Hastinapur: The forgotten kingdom
Meerut: Life is a tussle between what it is and what it can be, and Hastinapur seems to be the classic example of this predicament. Centre of a world-famous epic and home to many tales that so many of us have grown up with, it could have been a major cultural centre, but as destiny would have it, today, it seeks recognition even amongst its own.
After looking at so many cities and towns that have thrived on their heritage, one is highly dismayed at the condition of Hastinapur, the cradle of the Mahabharata saga.
When you reach the town, an overhead board welcomes you to the ‘Mahabhrata-era historical town of Hastinapur’.
It is after you cross the bridge over Madhya Ganga Canal that you get into the cultural zone of the town that houses all of its temples, shrines, and ashrams.
A few minutes’ drive from the bridge takes you to the town’s central cluster of mounds. The cluster of mounds divides the town into two administrative blocks — Kaurwan to the north and Pandwan to the south. The names were already in popular usage when they were officially adopted. The names, Kaurwan and Pandwan, are believed to be corruptions of Kaurav Van and Pandav Van, literally meaning the forests of the Kauravas and the Pandavas. The popular usage of these names, which predates the official usage, makes you recall the ancient stories from the epic.
The cluster of mounds spans over a vast area and is thickly vegetated. The area, associated with the archaeological excavations, is under the Archaeological Survey of India’s (ASI) protection.
The ASI has had the site ever since BB Lal excavated it in 1950–52. The findings were duly recorded and published by the ASI, and also by Lal in a book published in 1954–55, which does not seem to be in the public domain anymore. The site was excavated to look for painted grey ware (PGW) pottery, but the findings correlating with other sites mentioned in texts led Lal to historicise the town as the Mahabharata’s Hastinapur.
Even though no permanent dwellings have been constructed in the protected zone after its undertaking by the ASI, the locals have encroached nonetheless. They have built their community deities, called by various names such as “mata” or “devta” right next to ASI’s rusty gate and board proclaiming the site to be a protected monument. These structures are a common cultural feature across the region.
Villagers have also built “bittaure”, storehouses for their dung-cakes.
The area around the mound has developed greatly since ASI wrapped up its excavations several decades ago and you have to now navigate through a labyrinth of unpaved roads to reach the entrance.
The rusty gate and this board, along with the low boundary walls seen towards the right, are the sole sentinels to one of the most significant Mahabharata sites. Bittaure, storehouses for dung-cakes, can be seen in the background.
Just as you walk a few metres onto the dirt road from the entrance, you see a hill to your left. As you look up, you see remains of an old fortification. A trail shoots towards the hill from the dirt road, eventually turning into a treacherous climb with irregular steps made out of sandbags. The climb takes you to the top of the hill and you can look closely at the wall from there. With some derring-do, you can get off the trail and onto the steep, uneven, and thickly vegetated slope to get a closer view of the remains of the wall.
Vijay Pandit, a social activist from Meerut, who runs a non-governmental organisation named Green Care Society, has vivid memories of Hastinapur from his yesteryears.
He recalls, “When I was in college, the wall used to be visible from the main road. The forest was also not this thick.”
Now the wall is not at all visible from the main road and the side of the hill that faces the road has little traces of the wall.
Pandit further adds that over the years, the heritage of the town has been damaged alike by the mismanagement of the authorities and encroachment by locals.
When you get to the top of the hill, you come across a shrine built in Islamic fashion. If you venture into the thick growth on the side of the hill facing the main road, you might also see a few patches of medieval bricks set into the hill. To the right of the hill, there is a trail that takes you downhill. Once on the terra firma, the serpentine trail takes you to yet another settlement roughly a hundred metres away — a pre-Independence era gurukul.
The gurukul, when not in session, is looked after by Bhishmraman Ji. The gurukul comprises of two sections, a relatively newer baked-brick structure that serves as the main teaching facility and the older set of chambers that houses living quarters. Older set of chambers predate the Revolt of 1857 and are said to have seen action during the uprising. That is another story in itself.
