3 The
accession
of the twenty-third king, Gautamīputra, çītakarni, must be dated
106 A.
106 A.
Cambridge History of India - v1
The line is carried two stages farther by the Morā
inscription which describes the daughter of Bahasatimitra (Bțihāsvātimitra)
as the wife of the king (of Matburā) and 'the mother of living sons'
(J. R. A. S. 1912, p. 120). In the patronymic, Çonakāyana, 'the scion of the
house of Conaka,' we may perhaps see an allusion to the glories of Pañ-
chāla in the heroic age, when, as is recounted in one of the ancient verses
preserved by the Çatapatha Brāhmana, king Çoņa Sātrāsāha celebrated
his triumphs by the performance of the horse-sacrifice? No detailed list
of the earlier historical kings of Pañchāla occurs in the Parāṇas ; but coins
found in the neighbourbood of Ahicchatra-now a vast mound three and a
half miles in circumference on the north of the village of Rāmnagar-- have
preserved the names of about a dozen of their successors in the Çunga
periods. Among the kings thus known there appears an Agnimitra (Pl. V, 3),
who has often been supposed to be identical with the second Çunga king.
There seems to be no evidence at present either to prove or to disprove the
suggestion. The identity of name may well be accidental, or, perhaps more
probably, it may indicate that the royal families Vidicā and Ahicchatra
were related.
The name of another king of Ahicchatra, Indramitra, has
been recognised in an inscription at Buddh Gayā (p. 474 ; Pl. V, 4).
We may infer from the inscriptions at Pabhosā that, in the second
century B. C. , Panchāla (Ahicchatra) and Vatsa (Kauçāmbī) were governed
by branches of the same royal family, and that both kingdoms acknowledged
the suzerainty of the Çungas. The history of Kauçãmbi may be traced
back to the time when the Pūrus (Kurus) removed thither after their capital,
1 Cunningham, Coins of Ancient Indià, p. 73, PI. V, 7-18; Rapson, Indian Coins,
pp. 12, 13.
2 Vedic Index, II, p. 395
3 Cunningham, Coins of Ancient India, p. 79, Pl. VII ; Indian Coins, p. 13.
## p. 474 (#512) ############################################
474
(CH.
INDIAN NATIVE STATES
a
Hastināpura, had been destroyed by an inundation of the Ganges? We
now find this city under the rule of a house in which Kurus and Pañchālas
had no doubt long been merged.
Mathurā (Muttra) on the upper Jumna, about 270 miles in a straight
line N. W. of Kauçāmbi, may perhaps have been another of the feudatory
kingdoms. This sacred city,the Mósoupa ni tou sou of Ptolemy (VII,1,50),
was a stronghold both of the worship of Kộisbņa and of Jainism ; and it
;
was the capital of the Çūrasenas, one of the leading peoples of the Midland
Country. Its earlier rulers find a place in the Purāņas, but only in the
general summary of those dynasties which were contemporary with the
Pūrus (p. 282); and coins have preserved the names of at least twelve later
kings who reigned during the Çunga perioda. One of these, Balabhūti.
is associated by the style and type of his coinage with Bahasatimitra of
Kauçāmbi, whose daughter was married to a king of Mothurā (p. 473).
The two kings were almost certainly ruling at about the same time ; and it
seems reasonable to assume, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary
that they were both feudatories of the Çungas. Another king of Mathurā.
Brahmamitra (Pl. V, 6) was probably contemporary with king Indramitra of
Ahicchatra (Pl. V, 4); for both names are found in the dedicatory inscrip-
tions of queens on pillars of the railing at Buddh Gayā, which is assigned
by archaeologists to the earlier part of the first century B. c.
Inscriptions show that in the second half of the first century B. C. the
region of Mathurā had passed from native Indian to foreign (Çaka) rule”;
and their evidence is confirmed and amplified by that of the coins. The
characteristic type of the kings of Mathură is a standing figure, which has
been supposed to represent the god Kộishna (Pl. V, 5, Gomitra); and this
type is continued by their conquerors and successors, the satraps of the
Çaka King of Kings. Rañjubula (Rājuvula) and his son Çodāsa (Pl V. 9,
10) are known also from inscriptions; and the date on the Āmobini votive
tablet, if it has been rightly interpreted, shows that the latter was ruling
as great satrap in 17-6 B. c. (pp. 518-20). Çodāsa was preceded by his father,
Ranjubila, who ruled first as satrap and afterwards as great satrap ; and
Ranjubula appears to have been the successor of satraps who are known
only from their coins – Hagāmasha (Pl. V, 7). and Hagāna ruling conjointly
with Hagāmasha (Pl. V, 8). These numismatic indications all tend to
support the conclusion that by about the middle of the first century B. C.
Çaka dominion was fully established in that region of the Jumna river
which lies beyond the south-eastern limits of the Punjab.
By c. 72 B. C. , according to the chronology of the Purāņas, the
1 Chapter XIII, p. 275.
2 Cunningham, Coins of Ancient India, pp. 85. 90, PI. VIII, Rapson, Indian Coins,
p. 13: J. R. A. S. , 1900, pp. 1( 9. 11.
