upon to produce proof in support of his statement he failed to do so.

Professor P.K. Koul in his Raja Minanader ke Preshan (Questions of King Minander), by giving the examples of the Chinese translated book of Milind Panho and paradigm of the book Milind Preshan (Questions of Milind) by Bhikshu Jagdish Kashyap, writes that when Nagsena was born, his skin color was totally white and an elephant procreate a baby elephant at the same time or day. He also writes that the name of elephant is Nag, so with this coincidence the child was named after the name of elephant Nagsen. Further he writes that it all happens in the area near Kandani, Kajangal and Ajal. He combines all these names and creates a name ‘Kanjangal’. But being a hilly region, the possibility of elephants surviving here is zero percent. He further writes that there is a place between Kandani and Kishtwar called Hasti and the Sanskrit name of elephant is Hasti. He correlates all these possibilities and tried to prove that Nagsena was born in Kanjangal (Kandani, Kajangal and Ajal), in Kishtwar.

Another event from the book Milind Panho is that, at the behest of his teacher, Assugutta, Nagsena set out for Patliputra to pursue his further Buddhist studies, he met a merchant who was returning to Patliputra with a caravan of five hundred wagons. It is not possible for any roadster or cabby to drive a wagon in hilly area. Wagons needs plane areas to move, so, five hundred wagons moving in this mountainous area is not believable. Nor the Kajangala village is in Galigad pargana of Kishtwar neither the Sonuttara Brahman was the king but he must be a local chief.

Col. Ved Prakash in his Encyclopedia of North – East India        ( volume – I), writes that Harsha returned to Kajangala from his Orissa campaigns and invited Bhaskara and Hiuen Tsang who was in Kamarupa to a Great Religious Assembly at Kanauj. They reached Kajangala with an army of 20,000 elephants and 30,000 ships, down the Brahmaputra and up to Ganges. This view find some support in a statement of Hiuen Tsang referring to Kajangala near Rajmahal he says that it is ceased to be an independent state centuries ago and its capital was deserted.

In Milind Panho and book written by P.K. Koul and by Bhikshu Jagdish Kashyap, the event of an elephant giving birth and the presence of 500 wagons in such a hilly terrain is almost impossible, as neither elephants can survive here nor can wagons operate. Both of these things are possible in the plains of Bihar.

A book ‘Systems of Rural Settlements in Developing countries’ written by R.B. Mandal reads that, ‘its mention is in ancient literature occurs in the Puranas which speak of the Manu’s family. It consisted of eight small republics namely Bharg, Anga, Angutarai, Kanjangal, south-west of Suhya, western part of Pundra, Alkap, and Pipli Kanan, in north and south Bihar plains.

In the ‘The Indian Review’ volume 39, written by G.A. Natesan has written that, ‘In Kanjangal (modern Rajmahal) there were six or seven monasteries and above three hundred Brethren’. Further in the same paragraph it is written that ‘In the Raktavati University of Karnasuvarna congregated the most distinguished, learned and celebrated men of Kingdom’. From the statements provided shows that the Kanjangal (present day Rajmahal) was in the Bihar and now in Jharkhand.

In Sumangala Vilasani Budhaghosa commentary on the Digha Nikaya clearly mentions that kajangala is in the east side, beyond that is Mahasala and then other janapadas. In the south east flows the river salalavati and in the south side is a Nigam town called Setakannika and in the west side there is a Brahman village called Thunan.In early Monastic Buddhism volume-I mentions the Kajangal as the easternmost limit of the Buddhist Majjbimadesa visited by the lord Buddha.

J.N. Ganhar writes, “What a striking resemblance that a name bear to Nagseni area of Paddar (Kishtwar) which stills has some Buddhists living in it. One is tempted to think that Nagseni is derived from his name (Nagsena).” But, if we observe, that the Nagseni area is much closer to Kishtwar in distance, religion, culture, tradition and in language than the Paddar and even not a single hearth of Buddhist community is there. In district Kishtwar, Buddhists community can be found in far flung areas of Paddar mainly on the top of the barren mountains.

Jyoteshwar Pathik says, ‘Raja Nagsena of Kishtwar, Raja Nagpal of Bhaderwah and many other rulers have in recent seem to come in the analogy’. According to the book “History of the Punjab Hill States” written by J. Hutchison and Vogel, Raja Nagpal ruled Bhaderwah during the period of Akbar and died in 1620 A.D. Nagsena was born in 150 B.C. Jyoteshwar Pathik might only tried to cross match their names not time period. He also eclipses famous identity of being a Buddhist monk, scholar, and preacher by designating Nagsena as king of the Kishtwar.

