Kephissa
| Kephissa | |
|---|---|
 Image of Kephissa reconstructed from depictions on coinage and monuments. | |
| Deva-Hellene Queen | |
| Reign | 78-53 BC |
| Predecessor | Kannadis |
| Successor | Nausicaa |
| Born | c. 98 BC Gallati |
| Died | 53 BC |
| Consort | Ibykos |
| Issue | Nausicaa |
| Dynasty | Eirenaid dynasty |
| Father | Kannadis I |
| Religion | Hellene-Buddhism |
Kephissa Soter was a Hellene-Khaltian and later Deva-Hellene queen who ruled a large territory in southern Khaltia, northwestern Tennai, and along the Kallappa River to the Varuna Ocean from her captial at Nanda. Kephissa is noted for having become a patron and convert to Hellene-Buddhism and she is widely regarded as the greatest of the Deva-Hellene monarchs.
Ascencion and Reign
Ealry Life
Kephissa was born into a Hellene family in a village called Gallati adjacent to Arosia, although another source says she was born near Nanda (modern day Bilaspur). Kephissa was the youngest child and only recorded daughter of the Hellene-Khaltian king Kannadis I. For the greater part of his reign it was assumed that the crown of the kingdom what pass on to Kannadis' eldest son Anaximenes and that his two younger sons, Kalkhas and Leonattos would would take up top military and administrative positions underneath Anaximenes. Things are said to have changed with the birth and subsequent maturation of Kephissa as it was noted that Kannadis greatly favored his daughter from early age. Contemporary sources state that Kephissa displayed "A mind for all things, a body fit and lovely, a cunning greater than a fox, and enough charm to win over both Eros and Aphrodite."
Kannadis so favored Kephissa that she was given the martial and academic education usually only given Hellene noble men of the era. This was said to have been a source of consternation amongs the higlhy conservative Hellene upper-class. The distaste for Kannadis' favorable and treatment and Kephissa's "immodest, immoral, and unwomanly" manner grew even more pronounced once Kephissa began the recruitment and training of her own military unit. From a young age Kephissa had been well aware of the long history of Tennaiite women acting as the sole component of the militaries of the various Tennaite queendoms and empires as well as her own kingdom's staunch refusal to even consider Tennaiite women as a viable source of military power. At the age of seventeen, Kephissa was given control over a fort near Nanda and also the authority and resources to recruit and train a military unit that fall soley under her command. Kephissa proceeded to further irk the Hellene elites by recruiting only women to her new unit and also including Tennaiites and Khaltians as well. Kephissa incorporated weapons and tactics from Hellene, Tennaite, and Khaltian martial traditions into the training regimen of her unit which she named the "Amazons of Arosia" after the legendary all-female warrior civilization of pre-contact Hellene mythology.
Ascenion
When Kephissa was fourteen, Kannadis named her his heir which caused a great deal of alarm and consternation among the more traditionalist elites and military leaders. Following the death of Kannadis in 78 BC and with the enthronement of Kephissa eminent, Anaximenes gathered force of around 10,000 troops to overthrow and eliminate his sister and her supporters. Anaximenes marched his army on Arosia and was initially successful in forcing Kephissa and a small number of her close supporters to flee the city. Anaximenes' success was short lived though, as Kephissa had expected the attack and had gathered her personal force, the Amazons of Arosia, near the town of Symbola. Kephissa met her brother with a much smaller force, 1,500 of her Amazons of Arosia and approximately another 1,000 troops drawn primarily from natives of Khaltia and Tennai. In the spring of 78 BC, Kephissa met Anaximenes and his army several kilometers from Symbola in lower slopes of the Kashar Hills. The two armies clashed and Kephissa handed Anaximenes a crushing defeat with contemporary sources claiming that her army killed some 3,000 of Anaximenes' troops and captured another 6,000 while only suffering 200 killed and wounded. After the battle, historians of the era say that Anaximenes and his remaining troops fled north and eventually found thier way to Symmeria,though the veracity of this claim is widely disputed by later classical and modern historians alike.
After the defeat of his brother, Kannadis' second eldest son Kalkhas, gathered an even larger force than his brother, some sources citing a mix of 60,000 professional troops, mercenaries, and levees to confront Kephissa's expanded, but still smaller force of around 8,000. Instead of fighting a pitched battle though, Kephissa convinced her elder brother to instead face her in single combat to determine the fate of their conflict. It is recorded that Kalhkas confidently accepted his sister's proposal. The siblings met with thier retainers near the bank of the Kallapp River and it is recorded that the duel was over in minutes with the more skilled Kephissa piercing Kalkhas through the throat with her spear. Following the death of thier commander, a majority of Kalkhas' army either disbanded or joined Kephissa with only a small handful of loyalists refusing to submit to Kephissa.
Following the defeat of her two eldest brothers, Kephissa confronted the youngest of her elder brothers, Leonattos. Unlike his brothers, Leonattos chose not to oppose his sister and instead pledged allegiance to her. After dealing with her brothers, Kephissa took the children of Anaximenes and Kalkhas and sold them into slavery and sold thier wives to the royal court of the Kanka Empire of eastern Tennai and Southeastern Siduri.
