Early History of the Dekkan down to the Mahomedan Conquest c11.38

c11.38

Here we have the same names as before, but the words Viḷivâvakurasa and Sevalakurasa have not yet been interpreted by any student of Indian antiquities. On a former occasion I put forth a conjecture that they were the names of the viceroys of those kings appointed to govern the country about Kolhâpur.²² For, coins of two of these princes and of a few others belonging to the same dynasty are found near Dharaṇikoṭ in the Gantur District about the site of Dhanakaṭaka, the old capital. The legends on these do not contain those words, and the coins are of a different type from those found at Kolhâpur. These last, therefore, it appeared to me, were struck on this side of the country, and consequently bore the names of the viceroys under whose authority they were issued. The truth of this conjecture I will demonstrate further on. It will be seen from what is to be stated hereafter that the Vâsiṭhîputa of these coins who had Viḷivâyakura for his viceroy can be no other than Vâsishṭhîputra Puḷumâyi. [21] The Gotamîputa must be Gotamîputra Yajña Sâtakarṇi of the inscriptions, for the father of Puḷumâyi did not reign on this side of the country, as none of the inscriptions are dated in his reign though his exploits are described in the Nâsik Caves Madharîputa must have come after Gotamîputa and not after Vâsiṭhîputa, as is maintained by some scholars, for his viceroy was a different person from that of the other two The fact that these two had the same viceroy shows that one of them immediately succeeded the other Another prince with a different viceroy could not come between them In the stûpa dug out at Supârâ, Paṇḍit Bhagvânlâl found a silver coin in a copper casket On the obverse of the coin, which bears a well-shaped head of the king, we have the legend Rañño Gotamiputasa Sîrî Yañña Sâtakanisa, which means "[this coin is] of the king Gotamîputra Śrî Yajña Sâtakarṇi" This therefore is the prince in whose name the coin was issued There is another legend on the reverse which though some of the letters are not distinct appears to be *Gotamiputa-Kumâru-Yañña-Sâtakani-Chaturapanasa* the sense of which is "[this coin is] of Chaturapana Yañña Sâtakani, prince of Gotamîputa"²³ The coin was thus like the Kolhâpur coins issued in the names of two persons, of whom Yajña Śrî Sâtakarṇi was the reigning sovereign, as his name appears round the bust, and Chatarapana who was his son represented him as viceroy in the province in which the coin was issued, and which from the shape and get-up of the coin appears to have been once ruled over by the Kshatrapas of Ujjavinî or Kâṭhıâwâḍ.