Ancient History of the Deccan c4.s1.t1: No. 1. Mahâraṭhis, Chuṭus, Nâgas

Ancient History of the Deccan c4.s1.t1

Language: English

No. 1. Mahâraṭhis, Chuṭus, Nâgas

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The inscription of Nânâghâṭ (Arch. Surv. West. Ind. Vol. V, No. 3, p. 64) says that Śâtakarṇi, king of Dakshiṇâpatha married Nâga-Nikâ, daughter of a Mahâraṭhi Kaḷalâya.

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The "lion pillar" at Kârlî (Ep. Ind. Vol., VII, page 49) was a gift of Mahâraṭhi Agni-Mitra-Nâga.

After the fall of the Śâtavâhana dynasty, a large portion of the empire passed into the hands of the dynasty of the Chuṭus who were related to the Mahâraṭhis. The Chuṭus and the Mahâraṭhis often bore the title of Śâtakarṇis.

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An inscription (No. 1195 of Lüders's list) at Maḷavalli in the Shikârpur taluq of Mysore (Ep. Carn., Vol. VII, Sk.

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263; plate facing the page 252. See also "Mysore and Coorg from inscriptions", plate facing page 21) is dated in the 2nd year of the reign of Hâritiputa-Vinhukaḍa-Chuṭukulananda Sâtakaṇṇi, king of Vaijayantî. We know that Vaijayantî is nothing but Banavâsi and this very town of Banavâsi contains an inscription (No. 1186 of Lüders's list; see also Arch. Surv. West. Ind., Vol IV., Pl. IV.; and Ind. Ant., 1885, 331) which is dated in the 12th year of the same king: "According to Dr. Burgess, account........., it is carved "on the two edges of a large slate slab, bearing the representation of a five-hooded cobra." (Ind. Ant., Vol. XIV, p. 331). According to Bühler (Ind. Ant. Vol. XIV, p. 332) "the alphabet "resembles, as Dr. Bhagwanlal Indraji has stated, that of the "Nâsik inscription of Siriyaṇa-Sâtakaṇṇi". This king bears here the same name as in the Maḷavalli inscription. However, there is this important thing to be remarked here, that the name of the family is given here as Viṇhukaḍaḍuṭu instead of Viṇhukaḍachuṭu, the word Duṭu is therefore synonymous with Chuṭu. We know (see Rapson, page 59 and Pl. VIII., No. 235) some coins of a king called Dhuṭukaḷânanda who belonged surely to the dynasty of the Chuṭus.

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The inscription of Banavâsi says that king Sâtakaṇṇi had a daughter who joined her son in making gift of a Nâga. The son was called Sâta or Śivaskanda-Nâga-Srî. An inscription at Kaṇhêri (No. 1021 of Lüders's list), is a donation by Nâga-Mula-Nikâ who was the daughter of the "great king" that reigned at this epoch. She was the wife of a Mahâraṭhi and a more important detail is that she was the mother of prince Skanda-Nâga-Sâta. Mr. Rapson writing on this subject says (page LIII): "there can be no doubt that she is to be identified with the donor mentioned in the following inscription from Banavasi and that she was, therefore, the daughter of king Haritiputra Viṣṇukada Cuṭu Śatakarni whose name must have stood originally in the present inscription". Kaṇhêri being situated in Aparânta, there can be no doubt that the Chuṭus succeeded the Ândhras not only in Mysore but also in Aparânta, near Bombay.

