Indian Epigraphy c16.s2.46

c16.s2.46

The Śātavāhana kings generally called themselves *Rājan* and sometimes also *Svāmin* which was adopted probably after their contact with the Śaka kings of Western India.⁴ But king Gautamīputra Śātakarṇi is once called *Rājarāja* in his son's inscription.⁵ In the same record, the mother of Gautamīputra Śātakarṇi and the grandmother of his son Vāsiṣṭhīputra Puḷumāvi is described as *Mahārāja-mātā* and *Mahārāja-pitāmahī*. This shows that the title *Mahārāja* was known in the South as early as the second century A.D., although it was not yet quite popular.⁶