The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c13.25

c13.25

The rise of Kalinga synchronised with that of another power further south. The Ândhras or Andhras, first mentioned in the Aitareya Brâhmaṇa, VII, 18, 2 and noticed by the Greeks as a powerful people, with thirty walled towns, and an army of 1,00,000 foot, 2,000 cavalry, and 1,000 elephants, had their centre between the Godâvari and the Kṛiṣṇâ.² Aśoka's Rock Edict, XII, mentions them among the southern borderers. On the death of the great Mauryan emperor, they became independent and, under the Śâtavâhana family, rapidly extended their power and measured swords with Kalinga. In about 28 B.C. the Ândhra king extinguished the Kâṇva dynasty of Brahmanic origin, which had supplanted the Śuṅgas at Pâṭaliputra about 73 B.C.³ The Ândhras thus became a northern power and established an empire which, in its extension from north to south and east to west, recalls that of the Mauryas.⁴ The coins which form one of the most valuable sources for the study of the Ândhra dynasties, show that different systems of coinage prevailed in different areas and that the imposition of suzerainty on a region rarely implied the extinction of its old coinage. It indicates that the Ândhra empire was not, any more than its predecessors or successors, a unitary state; that it left local autonomy more or less undisturbed and that it partook of the nature of a confederation. It is beyond the scope of this work to unravel the tangled skein of Ândhra history which touched the peoples and dynasties of the greater part of India. The fortunes of the Ândhra line vary but it continues in vigour until nearly the end of the second century A.D. and lingers into the latter half of the third century. From the relevant coins and inscriptions, a few facts can be gleaned about the system of administration. The Ândhra Śâtavâhana kings generally assumed the surname Śâtakarṇi which became a dynastic appellation. An inscription of Yajñaśrî Gautamîputra calls him only Râja.¹ The high titles of the Gupta period were not yet in vogue. Queen Nâganikâ's Nânâghâṭ Inscription² shows the Ândhra king Śâtakarṇi allied by marriage to the Marâṭhâ king of Râṣṭrikas about the second century B. C. It proves that a woman, though she could not ascend the throne, could act as regent. Another inscription shows that Gautamîputra associated the queen-mother in his administration.³ The Nânâghâṭ Inscription records the performance of certain great sacrifices in the course of which the priests received large numbers of elephants, thousands of horses, tens of thousands of cows, whole villages and tens of thousands of Kârṣâpaṇas. Twice did Śâtakarṇi perform the Aśvamedha sacrifice.⁴ Records of this nature indicate that the revival of Brahmanism was aided by rulers. None the less the Ândhra kings were generally true to the Hindu tradition of toleration for all sects.⁵