Tribes In Ancient India

SR No.: 007311
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Bimla Charn Law
Publisher: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute
Publication Year: 1943
Total Pages: 449
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 132 MB

Page 183

THE ANDHRAS
165 places a people called the Andhas along with the Maulikas, Asmakas, Bhogavardhanas, Naișikas, Kuntalas, etc., in the southern region.i The reading Andhas is also corrected in the Vāyupurāna as Andhras.2 These peoples are mentioned in the Mahābhārata in the Udyogaparvan and Bhīşmaparvan as Andhakas and Andhras respectively. According to the Sabhāparvan and Vanaparvan, the Andhas or Andhras were a rude uncivilised people. - The earliest epigraphic mention of the Andhra people is made in some of the edicts (XIII, R.E.) of Asoka where the Andhras, Palidas (Pāladas, Parimdas = the Pulindas, or the Pāradas), Bhojas and Rāțhikas (Rāstrikas) are said to have been vassal tribes of the great Maurya. The Andhra people are also referred to by Pliny who says that the Andarae or Andhras possessed a very large number of villages, thirty towns defended by walls and towers, and supplied their king with an army of 100,000 infantry, 2,000 cavalry and 1,000 elephants.5
The founder of the great Sātavāhanas, Simuka, who is credited by the Purāṇas to have assailed the Kāņvāyanas and destroyed the remains of the Sunga power in about the first century B.C. is said to have started a dynasty that ruled over the Daksināpatha. for about 250 years. The Sātavāhanas are claimed by the Purāņas to have been Andhras or Andhrabhrtyas. The exact significance of this appellation cannot, however, be determined but doubtless they ruled over the whole of Andhradeśa and the adjoining regions.
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 three-fold rutting elephants'. Dr. H. C. Ray Chaudhuri suggests that the Andhra king referred to was probably Mādhavavarman (I, Javāśraya) of the Polamuru plates belonging to the Vişnukundin family." This suggestion seems to be in agreement with the fact that the Jaunpur Inscription of Iśvaravarman, father of Išānavarman Maukhari, refers to victory over the Andhras on behalf of īśvaravarman.8 The Vākātaka king Harisena, father-in-law of Mādhavavarman of the Vişnukuņdin family referred to above, also claims to have conquered the Andhra and Kalinga regions.
The Iksvākus succeeded the Sātavāhanas in the rule of the Andhra region where almost all the records of the dynasty have
1 LVII, 48-9.
2 XLV, 127. 3 XVIII, 586 and X, 357 respectively. 4 IV, 119; XXX, 1175; XXXIII, 1270 and Vanaparvan, LI, 1988. 5 Ind. Ant., 1877, p. 339.
6 Ep. Ind., XIV, pp. IIoff. 7 P.H.A.I., 4th Ed., p. 509.
8 C.I.I., III, p. 230. 9 J.R.A.S., 1914, p. 137.