The Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Mediaeval India c5.s3.49

c5.s3.49

Dhanakaṭaka—Dharaṇikoṭ in the Krishna or Guntur District in the Madras Presidency. It is one mile to the west of the small town of Amarāvatī (Amaraoti) and eighteen miles in a direct line to the west of Bejwada, on the south bank of the Krishṇā (Cunningham’s *Geography of Ancient India*, p. 530). Fergusson identifies it with Bejwada (*JRAS.*, 1880, p. 99), but this identification does not appear to be correct. Dhanakaṭaka or Dharaṇikoṭ is a place of considerable note from at least 200 B. C. It was the capital of that dynasty of kings who were the Andhrabhṛityas of the Purāṇas and Śātakarṇis of the inscriptions and who were popularly known as the Sātavāhanas or its corruption Śālivāhanas (*Hemachandra’s Prākṛita Grammar*), which name, however, did not belong to any particular individual. The founder of this dynasty was Simuka called variously Sindhuka, Śiśuka and Sipraka, who ascended the throne in B. C. 73 after subverting the Kanva dynasty of the Purāṇas. Though the capital of the Andhrabhṛityas was Dhanakaṭaka, which is called Dhanakaṭcheka in the Cave Inscriptions, yet the younger princes of this dynasty often reigned at Paiṭhaṇ on the Godāvarī, while the older ones reigned at Dhanakaṭaka. When the throne at the principal seat became vacant, the Paiṭhaṇ princes succeeded. Thus while Gautamîputra Sâtakarṇi, the most powerful monarch of the dynasty reigned at Dhanakaṭaka from 133 to 154 A. D., his son Puḷamâyi reigned at Paiṭhân from 130 to 154 A. D., and after his father's death at Dhanakaṭaka for four years (see Koḷala-Dakshiṇa) Gautamîputra and Puḷamâyi overthrew the Śaka king Nahapâṇa or his successor who reigned at Jîrṇanagara and after that, they defeated the Śaka king Jayadâman, son of Chashṭana, who was at first a Kshatrapa and then a Mahâkshatrapa and occupied Ujjayinî, his capital (Dr. Bhandarkar's *Early History of the Dekkan*). It possessed a university which was established by Nâgârjuna, the founder of the Mahâyâna school of Buddhism, in the first or second century A. D. (For Buddhist Universities, see Nâlandâ). Dhanakaṭaka is a corruption of Sudhanya-kaṭaka (see Havell's *Ancient and Mediæval Architecture of India*, p. 140).