Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c19.s2.1

c19.s2.1

**Gautamīputra's** victory over the Kshaharātas led to the restoration of the Sātavāhana power in Mahārāshṭra and some adjoining provinces. The recovery of Mahārāshṭra is proved by a Nāsik inscription, dated in the year 18,¹ and a Karle epigraph addressed to the *Amātya* or the king's officer in charge of Māmāla (the territory round Karle, modern Māval in the Poona district). But this was not the only achievement of Gautamīputra. We learn from the Nāsik record of queen Gautamī Balaśrī that her son destroyed the Śakas (Scythians), Yavanas (Greeks) and Pahlavas (Parthians), and that his dominions extended not only over Asika,² Asaka (Aśmaka on the Godāvarī, a part of Mahārāshṭra),³ and Mūlaka (the district around Paiṭhan), but also over Suratha (South Kāṭhiāwār), Kukura (in Western or Central India, possibly near the Pāriyātra or the Western Vindhyas),⁴ Aparānta (North Koṅkaṇ), Anupa (district around Māhishmatī on the Narmadā), Vidarbha (Greater Berar), and Ākara-Avanti (East⁵ and west Mālwa). He is further styled lord of all the mountains from the Vindhyas to the Malaya or Travancore hills, and from the Eastern (Mahendra) to the Western (Sahya) Ghāṭs. The possession of Vejayantī in the Kanarese country is possibly hinted at in the Nāsik inscription of the year 18. The names of the Andhra country (Andhrāpatha) and South Kosala are, however, conspicuous by their absence. Inscriptions, coins and the testimony of Hiuen Tsang prove that both these territories were at one time or other included within the Sātavāhana empire. The earliest Sātavāhana king whose inscriptions have been found in the Andhra region is Pulumāyi, son of Gautamīputra. It is, however, possible that some vague claim of suzerainty over the areas in question is implied in the boast that Gautamīputra was lord of the Vindhyas and the Eastern Ghāṭs (Mahendra) and that his chargers “drank the water of the three oceans” (*tisamudatoya-pīta-vāhana*). Moreover “Asika” seems to have included a considerable portion of the valley of the Kṛishṇā.