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151
found in Gathā 360 (see above, p. 144) where the farmer is surrounded by slightly opened cotton-fruits which seem to refer to the state of his mistress from whom he is trying to run away.
1.4 The compiler
As already mentioned above the compilation of the SattasaT is attributed to a certain king, called Hāla. This Hāla is traditionally identified with a sātavāhana king of that name, who is supposed to have ruled for a brief period in the beginning of the first century A.D.C4 Compare verse 13 of the introduction of Bāņa's Harşacarita, which seems to contain the earliest reference to the Sattasaf (seventh century A.D.):
avināśinam agrāmyam akarot sātavāhanaḥ (v.1. sālio) viśuddhajātibhiḥ kośaṁ ratnair iva subhāşitain.
Sātavāhana made an immortal and refined kośa with Subhāşitas consisting of pure characterizations, as if it were a treasury filled with the purest pearls.
It is commonly assumed that Bāņa refers to the Sattasas here. This assumption finds support in his use of the word agrāmya, which with reference to the Sattasaf acquires a double meaning, referring to the subjectmatter of the text, which is village-life (grāma), on the one hand, and to the result, which is a kośa for the cultered city-man (agrāmya), on the other.
The ascription of the compilation of the text to a Sātavāhana is supported by internal evidence. For instance, the Gāthās describe precisely the realm of this dynasty, namely the area roughly coinciding with the present state of Maharashtra. Thus, they often refer to the Vindhyamountains (70, 115, 116, 117, etc.) and to the rivers Narmadā (549, 760) and Godāvart (58, 103, 107).25 The Sātavāhanas are indeed traditionally represented as patrons of Prākrit literature. It is on the other hand also possible that this tradition was in fact based on their association with the Sattasaf. In this connection it is interesting to note that several of the names of the 'authors' which in some MSS are found with
