| Puṣkarasārin | |
|---|---|
| King ofGandhāra | |
| Reign | Uncertain,c. 6th or 5th century BCE |
| Religion | Historical Vedic religion (earlier) Buddhism (later) |
Pushkarasarin (Sanskrit:Puṣkarasārin) orPukkusati (Pali:Pukkusāti) was a king of the Iron Age Indo-Aryan kingdom ofGandhāra during the time ofGautama Buddha (c. 6th or 5th century BCE), according to Buddhist texts which were written a few centuries later. There are no historical facts known for certain about Puṣkarasārin, and all theories about his reign are speculative.[1] It is debated whether he ruled before or after theAchaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley, and is unknown what kind of relationship he historically had with the Persian Achaemenid rulers.[2]
Buddhist narratives written a few centuries later[1] indicate that Puṣkarasārin became the king of Gandhāra at a time when this state was an important imperial power in north-west Iron Age South Asia, with the other states of the Punjab region, such as theKekayas,Madras,Uśīnaras, andShivis being under the suzerainty of Gandhāra.[3]
Puṣkarasārin engaged in expansionist ventures which brought him into conflict with the kingPradyota of the rising power ofAvanti. Puṣkarasārin was successful in this struggle with Pradyota, but this led to a war between him and thePāṇḍava tribe located in thePunjab region, and who were threatened by his expansionist policy.[3][4] Puṣkarasārin also engaged in friendly relations with the kingBimbisāra ofMagadha,[3][4] who marriedKṣemā, the daughter of the king of Madra, who was a vassal of Puṣkarasārin.[5]
By the later 6th century BCE, the founder of thePersianAchaemenid Empire,Cyrus, soon after his conquests ofMedia,Lydia, andBabylonia, marched into Gandhara and annexed it into his empire.[6] The scholarKaikhosru Danjibuoy Sethna advanced that Cyrus had conquered only the trans-Indus borderlands around Peshawar which had belonged to Gandhāra while Puṣkarasārin remained a powerful king who maintained his rule over the rest of Gandhāra and the western Punjab.[7]
However, according to the scholar Buddha Prakash, Puṣkarasārin might have acted as a bulwark against the Expansion of thePersianAchaemenid Empire into north-west South Asia. This hypothesis posits that the army whichNearchus claimedCyrus had lost inGedrosia had in fact been defeated by Puṣkarasārin's Gāndhārī kingdom. Therefore, following Prakash's position, the Achaemenids would have been able to conquer Gandhāra only after a period of decline of Gandhāra after the reign of Puṣkarasārin combined the growth of Achaemenid power under the kingsCambyses II andDarius I.[3] However, the presence of Gandhāra, referred to asGandāra inOld Persian, among the list of Achaemenid provinces in Darius'sBehistun Inscription confirms that his empire had inherited this region from conquests carried out earlier by Cyrus.[6]
Assuming that Puṣkarasārin lived during the 6th century BCE, it is unknown whether he remained in power after the Achaemenid conquest as a Persian vassal or if he was replaced by a Persian satrap (governor),[8] althoughBuddhist sources claim that he renounced his throne and became a monk after becoming a disciple of theBuddha.[9]
However, withalternative chronologies which date the Buddha's lifetime (and his contemporary kings) as much as a century later, it is alternatively possible that Puṣkarasārin in fact lived as much as a century after the Achaemenid conquest. Among scholars who favour the latter chronology, it remains an open question for debate, what kind of relationship Puṣkarasārin historically had with the Persian Achaemenid rulers. Possible theories are: he "may belong to a period when the Achaemenids had already lost their hold over Indian provinces," or he may have been holding power in eastern parts of Gandhara such asTaxila (speculatively considered by some scholars to be outside the Achaemenid dominions), or may have been serving as a vassal of the Achaemenids but with autonomy to conduct warfare and diplomacy with independent Indian states, similar to the "active and often independent role the western satraps hadin Greek politics".[2] Thus it is considered that he may have been an important intermediary forcultural influence between Ancient Persia and India.[2]
Pukkusāti, whose history we learn from a late and partly apocryphal tradition