3 See Chapter XXIII, pp. 518-20.
## p. 475 (#513) ############################################
XXI]
KOSALA AND MAGADHA
475
dynasty of the Çuņgas had come to an end. In the present state of Indian
archaeology it seems impossible to trace the extension of the rule of those
kings of Vidicā who reigned after Pusyamitra beyond the region in which
the Jumna and the Ganges meet, i. e. the ancient kingdom of the Vatsas
(Kauçambi) and the present district of Allahābād. The investigation of
ancient sites may no doubt some day throw light on the contemporary
history of the countries which lay to the north and east of Kauçāmbi-
Kosala (Oudh), Videha (N. Bihār), Kāçi (Benares), Magadba (S. Bihār),
and Anga (Monghyr and Bhāgalpur) ; but the available evidence is not
sufficient to enable us to determine whether the kingdoms in these countries
still united under the sovereignty, as in the time of Açoka, or
whether they had become independent. Kosala is represented by coins
of this period which are found on the site of Ayodhya , but from these
little information can be gleaned at present. They represent a line of
about ten kings, of whom nothing is known but their names (Pl. V, 11,
Aryamitra ; 12, Mūladeva)'. A king of Magadha and a king of Rājagộiha
are also mentioned in the inscription of Khāravela ; but whether the
former was still a powerful suzerain at this time, and whether the latter
was anything more than a local prince ruling over the old capital of
Magadha must remain doubtful until more definite evidence can be dis-
covered (p. 484). The history of the famous kingdom of Magadha, once
the centre of the empire, becomes utterly obscure. That for some time
Pushyamitra continued to occupy the imperial throne which he had
seized is a natural inference from those passages of the literature in which
he is mentioned in connexion with the Pātaliputra ; but that he was able
to hold it to the end, and to hand it down to his successors is at present
not capable of proof. No certain traces of the later Çungas or of their
feudatories have yet been found in the region of Magadha.
But in addition to the powers which dominated the kingdoms on
the great highways of communication, there were in less accessible regions
numerous independent states ; and of some of these the coins of this period
have preserved a record. These communities were military clans or groups
of clans ; and they were governed sometimes by kings, but more often by
tribal oligarchies. They were Kshatriyas ; and by this name, the common
designation of them all, they are known to the historians of Alexander the
Great in two districts - in the north of the Punjab to the east of the Rāvi
(p. 332), and the south-west where the Indus and the Sutlej meet (Xathri,
p. 357). They were the ancestors of the Rajputs who played a most
important part in the history of Northern India at a later date, and their
coins are found throughout the regions to which modern
which modern ethnologists
trace the origin of the Rajputs :
i Cunningham, Coins of Ancient India, p. 90, Pl. IX ; Rapson, Indian Coins,
p. 11; J. R. A. S. , 1903, p. 287.
## p. 476 (#514) ############################################
476
[ch.
INDIAN NATIVE STATES
The cradle of the Rājput is the tract named after him (Rājaputāna) not, how-
ever, as it is lirnited in the present day, but extending from the Jamna to the Narbadā
and Satlaj, including, therefore the whole of Mālvā, Bundelkhand, and parts of Agra
and the Panjāb. From the northern part of this tract there seems to have been an
early movement of conquest up the western rivers of the Punjab, as far as the Himāla.
yas and Kashmir, whereby was laid the foundation of the predominance of the tribes
still in possession (Baines, Ethnography, p. 29. )
Examples of such early Rājput states are the Yaudheya confederation
in the southern portion of the Punjab . . and the northern parts of Rājpu-
tāna' (J. R. A. S. 1897. p. 887), and the Arjunāyanas in the Bhartpur and
Alwar States of Rājputāna (ibid. p. 886). Both the Yaudheyas, 'Warriors. '
and the Arjunāyanas, 'Descendants of Arjuna,' are mentioned by Pāņini
in the fourth century B. C. ; both issued coins as early as the first century
B. C. ; and both appear among the peoples on the frontiers of the Gupta
empire in the Allahābād inscription of Samudragupta c. 380 A. D. Other
states struck coins with the bare legend. 'Of the Rājanya (Kshatriya)
Country. It is impossible at present to determine with much precision
the localities in which these coins were issued ; but similarity of type
suggests that one variety may belong to the same region as the coins of
the Arjunāyanas and the kings of Mathurā (Pl. V, 13).
The mountainous fringe of country of the north of the Punjab
and the United Provinces was also accupied at this period by independent
native Indian states ; and the names of some of them have similarly been
preserved by the coins, which were no doubt the result of commerce
between these peoples of the hills and the low-landers. In the Gurdāspur
District of the Punjab there lived the Udumbaras, who claimed to
be descended from Viçvāmitra, the rishi of the third book of the Rigveda.
His figure appears on the coins of their king, Dharāghosha, whose
reign must probably be assigned to the latter half of the first century
B. C. , since his coinage is evidently imitated from that of the Çaka
king Azilises (Pl. V, 14, Dharāghosha ; 15, Azilises). Of a somewhat
later date, perhaps of the first or second century A. D. , are the coins of the
Kulūtas, the eastern neighbours of the Udum baras, in the Kulū valley of
the Kangra District; and to the same period as the coins of the Udumbaras
belong the earlier issues of the Kuņindas who inhabited the country of the
Sutlej in the Simla Hill States (Pl. V, 16, Amoghabhūti). These
three peoples, the Udumbaras, the Kulūtas, and the Kuņindas, lived on the
border between the regions in which the two ancient alphabets. Brāhmi and
Kharoshthi, prevailed : they accordingly used both of them in their
coin-legends. To a branch of the Kunindas (or Kulindas, as they are called
1 Rapson, Indian Coins, pp. 11-13, and PII, III, 20 and IV, 1.
2 Cf. Pargiter , Márk Pur. p. 355. For the connexion between Viçvamitra
and the country of the Beas, See l'edic Index, II, p. 310.
>
## p. 477 (#515) ############################################
XXI)
RISE OF THE ANDHRAS
477
in the Purāņas), whose territories 'extended further east along the southern
slopes of the Himalayas as far as Nepal' (Pargiter, Mārk. Pur. p. 316), are
probably also to be attributed the coins of two kings which have been found
in the Almora District (Pl. V, 17, Çivadatta)'.
The 'unsubdued' peoples on the southern borders of the Maurya do-
minions were, during the Çunga period, united under the suzerainty of the
most powerful among them, the Andhras, whose home was in the coastal
region of the Madras Presidency between the rivers Godāvari and Kistna.
The dynasty, which is known by its tribal name in the Purāņas and by its
family name or title, Çātavāhana, in inscriptions, is traced back to
king Simuka, who was succeeded by his younger brother, Kțishņa.
