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The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (collected till 1923) and Outlines of Political History c9.s2.t4: Andhra Kings

The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (collected till 1923) and Outlines of Political History c9.s2.t4

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Andhra Kings

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Sātavāhana or Sātakarṇi kings. Originally chiefs of a tribe in the neighbourhood of the Vindhya hills. Aśōka's rock-edict XIII. c. B.C. 250 mentions them as ruling a country beyond his borders. Khārāvēla's inscription of 168 B.C. in the Hāthigumpha cave (I.A. 1920, p. 43, vol. XLII, 276, 281) says that the Āndhra kingdom lay to the West of Kalinga (See I. Ramadas's Monograph in I.A. April 1923). The ancient Kalinga kings were Jains. The Āndhras were Buddhists. The latter rose to great power on the decay of Aśōka's one time, about the second century B.C., extended almost all across India as far as Nasik. An inscription discovered as Kodavalu near Piṭhāpūr, Godavari district, shews that at least about A.D. 208 the Āndhras were ruling that country. The Amarāvati Stupa with its wonderful marble sculptures, the Gaṇṭupalle cave-group, and many Buddhist stupas about the Godavari and Kistna tracts were the work of the Āndhras. The relationship of successive kings to one another is not clearly known.

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The dates given here are taken from Vincent Smith's 'Early History of India', pp. 183 f., with which generally Dr. Barnett concurs (Antiquities of India).¹

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¹ The given dates are not all certain. The Matsya, Vāyu, and Brahma Purāṇas give lists of the kings, but differ here and there in their statements of lengths of reigns. Vincent Smith has attempted to reconcile them. Between Nos. 4 and 5 the Matsya Purāṇa interpolates 'Śrīvasvāti, alias Skandasthambi. No. 15 is omitted by Fergusson and Burgees.

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| | | | Approx. dates of accessions. |
| 1. | *Śimuka* (or, variously, Śisuka, Sipraka, Sindhuka) Sātakarṇi. 23 years | ... | B.C. 220 |
| 2. | *Kaṇha*, or *Kṛiṣhṇa*. Brother of No. 1, 18 years. His rule extended across India from the West of Kalinga to Nasik | ... | 197 |
| 3. | *Yajña-Śri Sātakarṇi*, or *Śrīmallakarṇi*, or *Śāntakarṇa*. 10 years. Defeated by Agnimitra of Magadha about 170, B.C (Dr. Barnett holds that the ultimate end was an Āndhra success). | ... | 179 |
| 4. | *Pūrṇōtsaṅga*. 18 years. The Kalinga king Khārāvēla's war in the West, 169, B.C. (I.A. 1920, p. 43). | ... | 169 |
| 5. | *Sātakarṇi*. 40 years | ... | 151 |
| 6. | *Lambodara*. 18 years | ... | 111 |
| 7. | *Apīṭaka*, or Apilaka, or Ivilaka. 12 years | ... | 93 |
| 8. | *Saṅgha*, or Mēghasvāti. 18 years | ... | 81 |
| 9. | *Sātakarṇi*, or Śātasvāti. 18 years | ... | 63 |
| 10. | *Skandasvāti*, or Skanda Sātakarṇi. 7 years | ... | 45 |
| 11. | *Mṛigēndra Sātakarṇi*, or Mahēndra. 3 years | ... | 38 |
| 12. | *Kuntala*, or Svātikarna. 8 years | ... | 35 |
| 13. | *Śata Sātakarṇi*, or Svātikarṇi, or Svātiśhēna. 1 year | ... | 27 |
| 14. | *Pulumāyi I*, or Pulōmāvi, or Paṭumāvi, or Paṭumat. 32 years. One of the three last slew Suśarman the last king of the Kaṇva dynasty of Magadha. 27 B.C. | ... | 26 |
| 15. | *Mēgha Sātakarṇi*. 33 years | ... | A.D. 6 |
| 16. | *Ariṣhṭa Sātakarṇi*, or Ariṣhṭakarṇi, or Nēmi Krishna or Gaura-Krishna, or Gorakṣhāśva Śri. 25 years | ... | 44 |
| 17. | *Hala*, or Hālēya, patron of scholars and poets. 5 years | ... | 71 |
| 18. | *Maṇḍalaka*, or Mantalaka, or Paṭalaka. 5 years | ... | 76 |
| 19. | *Purīndrasēna*, or Purīṣhasēna, or Pravīrasēna. 5 years | ... | 79 |
| 20. | *Sundara Sātakarṇi*. 1 year. Mentioned in the Periplus, The Greeks called him 'Sandanes.' He was in possession of Kalyāṇ. The Śaka Satraps seized some of the northern possessions of the Āndhras | ... | 84 |
| 21. | *Vilivāyakura I*, or Vāsiṣhṭhīputra, or Chakora, or Rājada Sātakarṇi. Six months | ... | 85 |

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22. *Śivālakura*, or Māḍharīputra Śakasēna, or Śivasvāti Śātakarṇi. *Md. Bālāśiri*. 28 years ... A.D. 85

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23. *Vilivāyakura II*, or Gautamīputra Śrī Śātakarṇi, 25 years. Drove out from his western dominions the Śakas, Yavanas and Pahlavas. His *Śaka* enemy, the Kṣatrapa Nahāpāṇa was killed about A.D. 124, and his kingdom annexed (*I.A. 1918, p. 149.*) But a little later the Āndhras were defeated by the Śaka king Caṣṭhana and lost all their territories north of the Narbadda river. Capital, Kolhapur, Ptolemy's 'Hippokoura.' (Dr. Barnett's date for his accession is A.D. 106) ... 113

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24. *Puḷumāyi II*, or Vāsiṣṭhīputra, or Puḷōmat, or Puḍumāyi called by Ptolemy 'Siro Polemaios.' 32 years. Married Dakṣamitrā, daughter of the Śaka Kṣatrapa Rudradāman I. Capital Paiṭhan. Lost to Rudradāman all his western dominions including Kāthiāwār, Kachch, Mālwa, the Konkan, etc., but not Poona or Nasik (Dr. Barnett's date for his accession is A.D. 131)... ... 138

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25. *Śivaśrī*, or Vāsiṣṭhīputra, or Avi-Śātakarṇi. 7 years. (Dr. Barnett places his accession about A.D. 163. He finds that he was living in A.D. 155) ... ... ... 170

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26. *Śivaskanda Śātakarṇi*, or Skandasvāti. 7 years. May be the same as Vāsiṣṭhīputra Candrasāti who, according to Dr. Barnett, was living in A.D. 165 ... ... ... 177

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27. *Yajña Śrī Gautamīputra*. 29 years. Recovered some lost territory; but Poona and Nasik were held by the Chuṭu-Śātakarṇis, a branch of the old royal family (*see below*) who were apparently tributary to the Śaka kings, and ruled at Baṇavāsi; so that his dominions were mostly confined to the Telugu districts and the eastern Dekhan country. ... ... ... 184

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28. *Vijaya-Śrī Śātakarṇi*. 6 years . . . . . 213

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29. *Vaḍa-Śrī*, or Candravijña, or Vāsiṣṭhīputra Candra-Śrī, Śātakarṇi. 10 years ... ... 219

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30. *Puḷumāyi III*, or Puḷomāvi or Puḷōmarchis. 7 years. The Dynasty came to a complete end about A.D. 236. The reason for its collapse is not well known. About the years A.D. 225 to 250 the Pallava king Bappa established a dynasty which ruled from the Kṛṣhṇa river to Kāñchī in the south, while the Kalinga kings held the country to N.-E. ... ... ... 229

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