A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c11.11

c11.11

Under Gautamīputra Śātakarṇi (c. A.D. 80-104), the Sātavāhana power revived. He is described as the destroyer of the Śakas, Pahlavas and Yavanas. He overthrew Nahapāna and restruck large numbers of his silver coins. From the Śakas he recovered northern Mahārāshtra and the Konkan, the Narmada valley and Saurāshtra, besides Malwa and western Rajputana. His empire extended to Vidarbha (Berar) and to Banavāsi in the south. There is no evidence of his rule in Andhradeśa, though it may have touched Kalinga. His achievements are recorded in glowing terms by his mother, Gautamī Balaśrī, in an inscription at Nasik engraved after his death in the nineteenth year of his son and successor Puḷumāyi II. This shows that the Śakas did not regain their lost possessions for some time. Coins of Puḷumāyi II who reigned for at least 24 years have been found in the Godāvari and Guntur districts and on the Coromandel coast as far south as Cuddalore. His preoccupations in the east gave the Śakas an opportunity to regain some of their lost territory in western Rajputana and Malwa (c. A.D. 126-31). In an effort to stay this reconquest Puḷumāyi’s successor, a Śātakarṇi, married the daughter of Mahākshatrapa Rudradāman. But this Śaka king defeated the next Sātavāhana ruler twice in ‘fair fight’ and took from him Aparānta (north Konkan) and Anūpa (the Narmada valley).