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The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c31.s4: III. The Andhras or Telugus

The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c31.s4

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III. The Andhras or Telugus

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The tribe of the Andhras, now known by the name of Telugus¹, appears early in Sanskrit literature². But these references are very vague, and only tell us that the Andhras were a non-Āryan people of some importance in the north-east of the Deccan. It may be inferred that their home then, as now, included the modern Teliṅgāna—the provinces along the eastern coast between the deltas of the rivers Godāvari and Kistna—together with as much of the Circārs as they could hold against the rival kingdom of Kaliṅga on the north. More light is thrown upon them by the statements recorded by Pliny, *H.N.* vi, 19 (22), from which it would appear that some time before the first century a.d., perhaps in the age of Chandragupta the Maurya, they formed an independent kingdom and that they possessed 30 fortified towns and an army estimated at 100,000 infantry, 2000 horsemen, and 1000 elephants. Their earliest capital, according to the current view, was Çrī-kākulam (now probably Sreewacolum on the Kistna, some nineteen miles west from Masulipatam)¹. Somewhat later we find them with a capital at Dhānya-kaṭaka (Dharanikōta or Amarāvati on the Kistna, in the Guntūr District), and in the first century a.d. again with the centre of their western provinces at Pratishṭhāna (Paithan on the Godāvari, in North-western Hyderābād). How far their territories in the earlier period stretched westward into Central India and the Deccan is unknown; their extent probably varied from time to time. Açoka mentions them in his catalogues of the foreign countries which, according to him, had espoused his doctrine²; but there is nothing to show that the Andhras were in any sense subject to him. Soon after his death however their history entered upon a new phase, on which considerable light is thrown by coins, inscriptions, and literature.

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¹ The word *Telugu*, *Teluṅgu*, *Tenuṅgu*, is of uncertain derivation. Native scholars derive it from the Sanskrit *trailiṅga*, 'belonging to the Triliṅga' or land of the Three Phallic Emblems, a title sometimes given to the Telugu country, or from the Telugu word *tene* 'honey.' It seems more likely to be from *ten*, 'south,' and to mean 'southern' (probably from the standpoint of Kaliṅga).

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² It is found in the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* (VII, 18) and the epics, and often later.

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¹ This is however denied by Mr P. T. Srinivas Iyengar, *Ind. Ant.*, 1913, pp. 276 ff.

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² G. xiii and K. xiii, ed. Senart.

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After the death of Açoka the Maurya empire rapidly decayed, and neighbouring rulers were left free to indulge their ambitions and enlarge their boundaries. Among these was a certain Simuka, who in the last quarter of the third century b.c. established the powerful Sātavāhana or Çātakarṇi dynasty, which ruled the Telugu country for nearly five centuries³. In his reign or in the reign of his immediate successor, his younger brother Kṛishṇa (vernacularly Kaṇha), the Andhra empire spread westward to at least 74′ long., and possibly even to the Arabian Sea¹. Under these early Sātavāhana kings the boundaries of the Andhra dominions were enlarged so as to include a great part, if not the whole, of Vidarbha (Berār), the Central Provinces, and Hyderābād. A conflict between this formidable power and the declining Çuṅga empire of Magadha was inevitable; and about 170 B.C. war broke out between Agnimitra, ruling as viceroy of his father Pushyamitra at Vidiçā (Bhīlsa), and the king of Vidarbha, who at this period must almost certainly have been a feudatory of the Andhras². The campaign against Vidarbha is the only event in the struggle which is mentioned in literature; and in this the Çuṅgas were successful. There can, however, be no doubt that the Andhras were ultimately victorious. Although no detailed records have been preserved, coins seem to show that the Andhras were in possession of Ujjain (W. Mālwā̄) in about the middle of the second century B.C., and an inscription bearing the name of a king Çātakarṇi proves that they had superseded the Çuṅgas in the kingdom of Vidiçā (E. Mālwā̄) about a hundred years later (*v. sup.* pp. 531 ff.).

