The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c24.s2.8

c24.s2.8

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