Talking about Hastinapur, Bhishmraman Ji (right) debunks several myths.
He says, “Many people have over the years cashed in on people’s curiosity by weaving stories around relatively newer temples in town. They give an ancient touch to their narratives to fool naive and curious visitors.”
When you scrutinise sites said to be associated with the Mahabharata in town, you find substance in Bhishmraman Ji’s words. Karn Mandir, said to be the place where Karna donated his armour and earpieces to Indra, is a temple built entirely in white marble, surely not from the age of the epics. Further, the temple is nowhere close to Ganga, near which the event takes place in the epic.
Other than the gurukul, the only other site in ASI’s protected zone is a temple on the southern edge of the zone. The temple is believed to be a Shakti Peetha.
Hastinapur’s Jayanti Shakti Peetha is said to be one of the 108 such peethas mentioned in scriptures.
When one looks at the structure, which is plainer than most of today’s temples, one wonders about the validity of such grand claims.
The temple’s chief priest, Shailendra Kumar Tiwari, however, has an explanation.
He says, “This shakti peetha was lost and forgotten and we revived it after rediscovering it while going through the scriptures.”
Tiwari also cites building restrictions imposed by ASI as the reason for the plainness of the temple.
When asked about Hastinapur and the town’s connection with Mahabharata, Tiwari recounts ancient tales and the usual list of sites in the town. He emphasises on the damage that has been done to the heritage by invaders and encroachers over the years. He also subtly points out to the presence of many Jain establishments in the town and how “they” have encroached upon “our” heritage.
Jain temples and ashrams are indeed the most prominent part of the town today. As per Jain traditions, Hastinapur is the birthplace of Shantinath, the 16th Jain tirthankar. While the town is considered significant in Jainism, you might be surprised at the presence of so many temples, shrines, and ashrams in the town.
While most approach this from the ancient Brahmanic-Jainism rivalry perspective, Bhishmraman Ji provides a historical perspective.
He recounts the story of Raja Nain Singh, a prominent figure in the town’s history, who was once short of money to pay levies to the Mughal state.
“So he borrowed from Lala Harsukh Rai of Delhi and when he sought to repay the Lala the next season, the Lala refused the payment in cash and asked Raja Nain Singh to build a Jain temple in lieu of cash payment,” says Bhishmaraman Ji.
Lala Harsukh Rai was indeed a Jain businessman in Delhi and a prominent historical figure of his time.
Hastinapur’s famous Bada Mandir is built over the foundations laid by Raja Nain Singh on the land he donated and from the money he had to repay the Lala. That moment marked the advent of the growth of Jainism in town.
Raja Nain Singh himself is a curious figure. Shailendra Kumar Tiwari, the priest at the Jayanti Shakti Peetha, calls him as a “chhatrapati raja”, who ruled over a vast territory.
The Gujjar raja features quite prominently in the town’s past. He is associated with major building and restoration activities and is known for religious piety.
He restored the Pandeshwar Mandir, situated to the west of the ASI’s protected zone. The Mandir stands as the most dignified site in the town that is associated with the epic. Its garbagriha houses ancient-looking idols. It is said that the temple was once a place of worship to the Pandavas.
Upon inquiry, one learns that the site of the temple had been a revered site long before its restoration by Raja Nain Singh.
There are two huge trees in the temple complex that are said to be from Mahabharata era. While you cannot verify the claim, you learn from locals that these trees have been there for as long as they can recall. They tell you that trees had long been there by the time temple was restored around 19th century.
After going through all of the sites and interacting with all sorts of people in the town, you find that truth is wrapped in layers of myths and legends. It does not take long for myth to become history and history to become myth. Both of these processes are at play in Hastinapur in perfect harmony. Thus the town today has little substantial that connects it to Mahabharata. It just has stories, and even these stories are rooted in myths and legends and not on historical realities. As a result, the town’s past, despite all the literary, popular, and archaeological accounts has been quite conveniently forgotten and termed as “mythological” and local myths and legends have become dominant over factual accounts.
