Indian Antiquary Vol 47

SR No.: 032539
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 386
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

Page 79

MARCH, 1918)
DEKKAN OF THE SATAVAHANA PERIOD
75
The obverse of Nahapâna's silver coins bears Head of king' just described and an inscription in the Græco-Roman characters. When only four specimens were known, this legend could not be deciphered, but with the find of thousands of his coins at Jogalțembhi it has now become possible to read it and was first read beyond all doubt by Mr. Scott who has found it to be an almost exact transliteration of the Bråhmi inscription on the reverse. It runs thus :
PANNIW TAHAPATAC NAHANANAC. Though this legend is essentially Greek, it contains the Roman H with the value h both in his proper and tribal names. 34 The reverse of the coins has, on the left, an arrow pointing downwards, and, on the right, a thunderbolt, with a pellet in between. It bears two legends -one in Brâhmi, and the other in Kharoshthi characters. The first reads Rajño Kshaharátasa Nahapanasa, and the second, Rajño Chhaharatasa Nahapanasa. Nahapana's copper coinage is at present represented by a solitary specimen in the possession of Cunningham who found it in Ajmer. The obverse is engraved with a thunderbolt on the left and an arrow pointing downwards on the right. Of the inscription incised on it, only the letters (Na)hapana have been preserved. On the reverse appears a tree, with large leaves, within railing. Pandit Bhagwanlal Indraji also is reported to have possessed two more specimens which came from Mandasor. Nothing is, however, known about their present whereabouts.
The extent of Nahapana's rule may be inferred from the places where his coins have been found and the localities where his son-in-law Ushavadâta made benefactions. It stretched as far north as Ajmer in Rajputânâ and included Kathiâwâr, S. Gujarât, Western Mâlwå, North Konkan from Broach to Sopârâ, and the Nâsik and Poona districts. As some of his coins have been found at Junagadh, Surashtra or Kâțhiâ wir must have been under his sway. In one mutilated inscription in Nâsik Cave No. 10, a charity of Ushavadâta's seems to have been made at Ujeni (Ujjain). This shows that Nahapana's kingdom comprised at least Western Mâlwâ. There can be no doubt that it extended as far northwards as Ajmer. For both at Ajmer and Pushkar his coins have been found. Besides that is proved by a postscript to Násik Inscription 10 in Cave No. 10. Therein we are informed that in the rainy season he had gone in the north, at the command of his lord who can be no other than Nahapana, to relieve the Chief of the Uttamabhadras who had been besieged by the Malayas. The Malayas fled away at the mere sound of his approach and were all made prisoners of the Uttamabhadras. Ushavadâta is represented to have thereafter repaired to the Poksharas, performed ablutions, and given three thousand cows and a village. Poksharas is obviously Pushkar, 7 miles west of Ajmer. The word actually used is Poksharani, 35 the plural and not singular. Even to this day, not one or two but three, Pushkaras are known -jyeshtha, madhya and kanishtha all situated within a circuit of six miles. And as Ushavadâta bathed there and gave cows and a village, it shows that even so early as the 2nd century A.D., Pushkar was a centre of Brahmanism. And the very fact that Ushavadâta hera granted a village, which to be of real use must have been in the vicinity of this sacred place, shows that Nahapana's dominions stretched as far northwards as Ajmer and Pushkar. The Malayas whom he defeated must, of course, be the Malavas, %0 who at this time were settled in the eastern part of Rajputâna, especially in the south-east portion of the Jaipur State.
1 Ibid, 1907, 1044.
35 This has been wrongly translated " Pokshara tanks" by M. Senart (EI., VIII. 79) and "Pushkara lakes" by Prof. Lüders (List, No. 1131). So far as I know there is only one lake at Pushkar, but three different Pushkars are known within & circuit of six milos, as stated in the text.
* As in the cave inscriptions of this period v is sometimes replaced by y, I have no doubt that MAlaya equates here with MAlaya. Thus the correct form of the name of Gautamiputra Satakarhi's sou is PulumAvi, as evidenced by the Puranas and his coins (Rapson's CIC.-4.Wk., 20-22). But in the cave inscriptions it is spelt Pulumayi except in one instance. That the Malavas were settled at this time in easter Rajputând is proved by their coins (Smith's OCIM., I. 161-2).