At some date at the reign of Simuka or Krishņa the Andhra conquests had
extended up the valley of the river Godāvari for its whole length, a distance
of some nine hunderd miles, to the table-land of the Nasik District. This
is proved by the inscriptions ( no. 1144 ) in one of the Nasik caves
which was excavated when Kșishṇa was king. Already the Çātavāhanas had
justified their claim to the title, 'Lords of the Deccan (Dakshināpatha),'
which they bear in their later inscriptions. The third of the line and
the best known of the earlier kings was called Çatakarņi, a name which, to
the perplexity of modern students of Indian history, was borne by several
of his successors on the throne.
The exact date of the establishment of the Andhra suzerainty cannot
be determined from the discrepant accounts given by different Purāņas of
the kings and the duration of their reigns ; but it is clear that the most
complete of the extant lists can only be interpreted as indicating that he
founder, Simuka, began to reign before 200 B. 0. 3 To this extant the
evidence of Purāņas confirms the opinon of Bühler, who from empigra-
phical considerations assigned the Nāsik inscription of the second king,
Kirshņa, to 'the times of the last Mauryas or the earliest Çungas, in
the beginning of the second century B. C. '' It is therefore possible
that Kțishņa's immediate successor, the third Andhra king, Çātakarni, may
have been contemporary with the first Çunga king, Pushyamitra (c. 184-148
B. c. ). As we shall see (p. 482) this name Çātakarņi was probably also con-
temporary with Khāravela. king of Kalinga.
1 For the coins of Kulūta, see Bergny, J. R. A. S. , 1900, p. 415 ; for other coins
mentioned in this paragraph see the references in Rapson, Indian Coins, pp. 101-2.
2 See Chapter XXIV, pp. 542-43. The inscriptions from Bhattiprolu near
month of the Kistna in the Guntur District (c. 200 B. C. ) menti in a king Khubiraka or
Kubiraka (Kuvera) who is otherwise unknown ; see Bühler, Ep. Ind. II, pp. 323 ff.
3 The accession of the twenty-third king, Gautamīputra, çītakarni, must be dated
106 A. D. or a few years later ; see Rapson, B. M. Cat. , Coins of the Andhra Dynasty
& c. p, XXX. If a calculation be made from this fixed point, the maximum readings
of the Purāṇas would indicate c. 244 B. C. and the minimum readings c. 202 B. C. , as the
date of Simuka's accession ; cf. Kali Age, pp. 38-42, 71 with B. M. Cat. , pp. lxvi, lxvii.
4 Årch. Sur. West. Ind. IV, p. 98.
the
## p. 478 (#516) ############################################
478
[Ch.
INDIAN NATIVE STATES
For the history of this period the cave-inscriptions of Nānaghāt
(nos. 1112-20) are of the highest importance. They proove by their
situation that the Andhras now held the Nāna pass, which leads from
Junar in the Deccan to the Konkan, the coastal region of Western India.
Most of them prescribed statues of members of the royal family-Simuka,
the founder of the line, Çātakarni himself and his queen Nāganikā, a
Mahārathi, and three princes. But most valuable of all is the inscription,
unfortunately fragmentary, of the queen (no. 1112). She was the daughter
of a Mahārathi, i. e. a king of the Rashtrikas; and we must conclude there-
fore that the inscription of the Marāthā country in the Andhra
empire had been ratified by a matrimonial alliance between the two
royal houses. The inscription records the performance of certain great
sacrifices and the fees paid to the officiating priests - fees which testify elo.
quently to the wealth of the realm and to the power of the Brāhman
hierarchy at this date-tens of thousands of cows, thousands of horses, num-
bers of elephants, whole villages, and huge sums of money (tens of thous.
ands of kārshāpaņas). Twice, it appears, had Çātakarni proclaimed his
suzerainty by the preformance of the horse-sacrifice; and, on one of these
occasions at least, the victory thus celebrated must have been at the ex-
pense of the Çungas, if we are right in supposing that the appearance of the
Andhras of Southern India in the dynastic lists of the Parāṇas indicates
that, at some period, they held the position of suzerains in Northern India
(p. 283). That the Andhras did actually come into conflict with the Cungas
during the reign of Pushyamitra appears probable from the Malavikāgni.
mitra (p. 467). On this occasion the Çungas were victorious ; but this was
no doubt merely an episode in the struggle in which the Andhras were
finally triumphant. The progress of this intruding power from its western
stronghold, Pratishthāna, first to Ujjayini and subsequently to Vidiçā seems
to be indicated by the evidence of coins and inscriptions.
Pratishthāna, the modern Paithan on the north bank of the Godāvari
in the Aurangābād District of Hyderabad, is famous in literature as
the capital of king Çātakarni (Çātavahana or Sālivahāna) and his son
Çākti-kumāra ; and there can be little doubt that these are to be identi-
fied with the king Çātakarni and the prince Çākti-çri of the Nānāgbāt ins-
criptions. The Andhras in this region were separated by the rivers Tāpti
and Narbadā from the kingdoms of Ujjayini and Vidiçā, which lay along
the central route from the coast to Pātaliputra; and the lines of communi-
cation between Pratishthana and these kingdoms passed through the city of
Māhishmati (Mandhāta on the Narbadā in the Nimār District of the
Central Provinces). Numismatic testimony, if it has been rightly interpreted
shows that at this period the Andhras had traversed the intervening terri-
## p. 479 (#517) ############################################
XXI]
ANDHRA CONQUEST OF UJJAIN
479
tories and conquered the kingdom of Ujjayini. Their earliest known coins
bear the name of a king Sāta, who is probably to be identified with
Çatakarņi ; and they are of what numismatists call the ‘Mālwā fabric' and
of that particular variety which is characteristic of the coins of W. Mālwā
(Avanti), the capital of which was Ujjayini'. If we may suppose, then that
Çātakarņi was the actual conqueror, his performance of the horse sacrifice
is evidently explained ; for Ujjayini was one of the most famous of all the
cities of India, and its conquest may well have entitled the Andhra kings to
a place in the imperial records preserved by the Purāņas. It was, and still
is, one of the seven holy places of Hinduismº. Such fragments of
its ancient history as may be recovered from the past are given elsewhere? ;
and the indigenous coins which can be attributed to this period add little to
our knowledge. The only inscribed specimen yet discovered bears the name
of the city in its Prākrit form, Ujeni (Pl. V, 18). Other coins have
a type which has been supposed to represent the god Çiva (Pl. V. 19),
whose temple stood in the Mahākāla forest to the north of the city. It was
destroyed by the Muhammadans in the thirteenth century A. D. , and the
present temple was built on its site.