This is why you find people claiming Raja Nain Singh to be a “chhatrapati raja ruling over 28 states”, a sheer historical blasphemy, which Dr Vignesh Kumar, a professor of history at Meerut College, debunks.
Shedding light on the legend of Raja Nain Singh, Dr Kumar tells me at his flat in Meerut that Raja Nain Singh was successor to Jayta Gujjar, a bandit chief who later came to be known as Raja Jayt Singh when the Mughal state made him the zamindar of the region after failing to suppress his banditry.
He says, “Jayta Gujjar and his band of bandits would rob people along the river Ganga and the Mughals sent their troops twice to hunt them but they failed on both the occasions. In the end, Jayta Gujjar was made the zamindar of the region and, since he was childless, Nain Singh, the son of a fellow sardar gained the zamindari and the title “raja”.”
While Shailendra Kumar Tiwari tells you of a medieval Hastinapur that was subsequently destroyed by the Mughal assaults and later encroached by Jains, Dr Kumar tells you that the town was nothing but a hunting ground throughout much of the medieval period — first of the Delhi Sultans and later of the Mughals. He bases his arguments on archaeological findings that indicate that the town was indeed inhabited and abandoned multiple times throughout history.
When you place the state of the town in a wider perspective, you see a trend in which history gets lost in popular myths, legends, and intellectual prejudice.
While there is a faction that believes the town to have once had majestic palaces that were later on destroyed by invaders and encroachers, and kings that ruled over 28 states, there is a section of intelligentsia that dismisses it as a mere myth.
They seem to bunk everything that seems to be even remotely associated with Indian (or Hindu) epics as mythical and do not even consider it worthy of a proper examination. The prejudice of the latter draws its strength from the extremism of the former, which has only strengthened in the present dispensation in which extremism is abound.
BB Lal, the most well-known living Indian archaeologist, writes about this in no ambiguous terms in his 2013 book “Historicity of the Mahabharata”.
He writes, “To the faithful, everything mentioned in the Mahabharata is true to the very letter, whereas the sceptic holds that the epic is nothing more than a mere figment of imagination.”
Lal points out that sites mentioned in Mahabharata continue to have same names even today. He says that cannot be a coincidence. The veteran archaeologist chides both the Marxist historians, who tend to bunk it all altogether, and the extremists on the right, who tend to believe everything down to the very letter.
Critically analysing and avoiding biases, Lal goes on to establish the historicity of the epic in his 2013 book, something that he has been stating for decades.
Just if it would have been science and not history, one could have established the truth with one groundbreaking experiment or discovery, but it is a disciplinary predicament of history that almost nothing goes down unanimously and with an issue as explosive as this, no book or research, however convincing, can really build a consensus.
Dr Vignesh Kumar recounts the town’s inhabitation and abandonment multiple times throughout history and points out that for much of the medieval period, the town was nothing more than a hunting ground for Delhi rulers.
He says, “Even as the Gujjar bandits became zamindars in the eighteenth century and building and restoration began in early nineteenth century, Hastinapur was barely significant.
“It was only after Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation of the present-day Hastinapur town that it was populated and properly inhabited.”
He adds that the town — even with its long history, has had no progress because it lies on no major roadways and lacks railway connectivity even today. This, he says, makes Hastinapur what it is today — an outlier on Indian cultural scenery.
While this is one explanation why Hastianpur could not grow as a cultural centre, this still does not explain the lack of interest and efforts of the state in developing the town. While other towns like Gaya, Sanchi, and sites like Somnath have grown on efforts of the state, the ancient kingdom of Hastinapur has remained lost on the fringes of Meerut district.
It is also inexplicable that the town continues to be ignored in the rule of Bhartiya Janta Party and a chief minister who himself is a religious leader.
About the role of state regarding Hastinapur, Anil Kumar Gandhi, a Meerut-based historian and author, appreciates the recent heritage bus service launched by the Meerut divisional commissioner but criticised the lack of infrastructure.
