Historical Geography of Ancient India c7.14

c7.14

Amdhāpatiya.—In the Mayidavolu Copperplate Inscription of the early Pallava king Śivaskandavarman occurs Amdhāpatiya (Andhrā-patha, Ep. Indica, VI, 88). The Sanskrit equivalent of the place-name may as well be Amdhāvatī. Amdhāpatiya or Andhrāpatha is the Andhra country between the Godāvarī and Kṛṣṇā, which is the eastern Andhra territory as distinguished from the Andhra dominions in western India (Hultzsch, S.I.I., I, p. 113; for details vide Law, Tribes in Ancient India, pp. 164ff.). In the Pali texts the Andhakas are mentioned along with the Muṇḍakas, Kolakas and Cinas (Apadāna, Pt. II, p. 359). The five Drāvidas are the following: Drāviḍa proper (Tamil), Andhra (Telugu), Karṇāṭa (Kanarese country), Mahārāṣṭra and Gurjara. Dhanakaṭaka or Dhānyakaṭaka or Amarāvatī at the mouth of the Kṛṣṇā is its capital (N. L. Dey, Geographical Dictionary, p. 7). In the Harāhā Inscription of the Maukhari king Kumāragupta III (554 A.D.) a certain lord of the Andhras (Andhrādhipati) is said to have given the Maukhari king a great trouble by his ‘thousands of threefold rutting elephants’ (Ep. Indica, XIV, pp. 110ff.). H. C. Raychaudhuri suggests that the Andhra king referred to was probably Mādhavavarman I (Yanāśraya) of the Polamuru plates belonging to the Viṣṇukuṇḍin family (P.H.A.I., 4th Ed., p. 509). This suggestion seems to have been in agreement with the fact that the Jaunpur Inscription of Īśānavarman, father of Īśānavarman Maukhari, refers to the victory over the Andhras on behalf of Īśāvarman (C.I.I., III, p. 230). At the time of the Pallava king Śivaskandavarman, the Andhrāpatha or the Andhra country seems to have come under the sway of the Pallava dynasty whose headquarters were at Dhamnakaḍa (Dhānyakaṭaka). In the thirteenth Rock Edict of Aśoka occurs the expression Bhoja-Patinikeṣu Amdhra-Palideṣu.