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The prince Skanda-Nâga-Śâtaka or Śivaskanda-Nâga was not a Chuṭu because his mother was a Chuṭu princess. His father was a Mahâraṭhi; to which dynasty did he belong? It is 6 probable that he was a descendant of the kings that reigned over the territory of Chitaldroog. We know that Chitaldroog is only about fifty miles east of Banavâsi, where we find the inscription of Śivaskanda-Nâga-Sâta, and to the west of Chitaldroog, on the site of an ancient city whose name is said to have been Chandrâvali where found in 1888 some leaden coins (Ep. Ind. Vol VII, p. 51, see plate III, fig A, B, C; and Rapson; Pl. VIII, No. 233 et page 57) which bear the name of Sadakana-Kaḷalâya-Mahâraṭhi. The emblems are, on the obverse, a humped bull standing, and on the reverse, tree and chaitya. This Sadakana (Śatâkarṇṇi) who bears the title of Mahâraṭhi is probably an ancestor of Mahâraṭhi Satakana or Śâta who made the grant of a Nâga at Banavâsi. In fact, both of them are Mahâraṭhis; they have the same title of Sâta, and they have both reigned in the same country, in the vicinity of Maḷavalli and Chitaldroog. The kings of this country were Nâgas; Mr. Rice says (Mysore and Coorg from inscriptions page 202): "The early inhabitants of the country were probably to a great extent, specially on the female side, Nâgas, or serpent worshippers, that is, of the cobra, which is the Nâga......In the Śatavâhana inscription of Banavâsi of the first or second century, the king's daughter is named Nâgaśrî and she makes the gift of a Nâga". We may add that this queen is named Nâga-Mula-Nikâ in the Kaṇhêri inscription, that her son's name was Skanda-Nâga-Sata; that the Banavâsi inscription is engraved beside the image of a Nâga; and that the country around Maḷavalli and Banavâsi was once called Nâgakhanda. It is probable that these Mahâraṭhis-Nâgas who bore, like the Ândhras, the title of Śâtakarṇi, are the Ândhrabhṛityas or servants of the Ândhras, who, as mentioned in the Purâṇas, succeeded the Śâtavahanas.

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The Myâkadoni inscription (Report on Epigraphy for 1915—16; Madras, G. O. No. 99; 29th Aug 1916, Part II, No. 1, page 112—inscription No. 509 of Apendix B.—See also Ep. Ind. Vol. XIV., page 153) says that this village was in the territory governed by the great general (Mahâsênâpati) Kamdanâka (Skanda-Nâga) and we know that Myâkadoni is not far from Chitaldroog. The Myâkadoni inscription is dated in the 8th year of the reign of Siri-Puḷumâvi. Who is this Puḷumâvi? It is noteworthy that we do not find here the name Vâsisṭhiputra which is peculiar to the inscriptions of the son of Gautamîputra. Besides, the alphabet of the Myâkadoni inscription is much less archaic than that of the inscriptions of great Puḷumâvi. Mr. V. S. Sukthankar of Poona who has edited the Myâkadoni inscription has observed this detail: "The alphabet resembles that of the Jaggayyapeta inc. of Purisadata" (Ep. Ind. Vol. XIV., page 153); and the inscriptions of Purisadata at Jaggayyapeta have been attributed to the III century by all the authors who have spoken of it and no one doubts that Purisadata reigned after the Śâtavâhanas. The alphabet of the Myâkadoni inscription is incontestably much more developed than the alphabets of all the other Śâtavâhana inscriptions and very much resembles those of the Chuṭus and the ancient Pallavas. It is therefore very probable that the Puḷumâvi of the Myâkadoni inscription is the last king of the Śâtavahana dynasty in the list given in the Matsya Purâṇa. The only objection that can be raised, is that the inscription is dated in the 8th year of his reign, whereas the Matsya Purâṇa gives him only a reign of 7 years. But we have already said that we must not rely on the duration of the reigns given in the Matsya Purâṇa; this objection is therefore worthless, and there are reasons to think that the Myâkadoni inscription is dated in the reign of the last of the Śatavâhanas. In any case, we may affirm that this Puḷumâvi is not the son of Gautamîputra. We know the alphabet of this king from the Nâsik and Amarâvati inscriptions; and there is a very great difference between them and that of Myâkadoni; I believe that there must be an interval of more than a century between the two Puḷumâvis, and that the Puḷumâvi of Myâkadoni is certainly one of the later Śâtavâhanas. The discovery of the Myâkadoni inscription has a very important bearing on this subject; it enlightens the causes of the fall of the Śâtavâhana dynasty: we learn, in fact, that in the 8th year of the last king of this dynasty, a certain Skanda-Nâga was the Mahâsênâpati — that is to say the military governor — of all the country extending to the South of the Tuṅgabhadra not far from Chiṭaldroog and Banavâsi.

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Śiva-Skanda-Nâga who is mentioned in the Banavâsi inscription had probably a glorious reign, as, even in the time of the Kadambas, they remembered his name; in fact, an inscription at Maḷavaḷḷi (No. 1196 of Lüders's list), which is surely an inscription of an ancient Kadamba king, says that king Śivaskandavarman reigned over that country at one time (see the Plate in Ep. Carn. Vol. VII., facing the page 252).

Cites (2)

Matsyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Amarāvatī inscription (No. 22) — Prakrit