He says, “There is no proper hotel in Hastinapur where tourists or visitors may stay. The law and order situation is also there that does not allow anyone to stay overnight, particularly a visitor from outside the region.”
There is another subtle reason for the town’s present state. Since the town was barely inhabited in pre-Independence India and it was only after Pt Nehru’s stone-laying that it was properly inhabited, most of the inhabitants are settlers and not traditional inhabitants.
They therefore lack an emotional connection with the land that someone whose generations have lived there would otherwise have. Since they lack that emotional connection, there is an understandable apathy among them regarding the town.
This apathy is not limited to Hastinapur alone. In our society at large, historical and cultural sensibilities are falling by the day. This social apathy therefore binds itself in perfect harmony with the apathy on part of the state to drive the ancient kingdom of Hastinapur into oblivion.
Vijay Pandit, the social activist from Meerut, too is critical of locals. He recalls that in his trips to the town in his college days, he often saw people dislodging bricks and taking them away.
He says, “Much of the missing sections of the wall did not go missing because of the ravages of time, but because of plunder by locals.”
Here he raises a point very bluntly — “Why excavate at all if you cannot protect the site? Why excavate it if it is just going to be left open for plunder once you wrap up?”
Dr Vignesh Kumar too is critical of excavations. Echoing Vijay Pandit’s thoughts, he says excavations practically pave the way for the site’s destruction as once a site is discovered, it is exposed and unless not protected well enough, it is open to both vandalism and plunder.
Hastinapur has suffered from both.
Both Vijay Pandit and Dr Vignesh Kumar address a valid point. It was only after the excavations and the historicisation of the town that the plunder began there.
ASI has little resources to protect a site. The cluster of mounds under its protection in Hastinapur just has a low boundary wall and a rusty gate along with a few boards proclaiming the site to be a protected monument.
Anil Kumar Gandhi too questions excavations, but not the way Vijay Pandit and Dr Vignesh Kumar.
He asks, “Who knows for sure that those mounds were the only places in town to have been inhabited in the past? There may be other places in the town that may still reveal something if excavated.”
He points out that the town never witnessed large scale excavations.
There have been no subsequent excavations since the ASI wrapped up their work in 1952.
In present times, when it is the Bhartiya Janta Party’s government in power at both levels, the centre and the state, the condition of the town is baffling.
Presently, when those living by principles of Hindutva are in power and are apparently adamant on claiming their long-suppressed heritage and invoking its glorious ancient past into mainstream, it seems strange that Hastinapur, cradle of the epic saga of Mahabharata, which forms the core of the religion whose philosophy they claim to truly enshrine into their ideology, lies in such a sorry state.
Western Uttar Pradesh — and particularly Meerut, which once used to be part of Kuru-Panchala lands where much of the epic happened, has been a BJP stronghold over successive elections and yet Mahabharata sites and remnants of the epic remain forgotten and neglected as ever.
The town continues to suffer from the harmonious apathy of the state and the public in a state being run by the BJP in the name of Ram.
Here it seems that Krishna’s epic is being forgotten in Ram’s halo. Krishna might have been the greatest statesman of his age but it seems to be Ram who has shaped and guided much of India’s politics and policy and continues to do so even today, belittling Krishna’s legacy.
That is perhaps why you see a host of policies for Ramayana’s Ayodhya but little for Mahabharata’s Hastinapur.
When you have sifted through the town’s past and present and have looked at it from all sides, you turn to the lore, which perhaps has the true reason for the town’s dismal state today.
The lore has it that the town was cursed by Draupadi when she was dragged into the hall of the palace at Hastinapur by her brothers-in-law when Yudhisthir lost her in the game of dice. It seems as if the Draupadi’s curse still continues to loom over the town.
Madhur Sharma is a history graduate from the Delhi University and is currently a journalism student at IIMC Delhi. He tweets at @madhur_mrt. All photographs belong to him, unless otherwise used, and may not be used anywhere.
DISCLAIMER: Vijay Pandit, quoted in the story multiple times, is the author’s father.