It appears most likely, then, that Ujjayini was wrested from the
first Çunga king, Pushyamitra, by Çātakarņi. Of its history for many years
to come we have no information. We can only infer from the conditions of
the time that its politics cannot have been dissevered from those of
the neighbouring kingdom of Vidiçã; and early in the first century,
c. 90 B. C , we find evidence of the existence of diplomatic relations between
Vidicā, which was still under the rule of the Çungas, and the Yavana house
of Eucratides at Takshaçilā in the north-west of the Punjab (p. 470). There
were therefore at this period three powers which were politically important
from the point of view of Ujjayini— the Yavanas in the north, the Çungas
on the east, and the Andhras of Pratisthāna in the north ; and it
is probable, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, that Ujjayini re-
mained in the possession of the last of these. But a few years later,
c. 75 B. C. , there arose another formidable power on the west. The Scythians
(Çakas) of Seistān had occupied the delta of the Indus, which was
known thereafter to Indian writers as Çakadvipa, 'the doāb of the Çakas,'
and to the Greek geographers as Indo-Scythia. The memory of an episode
in the history of Ujjayini as it was affected by this new element in
Indian politics may possibly be preserved in the Jain story of Kālaka, which
is told in Chapter vi. pp. 167-8. The story can neither be proved nor dis-
1 Rapson, B. M. Cat. , Coins of the Andhra Dynasty & c. , p. xcii.
2 The seven are recorded in the couplet :
Ayodhyā, Mathurā, Māyā, Kāci, Kāņci, Avantikā,
puri Dväravati caiva, saptaitā mokşadāyikāh.
3 Chapters VII, pp. 165. 66 ; XIII, pp. 276-77.
## p. 480 (#518) ############################################
480
[CH.
INDIAN NATIVE STATES
a
proved ; but it may be said in its favour that its historical setting is not in-
consistent with what we know of the political circumstances of Ujjayini at
this period. A persecuted party in the state may well have invoked the aid
of the warlike Çakas of Çakadvipa in order to crush a cruel despot; and as
history has so often shown, such allies are not unlikely to have seized the
kingdom for themselves. Both the tyrant Gardabhilla, whose misdeeds
were responsible for the introduction of these avengers, and his son
Vikramāditya, who afterwards drove the Çakas out of the realm, according
to the story, may perhaps be historical characters ; and, from the account
which represents Vikramāditya as having come to Ujjayini from Pratish-
thana, we may infer that they were connected with the Andhras? . It is
possible that we may recognise in this story the beginnings of that long
stuggle between the Andhras and the Çakas for the possession of Ujjayini,
the varying fortunes of which may be clearly traced when the evidence of
inscriptions becomes available in the second century A. D. ? With the im-
perfect documents at our disposal, we can do little more than suggest
such possibilities. It is hopeless to attempt to discriminate between the
elements which may be historical and others which are undoubtedly pure
romance in the great cycle of legend which has gathered around the name,
or rather the title, Vikramāditya, the Sun of Might. ' Many kings at
different periods and in different countries of India have been so styled ;
and it seems that the exploits of more than one of them have been confused
even in those legends which may be regarded as having some historical
basis. While it is possible, nay even probable, that there may have been
a Vikramāditya who expelled the Çakas from Ujjayini in the first century
B. C. , it is certain that the monarch who finally crushed the Çaka power in
this region was the Gupta emperor, Chandragupta II Vikramāditya (380-
(414 A. D. ). Indian tradition does not distinguish between these two.
regards the supposed founder of the era, which began in 58 B. C. (p. 515),
and the royal patron of Kālidāsa, who lived more than four hundred
years later, as one and the same person.
During the first quarter of the first country B. C. , such dominion
as the Andhras may have exercised over the region now known as Mālwā
must have been restricted to its western portion, Avanti, of which
Ujjayini was the capital ; for the Çunga kings were still in possession of
Akara or E. Mālwā (capital Vidicā). But there is evidence that, presum-
ably at some date after c. 72 B. C. when the Çungas came to an end, E.
Mālwā also was annexed by the Andhras. An inscription (no 346) on one
of the Bhilsa Topes (Sānchi, no. 1) records a donation made in the reign of
1 These kings belonged probably to the family of Gardabhilas, viho appear in the
Purāņas among the successors of the Andhra ; see Kali Age, pp. 44-6, 72.
? B. M. Cat. , Andhras &c. , pp. xxxv, xxxvi.
## p. 481 (#519) ############################################
XXI]
ANDHRA CONQUEST OF VIDIÇĀ
481
a king Çātakarņi, who cannot be identified more precisely, but who
must certainly have been an Andhra. The inscription is not dated ; but
there is now a general consensus among archaeologists that it probably
belongs to about the middle of the first century B. c. Andhra coins of a
certain type have also been attributed to E. Mālwā ; but their date is
uncertain, and they may belong to a later period”. The conquest of E.
Mālwā marks the north-eastern limit to which the progress of the Andhra
power can be traced from the evidence of inscriptions and coins.
