The Lost City of Heaven, Indraprastha
Rohini Gupta
11 September 2007, 18:47Five thousand years ago, when Krishna built golden Dwarka, reclaiming it from the sea, he built a city more beautiful than any that the world had seen. Only one other city could compare and only one building could outshine its splendour and that was the council hall of Indraprastha, the capital of the Pandavas.
It was Krishna himself who commissioned the Maya Sabha, the great council hall. He instructed the architect Maya to create a building so uniquely beautiful that it could have no rival. He told Maya, make it so sophisticated that no one will ever be able to copy it even if they spend years trying to learn its secrets. Maya promised him a building in which human and heavenly designs would combine to dazzle the world. He did such an unforgettable job that the building was named after him, the Maya Sabha.
The story of the Maya Sabha is told in the epic of the Mahabharat. The five Pandavas are sons of King Pandu who was king of the Kurus, the largest kingdom of the time, with its capital at Hastinapur. The eldest Pandava, Yudhishtir should have inherited the throne, but his envious cousin Duryodhan wrested it from him, trying to burn him and his brothers alive. They escaped and wandered in exile until they could return with allies and, even more important, a friendship with their cousin, Krishna.
By rights the throne of Hastinapur should have been returned to them but Duryodhan would not vacate it, so a compromise had to be reached. The elders demanded that the Pandavas should be given their fair share, half of the kingdom. Duryodhan and his advisors twisted that around to give them the barren half, the wilderness of Khandavprashta where, it is said, no one can survive. Duryodhan hoped they would vanish into oblivion.
Unfortunately for Duryodhan they refused to vanish. They took their grudging gift and created a kingdom out of nothing. The reputation of Yudhishtir as a just and good ruler attracted people from all over. Merchants, artisans, farmers and learned brahmins all migrated to their new kingdom which was named Indraprastha, the kingdom of heaven after Indra, King of heaven.
The Mahabharat describes the city. It had a moat around it wide as the sea and its walls reached high to heavens as white and fleecy as the clouds. It had many gates and tall winged gateways protected them. The walls were thick enough so that no attack could damage them, the turrets were full of alert soldiers and machines of war were deployed all along the battlements.
The city was well planned with good roads and many gardens. The Mahabharat describes the trees in great detail, every variety of tree with fruits and flowers. The groves were full of peacocks and the sweet sounds of birdcall. There were pleasure houses and lakes bright as mirrors, full of lotuses and frequented by swans. It was a city built for beauty and for peace.
Krishna put the finishing touches to the new kingdom by asking Maya to build a grand council hall. Every kingdom needed a council hall, a sabha, where the king sat with his ministers, kept the laws and administered the justice. The council hall was the pride and prestige of the kingdom, the public face of its power.
Krishna, in Dwarka, had a beautiful council hall called Sudharma, which means good law. For the Pandavas he asked for a building that surpassed his own, a sabha which even Hastinapur with all its generations of wealth and power could not acquire.
The Maya Sabha was the most unique and amazing building of the ancient world, and would stand out even today. Maya first measured out a large plot of land and laid the foundations on an auspicious day. He did not want to use ordinary materials to construct it, so he left for his storehouse in the Himalayas. From the description the area was in the high mountains, perhaps near Gangotri, the source of the Ganga.
He chose a special kind of material, a sparkling mixture of natural crystals and gems, which no one had seen before and he also brought back weapons for the Pandavas and for Krishna. It took him fourteen months to build the sabha.
It was a sparkling white building, shining blindingly in sunlight, and lined with pillars of gold. It was spacious and cool and full of the most delightful pictures. He made it full of illusions, doors that seemed to be walls, artificial pools, all kinds of architectural marvels.
Within the sabha Maya placed a pool of water, full of lotus flowers which looked real but were artfully crafted out of jewels. Dark gems and gold were used to make the leaves and the stalks and flowers were crafted out of bright gems. The pool was full of clear water and real lotuses, and the home of wild birds, turtles and fish. A flight of crystal steps led down to it from the building. Gardens were planted, and groves and forests full of fragrant and flowering trees.
