Indian Antiquary Vol 49

SR No.: 032541
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 252
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 34 MB

Page 35

FEBRUARY, 1920]
DEKKAN OF THE SATAVAHANA PERIOD
200-150 B.C. What is strange is that when this opinion of Bühler's about the age of the inscriptions is now quoted, the date he then ascribed to Gautamiputra Satakarni is entirely lost sight of. Subsequently, however, Bühler changed his mind, and came round to the view of Sir Ramkrishna Bhandarkar that Gautamiputra Satakarni flourished about A.D. 124.. If we now subtract 100 from this 124 to account for the difference of character as proposed by Bühler, we get A.D. 24 as the approximate date for the Nânâghâț, Sâñchi and Hâthigumphâ inscriptions. If A.D. 24 can thus be the date of the third king of the Satavahana dynasty, this cannot but confirm the date, viz. A.D. 73, we have assigned to its foundation.
APPENDIX B.
Vilivayakura and Sivalakura of the Kolhapur coins.
31
Nearly forty-two years ago, certain coins were discovered in Kolhapur near the hill of Brahmapurî, north-west of the town. Pandit Bhagwanlal Indraji was the first to give an account of them in the Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. XIII, p. 303ff., and identify the names occurring on these legends with those of the Satavahana dynasty-an inference which has been more or less adopted by all the scholars that have subsequently written on the subject. The legends on these coins have been read as follows:
Raño Vâsithîputasa Vilivâyakurasa. Raño Mâḍhariputasa Sivala kurasa. Raño Gotamiputasa Vilivâyakurasa.
With regard to the reading of these legends no doubt has been or can be raised. It is, however, when the question of identifying these princes turns up that a divergence of views is perceptible. Pandit Bhagwanlal took Vilivâyakura and Sivalakura to be mere titles, identified the first with Vâsishthîputra Pulumâvi, the second with Mâḍharîputra Sakasena and the third with Gautamiputra Sri Yajña Satakarni, and further deduced the conclusion that as Mâḍhariputra of the Kolhapur coins re-struck the coins of Vâsishthiputra, whereas those of the former were in turn re-struck by Gautamiputra, Vâsish thîputra, Mâḍhariputra and Gautamiputra succeeded to the Andhrabhṛitya throne in that order. His views were endorsed by the late Dr. Bühler.5 In the Early History of the Dekkan, however, Vilivâyakura and Sivalakura are taken to be the names of viceroys and identified, the former with the Baleokouros of Ptolemy, Vâsishthîputra with Vasish thîputra Pulumâvi and Gautamiputra with Gautamiputra Sri Yajña Sâtakarui and not with the father of Puļumavi, Gautamiputra Satakarni, who never reigned in the Dekkan. And as Vilivâyakura was the viceroy of two kings, viz. Vâsisht hiputra and Gautamiputra, it is argued that one of these was the immediate successor of the other, and Śrî Yajña, being the later, must be considered to be Pulumâvi's immediate successor. Madharîputra has been therein identified with Mâḍharîputra Sakasena, who is taken to be a successor, but not the immediate one, of Sri Yajña. Dr. V. A. Smith also regards the princes of the Kolhapur coins as belonging to the Andhrabhṛitya dynasty, but identifies Gautamiputra Vilivâyakura, who is styled Vilivâyakura II, by him, with Gautamiputra Satakarni, and considers the other Vilivâyakura (i.e. Vilivâyakura I) and Sivalakura to be the same as Chakora and Siva-Svâti
Above, 1913, 230.
5 Above, XII, 273.
• Pp. 20-1.