Some historians/people believed that there is a statue in Bhattan village of Nagseni that belongs to Lord Buddha and they associate it with Nagsena. However, after a thorough examination of the statue, it is revealed that it is not a statue of Lord Buddha, but rather a statue of Lord Vishnu, as it is identical to the statue of Bimal Nag Temple, Polar temple and can be found in many other temples and Baolies. This idol is not exceptionally good in terms of craftsmanship however, we can see similar statue in temple of Bimal Nag Saroor, temple of village Polar of Nagseni, carved on the walls of Baolies of villages Pandail and Leondi of Paddar. The idols installed in the temples of Bimal Nag Saroor and in the temple of Polar village are carved in black stone and are fine piece of art. They are so captivating that they mesmerize anyone who sees them. Perhaps, similar attempts were made to create such idols at many places, but they couldn’t replicate them exactly.

The Name Nagseni

Historians of Kishtwar writes that the name of Nagseni is after the name of the Great Monk and Buddhists preacher Nagsena. In Rajtarangani, Kalhana doesn’t took any pain even to write a single sentence about the Nagsena, Demzi – Bhattan, Sagala (Sialkot), debate between Nagsena and King Milinda etc.

The word Nagseni is a polluted form of the word Nagsene. Nagsene in kishtwari language is composed of two words, Nag and Sene. Nag means Snake and Sene means their home. Collectively means, “The adobe of Nags”. There are many places in kishtwar which have suffix as ‘ne’ in their name like Nagse‘ne’. Suffix ‘NE’ is used in kishtwari language for ‘THEIR’.

 

In, Kishtwar, villages like Begnene (Begana), Trekasene (Trekesena), Zelene (Zellena), Semnene (Semina), Badarane (Bandarana), and Nimberne (original name Memberne, means the home or house of member) etc. used suffix as ‘NE’. Actually, if we keenly examine the name of these villages and places we find that Begana (Begnene) village might got its name after a man namely Bhag. Peoples used to say that we are going to Bhagne, which with the passage of time changes into Begnene and then Begana. Trekasene (Trekesena) was named after the man Tek chand, which is used as we are going to Teksene, which got polluted from Teksene to Trekasene and then Trekesena. Same story are with the names of the other places which are named after some peoples. There are many other examples of the names of places or villages which used suffix as ‘NE’ outside the kishtwar town. Names like Shanene (Shanana, village of Thakarie), Kandane (Kandani), Rakane (Rakana), Suzene (Suzana), Odhene (Horana), Attene (Hatana), Razane (Razana), Nagpatane (Nagbhatana),  Chagnane (Chingnana, the basic name of which was Chandane), Pydharane (Pydharana), Bhatane  (which was originally named as Patane. And now it is known as Bhattan. Apart from this there are some other examples like Nayne (maternal home, Nani ke), Bujine (home of father’s sister means Bua ke), Dazine (home of grandmother), Kudine (home of daughter), Mamne (home of mother’s brother) etc. there are many other examples in this manner.

The real name of Bhattan was Pattane means Pandit’s. This would be the old abode of Brahmans and in Kishtwari language Brahmans were called as ‘Patta’. In course of time, it gradually changed from pattane to Bhattane to Bhattan. Some historians correlate the name Vagamgad with the name Vagamvatthu, a place mentioned in Milind Panha. In kishtwari language the word Vagam means the ingle of the household hearth and gad means a stream. It is a vertical stream and we can easily understand the meaning of the Vagamgad by understanding the meaning of the word. Vagamgad is a stream in Nagseni Pargana and Vagamvatthu is the name of a place in Milind Panha. 

From ancient times, inhabitants of Nagseni area worship Nagas as their Kuldevta, Gramdevta and even Demigod, which is still in practice. On every occasion, first they used to worship Nags and then gear up their work. From birth to death, people have some associations with these Nagas, even after the death, relatives of the deceased perform the last rituals around these Nags (Bavalis). Nagsen who was born in a Brahmin family embraced Buddhism and become a Buddhists Monk. If Nagseni owes its name to the revered Buddhist Monk Nagsena, then why not a single hearth of Buddhist population is here? From ancient times people living there worship the serpents (Nags) along with the Vedic Gods and Goddesse

Author: Anil Kumar Bhagat

Email: anilk11111982@gmail.com

Contact: 7051350159

Disclaimer:  This article presents the author’s personal research and interpretation of historical events. www.mykishtwar.com provides this platform for the dissemination of information and diverse perspectives. The accuracy, completeness, and validity of any statements made within this article are solely the responsibility of the author. The content of this article is the sole responsibility of the author.  www.mykishtwar.com does not assume any liability for the information presented. The author’s views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of www.mykishtwar.com. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research and verify the information presented.