The other great nation, which arose on the ruins of the Maurya em-
pire to take its part in the struggle for supremacy, had also its home in
the lowlands of the eastern coast. The Kalingas? , who occupied the country
of the Mahānadi, were no doubt connected ethnographically with the
Angas and the other peoples of the plains of Bengal with whom they are
associated in the Purāņas (p. 283). They had been conquered by Açoka
c. 262 B. c. 4 ; but at some time after his death they had regained their
independence ; and the next glimpses of their history are afforded by ins-
;
criptions in the caves of the Udayagiri Hill near Cuttack in Orissa”. The
immediate object of these inscriptions (nos. 1345-50) was to preserve the
memory of pious benefactors -- two kings, a queen, a prince, and other per-
sons-who had provided caves for the use of the Jain ascetics of Udayagiri;
and one of the inscriptions (no. 1345) in the Hathigumphā, or ‘Elephant
Cave,' contained a record of events in the first thirteen (or possibly four-
teen) years of the reign of one of the kings, Khāravela, a member of the
Cheta dynasty. This is one of the most celebrated, and also one of the most
perplexing, of all the historical monuments of India. Unfortunately it has
been badly preserved. Of its seventeen lines only the first four remain in
their entirety. These describe the fifteen years of the king's boyhood, the
nine years of his rule as prince (yuvarāja), his coronation as king when his
twentyfourth year was completed, and events in the first two years of his
reign. All the other lines are more or less fragmentary. Many passages are
irretrievably lost, while others are partially obliterated and can only be
restored conjecturally. Time has thus either destroyed or obscured much
of the historical value of this record.
Even the fundamental question whether the inscription is dated or not
is still in dispute. Some scholars contend that a passage in the sixteenth line
can only be interpreted to mean that the inscription was engraved in
the 165th year of the Maurya kings, or of the Maurya king while
1 B. M. Cat. , Andhras &c. , pp. xxiii, xxiv ; Marshali, Guide to Sānchi. p. 13 ;
Jouveau-Dubr uil, Anc. Hist. of the Deccan, p. 15.
2 B. M. Cat. , Andhras &c. , pp. xcv, xcvi.
3 Chapter XXIV, pp. 544-5.
4 Chapter XX, pp. 446, 453.
5 Chapter XXVI, pp. 578 ff.
9
## p. 482 (#520) ############################################
482
(ch.
INDIAN NATIVE STATES
others deny the existence of any such date'. The discussion of problems of
this kind does not fall within the scope of the present work ; but it may be
pointed out here that the acceptance of the supposed date would seem to
involve no chronological impossibilities, and that, in any case, the inscrip-
tion probably belongs to about the middle of the second century b. c. We
know from analogous instances that the origin of imperial eras is usually
to be traced to the regnal years of the founder of the empire. A Maurya
era, therefore, would naturally date from the accession of Chandragupta
c. 321 1. c. ; and, if such an era is actually used in the present instance,
the inscription must be dated c. 156 B. C. , and the beginning of Khāravela's
reign c. 169 B. C. With this hypothetical chronology other indications
of date seem to agree.
Epigraphical considerations show that the Hāthigumphā inscription
of Khāra vela and the Nānāghāt inscription of Nāganikā, the queen of
Cātakarņi, belong to the same period as the Nāsik inscription of Kțishņa? .
Even, therefore, if it must be admitted that the Hāthigumphā inscription
is undated, there is still reason to believe that Khāravela may have been
contemporary with Çātakarņi in the first half of the second century
B.
inscription which describes the daughter of Bahasatimitra (Bțihāsvātimitra)
as the wife of the king (of Matburā) and 'the mother of living sons'
(J. R. A. S. 1912, p. 120). In the patronymic, Çonakāyana, 'the scion of the
house of Conaka,' we may perhaps see an allusion to the glories of Pañ-
chāla in the heroic age, when, as is recounted in one of the ancient verses
preserved by the Çatapatha Brāhmana, king Çoņa Sātrāsāha celebrated
his triumphs by the performance of the horse-sacrifice? No detailed list
of the earlier historical kings of Pañchāla occurs in the Parāṇas ; but coins
found in the neighbourbood of Ahicchatra-now a vast mound three and a
half miles in circumference on the north of the village of Rāmnagar-- have
preserved the names of about a dozen of their successors in the Çunga
periods. Among the kings thus known there appears an Agnimitra (Pl. V, 3),
who has often been supposed to be identical with the second Çunga king.
There seems to be no evidence at present either to prove or to disprove the
suggestion. The identity of name may well be accidental, or, perhaps more
probably, it may indicate that the royal families Vidicā and Ahicchatra
were related.
The name of another king of Ahicchatra, Indramitra, has
been recognised in an inscription at Buddh Gayā (p. 474 ; Pl. V, 4).
We may infer from the inscriptions at Pabhosā that, in the second
century B. C. , Panchāla (Ahicchatra) and Vatsa (Kauçāmbī) were governed
by branches of the same royal family, and that both kingdoms acknowledged
the suzerainty of the Çungas. The history of Kauçãmbi may be traced
back to the time when the Pūrus (Kurus) removed thither after their capital,
1 Cunningham, Coins of Ancient Indià, p. 73, PI. V, 7-18; Rapson, Indian Coins,
pp. 12, 13.
2 Vedic Index, II, p. 395
3 Cunningham, Coins of Ancient India, p. 79, Pl. VII ; Indian Coins, p. 13.
## p. 474 (#512) ############################################
474
(CH.
INDIAN NATIVE STATES
a
Hastināpura, had been destroyed by an inundation of the Ganges? We
now find this city under the rule of a house in which Kurus and Pañchālas
had no doubt long been merged.
Mathurā (Muttra) on the upper Jumna, about 270 miles in a straight
line N. W. of Kauçāmbi, may perhaps have been another of the feudatory
kingdoms. This sacred city,the Mósoupa ni tou sou of Ptolemy (VII,1,50),
was a stronghold both of the worship of Kộisbņa and of Jainism ; and it
;
was the capital of the Çūrasenas, one of the leading peoples of the Midland
Country. Its earlier rulers find a place in the Purāņas, but only in the
general summary of those dynasties which were contemporary with the
Pūrus (p. 282); and coins have preserved the names of at least twelve later
kings who reigned during the Çunga perioda. One of these, Balabhūti.
is associated by the style and type of his coinage with Bahasatimitra of
Kauçāmbi, whose daughter was married to a king of Mothurā (p. 473).