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³ The origin and the meaning of the name of this dynasty are obscure. Usually the word *Çātakarṇi* is regarded as a patronymic from an assumed *Çata-karṇa*, 'Hundred-Ears,' which however is found nowhere; more probably it is connected with *Sāta-vāhana*, which means 'having for emblem the *sāta*.' One is tempted to connect them with the Sātiya-putas mentioned by Açoka (inscr. ii), the Setae to whom Pliny alludes directly after his description of the Andhras, and the tribe of the Sātakas (*Epigr. Ind.* vol. x, App. no. 1021) or Çātakas (*Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa*, lviii, 46). The inscriptions give the following forms of the name: *Sātakaṇi*, *Satakani*, *Sadakani*, *Sāta*, *Sada*, and *Sati*. If the identification with the Sātiya-putas is right, it would seem that the Çātakarṇis were originally a tribe living outside the borders of the Andhra country, perhaps on the west of it, who about a generation after Açoka made themselves masters of the Andhradeça and played in it a part like that of the Normans in England. Mr V. S. Sukthankar (*On the Home of the so-called Andhra Kings, Annals of the Bhandarkar Institute*, i, 1, pp. 21 ff.) seeks with much probability to locate their original home in the Bellary District.

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¹ This is indicated by the inscriptions at Nāsik (no. 1144) and at Nānāghāt, 50 miles north-west of Poona (no. 1114).

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² The poet Kālidāsa in his play *Mālavikāgnimitra*, writing some centuries later, gives to this king of Vidarbha the name of Yajñasena; he may be right.

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But the Çuṅgas and the Andhras were not the only powers which at this period were contending for the mastery in the region now known as Central India. The Hāthigumphā inscription shows that, *c.* 150 B.C., Khāravela, king of Kaliṅga, appeared in the field as a new combatant. We find here mention of a Çātakarṇi, who is supposed to be the successor of Kṛishṇa and the third monarch of the Andhra dynasty; and, according to the interpretation most commonly accepted of two passages in the inscription, Khāravela in the second year of his reign sent a large army to the West ‘disregarding Çātakarṇi,’ and in his fourth year humbled the Rāshṭrikas (of the Marāthā districts) and the Bhojakas (of Berār), who were no doubt subjects of the Andhra suzerain (*v. sup.* pp. 530-1).

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In his twelfth year Khāravela marched into Magadha, and there seems to have forced its king to sue for peace. Whether that king was still Pushyamitra, or indeed any member of the Çuṅga dynasty, is at present uncertain (p. 537). In any case this humiliation of the once powerful kingdom of Magadha was doubtless to the advantage of the Andhras.

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The Nānāghāt inscriptions of this period record the names of a king Çātakarṇi, who may be identified with the rival of Khāravela, of his wife Nāganikā or Nāyaṇikā, and of their young sons Vedi-siri and Sati Sirimanta; but it is not clear whether either Vedi-siri or Sati ever attained to manhood and a throne¹. For many years after this date Andhra history lies in darkness, faintly lighted only by the uncertain records of the Purāṇas. Trustworthy data fail us at this point, and the Andhras disappear from sight until the period to which the second volume of this History will be devoted.

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¹ The name *Sati* was taken by Bühler as equivalent to Sanskrit *Çakti*, and hence Sati has been identified with Haku-siri (*Ep. Ind.* vol. x, App. no. 1117) and Mahāhaku-siri (*ib.* no. 1141). But there are serious phonetic difficulties. Possibly Sati is the same person as the prince Sātavāhana of inscr. no. 1118, and the name of Haku-siri may perhaps be connected with that of Sakasena in the Kānheri inscription (*Arch. Survey of W. India*, v, p. 79; cf. Rapson, *Andhra Coins*, pp. xlvii, lxxv).

Cites (6)