The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c24.s3: The Āndhra or Andhra Dynasty
The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c24.s3
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The Āndhra or Andhra Dynasty
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Before proceeding to narrate the history of the Āndhra kings after the extinction of the Kāṉva dynasty we must cast back a glance to the more distant past, and trace the steps by which the Āndhra kingdom became one of the greatest powers in India.
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In the days of Chandragupta Maurya and Megasthenes, ths Āndhra nation, a Dravidian people, mentioned in the *Aitareya Brahmana* of very early date, and now represented by the large population speaking the Telugu language, occupied the deltas of the Godāvarī and Krishnā (Kistna) rivers on the eastern side of India, and was reputed to possess a military force second only to that at the command of the king of the Prasii, Chandragupta Maurya. The Andhra territory included thirty walled towns, besides numerous villages, and the army consisted of 100,000 infantry, 2,000 cavalry, and 1,000 elephants.¹ The capital of the state is believed to have been then Srī Kākulam, on the lower course of the Krishnā.² The nation thus described evidently was independent.
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¹ Pliny, *Hist. Nat.*, Book vi, 21, 22, 23, from information probably supplied by Megasthenes. The passage is fully discussed in the author's monograph, 'Āndhra History and Coinage' (*Z. D. M. G.*, 1902, 1903), to which reference may be made by readers desirous of examining in detail the sources of Āndhra history. See P. T. Srinivas Iyengar, 'Misconceptions about the Āndhras' (*Ind. Ant.*, (Nov., 1913), pp. 276–8). He argues that the Āndhras must have spoken Prākrit, not Telugu, and that their rule spread from west to east down the river valleys, and not as stated in the text.
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² Burgess, 'The Stūpas of Amarāvatī and Jaggayapeta', *A.S.S.I.*, p. 3 (referring to Wilson, *Mackenzie MSS.*, vol. i, introd. p. cxvii, and Campbell, *Telugu Grammar*, introd. p. ii). The site of the ancient town (N. lat. 20° 28′, E. long. 85° 55′) has been cut away by the river (Rea, *Proc. Govt. Madras, Public*, No. 423, dated June 18, 1892).
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When next mentioned in Asoka's edicts (256 B. C.) they were reckoned among the tribes and nations resident in or adjoining the outer circle of the empire, and perhaps subject to the imperial command, although doubtless enjoying a considerable degree of autonomy under their own Rāja.³ The withdrawal of the strong arm of Asoka was the signal for the disruption of his vast empire. While the home provinces continued to obey his feeble successors upon the throne of Pātaliputra, the distant governments, including Kalinga, which he had taken so much trouble to annex, shook off the imperial yoke and reasserted their independence.
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³ 'And likewise here, in the king's dominions, among the Yonas and Kambojas, in (?) Nābhaka of the Nābhitis, among the Bhojas and Pitinikas (? see p. 193, *note* 2, *ante*), among the Andhras and Pulindas, everywhere men follow the Law of Piety as proclaimed by His Majesty' (Rock Edict XII).
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The Āndhras were not slow to take advantage of the opportunity given by the death of the great emperor, and very soon after the close of his reign, or possibly even before its close, to assert their independent power under the government of a king named Simuka. The new dynasty extended its sway with such extraordinary rapidity that, in the reign of the second king, Krishna (Kanha), the town of Nāsik, near the source of the Godāvarī in the Western Ghāts, was included in the Āndhra dominions, which thus stretched across India.
