The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c20.10.4

v1.c20.10.4

but, since the Kaṇvas are definitely styled 'servants of the Çuṅgas' and for other reasons, it seems more probable that the later Çuṅga kings had been reduced to subjection by their Brāhman ministers, and that the lists of these contemporary rulers nominal and actual were wrongly regarded by some late editor of the Purāṇas as successive. It is further related that one of the Andhra kings¹ slew Suçarman, the last of the Kāṇvas, and thus brought Magadha under the sway of the sovereigns, whose names and titles, as well as their sacrificial inscriptions, show them to have been followers of the ancient Vedic religion. But here again it appears that dynastic lists have been brought together and arranged in an unreal sequence. There can be little doubt that the first of the Andhra kings was earlier in date than the first of the Çuṅgas, and not 157 years later as would appear from the Purāṇas. It is indeed doubtful if the Andhras ever ruled in Magadha: but their sway in Central and Southern India lasted until the middle of the third century A.D.²