The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c13.55

c13.55

Another line of Śaka Kṣatrapas ruled in Mâlwâ with its capital at Ujjayinî in the first and second centuries A.D. They had to adjust themselves into the network of the relationships of suzerainty and vassalage which extended over the greater part of the country. The satrap Caṣṭana (c. 80—c. 110 A.D.) probably acknowledged the suzerainty of the Kuṣâṇs in the north. One of his successors, Rudradâman, warred with his father-in-law, the Ândhra king, suffered a defeat at his hands but got back from him most of the old Kṣaharâṭa territory.² From coins and inscriptions it appears that Kapiśa, Taxila, and Mathurâ were also centres of satrapal government.³ The foreign origin of some of these rulers is undoubted but all foreigners were being assimilated, culturally as well as politically, into the Hindu system. The coins of Indo-Scythian kings give Hindu as well as Greek titles. Azes is styled Mahârâja Râjamahata as well as Basileos Basileon Megalon. Gondophares, who seems to have made himself master of the country from Sindh to Arachosia in the second century A.D., has a type of coin on the reverse of which appears Śiva holding a trident. It may be noted in passing that in some of these coins the king and the heir-apparent have the same titles, while in those of the satraps, the king is designated Mahâkṣatrapa and the heir-apparent Kṣatrapa.¹