The Maya Sabha was so beautiful that it made Indraprastha famous. Indraprastha was described as the perfect kingdom. The Mahabharat describes the reason, “the king cherished everyone as if they were his own family.” Indraprastha lived up to the old belief that if a righteous king ruled even nature would be cooperative and abundant. There were no floods or droughts or catastrophes. The fields were always fertile and the trees laden with fruit and flowers, and the monsoons were on time, but not too heavy. Agriculture thrived, the farmers were happy and food was plentiful.
Yudhishtir was renowned for his devotion to truth and he ruled with justice and mercy.
The description sounds like the ideal for any good government. Taxes were never too heavy and realisation of arrears was not too stringent. Extortion was absent and rents were lenient. Traders prospered so much that they willingly paid the taxes. Justice was fair and impartial, without favourites. The result was little crime and a people who were mostly honest and truthful.
In those days taxation was not the only source of income. A kingdom earned not just from taxes and trade, but also from conquests, which were a major part of the revenues of a powerful kingdom. The kings were Kshatriyas, warriors, and every boy went through years of learning martial arts and war skills.
To be important, and to make a kingdom significant, a King needed to go out on digvijayas, tours of conquest, but the expeditions were remarkably bloodless. The word conquest in India has never meant the kind of violence seen other countries. Indians, right through the centuries, did not believe in conquering and destroying.
A conquest was a game of economic and political power, played between the kings. Ordinary people were never affected. Rules were very strict. Armies could not tramp through fields damaging crops. No one attacked cities where citizens might get hurt. Even if there was war it was between the two armies in a battlefield away from the town, where no non combatants could get hurt. If a farmer strayed in the middle of such a battle no one would touch him.
The conquests were elaborate rituals in which both sides understood the rules. The conquering king would enter an enemy kingdom and stop short of the capital. His army would camp in an area where no fields were damaged and no farmers upset.
Camped outside, the conquering king would send a message, accept my sovereignty or come and fight. Most kings went out, surrendered, and then invited the besieger home for dinner to catch up on all the family gossip. Most of the ancient kingdoms were intricately related.
In an age where charity was the highest virtue, kings often vied with each other to be known as the most generous givers and tribute was freely offered and accepted. When the Pandavas went on conquest they were given generous tributes even by the Kings who later fought the Kurukshetra war against them.
Occasionally a king chose to fight rather than surrender. Even then it was usually a show of strength and the kings rarely died, though the armies fought. On the battlefield war might be bloody and brutal, but it was strictly between one army and another. If a king was killed by chance it was up to the besieger to crown the deceased king’s heir and leave the succession unchanged.
A king who won a conquest did not take over the kingdom. He was only entitled to tribute, he did not interfere in government, kings were never overthrown and a kingdom never changed hands. In some of the conquests mentioned the besieging king did not even enter the conquered city. Given tribute, he was satisfied and left for home.
The prestige of Indraprastha, Yudhishtir’s reputation as a just ruler, the fame of the Maya Sabha and the friendship of Krishna gave the Pandavas an unparalleled stature. From penniless exiles they were now the rulers of a kingdom becoming a wonder of the world. It had taken ten years and now they could dream of empire.
They planned the Rajsuya, the ceremony required to make their king, Yudhishtir, into an emperor. Only one king in each generation can do it, and that king must be sovereign over all others. To achieve that end the four younger brothers undertook conquests, going to collect tributes, accept surrenders and give out invitations.
Their conquests took them everywhere. Arjun went north, conquered the Himalayan ranges and crossed the mountains. Some of the places from where he claimed tribute may now be part of the Russian states. Bhim went east and conquered all the lands to the east, and seems to have crossed the peaks into what is China today.
Sahadev went South, stopping at many of the kingdoms made famous in the Ramayan, all the way down to Sri Lanka at the bottom of India. Nakul rode west and conquered the sea coast and went beyond into Pakistan and Afghanistan, and brought back so much treasure that he needed ten thousand camels to carry it.
The Mahabharat describes that the treasure house of the King was so full that it could not be depleted even in a hundred years. The Rajasuya was an incredibly expensive ceremony and could only be done by one who was wealthy beyond counting. All the conquered kings had to be invited, making a guest list of tens of thousands.