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The third king, Srī Sātakarṇi, who is described as Lord of the West, was defied by Khāravela, king of Kalinga in the east, which kingdom also had recovered its independence after the death of Asoka.¹
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¹ The Udayagiri or Hāthigumphā inscription of Khāravela, the Jain king of Kalinga, has now been edited by K. P. Jayaswal and R. D. Banerji in *J. B. O. Res. Soc.*, iii, pp. 425–507, with good facsimiles. The inscription is dated in the year 165/164 of 'Rājā Muriya', *scil.* Chandragupta. We learn that Khāravela, surnamed Mahā Meghavāhana, the third of the Cheta or Chaitra dynasty of Kalinga, was anointed as Mahārāja when twenty-four years of age, having been already Crown Prince (*yuvarāja*) for nine years. In his second year he defied Sātakarṇi, by sending an army to the west. In his fifth year he repaired an aqueduct which had not been used for 300 years from the time of king Nanda, and in the same year, harassed the king of Rājagriha, i. e. of Magadha. In his twelfth year he watered his elephants in the Ganges, and compelled the king of Magadha to bow at his feet. In his thirteenth year he erected certain pillars. The Nanda king mentioned in the inscription must be Nandivardhana or Nanda I, the date of whose accession as counted back from the fifth year of Khāravela approximates very closely to the date deduced by K. P. Jayaswal from the date in the dynastic lists of the Purāṇas (R. D. Banerji in *J. B. O. Res. Soc.*, iii, Dec. 1917), pp. 497–99). The Āndhra king alluded to can only be Śrī Sātakarṇi, No. 3 of the Purāṇic list, who is commemorated by a defaced, but happily inscribed, relief image at Nānāghāṭ, a pass leading from the Konkan to the ancient town of Junnār in the Poona District, Bombay (*A. S. W. I.*, vol. v, p. 59). The synchronism of Sātakarṇi I with Khāravela proves conclusively that the Āndhra dynasty cannot have begun with the death of the last Kāṇva king. The date assigned to Sātakarṇi I is in full accord with the script of the Nānāghāṭ inscriptions, which include similar records of the first and second Āndhra kings, Simuka and Krishṇa (Lüders, *op. cit.*, Nos. 1113, 1114, 1144). The king of Magadha whom Khāravēla defeated was Pushyamitra of the Śuṅga dynasty.
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Nothing more is heard of the Āndhra kings until one of them, as above related, in or about 28 B.C., slew the last of the Kāṇvas, and no doubt annexed the territory, whatever it may have been, which still recognized the authority of that dynasty. The Āndhra kings all claimed to belong to the Sātavāhana family, and many of them assumed the title or bore the name of Sātakarṇi. They are consequently often referred to by one or other of these designations, without mention of the personal name of the monarch, and it is thus sometimes impossible to ascertain which king is alluded to. As already observed, the real name of the slayer of Susarman Kāṇva is not known.
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The name of Hāla, the seventeenth king, by virtue of its association with literary tradition, possesses special interest. The anthology of erotic verses, written in the ancient dialect of Mahārāshtra, and entitled *Saptaśataka*, or ‘Seven Centuries’, professes to be the composition of Hāla, and is ascribed by tradition to Sālivāhana, another form of Sātavāhana. Prof. Sir R. G. Bhandarkar therefore has suggested that probably either king Hāla may have been the author of the work, or it may have been dedicated to him.¹ Other traditions also associate literature written in Prākrit with kings of the Āndhra dynasty. In their time and territory Sanskrit, apparently, was not in ordinary use as the language of polite literature.
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¹ *Early Hist. of the Dekkan*, 2nd ed., in *Bomb. Gaz.* (1896), vol. i, pt. ii, p. 171. M. M. Haraparshad Shastri (*Ep. Ind.*, xii, 320) notes that Hāla ‘cannot be placed later than the first century A. D.’, and that the *Saptaśatī* (as he calls it) mentions a king named Vikramāditya, who *may* be the founder of the era.
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During the reigns of kings No. 23, Rāja Gautamīputra Srī Sātakarni, and No. 24, Rāja Vāsishtīputra Srī Pulumāyi, the Āndhras engaged in conflicts with the foreign tribes which had formed settlements and carved out kingdoms in Western India, subordinate apparently at first to the Indo-Parthian and subsequently to the Kushān sovereigns. Such conflicts between indigenous Rājas and alien chiefs frequently recur in the history of ancient India.
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The story of the foreign settlements in the regions now mostly included in the Bombay Presidency is fragmentary and obscure, but can be made out to some extent from study of coins and inscriptions. The earliest foreign ruler in the west whose name has been preserved was the Satrap Bhūmaka Kshaharāta, who struck coins with Parthian affinities, and may be presumed to have been subordinate to one or other of the Indo-Parthian kings, perhaps Gondophares. His exact date is not known, but he may be assigned approximately to the early years of the first century after Christ, and may have had predecessors. The Kshaharātas were connected with the Sakas, and may have immigrated from Sakastēnē, the modern Sīstān.
