History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c17.s1.t2.3

c17.s1.t2.3

It is commonly supposed that the Ābhīras of the time of the Sātavāhanas founded a kingdom under Īśvarasena whose inscription we find at Nasik.¹ That inscription gives two important pieces of information: (a) that Īśvarasena who is described as king and in whose 9th year the record is dated, was not the son of a king, his father Śivadatta is described only as an Ābhīra commoner [Śivadatt-Ābhīraputrasya]; (b) the lady donor of the foundation who deposited funds with certain guilds for the pious purpose of providing medicines for sick monks of all denominations, describes herself as the mother of the Gaṇapaka Viśvavarman and as the wife of the Gaṇapaka Rebhila, which indicates that the relations had been presidents of a gaṇa republic. It seems that the Ābhīras, who rise under the imperial Sātavāhanas, had been a republic and that Īśvarasena was the first to assume monarchical title (rājan). He is believed to have ousted the Śaka-Satrap between the years 236 and 239 A.D. The Matsya (§ 155) marks the end of the Ābhīras expressly before the rise of Vindhyaśakti, i.e. about 248 A.D. It seems that with the rise of Īśvarasena the Purāṇas close the republican and subordinate period of the Ābhīras with him. Ten or seven successions in 67 years could only mean republican successions, like the republican successions of the P u ś y a m i t r a s and the other M i t r a s which the Purāṇas give and which are similarly of short durations. We do find the Ābhīras again as a republican community when Samudra Gupta comes on the scene. Īśvarasena probably went out of the Ābhīra constitution and tried to found a dynasty. In his own time the existence of G a ṇ a p a k a s is noted in the Nasik inscription. He could be even a republican ‘rājan’, though, more likely, he was a new monarch outside; it is, however, certain that about his time the Ābhīras as a political community ended their allegiance to the Sātavāhana house. The recognition of the Ābhīra republic by the Sātavāhanas about 67 years before Īśvarasena would be dated at about 160 A.D. They were evidently set up by the Sātavāhanas as a buffer against R u d r a d ā m a n who had been greatly harassed by the republican Y a u d h e y a s and the M ā l a v a s. The Sātavāhanas would have noticed some points of advantage in having a republic next-door to their foe, the Satrap.