Reign
After securing her seat on the Arosian throne, Kephissa arrested those elites that had supported Anaximenes and Kalkhas and sold the men and male children into slavery. The women she incorporated into her court and the girls she adopted and educated as her own. After these events, records of Kephissa's reign become more scarce. What records survive speak of numerous military campaigns, mostly into Kanka territory. How these campaigns faired vary widely depending on the source. Some sources mention the Arosian armies of Kephissa reaching as far east as the Kanka capital of Korkai while others state the Hellenes were defeated and forced to retreat closer to modern-day Koldari. What sources do agree upon is the effectiveness of Kephissa's Amazons as a military unit. There are numerous mentions of the women's skill, bravery, and affection that they displayed towards each other.
Generous findinds of coins testify the prosperity of and extension her empire: (with finds as far as Sabria) the finds of her coins ar the most numerous and widespread of Deva-Hellene monarchs. Precise dates of her reign remain elusive however with most modern scholars tentatively settling on the period between 78 and 53 BC as the most likely period. Kephissa's empire survived her until the final Deva-Hellene monarch, Aspasia II, surrendered it to the Hannashka and pledged eternal loyalty to the Hannashka monarchs.
Kephissa and Buddhism
Writings of Aadarshini
According to tradition, Kephissa embraced the Buddhist faith at the age of eighteen after becoming aquainted with the Buddhist monk (bhikkhunī) Aadarshini. The writings of Aadarshini describe Kephissa as constantly accompanied by an elite guard of 500 soldiers, and two of her counsellors are named Thoösa and Ilioneus.
In Aadarshini's writings, Kephissa is introduced as
Queen of the city of Nanda in Tennai, Kevasini by name, learned, eloquent, wise, and able; and a faitful observer, and that at the right time, of various acts of devotion and ceremony enjoined by her own sacred hymns concerning things past, present, and to come. Many were the arts and sciences she knew--holy tradition and secular law; the Six Philosophies and Yoga; arithmetic; music; medicine; the Vedas, the Purânas, and the Itihâsas; astronomy, magic, causation, and magic spells; the art of war; poetry; conveyancing in a word, the whole nineteen. As a disputant she was hard to equal, harder still to overcome; the acknowledged superior of all the founders of the various schools of thought. And as in wisdom so in strength of body, swiftness, and valour there was found none equal to Kevasini in all Tennai. She was rich too, mighty in wealth and prosperity, and the number of her armed hosts knew no end.
— Translation by Jasminka Svrzikapa, 1895
Her legacy as Buddhist arhat reached the Symmerian world and Praxilaus writes:
But when one Kephissa, who had reigned graciously over the Khaltians, died afterwards in the camp, the cities indeed by common consent celebrated her funerals; but coming to a consent about her relics, they were difficultly at last brought to this agreement, that her ashes being distributed, everyone should carry away equal share, and they should erect monuments to her.
— Íthi 30.8
THe above seems to corroborate the claim:
It is unlikely that Kephissa's support of Buddhism was a pious reconstruction of a Buddhist legend, for her deification by later traditions resonates with Hellene religious trends that granted divine honours to monarchs and members of their family and worshipped them as gods. It is no coincidence that similar motifs highlight Buddha's deification and her funeral rituals are commnsurate with those Hellene kings and universal monarchs. The evidence is in favour of the conversion of Queen Kephissa to Buddhism, which is neither an isolated historical incident nor an invention of later tradtions
Other accounts
- A 1st century BC relief from a Buddhsit stupa in Puliampatti, in Northern Tanu Radesh, the Puliampattiite Avanola, represents a foreign soldier with the curly hair of a Hellene and the royal headband with flowing ends of a Hellene monarch, and maybe a depiction of Kephissa. In her right hand, she holds the Gorgoneion, a symbol of Athena. Also, parts of her dress, with rows of geometric folds, are characteristically Hellene in style. On her sword appears the the Buddhist symbol of the three Jewels, or Triratana.
- A Buddhist reliquary found in Pala, the Talkot casket, bears a dedicatory inscription referring to "the 14th day of the month of Kārttika" of a certain year in the reign of "Maharani Kevasini" ("Great Queen Kephissa").
- According to an ancient Symmerian source, the Hellene monks seem to have been active proselytizers of Buddhism during the time of Kephissa: The Avanola Mahadhammarakkhita is said to have come from "Orestra" with 30,000 monks for the foundtation ceremony of the Maha Thupa ("Great Stupa") at Akroinon in Symmeria, during the 1st century BC.
Buddhist Constructions
A coin of Kephissa was found in the second oldest stratum of the Kara stupa suggesting a period of additional constructions during the reign of Kephissa. It is though that Kephissa was the builder of the second oldest layer of the Kara stupa, following its initial construction during the Chalna Empire.
These elements tend to indicate the importance of Buddhism within Hellene Communities in northwestern Tennai, and the prominent role Hellene Buddhist monks played in them, probably under sponsorship of Kephissa.