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The next recorded Kshaharāta chief is Nahapāna, who may or may not have been the immediate successor of Bhūmaka, and may be assigned approximately to the middle of the first century after Christ, or possibly earlier. His name indicates Persian origin. At first he held the rank of Satrap, like Bhūmaka, but subsequently assumed the higher style of Great Satrap (*mahākshatrapa*), and was also known by the Indian title of Rāja. His dominions comprised a large area, extending from Southern Rājputāna as far northward as Ajmēr and Pushkar, to the Nāsik and Poona Districts in the Western Ghāts, and including the peninsula of Surāshtra or Kāthiāwār. His titles of Satrap and Great Satrap indicate subordination to a northern power, which can only have been that of the Kushāns.¹
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¹ D. R. Bhandarkar regards him as a viceroy of Kadphises II (*Ind. Ant.*, xlvii (1918), p. 76) and also of Kadphises I, who is called simply Kushāna in the Taxila scroll inscription of the year 136. The *Kuśana* of the Nāsik inscription 12 seems to mean the silver coinage of Nahapāna, who, like Kadphises I, imitated Roman coins. The varying heads on his coins appear to be merely imitations and not portraits at all. Minnagala, which according to the *Periplus* was the capital of Nahapāna, may be identified with Mandasor, in accordance with the latitude and longitude given by Ptolemy, nearly 2 degrees E. and 2 degrees N. of Barygaza.
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The Āndhra king, No. 23, Rāja Gautamīputra Srī Sātakarṇi, who may be assumed to have come to the throne about the beginning of the second century A. D., succeeded in extirpating the Kshaharāta dynasty and annexing their dominions about A. D. 119. He signalized his victory by calling in the money issued by the vanquished princes during many years, restamping it in a crude fashion with his own insignia. At the height of his power he was master of the whole country watered by the Godāvarī, Berar, Mālwā, Kāthiāwār, Gujarāt, and the north Konkan.² He posed as the champion of the Hindu religions, including both Brahmanical Hinduism and Buddhism, as against the creeds of casteless foreigners, Sakas, Pahlavas, and others, and prided himself on having re-established the practice of caste rules. He thus ‘restored the glory of the Sātavāhana race’, and was in a position to gratify his Hindu sentiment by liberal donations to both Brahmans and Buddhists. It is a curious fact that, although the Āndhra kings clearly were officially Brahmanical Hindus, most of their recorded donations were made to Buddhist institutions.
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² D. R. Bhandarkar in *Ind. Ant.*, xlvii, 1918, ‘Dekkan of the Sātavāhana Period’.
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About A. D. 128 Rāja Gautamīputra Srī Sātakarṇi was succeeded by his son, Rāja Vāsishṭhīputra Srī Pulumāyi, who had been his colleague,¹ and reigned for some thirty years. He was married to a daughter of Rudradāman I, the Saka Great Satrap of Ujjain, but the matrimonial connexion did not prevent the Great Satrap from twice defeating his son-in-law and taking from him most of the territory which Gautamīputra Sātakarṇi had won from the Kshaharātas. The relationship, however, so far influenced the victor that he did not proceed to extremities, as he would have done to a stranger. The aggrandizement of Rudradāman I must have been largely completed before A. D. 130, by which date he was in possession of Cutch, and certainly before A. D. 150, because we know that shortly after that date he placed on record a list of the numerous regions in Western India which owned his sway.
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¹ During his conjoint reign with Pulumāyi, Gautamīputra Srī Sātakarṇi held sway over Āndhradesa, the hereditary Sātavāhana dominion, and Pulumāyi over Mahārāshtra (the Deccan) (D. R. Bhandarkar, *ibid.*).
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Rudradāman I, a learned and accomplished prince, who thus raised his house to the position of the leading power in the West, was the grandson of the great Satrap Chashtaṇa, whose coins in silver and copper, inscribed with Greek, Brahmī, and Kharoshṭhī legends, are found in Gujarāt. The events of Chashtaṇa's reign are not on record, but his approximate date is easily ascertained from the facts that his grandson is known to have been reigning in A. D. 130 and 150. Chashtaṇa, therefore, may be placed in the period from about A. D. 80 to 110. These dates imply that Chashtaṇa held his office as Great Satrap under the Kushān dynasty, that is to say, under Kadphises II, according to my chronology.² The Saka satraps of Surāshtra and Mālwa naturally followed the examples of their Kushān sovereigns by using the Saka era, then newly established. The abundance of dated coins and inscriptions permits of no doubt as to the outlines of the chronology of the dynasty founded by Chashtana, the history of which will be further noticed in connexion with the Gupta kings.
