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The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c24.s2: The Kāṇva or Kāṇvāyana Dynasty

The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c24.s2

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The Kāṇva or Kāṇvāyana Dynasty

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The plot which cost the royal debauchee, Devabhūti, his throne and life was contrived by his Brahman minister Vasudeva, who seems to have controlled the state even during the lifetime of his nominal master.² Mitradeva, the slayer of Prince Sumitra, probably belonged to the same powerful family, which is known to history as that of the Kāṇvas, or Kāṇvāyanas. The distinct testimony of both the Purāṇas and Bāṇa that Devabhūti, the tenth and last Śuṅga, was the person slain by Vasudeva, the first Kāṇva, forbids the acceptance of Professor Bhandarkar's theory that the Kāṇva dynasty should be regarded as contemporary with the Śuṅga.³

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² 'In a frenzy of passion the over-libidinous Çuṅga was at the instance of his minister Vasudeva reft of his life by a daughter of Devabhūti's slave-woman disguised as his queen' (Bāṇa, *Harṣa-carita*, ch. vi, transl. Cowell and Thomas, p. 193). 'The minister Vasudeva, forcibly overthrowing the dissolute king Devabhūmi because of his youth, will become king among the Śuṅgas' (Pargiter, p. 71).

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³ *E. Hist. of Dekkan*, 2nd ed. in *Bomb. Gaz.*, vol. i, pt. ii, p. 163. I adopted this theory in my 'Andhra Dynasty' (*Z. D. M. G.*, 1902, p. 658)—but now reject it.

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Vasudeva seized the throne rendered vacant by his crime, and was succeeded by three of his descendants. The whole dynasty, comprising four reigns, covers a period of only forty-five years.¹ The figures indicate, as in the case of the Śuṅgas, that the times were disturbed, and that succession to the throne was often effected by violent means. Nothing whatever is known about the reigns of any of the Kāṇva kings.² The last of them was slain about 28 or 27 B. C. by a king of the Āndhra or Sātavāhana dynasty, which at that time possessed wide dominions stretching across the tableland of the Deccan from sea to sea. Although no coins or monuments connecting the Āndhra kings with Pāṭaliputra, the ancient imperial capital, have yet been discovered, it is possible that they may have controlled the kingdom of Magadha for a time. The most ancient coins of the dynasty at present known are of northern type, and bear the name of Sāta, probably Sātakarni, the sixth king in the Purāṇic list, who was reigning about 150 B. C. The Āndhra coinage from first to last has many obvious affinities with the mintages of the north, which may be explained by the hypothesis that the dynasty really held Magadha as a dependency for a considerable period. But there is little evidence to support such a conjecture.³

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¹ The Purāṇic text is:— ‘He [*scil.* Vasudeva], the Kāṇvāyana, will be king 9 years. His son Bhūmimitra will reign 14 years. His son Nārāyaṇa will reign 12 years. His son Suśarman will reign 10 years. These are remembered as the Śuṅgabhṛtya [*scil.* servants of the Śuṅgas] Kāṇvāyana kings. These 4 Kāṇva brahmans will enjoy the earth; for 45 years they will enjoy this earth. They will have the neighbouring kings in subjection and will be righteous. In succession to them the earth will pass to the Āndhras’ (Pargiter, p. 71; variants in the notes). The details of the length of reigns agree with the total, 45.

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² The coins of Bhūmimitra seem to belong to the Kāṇva dynasty, and also probably the Deva coins (*I. M. Catalogue*).

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³ See the author’s paper on the ‘Āndhra Coinage’ in *Z. D. M. G.*, 1903, pp. 605–27. An ancient Tamil poem, the *Chilappathikāram*, mentions the visit of a Chera prince to a Sātakarna king of Magadha (V. K. Pillai, *The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago*, p. 6).

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The Purāṇas treat the whole Āndhra dynasty as following the Kāṇva, and consequently identify the slayer of the last Kāṇva prince with Simuka or Sipraka, the first of the Āndhra line. But, as a matter of fact, the independent Āndhra dynasty must have begun about 240 or 230 B. C.,¹ long before the suppression of the Kāṉvas about 28 B. C., and the Āndhra king who slew Susarman cannot possibly have been Simuka. It is impossible to affirm with certainty who he was, because the dates of accession of the several Āndhra princes are not known with accuracy. All that can be affirmed at present is that the slayer of Susarman, the last Kāṉva, apparently must have been one or other of three Āndhra kings, namely Nos. 11, 12, or 13. The year 28 B. C. may be accepted as the approximately true date of the extinction of the Kāṉva dynasty; because it depends, not on the duration assigned to each several Āndhra reign, but on the periods of 112 and 45 years respectively allotted to the Sunga and Kāṉva dynasties, which seem worthy of credence; and this date, 28 B. C., apparently must fall within the limits of one or other of the three Āndhra reigns named above.²

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¹ The name of the Āndhra nation is extremely ancient, being mentioned in the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* (vii, 18), 'a work which was certainly composed prior to 500 B. C.' (D. R. Bhandarkar, *Ind. Ant.* xlvii (1916), p. 70). The Āndhras are there represented as a Dasyu race, living on the fringes of the Aryan settlements and descended from Viśvāmitra.

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² Close of Maurya dynasty, c. 185 B. C.; from which deduct 112+45=157, leaving 28.

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