Tribes in Ancient India c42.3

c42.3

Literary and epigraphic references have now proved beyond doubt that there were several families of the Śātakarṇis of the Deccan, and one or more of these families ruled over Kuntala of the Kanarese districts before the Kadambas (Ray Chaudhuri, *P.H.A.I.*, 4th Ed., 339-40). One member mentioned in the *Matsyapurāṇa* list is actually called Kuntala Śātakarṇi, a name that is commented upon by the commentator of Vātsyāyana’s *Kāmasūtra*. He takes the word ‘Kuntala’ in the name Kuntala Śātakarṇi to mean ‘Kuntala-viṣaye jātatvāt tatsamākhyaḥ’. A Śātavahana of Kuntala is also referred to in the *Kāvyamīmāṃsā* of Rājaśekhara. This king ordered the use of Prākrit to the exclusion of every other language by the ladies of his inner apartments. He has often been identified with king Hāla who hailed from Kuntala (*Kāvyamīmāṃsā* notes, p. 9).