The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c7.s6.84

v1.c7.s6.84

During the reigns that followed from A.D. 7 to 62 a succession of rulers, all of little merit or importance, ascended the Andhra throne. Khakharāta pressure against the western possessions of the Sātavāhanas went on increasing. The Sātavāhana ports of Sopārā and Kalyāṇ were closed to all commerce by the action of Nahapāna’s successors, and all trade found its way across difficult country to the Western Kshatrapa port of Barygaza (Broach). The economic life of the kingdom was becoming completely disorganized. The prospects were bleak, therefore, when Gautamīputra Sātakarṇi took over the reins of government in A.D. 62. The only alleviating feature in the picture was that about the time of his accession the great Śaka-Pahlava empire disintegrated and broke up into several small principalities, each under an independent Kshatrapa ruler. Gautamīputra, therefore, was saved the necessity of pitting himself against one single mighty empire in the north.