The preparations for the Rajsuya were massive and for that time, all roads led to Indraprastha. Invitations were sent out everywhere and kings and their retinues began arriving from every part of the land. Any city would find it difficult to accommodate so many people especially royal guests who were accustomed to the very best.
To fit everyone into the city, Indraprastha adopted a surprisingly modern concept – skyscrapers. Many mansions were built which towered “like the cliffs of Mount Kailash”. Every luxury was provided, the stairs were easy to climb, the windows were covered with gold netting, and the doors were large enough to admit several people at a time. Inside they were fully furnished, rows of pearls decorated their interiors and costly carpets covered the floors. Everything was whitewashed, hung with flowers and perfumed. Food was served in golden plates.
When the invites were sent out, the fourth Pandava brother, Nakul, went to Hastinapur to personally escort the Kuru elders to Indraprastha. Duryodhan, though he had tried to kill them so many times, had to be invited with all the others and treated like family. Courtesy to the family meant that each member had to be given a ceremonial job to make them feel involved. After some discussion the Pandavas decided to give Duryodhan the job of receiving the presents.
Duryodhan described that experience to his father after he returned home, “I was asked to receive the gems and jewels which were brought as tribute. I have never seen the quality or size of those gems and had not even heard their names before. The line of gifts was so endless that my hands were fatigued in receiving them. The flow never seemed to stop. When I got tired I had to ask the guests to wait a while until I recovered.”
The extent of Pandava wealth and riches devastated him. He described it with great envy. There were so many kings with large retinues and loads of tribute that the gates of Indraprastha could not admit them all, and Kings, who had never waited for anything in their lives, had to patiently wait their turn in the crush outside the gates.
They brought the richest offerings, each trying to undo the other, each boasting that his were the richest presents and that his wealth would enable Yudhishtir to finish the ceremony. They brought heaps of gems and gold and precious metals, hundreds of horses, camels and elephants, cloth of gold and embroideries, rare precious skins, perfumes, weapons of the finest makes, swords, bows and arrows, armour, chariots, expensive gold threaded carpets, and cart loads of expensive artifacts.
Duryodhan complained to his father that he had seen wealth beyond his imagination. The Pandavas in their conquests had gone to impossible places. Duryodhan said, people go to the eastern ocean, the Bay of Bengal, and the western Arabian sea and even the southern Indian ocean, but no one ever goes past the Himalayas where only the birds can fly, to the northern ocean where Arjun went and from where he brought back special conches. Its not clear which ocean Duryodhan was referring to. There is no ocean north of India. Did Arjun go to some of the inland lakes, or higher to the northern sea ?
Duryodhan was upset by everything in Indraprastha, but one thing, he said, irritated him the most. He told his father the story. The Pandavas arranged that as soon as one hundred thousand people were fed each day, the conches brought from the north would blow in chorus to celebrate the occasion. But to Duryodhan’s horror, choruses of conches kept blowing all day. Duryodhan said, “hearing those notes my hair stood on end.”
Once the Rajasuya was over all the kings departed. Krishna returned to Dwarka and all the other guests left for their long journeys home. But the most unwelcome guest of all remained. Duryodhan lingered, refusing to leave, wandering around the Maya sabha over and over again, hoping to discover its secrets so that he could build one for himself. However the Maya sabha defeated him and he ended up making a fool of himself.
This is how he described his experience to his father, “I saw a lake of crystal and lifted up my clothes to cross it but it was a solid floor, not water at all and Bhim laughed at me, saying I had lost my head seeing all the wealth. I would have killed him if I could. Burning with the insult I came across another lake like the first. Not wanting to be caught out a second time I went boldly across it, but it was really water and I fell into it. Bhim and Arjun laughed to see me dripping wet, and their wife, Draupadi and other women were coming out and they laughed too. I was given new clothes to change my wet ones, and I had to accept the gifts of my enemies. But that was not all.
“I tried to pass through a door that seemed to lead into a passage and hit my head on solid stone. It was not a door at all. The youngest Pandava brothers came and supported me when I was reeling and told me, that is not the door, this is the door, go this way. I saw another door which seemed to be shut and reached out to open it and fell over because it was an open arch without a door. Then I saw another door and walked away thinking it illusory but it was really a door.”
