Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c17.s2.42

c17.s2.42

theories about (1) the existence of two contemporary Sātavāhana kingdoms *ruled by son and father* respectively, (2) cross-cousin marriages and (3) matrilineal succession, which he discusses in *JASB*, 1927, 503ff and 1939, 317-339. In his opinion the discrepancies in the Purāṇic lists cannot be due to any oversight or slip on the part of the editors (1927, p. 504). They are to be explained by the theory of an original version (that contained in the *Matsya*) which gives the full list of Gautamīputras as well as Vāsiṣṭhīputras, and a 'revised text" (contained in the *Vāyu* and *Brahmāṇḍa*) which retains the Gautamīputras but from which certain names were deliberately expunged as the rulers in question were not considered by the revising authorities to possess the privilege of having the names preserved in the purāṇas (ibid p. 505). Kings (e.g., Vāsiṣṭhīputra Pulumāvi), whose names are "expunged" from the "revised text" of the *Vāyu* and the *Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇas*, belong to a "set" which is genealogically connected with the other, *viz.*, the Gautamīputra group, whose names are retained in the revised versions, but "the succession did not coincide with the mode of descent." For instance, Gautamīputra Sātakarṇi, according to the revised list, was succeeded not by his son Pulumāvi, but by another Gautamīputra, *viz.*, Yajña Śrī (p. 509). It is further added that 'on the coins of the Sātavāhanas the royal prefix and the mother's clan-name are associated together and also disappear together except in the case of the third king of the line.' In the inscriptions also the association is invariable (excluding the doubtful case of Sivamakasada), except in the case of the third king, Śrī Sātakarṇi of the Nānāghāṭ Cave Inscriptions. It is, therefore, to be concluded that, except for the third king of the line, the royal title and relationship to the mother went together. In other words, the succession was matrilineal (p. 515); "The son succeeded to the conquered realm, and the sister's son to the inherited kingdom" (p. 527).