Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c17.s2.4

c17.s2.4

The founder of the Sātavāhana dynasty was **Simuka** whose name is misspelt as Śiśuka, Sindhuka and Śipraka in the *Purāṇas*. Those works state that the "Andhra" Simuka will assail the Kāṇvāyanas and Suśarman, and destroy the remains of the Śuṅgas' power and will obtain this "earth". If this statement be true then it cannot be denied that Simuka was for some years a contemporary of Suśarman (40-30 B.C.) and flourished in the first century B.C. *Rapson*, *Smith* and many other scholars, however, reject the unanimous testimony of the *Purāṇas*. They attach more importance to a statement about which there is not the same unanimity, that the "Andhras" ruled for four centuries and a half. Accordingly, they place Simuka towards the close of the third century B.C., and say that the dynasty came to an end in the third century A.D.