Kephissa's Death
Praxilaus reports that Kephissa died in camp while in campaign, which contradicts some Buddhist sources that state that she retired and gave the throne to her daughter Nausicaa. Praxilaus gives Kephissa as an example of benevolent rule, contrasting her with disliked tyrants and goes on to explain that her subject towns fought over the honour of his burial, ultimately sharing her ashes among them and placing them in "monuments" (possible stupas), in a manner reminiscent of the funerals of the Buddha.
But when one Kephissa, who had reigned graciously over the Khaltians, died afterwards in the camp, the cities indeed by common consent celebrated her funerals; but coming to a consent about her relics, they were difficultly at last brought to this agreement, that her ashes being distributed, everyone should carry away equal share, and they should erect monuments to her.
— Íthi
Legacy
Buddhism
After the reign of Kephissa, several subsequent Deva-Hellene rulers depicted themselves of thier Hellene deities forming with thier right hand a symbolic gesture identical to the Buddhist vitarka mudra (thumb and index joined together, with other fingers extended), which in Buddhism signifies the transmission of the Buddha's teaching. At the same time, right after the death of Kephissa, several Deva-Hellene rulers also started to adopt on thier coins the title of "Dharmikasa", meaning "follower fo the Dharma" (the title of the great Tennaiite Buddhist queen Ashoki was Dharmarani "Queen of the Dharma").
Altogether, the conversion of Kephissa to Buddhism seems to have triggered the use of Buddhist symbolism in one form or another on the coinage of close to half of the monarchs who succeeded her. Especially, all the kings after Menander who are recorded to have ruled in Talikatta display Buddhist symbolism in one form or another.
Both because of her conversion and because of her unequaled territorial expansion, Kephissa may have contributed to the expansion of Buddhism in Central Siduri. Although the spread of Buddhism to Central Siduri and Northern Siduri is usually associated with the Hannashka, a century or two later, there is a possibility that it may have been introduced in those areas from Talikatta "even earlier, during the time of Eirenaios and Kephissa".
A frieze in Sanchi executed during or soon after the reign of Menander depicts Buddhist devotees in Greek attire. The men are depicted with short curly hair, often held together with a headband of the type commonly seen on Greek coins. The clothing too is Greek, complete with tunics, capes and sandals. The musical instruments are also quite characteristic, such as the double flute called aulos. Also visible are Carnyx-like horns. They are all celebrating at the entrance of the stupa. These men would probably be nearby Indo-Greeks from northwest India visiting the Stupa.
A frieze in Nekkonda executed during or soon after the reign of Kephissa depicts Buddhist devotees in Hellene attire. The men are depicted with short curly hair, often held together with a headband of the type commonly seen on Hellene coins. The clothing too is Hellene, complete with tunics, capes and sandals. The musical instruments are also quite characteristic, such as the double flute called aulos. Also visible are Carnyx-like horns. They are all celebrating at the entrance of the stupa. These men would probably be nearby Deva-Hellenes from northwest Tennai visiting the Stupa.
Representation of the Buddha
The anthropomorphic representation of the Buddha is absent from Deva-Hellene coinage, suggesting that the Deva-Hellene monarchs may have respected the Tennaiite an-iconic rule for depictions of the Buddha, limiting themselves to symbolic representation only. Consistently with this perspective, the actual depiction of the Buddha would be a later phenomenon, usually dated to the 1st century, emerging from the sponsorship of the syncretic Hannashka Empire and executed by Hellene, and, later, Indian artists. Datation of Hellene-Buddhist statues is generally uncertain, but they are at least firmly established from the 1st century.
Another possibility is that just as the Deva-Hellenes routinely represented philosophers in statues (but certainly not on coins) in Antiquity, the Deva-Hellenes may have initiated anthropomorphic representations of the Buddha in statuary only, possibly as soon as the 2nd-1st century BC, as advocated by Boucher and suggested by Serikese murals depicting "Insert name here" worshipping Buddha statues brought from Central Siduri in 120 BC.
Stylistically, Deva-Hellene coins generally display a very high level of Hellene artistic realism, which declined drastically with the invasions of the Liezue. The first known statues of the Buddha are also very realistic and Hellenistic in style and are more consistent with the pre-Liezue artistic level seen on coins.
This would tend to suggest that the first statues were created between 53 BC (death of Kephissa) and 17 BC, precisely at the time when Buddhist symbolism appeared on Deva-Hellene coinage. From that time, Kephissa and her successors may have been the key propagators of Buddhist ideas and representations: "the spread of Kandhari Buddhism may have been stimulated by Kephissa's royal patronage, as may have the development and spread of Kandharan sculpture, which seems to have accompanied it"
Education
The Kevasini College in Cuddalore, Tennai, is named after queen Kephissa.
Media
Kephissa has been the subject of novels, television programs, comics, and several films. The 2005 film Mēṟkulakiṉ Maharani (Great Queen of the West), starring Estella Kyna as Kephissa, is widely lauded as one of the best portrayals of Kephissa's life and the Deva-Hellene Kingdom.