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² Bühler long ago recognized the true relation between Chashtaṇa and the Indo-Scythian kings. See transl. in *Ind. Ant.*, 1913, p. 189, of his old essay on Indian Inscriptions, &c. The Girnār inscription records the bursting of the dam of the lake in A. D. 150, but the record itself must have been incised some years later (ibid., p. 190). Benoytosh Bhattacharya in *J. B. O. Res. Soc.*, vi (1920), pp. 51–3, declares that the name on one of the two statues discovered with the statue of Kanishka at Mat, 9 miles north of Mathurā, is 'Chastana'. K. P. Jayaswal (ibid., v (1919), p. 511) accepts Bhattacharya's reading, and points out that the fact that this statue was found in the same *Devakula* as the statue of Kanishka justifies the view that Chastana was a relative of Kanishka and belonged to the same family.
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After the death of Vāsishtīputra Pulumāyi about A. D. 156, the only notable Āndhra monarch was Gautamīputra Yajna Srī, who reigned for twenty-nine years, from about A. D. 166. His rare silver coins, imitating the satrap coinage, certainly prove a renewal of relations with the western satraps, and probably point to unrecorded conquests. It would seem that Yajna Srī must have renewed the struggle in which Pulumāyi II had been worsted, and that he recovered some of the provinces lost by that prince. The silver coins would then have been struck for circulation in the conquered western districts, just as similar coins were minted by Chandra-gupta Vikramāditya when he finally shattered the power of the Saka satraps. The numerous and varied, although rude, bronze and leaden coins of Yajna Srī, which formed the currency of the eastern provinces, confirm the testimony of inscriptions by which the prolonged duration of his reign is attested.¹ Some pieces bearing the figure of a ship probably should be referred to this reign, and suggest the inference that Yajna Srī's power was not confined to the land.
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¹ R. G. Bhandarkar's notion that the Āndhra dynasty comprised two distinct lines of kings, one western and one eastern, does not seem to be tenable. The evidence shows that most of the kings held both the western and eastern provinces.
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His successors, apparently, in the eastern provinces, named Vijaya, Chandra Srī, and Pulumāyi IV, with whom the long series of Āndhra kings came to an end about A. D. 225, are mere names; but the real existence of Chandra Srī is attested by the discovery of a few leaden coins bearing his name.¹ Research probably will detect coins struck by both his next predecessor and immediate successor.
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¹ *Catal. Coins I. M.*, vol. i, p. 209; Rapson, *Catal. of Coins of the Andhra Dynasty, &c.* (1908), pp. 30–3. Rapson is inclined to assign an earlier date to these coins. D. R. Bhandarkar (‘Dekkan of the Sātavāhana Period’, *Ind. Ant.*, xlvii (1918), p. 149 ff.) states that Vāsishtīputra Pulumāyi was succeeded by his brothers Śiva-Śrī-Sātakarṇi and Srī-Chandra-Sātī in turn, and that Gautamīputra Yajña Śrī was the last prince of the dynasty. He suggests that the latter was master of Āndhradesa and Mahārāshtra and that he probably seized Kāthiāwār and Eastern Mālwā from the Kshaharāta dynasty of Ujjain as his ancestor, the Āndhra king No. 23, had done before him.
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The testimony of the Purānas that the dynasty endured for either 456 or 460 years, or, in round numbers, four centuries and a half, appears to be substantially accurate. The number of the kings also appears to be correctly stated as having been thirty. The following dynastic list has been constructed on the assumption that the best texts of the Purānas are right in fixing the number of kings as thirty, and therefore omits an extra king, No. 24 *a*, who appears only in a single manuscript of the *Vāyu Purāṇa*.²
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² For the list see App. J.
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Professor D. R. Bhandarkar has given a description, based upon the rock and cave inscriptions of Western India, of the social and economic features of the Deccan during the sway of the Āndhras.³ Both Buddhism and Brahmanic Hinduism flourished at that period. Almost all the Buddhist caves in the Deccan were excavated under the rule of this dynasty, villages and lands being granted to defray the cost of their maintenance and to provide also for the sustenance of the *Bhikshus* who inhabited the caves during the rainy season. The provision of new robes for these mendicants was secured by the investment of funds in one of the craft-guilds (*sreni*), established in the neighbouring towns. The popularity of Brahmanism is apparent from the fact that Royalty performed many sacrifices, including the *Aśvamedha* and *Gavāmayana*, and paid heavy *dakshina* to Brahmans. The worship of Siva was popular, and also the cult of Krishna under the names Samkarshana and Vāsudeva, while Indra and Dharma were widely revered. There seems to have been little or no antagonism between the two faiths, for the followers of Brahmanism excavated several caves for Buddhist monks, while foreigners like the Sakas and Ābhiras freely embraced either religion and assumed Hindu names.
