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RIVALS OF THE KSHAHARÁTAS 489 Professor Rapson, and Dr. Bhandarkar after him, that a Nāsik inscription of Nahapāna refers to a gold currency, doubtless of the Kushāns who could not have ruled in India before the first century A. D.
The power of Nahapāna and his allies, the Uttamabhadras, was threatened by the Mālayas (Mālavas ) from the north, and the sātavāhanas from the south. The incursion of the Mālavas was repelled by Ushavadāta. But the Sātavāhana attack proved fatal to Śaka rule in Mahārāshțra.
We know very little about Chakora and Śivasvāti mentioned in the Parāṇas as the immediate successors of Sunandana during whose reign Sātavāhana prestige had sunk very low and marauders from Barygaza had been harrying the ports that had once enjoyed the protection of the elder Śātakarņi, probably Śātakarni I. But the king whose name occurs next in the list, viz., Gautamiputra, regained the lost power of the house and dealt a severe blow at the power of the intruders from the north. The Nāsik prasasti calls him the “uprooter of the Kshaharāta race," and the “restorer, of the glory of the śātavāhana family”. That Nahapāna himself was overthrown by Gautamiputra is proved by the testimony of the Jogalthembi hoard (in the Nāsik district) which consisted of Nahapāna's own silver coins and coins restruck by Gautamiputra. In the
1 Rapson, Coins of the Andhra Dynasty, etc., pp. lviii, clxxxv; Bhandarkar, Ind. Ant., 1918-1919, 'Deccan of the Sātavāhana Period'.
2 The Uttamabhadras may have been a section of the Bhadra tribe mentioned in a list of garas along with the Rohitakas (cf. Rohtak in south-east Punjab), the Āgreyas.fof Agra ?) and the Mālavas (Mbh. III. 253.20). In Mbh. VI. 50. 47 the Pra-bhadras are associated with the ganas or corporations of the Dāserakas, apparently of the desert region of Rājputāna (Monier Williams, Dic. 405), 0. P. 90-62
