Early History of the Dekkan down to the Mahomedan Conquest c11.27

c11.27

Since Gotamî is spoken of as the mother of a king and the grandmother of a king, and the wife of her son Gotamîputra Śâtakarṇi is [19] represented as the mother of a king, and since the only other king besides Śâtakarṇi mentioned in these inscriptions is Puḷumâyi, it appears that this last was the grandson and son respectively of these two ladies He was therefore the son and his mother Vâsishṭhî the wife of Gotamîputra Śâtakarṇi Śâtakarṇi issued the charter contained in the second inscription in the year 18, which must be the eighteenth year of Puḷumâyi's reign, since dates referring to his reign only are found at Nâsik and Kârlı and not to that of Gotamîputra Even the date of the large inscription noticed above in which Gotamîputra's great deeds are recorded is referred to Puḷumâyi's reign And the grant of the village alluded to in that inscription and the one below appears to have been made by Gotamîputra, since he is spoken of as "the lord of Dhanakaṭaka," though the portion of the rock containing the words that would have rendered the sense clear has been cut away Gotamî is spoken of as dedicating the cave in the present tense, wherefore it must be understood she was alive at the time The father and the son appear thus to have reigned at the same time, the son on this side of the country since the inscriptions are dated in his reign, and the father at Dhanakaṭaka, which has been identified with Dharaṇîkoṭ in the Guntur district of the Madras Presidency And this is confirmed by the fact, mentioned above, of Gotamî's having been called the mother of the great king and the grandmother of the great king This statement would be pointless if she were not both at one and the same time ¹⁷