The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c7.s6.19

v1.c7.s6.19

In their new King Sātakarṇi (II) the Andhras were fortunate to find a champion of their cause and a protector of their interests. He came to the throne in 184 B.C. He seems to have immediately devoted his main attention to the northern and western frontiers of his kingdom. And when he found that a newly crowned king of Kaliṅga (Khāravela) had sent the forces of that country westward regardless of his embarrassments on the opposite border, he must have felt himself in a difficult position. But Sātakarṇi did not give him battle. Perhaps he hoped that the Greeks, in their eastward expansion, were bound to cross swords with Khāravela, and that the latter’s initial incursions into his territories need not cause him to abandon his self-imposed task of keeping his armies in the west for its prompt protection if the need should arise. This hope was more than justified when in 175 B.C. the Greeks withdrew to busy themselves wholly with their internecine wars, and Sātakarṇi then embarked on a career of conquest which later entitled him to emulate Puṣyamitra, who celebrated two Aśvamedhas and Rājasūya, and Khāravela, who performed a Rājasūya.