Indian Antiquary Vol 21

SR No.: 032513
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 430
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JULY, 1892.
An inscription of Nâsik, dated the 19th year of the reign of Vasithîputa Pulumâyi, and emanating from his mother, Gotami Balasiri, refers to his father and predecessor Götamiputa Satakani, as the destroyer of the family of the Khak haratas' (Khakharátadsaniravasésakara). We also find at Nasik a parallel series of inscriptions emanating from Usavadata, son-in-law of the "Satrap Nahapana, a Khaharata king,' and even a dedication presented by a minister, Ayama, of this prince. It is in the person of Nahapana that Gotamiputa Satakani must have destroyed the dynasty of the Khaharatas or Khakharatas, for the same locality has preserved for us a document, by which he exercises over it an act of sovereignty. He transfers to a community of ascetics certain lands, which come from Usavadata, probably the very son-in-law of the dispossessed sovereign.
The reader can see in an ingenious article of Dr. Bühler's, that the numismatic discoveries of Pandit Bhagwanlal Indraji, on a comparison with epigraphic data, allow us to reconstitute the following series of sovereigns in the dynasty of the Andhrabhsityas.
Gotamiputa Satakani, who reigned at lenst 24 years. Pulumáyi Vasithiputa, who reigned at least 24 years. Madhariputa Sirisena, who reigned at least 8 years. Vasithiputa Chaturapana Satakani, who reigned at least 13 years.
Siriyana Götamiputa Satakani, who reigned at least 16 years. It is not certain, but it is at least probable, that the succession was immediate between the second, third, and fourth of these princes.
Rudradaman, the Satrap king, in the celebrated inscription of Girnar, tells as how he twice conquered Satakarni, the king of the Dekhan; he only spared him from total destruction by reason of their close relationship. Now, an inscription of Kanhêri7 has preserved the memory of a queen, daughter of a Kshatrapa king, whose name was composed of two syllables commencing with ru, and wife of the king Visishthiputra Satakarni. Whether the Ro[dra), father of the queen was, as appears very likely, or was not, the Rudradaman of Girnar, it remains almost certain that the Satakarņi of whom that prince was the contemporary and conqueror is one of the two last princes named in the foregoing table. Fortified by palæographical coincidences which tend to confirm the likelihood, which in itself is very strong, of these facts, we can hold it for proved that Rudradaman belonged to the same time as Vasithiputa Satakani, or Siriyana Satakani.
The third synchronism, together with an indirect verification of the second, gives us a valuable means for approximately fixing the dates, not only relatively but absolutely, of these persons. In a well-known passage, Ptolemy mentions Tiastanes and Siri Polemaios, as sovereigns of Ujjayini and of Paithana. These two names have been long identified, the first with that of Chashtana, and the second with that of Siri Palumâyi. Now Chashtana is known by the inscriptions as grandfather of Rudradâman; and it is quite easy that he should have been a contemporary of Pulamayi Vasithîputa, grandfather or great-grandfather, or at any rate third or fourth predecessor, of the Satakaại, of whom we have just seen that Rudradâman was the contemporary and the conqueror. A remark of Prof. Bhandarkare contributes a still higher degree of probability to these identifications. Ptolemy tells us that, while the northern parts of the west coast were governed by Siri Polemaios, the southern parts were under the rule of Baleocouros. Now, there has been discovered at Kolhapur a series of coins, in which the name of Viļivåyakura, whose identity with Baleocouros forces itself on our notice, is associated with that of Vâsithipata and of Gotamiputa, to whom we have just been introduced.
• Arch, Surv. West. Ind. IV. 168.
Arch. Sury. West. Ind. pp. 99 and ff. • Indian Antiquary, 1883, pp. 272 and ff. It will be seen from what follows that I have not been able to place myself in entire accord with the learned author. Arch. Surv. West. Ind. V. 78.
* Early Hist. of the Deckan, p. 20. . Cf. Bhagw&n]Al Indrajt, in J. R. A. 8., Bo. XIII., 303 and ff.