The two kings were almost certainly ruling at about the same time ; and it
seems reasonable to assume, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary
that they were both feudatories of the Çungas. Another king of Mathurā.
Brahmamitra (Pl. V, 6) was probably contemporary with king Indramitra of
Ahicchatra (Pl. V, 4); for both names are found in the dedicatory inscrip-
tions of queens on pillars of the railing at Buddh Gayā, which is assigned
by archaeologists to the earlier part of the first century B. c.
Inscriptions show that in the second half of the first century B. C. the
region of Mathurā had passed from native Indian to foreign (Çaka) rule”;
and their evidence is confirmed and amplified by that of the coins. The
characteristic type of the kings of Mathură is a standing figure, which has
been supposed to represent the god Kộishna (Pl. V, 5, Gomitra); and this
type is continued by their conquerors and successors, the satraps of the
Çaka King of Kings. Rañjubula (Rājuvula) and his son Çodāsa (Pl V. 9,
10) are known also from inscriptions; and the date on the Āmobini votive
tablet, if it has been rightly interpreted, shows that the latter was ruling
as great satrap in 17-6 B. c. (pp. 518-20). Çodāsa was preceded by his father,
Ranjubila, who ruled first as satrap and afterwards as great satrap ; and
Ranjubula appears to have been the successor of satraps who are known
only from their coins – Hagāmasha (Pl. V, 7). and Hagāna ruling conjointly
with Hagāmasha (Pl. V, 8). These numismatic indications all tend to
support the conclusion that by about the middle of the first century B. C.
Çaka dominion was fully established in that region of the Jumna river
which lies beyond the south-eastern limits of the Punjab.
By c. 72 B. C. , according to the chronology of the Purāņas, the
1 Chapter XIII, p. 275.
2 Cunningham, Coins of Ancient India, pp. 85. 90, PI. VIII, Rapson, Indian Coins,
p. 13: J. R. A. S. , 1900, pp. 1( 9. 11.
3 See Chapter XXIII, pp. 518-20.
## p. 475 (#513) ############################################
XXI]
KOSALA AND MAGADHA
475
dynasty of the Çuņgas had come to an end. In the present state of Indian
archaeology it seems impossible to trace the extension of the rule of those
kings of Vidicā who reigned after Pusyamitra beyond the region in which
the Jumna and the Ganges meet, i. e. the ancient kingdom of the Vatsas
(Kauçambi) and the present district of Allahābād. The investigation of
ancient sites may no doubt some day throw light on the contemporary
history of the countries which lay to the north and east of Kauçāmbi-
Kosala (Oudh), Videha (N. Bihār), Kāçi (Benares), Magadba (S. Bihār),
and Anga (Monghyr and Bhāgalpur) ; but the available evidence is not
sufficient to enable us to determine whether the kingdoms in these countries
still united under the sovereignty, as in the time of Açoka, or
whether they had become independent. Kosala is represented by coins
of this period which are found on the site of Ayodhya , but from these
little information can be gleaned at present. They represent a line of
about ten kings, of whom nothing is known but their names (Pl. V, 11,
Aryamitra ; 12, Mūladeva)'. A king of Magadha and a king of Rājagộiha
are also mentioned in the inscription of Khāravela ; but whether the
former was still a powerful suzerain at this time, and whether the latter
was anything more than a local prince ruling over the old capital of
Magadha must remain doubtful until more definite evidence can be dis-
covered (p. 484). The history of the famous kingdom of Magadha, once
the centre of the empire, becomes utterly obscure. That for some time
Pushyamitra continued to occupy the imperial throne which he had
seized is a natural inference from those passages of the literature in which
he is mentioned in connexion with the Pātaliputra ; but that he was able
to hold it to the end, and to hand it down to his successors is at present
not capable of proof. No certain traces of the later Çungas or of their
feudatories have yet been found in the region of Magadha.
But in addition to the powers which dominated the kingdoms on
the great highways of communication, there were in less accessible regions
numerous independent states ; and of some of these the coins of this period
have preserved a record. These communities were military clans or groups
of clans ; and they were governed sometimes by kings, but more often by
tribal oligarchies. They were Kshatriyas ; and by this name, the common
designation of them all, they are known to the historians of Alexander the
Great in two districts - in the north of the Punjab to the east of the Rāvi
(p. 332), and the south-west where the Indus and the Sutlej meet (Xathri,
p. 357). They were the ancestors of the Rajputs who played a most
important part in the history of Northern India at a later date, and their
coins are found throughout the regions to which modern
which modern ethnologists
trace the origin of the Rajputs :
i Cunningham, Coins of Ancient India, p. 90, Pl. IX ; Rapson, Indian Coins,
p. 11; J. R. A. S. , 1903, p. 287.
## p. 476 (#514) ############################################
476
[ch.
INDIAN NATIVE STATES
The cradle of the Rājput is the tract named after him (Rājaputāna) not, how-
ever, as it is lirnited in the present day, but extending from the Jamna to the Narbadā
and Satlaj, including, therefore the whole of Mālvā, Bundelkhand, and parts of Agra
and the Panjāb. From the northern part of this tract there seems to have been an
early movement of conquest up the western rivers of the Punjab, as far as the Himāla.
yas and Kashmir, whereby was laid the foundation of the predominance of the tribes
still in possession (Baines, Ethnography, p. 29. )
Examples of such early Rājput states are the Yaudheya confederation
in the southern portion of the Punjab . . and the northern parts of Rājpu-
tāna' (J. R. A. S. 1897. p. 887), and the Arjunāyanas in the Bhartpur and
Alwar States of Rājputāna (ibid. p. 886). Both the Yaudheyas, 'Warriors. '
and the Arjunāyanas, 'Descendants of Arjuna,' are mentioned by Pāņini
in the fourth century B. C. ; both issued coins as early as the first century
B. C. ; and both appear among the peoples on the frontiers of the Gupta
empire in the Allahābād inscription of Samudragupta c. 380 A. D. Other
states struck coins with the bare legend. 'Of the Rājanya (Kshatriya)
Country. It is impossible at present to determine with much precision
the localities in which these coins were issued ; but similarity of type
suggests that one variety may belong to the same region as the coins of
the Arjunāyanas and the kings of Mathurā (Pl. V, 13).