The technology Maya must have used to create a palace of such deceptive illusions would be remarkable even today. In those days it was the wonder of the world and the despair of Duryodhan and his allies.
Duryodhan was so eaten by greed and envy that he threatened suicide. He said, “I will throw myself upon a flaming fire or swallow poison or drown myself in water. My enemy whom I tried to destroy has grown in prosperity like a lotus grows in water. Having seen Yudhishtir’s prosperity nothing can please me. My heart burns with fire when I think of what I have seen, their wealth, their sabha, their faces when they laughed at me. What is the use of living any more ?”
His father, Dhitarashtra and his cunning uncle, Shakuni hatched another plot to destroy the Pandavas. Attack was out of the question so they planned a supposedly friendly game of dice between cousins in which Shakuni could use his expertise to cheat the Pandavas of everything they owned. To appease Duryodhan they arranged that fatal dice game which led finally to the dark, blood stained days of the Kurukshetra war.
Duryodhan’s father commissioned a poor imitation of the Maya sabha in which to hold the event. He built a palace, two miles in length and breadth, with crystal arches, a thousand pillars, inset with gold and lapis lazuli, with a hundred doors and furnished with gold embroidered carpets and the most lavish furnishings.
The Pandavas were forced to play that unfair game and lost everything, including Indraprastha. They were sent into twelve years of exile and one last year of disguise. If discovered in the disguise year, they would have to go back for another thirteen years. They went straight into exile, without returning to their kingdom, and spent twelve years wandering in the forests and one in disguise working as servants.
In the fourteenth year they returned, but Duryodhan refused to return their kingdom to them. War was inevitable and the chosen battlefield was Kurukshetra. In that great war Duryodhan and all his brothers died. All the kings who allied with him and their armies were also destroyed. In the end Yudhishtir was the undisputed ruler of most of India.
After the war Yudhishtir ruled for 36 years from Hastinapur and little mention is made of Indraprastha. Then disaster hit. Krishna decided to leave the earth, his race of Yavanas killed themselves in one drunken night and Dwarka sank. For the Pandavas also, it was the end. They had no heart to continue, but there were a few ends they had to wrap up before leaving.
Arjun went to Dwarka to evacuate the women, children and those left alive. He left with such a long caravan of refugees that they spread out for miles. There were too many to accommodate in any one town so Arjun resettled them in many towns on his journey across the plains of India. He finally arrived at Indraprastha. There he crowned Vajra, Krishna’s grandson as the King and left for Hastinapur.
In Hastinapur Yudhishtir crowned Parikshit, Arjun’s grandson and the only surviving heir, as the king of their vast empire. Then the Pandavas left on their last journey into the Himalayas from which they never returned.
Even after them, the story of Indraprastha was not over. The empire of the Pandavas continued for over thirty generations, but the main capital of Hastinapur did not last that long. Five generations after the Pandavas it suffered such a severe flood that the capital was shifted to Kausambi, a little further south on the Ganga. Archeological excavations at the site of Hastinapur have confirmed that the city was deserted after floods.
Indraprastha, however, outlived Hastinapur. It continued to be the seat of empire. It continued under the descendants of the Pandavas and was later ruled by other dynasties. In the 10th century AD the powerful Rajput king, Prithviraj Chauhan ruled from there. Then came its darkest days. Indraprastha may have been attacked, looted and destroyed by the savage Muslim invasions of the 12th and 13th centuries.
But the legacy of Yudhishtir’s empire is still very much alive. Indraprastha, today, lies under India’s present day capital of Delhi. The Purana Kila, the old fort ruins are said to be the remnants of Indraprastha. Archeological digs gives credence to the widely prevalent belief that it was indeed built on legendary Indraprastha of the Pandavas.
Today Hastinapur is a dusty, forgotten village near Meerat in the state of Uttar Pradesh, but Indraprastha, city of heaven, is the seat of government and the capital of the country. Perhaps it is not so lost after all.
I enjoyed your article very much. Your descriptions of Indraprasta were breathtaking.
— Keith Foley · Sep 15, 16:16 · #