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Some Prakrit Poets
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Kuntala was also an alternative name of king Sātavāhana himself : Kartaryā Kuntalab. Sätakarņih Sātavāhano mahādevin Malayavatim (jaghāna). Hemacandra might have followed this tradition27 in giving Kuntala as a Deśya word signifying Hāla-Sātavāhana.
Pūsa would correspond to Sk. püsya. As a Deśya item it also means "a parrot', Why Sātavāhana was called Pūsa and what was its significance--these things are totally in the dark.
The third alternative name of Hāla-Sātavāhana noted above is Cauracimdba, which corresponds to Sk. Caturacihna. One way of interpreting this is to take it as equivalent to Sk. Vidagdhasiromaņi. And it can very well fit the personality of Hāla-Sātavāhana as it is known from legends. But another interpretation is also plausible. Catura-cinha is the same as Caturāńka, i.e. one whose aika or pen-name was Catura. The Srigārakpraāśa has classified and illustrated various types of ankas.28 An aika was some special marking word used by a poet at the close of each section of his literary work, as a sort of signature. Instead of aika, its synonyms cilina and lūñchana were used occasionally. We have the pen names of ancient poets like Abhimānānka, Parākramänka, Sāhasānka, 29 Virahārka, 30 etc. Similarly we have Dakkhiņņaimdhay! [i.e. Dāksinyacihna], Abhimānacihna, 32 Avalevacinha33 [i.e. Avalepacilna,), Jasaindha34 (i.e. Yaśaścihna), etc. Thirdly we may note Sadbhāvalāñchana35, Virahalāñchana, 36 Dākṣiṇyalāñchana,37 etc. Accordingly Sk. Catura or Pk. Caura would be the aika i.e. identifying mark of Sātavāhana employed in the concluding verses of the sections of his narrative poems. Of course, this remains merely a speculation until we can verify it, and that would be possible only when luck favoured us with the recovery of some sustained composition of Sātavāhana.
Finally we should note that in the closing verse of each Sataka of the Gathā-Saptaśati, Hāla-Sātavāhana is called kaivacchala (Sk. kavi-vatsala) 'a loving patron of poets'. This seems to be rather a biruda than a pen-name.