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³ *Ind. Ant.*, xlviii (1919), pp. 77 ff.
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Society was officially divided into at least four classes, the highest class being composed of the Mahārathis, the Mahābhojas, and the Mahāsenāpatīs, who were feudatory chieftains in charge of *rashtras* or districts, the Mahābhojas being located in the north Konkan, and the Mahārathis in the country above the Western Ghāts. The second class comprised both officials and non-officials, among the former being the Amātyas and Mahāmātras, and the Bhāndāgārikas, who were in charge of the treasuries; while the latter included the *Naigama* (merchant), the *Sārthavāha* (head of a caravan of traders), and the *Sresthin* (head of a trade-guild). In the third class were the *Lekhaka* (scribe), *Vaidya* (physician), *Hālakīya* (cultivator), *Suvarnakāra* (goldsmith) and *Gāndhika* (druggist). The fourth class included the *Vardhaki* (carpenter), *Mālākāra* (gardener), *Lohavanija* (blacksmith), and *Dāsaka* (fisherman). The mercantile and cultivating classes were apparently subdivided into various *grihas* (homesteads) or *kutumbas* or *kulas* (families), the head of each of which was considered of sufficient importance to be designated respectively *Grihapati* or *Kutumbin*.
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The currency of the country consisted of *kārshāpanas*, which were both silver and copper; *suvarnas*, the gold coins of the Kushān kings, one of which was equal in value to 35 silver *kārshāpanas*; and *kusanas*, a silver coinage probably introduced by Nahapāna or another Saka ruler, eight of which were equivalent to nine silver *kārshāpanas*.
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Craft-guilds were a feature of the age. At Govardhan, near Nāsik, there were guilds of oil-pressers, hydraulic machine-artisans, potters, and weavers; while at Junnar there were similar guilds of corn-dealers, bamboo-workers, and braziers. These guilds acted as banks, in which money could be deposited at interest, such deposits being always made in the indigenous currency (*kārshāpanas*). Permanent endowments, such as those for religious purposes, were publicly proclaimed and registered in the records of a *nigama-sabha* or town-assembly.
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The country profited from a flourishing foreign trade. Ships from the West sailed down the Red Sea to Broach and the Malabar coast, which supplied the two great inland marts of Paithan and Tagara, and probably visited the two harbours of Sopārā and Kalyān. The latter port was raised to the rank of a regular mart in the time of the elder Sarganes (probably Sātakarni, the third ruler of the dynasty); but its trade was subsequently restricted to narrow limits by Sandanes, who may have been a Saka official. The Saka Satraps certainly endeavoured to divert the trade from Broach direct through their own dominions in the northern Deccan. Other seaports supplying the Āndhra dominions were Semulla (Chaul), Mandagora (? Mandangad to the south of Bānkot), Palaipatmai, Melizeigara (? Jaygad or Janjira) and Buzantion.
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At present nothing is known concerning the causes which brought about the downfall of this dynasty, which had succeeded in retaining power for a period so unusually prolonged. It would seem that Yajna Srī was the last king to retain control of both the eastern and western provinces.¹ Scions of the Sātavāhana race appear to have established minor kingdoms in different parts of the Deccan. But the third century after Christ is one of the dark spaces in the spectrum of Indian history, and almost every event of that time is concealed from view by an impenetrable veil of oblivion. Vague speculation, unchecked by the salutary limitations of verified fact, is, at the best, unprofitable; and so we must be content to let the Āndhras pass away in the darkness. The Purānas present confused and corrupt lists of numerous local dynasties, including Yavanas and Sakas, obviously foreigners, as having succeeded the Āndhras, which it is impossible to arrange in any intelligible fashion.¹
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¹ D. R. Bhandarkar (ibid.) suggests that the Sātavāhanas lost Mahārāshtra owing to the irruption of the Ābhīras under Isvaradatta (A. D. 188–90), but continued to rule the eastern provinces until extinguished by a northern dynasty.
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¹ For justification of the statements in the text, which differ from those made in earlier editions, see Appendix J.
Linked texts (6)
- Vāyupurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
- Gāhāsattasaī — Hāla, Māhārāṣṭrī Prakrit
- Aitareyabrāhmaṇa — Mahidāsa Aitareya, Sanskrit
- Ἰνδικά — Μεγασθένης, Ancient Greek
- Purāṇa — Sanskrit
- Major Rock Edict XII — Prakrit