A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c11.8

c11.8

The exact date of the foundation of Sātavāhana power cannot be determined, but the purānic lists suggest that the first king, Simuka, probably began to reign about 230 B.C. This suggestion is confirmed by the script of the Nasik inscription of the second king Kanha (Krishna) which has been assigned by Bühler to the times of the last Mauryas or the earliest Śungas, in the beginning of the second century B.C. According to Jain accounts Simuka (who ruled for 23 years) grew so wicked towards the end of his reign that he was dethroned and killed. He was succeeded by his brother Kanha (207-189 B.C.) who extended his kingdom to the west as far as Nasik if not farther. The third king was Śrī Śātakarni I, whose figure was sculptured in rilievo at Naneghat along with the figures of his father Simuka, his queen Nāganikā, a Mahārathi, and three princes. He conquered western Malwa, and an inscription of his queen records his performance of certain great sacrifices and the fees paid to the officiating priests, including tens of thousands of cows, thousands of horses, numbers of elephants, whole villages and huge sums of money (tens of thousands of kārshāpanas). Twice it appears that Śātakarni proclaimed his suzerainty by performing the horse-sacrifice, and the victory thus celebrated must have been at the expense of the Śungas, the imperial power of the North. In the drama Mālavikāgnimitra, Kālidāsa mentions a victory of the Śungas over the Andhras, which was doubtless an episode in the struggle which ended with the final victory of the Andhras. Coins and inscriptions indicate the progress of Sātavāhana power, first from Pratishthāna to Ujjain and then to Vidiśā. Sātakarni I may be the king mentioned in the Hāthigumpha inscription of Khāravela, but it is more likely that it refers to Sātakarni II, the seventh Andhra king who must have come to the throne about 172 B.C. Sātakarni I is described in the inscription of his queen as 'the Lord of Dakshināpatha' and as 'the wielder of the unchecked wheel' (apratihata-chakra). Sātakarni II enjoyed the longest reign, 56 years, and wrested Malwa from the Śungas. He was most probably the Sātakarni whom Khāravela of Kalinga defied in the second year of his reign by sending a large army of horse, elephant, foot-soldiers and chariots to the west. Two years later Khāravela claims to have humbled the Rathikas of the Maratha country and the Bhojas of Berar, both feudatories of the Andhra ruler of Pratishthāna. This challenge to the predominant power of the Deccan was apparently not pursued beyond the limit of safety. Sātakarni II may have extended his empire to Madhya Pradesh, as a coin of his successor Āpilaka has been found in the eastern half of that state. Hāla, the seventeenth Sātavāhana king (c. A.D. 20-24), is famous in literature as the compiler of Sattaśai (Saptaśatī), a collection of 700 erotic gāthas in the Āryā metre in Mahārāshtrī Prākrit. In its present form the work contains linguistic features of the second or third century A.D. or even later.