The mountainous fringe of country of the north of the Punjab
and the United Provinces was also accupied at this period by independent
native Indian states ; and the names of some of them have similarly been
preserved by the coins, which were no doubt the result of commerce
between these peoples of the hills and the low-landers. In the Gurdāspur
District of the Punjab there lived the Udumbaras, who claimed to
be descended from Viçvāmitra, the rishi of the third book of the Rigveda.
His figure appears on the coins of their king, Dharāghosha, whose
reign must probably be assigned to the latter half of the first century
B. C. , since his coinage is evidently imitated from that of the Çaka
king Azilises (Pl. V, 14, Dharāghosha ; 15, Azilises). Of a somewhat
later date, perhaps of the first or second century A. D. , are the coins of the
Kulūtas, the eastern neighbours of the Udum baras, in the Kulū valley of
the Kangra District; and to the same period as the coins of the Udumbaras
belong the earlier issues of the Kuņindas who inhabited the country of the
Sutlej in the Simla Hill States (Pl. V, 16, Amoghabhūti). These
three peoples, the Udumbaras, the Kulūtas, and the Kuņindas, lived on the
border between the regions in which the two ancient alphabets. Brāhmi and
Kharoshthi, prevailed : they accordingly used both of them in their
coin-legends. To a branch of the Kunindas (or Kulindas, as they are called
1 Rapson, Indian Coins, pp. 11-13, and PII, III, 20 and IV, 1.
2 Cf. Pargiter , Márk Pur. p. 355. For the connexion between Viçvamitra
and the country of the Beas, See l'edic Index, II, p. 310.
>
## p. 477 (#515) ############################################
XXI)
RISE OF THE ANDHRAS
477
in the Purāņas), whose territories 'extended further east along the southern
slopes of the Himalayas as far as Nepal' (Pargiter, Mārk. Pur. p. 316), are
probably also to be attributed the coins of two kings which have been found
in the Almora District (Pl. V, 17, Çivadatta)'.
The 'unsubdued' peoples on the southern borders of the Maurya do-
minions were, during the Çunga period, united under the suzerainty of the
most powerful among them, the Andhras, whose home was in the coastal
region of the Madras Presidency between the rivers Godāvari and Kistna.
The dynasty, which is known by its tribal name in the Purāņas and by its
family name or title, Çātavāhana, in inscriptions, is traced back to
king Simuka, who was succeeded by his younger brother, Kțishņa.
At some date at the reign of Simuka or Krishņa the Andhra conquests had
extended up the valley of the river Godāvari for its whole length, a distance
of some nine hunderd miles, to the table-land of the Nasik District. This
is proved by the inscriptions ( no. 1144 ) in one of the Nasik caves
which was excavated when Kșishṇa was king. Already the Çātavāhanas had
justified their claim to the title, 'Lords of the Deccan (Dakshināpatha),'
which they bear in their later inscriptions. The third of the line and
the best known of the earlier kings was called Çatakarņi, a name which, to
the perplexity of modern students of Indian history, was borne by several
of his successors on the throne.
The exact date of the establishment of the Andhra suzerainty cannot
be determined from the discrepant accounts given by different Purāņas of
the kings and the duration of their reigns ; but it is clear that the most
complete of the extant lists can only be interpreted as indicating that he
founder, Simuka, began to reign before 200 B. 0. 3 To this extant the
evidence of Purāņas confirms the opinon of Bühler, who from empigra-
phical considerations assigned the Nāsik inscription of the second king,
Kirshņa, to 'the times of the last Mauryas or the earliest Çungas, in
the beginning of the second century B. C. '' It is therefore possible
that Kțishņa's immediate successor, the third Andhra king, Çātakarni, may
have been contemporary with the first Çunga king, Pushyamitra (c. 184-148
B. c. ). As we shall see (p. 482) this name Çātakarņi was probably also con-
temporary with Khāravela. king of Kalinga.
1 For the coins of Kulūta, see Bergny, J. R. A. S. , 1900, p. 415 ; for other coins
mentioned in this paragraph see the references in Rapson, Indian Coins, pp. 101-2.
2 See Chapter XXIV, pp. 542-43. The inscriptions from Bhattiprolu near
month of the Kistna in the Guntur District (c. 200 B. C. ) menti in a king Khubiraka or
Kubiraka (Kuvera) who is otherwise unknown ; see Bühler, Ep. Ind. II, pp. 323 ff.
3 The accession of the twenty-third king, Gautamīputra, çītakarni, must be dated
106 A. D. or a few years later ; see Rapson, B. M. Cat. , Coins of the Andhra Dynasty
& c. p, XXX. If a calculation be made from this fixed point, the maximum readings
of the Purāṇas would indicate c. 244 B. C. and the minimum readings c. 202 B. C. , as the
date of Simuka's accession ; cf. Kali Age, pp. 38-42, 71 with B. M. Cat. , pp. lxvi, lxvii.
4 Årch. Sur. West. Ind. IV, p. 98.
the
## p. 478 (#516) ############################################
478
[Ch.
INDIAN NATIVE STATES
For the history of this period the cave-inscriptions of Nānaghāt
(nos. 1112-20) are of the highest importance. They proove by their
situation that the Andhras now held the Nāna pass, which leads from
Junar in the Deccan to the Konkan, the coastal region of Western India.
