Srughna

Xuanzang saw several stupas, which commemorated the visit of the Buddha or enshrined the relics of Buddhist monks Sariputra and Maudgalyayana.[http://haryanajobalert.com/Admin/Upload/YJQMLC7Wyamunanagar.pdf Yamunanagar History], Gazatteer of Haryana: Yamunanagar. Alexander Cunningham identified the lost city with the village of Sugh (or Sugha) situated {{convert|5|km|mi}} from Yamunanagar in the state of Haryana.{{sfn|Handa|2000|pp=517, 518}} The city probably lost its importance after the 7th century and the name survived in a localized form. Panjab University's 1965 excavation found artifacts dating from 600 BCE to 300 CE, including grey ware and red ware pottery, coins, seals, animal remains, male and female terracotta figurines, animal terracotta figurines and miscellaneous terracotta objects such as flesh rubbers, crucibles, rattle, gamesmen, stamp, seal impression, discs, frames and wheels, balls, goldsmiths heating cup, an ear ornament grooved on the exterior and a broken figurine of a headless child with writing board in lap with sunga (187 BCE to 78 BCE) period alphabets. Collection of these figurines belong to Sunga, Mauryan, Kushana, Gupta and medieval period.

Srughna is regularly mentioned in Panini's Ashtadhyayi, Patanjali's Mahabhashya, the Divyavadana, the Mahabharata, the Mahamayuri, the Brihatsamhita of Varahamihira, etc. Tūrghna, another location mentioned in ancient literary texts, is considered synonymous with Srughna.{{sfn|Handa|2000|pp=517, 518}}{{sfn|Bharadwaj|1980|p=192|ps=: {{quote|"Tūrghna is apparently a scribal error for Srughna which was the region about Jagadhari with its head-quarters at the present village of Sugha situated on the Western Yumunā Canal at a distance of about {{convert|5|km}} to the east of Jagadhari town in district Ambala."}}}}

The village of Sugh, with the nearby Sugh Ancient Mound, is now a well known archaeological site which has yielded a trove of coins. It was excavated by Cunningham in the 19th century. Suraj Bhan partially excavated the site in 1964–65.{{sfn|Handa|2000|pp=517, 518}}

The original site of the Topra Kalan pillar of Ashoka is located about {{convert|18|km}} to the west. Ashoka's Rock edicts of Khalsi is also from the region, about {{convert|60|km}} to the northeast.

It has been proposed that King Dhanabhuti, the main sponsor of the Buddhist stupa at Bharhut, came from Srughna or Sughana, and that Dhanabhuti was one of its important kings, who, besides building magnificent stupas in his capital city, also made some of the most important donations for the building of the toranas and railings at Bharhut."A local Buddhist kingdom in Punjab with Srughna, modern Sugh, near Jagadhri in the district of Ambala, as its capital city, and covering an area of about 1000 miles in circuit. Raja Dhanabhuti, the pre-eminent king of this royal family ruled from 240 B.C. to 210 B.C. This pious Buddhist king apart from building magnificent stupas in his capital city, also made munificent donations to the world famous Stupa of Bharhut" in {{cite book |last1=Ahir |first1=D. C. |title=Buddhism in North India |date=1989 |publisher=Classics India Publications |isbn=9788185132099 |page=14 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wJQEAAAAYAAJ |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Ahir |first1=D. C. |title=Buddhism In The Punjab Haryana And Himachal Pradesh |date=1971 |pages=27–28 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.107652/page/n29}}{{cite journal |last1=Kumar |first1=Ajit |title=Bharhut Sculptures and their untenable Sunga Association |journal=Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology |date=2014 |volume=2 |pages=223‐241 |url=https://www.academia.edu/10237709 |language=en}}

{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=600|caption_align=center

| align = center

| direction =horizontal

| header=Child learning Brahmi (2nd century BCE, Sugh)

| image1 = Child learning Brahmi Alphabets, Shunga era 2nd Century BCE, National Museum, New Delhi.jpg

| image2 = Child seated and writing the Brahmi alphabet, Sugh, 2nd century BCE (detail of the writing plate).jpg

| footer=Ancient terracota sculpture from Sugh "Child learning Brahmi", 2nd century BCE. The writing on the takhtī writing tablet consists in a line made of the 12 primary Brahmi vowels (a Bhārākhadī), repeated four times, in a script identical to that of Ashoka (an indicator for the object's datation):{{cite book |last1=Chhabra |first1=B. Ch. |title=Sugh Terracotta with Brahmi Barakhadi: appears in the Bulletin National Museum No. 2 |date=1970 |publisher=National Museum |location=New Delhi |url=https://archive.org/details/NationalMuseumBulletinNo.2/page/n1}}{{cite book |last1=Chhabra |first1=B.Ch. |title=Sugh Terracotta with Brahmi Barakhadi: appears in the Bulletin National Museum No. 2 |date=1970 |publisher=Bulletin National Museum No. 2 |url=https://archive.org/details/NationalMuseumBulletinNo.2}}{{center|a ā i ī u ū e ai o au aṃ aḥ
𑀅 𑀆 𑀇 𑀈 𑀉 𑀊 𑀏 𑀐 𑀑 𑀒 𑀅𑀁 𑀅𑀂}}

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• Sugh Ancient Mound
• Buddhist pilgrimage sites in Haryana
• Buddhist pilgrimage sites
• Buddhist pilgrimage sites in India

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book|last1=Cunningham|first1=Alexander|title=Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum|date=1877|publisher=Рипол Классик|isbn=9785879911145|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=25IRAwAAQBAJ|language=en}}
• {{cite journal|last1=Handa|first1=Devendra|title=Minuscule Silver Coins from Sugh|journal=East and West|date=2000|volume=50|issue=1/4|pages=515–521|jstor=29757464}}
• {{cite journal|last1=Bharadwaj|first1=O. P.|title=Gautama Buddha in Kurukṣetra|journal=Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute|date=1980|volume=61|issue=1/4|pages=189–204|jstor=41691865}}

• [http://haryanatourism.gov.in/showpage.aspx?contentid=5368 Haryana tourism]
• [http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/sunday-special/people/buddha-smiled-in-this-haryana-village/406678.html Article] in Tribune India
• [https://archive.org/stream/cu31924023029485 Ancient Geography of India] by Alexander Cunningham (1871)

Category:Locations in Hindu mythology

Category:Archaeological sites in Haryana

Category:Yamunanagar district