Most of them prescribed statues of members of the royal family-Simuka,
the founder of the line, Çātakarni himself and his queen Nāganikā, a
Mahārathi, and three princes. But most valuable of all is the inscription,
unfortunately fragmentary, of the queen (no. 1112). She was the daughter
of a Mahārathi, i. e. a king of the Rashtrikas; and we must conclude there-
fore that the inscription of the Marāthā country in the Andhra
empire had been ratified by a matrimonial alliance between the two
royal houses. The inscription records the performance of certain great
sacrifices and the fees paid to the officiating priests - fees which testify elo.
quently to the wealth of the realm and to the power of the Brāhman
hierarchy at this date-tens of thousands of cows, thousands of horses, num-
bers of elephants, whole villages, and huge sums of money (tens of thous.
ands of kārshāpaņas). Twice, it appears, had Çātakarni proclaimed his
suzerainty by the preformance of the horse-sacrifice; and, on one of these
occasions at least, the victory thus celebrated must have been at the ex-
pense of the Çungas, if we are right in supposing that the appearance of the
Andhras of Southern India in the dynastic lists of the Parāṇas indicates
that, at some period, they held the position of suzerains in Northern India
(p. 283). That the Andhras did actually come into conflict with the Cungas
during the reign of Pushyamitra appears probable from the Malavikāgni.
mitra (p. 467). On this occasion the Çungas were victorious ; but this was
no doubt merely an episode in the struggle in which the Andhras were
finally triumphant. The progress of this intruding power from its western
stronghold, Pratishthāna, first to Ujjayini and subsequently to Vidiçā seems
to be indicated by the evidence of coins and inscriptions.
Pratishthāna, the modern Paithan on the north bank of the Godāvari
in the Aurangābād District of Hyderabad, is famous in literature as
the capital of king Çātakarni (Çātavahana or Sālivahāna) and his son
Çākti-kumāra ; and there can be little doubt that these are to be identi-
fied with the king Çātakarni and the prince Çākti-çri of the Nānāgbāt ins-
criptions. The Andhras in this region were separated by the rivers Tāpti
and Narbadā from the kingdoms of Ujjayini and Vidiçā, which lay along
the central route from the coast to Pātaliputra; and the lines of communi-
cation between Pratishthana and these kingdoms passed through the city of
Māhishmati (Mandhāta on the Narbadā in the Nimār District of the
Central Provinces). Numismatic testimony, if it has been rightly interpreted
shows that at this period the Andhras had traversed the intervening terri-
## p. 479 (#517) ############################################
XXI]
ANDHRA CONQUEST OF UJJAIN
479
tories and conquered the kingdom of Ujjayini. Their earliest known coins
bear the name of a king Sāta, who is probably to be identified with
Çatakarņi ; and they are of what numismatists call the ‘Mālwā fabric' and
of that particular variety which is characteristic of the coins of W. Mālwā
(Avanti), the capital of which was Ujjayini'. If we may suppose, then that
Çātakarņi was the actual conqueror, his performance of the horse sacrifice
is evidently explained ; for Ujjayini was one of the most famous of all the
cities of India, and its conquest may well have entitled the Andhra kings to
a place in the imperial records preserved by the Purāņas. It was, and still
is, one of the seven holy places of Hinduismº. Such fragments of
its ancient history as may be recovered from the past are given elsewhere? ;
and the indigenous coins which can be attributed to this period add little to
our knowledge. The only inscribed specimen yet discovered bears the name
of the city in its Prākrit form, Ujeni (Pl. V, 18). Other coins have
a type which has been supposed to represent the god Çiva (Pl. V. 19),
whose temple stood in the Mahākāla forest to the north of the city. It was
destroyed by the Muhammadans in the thirteenth century A. D. , and the
present temple was built on its site.
It appears most likely, then, that Ujjayini was wrested from the
first Çunga king, Pushyamitra, by Çātakarņi. Of its history for many years
to come we have no information. We can only infer from the conditions of
the time that its politics cannot have been dissevered from those of
the neighbouring kingdom of Vidiçã; and early in the first century,
c. 90 B. C , we find evidence of the existence of diplomatic relations between
Vidicā, which was still under the rule of the Çungas, and the Yavana house
of Eucratides at Takshaçilā in the north-west of the Punjab (p. 470). There
were therefore at this period three powers which were politically important
from the point of view of Ujjayini— the Yavanas in the north, the Çungas
on the east, and the Andhras of Pratisthāna in the north ; and it
is probable, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, that Ujjayini re-
mained in the possession of the last of these. But a few years later,
c. 75 B. C. , there arose another formidable power on the west. The Scythians
(Çakas) of Seistān had occupied the delta of the Indus, which was
known thereafter to Indian writers as Çakadvipa, 'the doāb of the Çakas,'
and to the Greek geographers as Indo-Scythia. The memory of an episode
in the history of Ujjayini as it was affected by this new element in
Indian politics may possibly be preserved in the Jain story of Kālaka, which
is told in Chapter vi. pp. 167-8. The story can neither be proved nor dis-
1 Rapson, B. M. Cat. , Coins of the Andhra Dynasty & c. , p. xcii.
2 The seven are recorded in the couplet :
Ayodhyā, Mathurā, Māyā, Kāci, Kāņci, Avantikā,
puri Dväravati caiva, saptaitā mokşadāyikāh.
3 Chapters VII, pp. 165. 66 ; XIII, pp. 276-77.
## p. 480 (#518) ############################################
480
[CH.
INDIAN NATIVE STATES
a
proved ; but it may be said in its favour that its historical setting is not in-
consistent with what we know of the political circumstances of Ujjayini at
this period. A persecuted party in the state may well have invoked the aid
of the warlike Çakas of Çakadvipa in order to crush a cruel despot; and as
history has so often shown, such allies are not unlikely to have seized the
kingdom for themselves. Both the tyrant Gardabhilla, whose misdeeds
were responsible for the introduction of these avengers, and his son
Vikramāditya, who afterwards drove the Çakas out of the realm, according
to the story, may perhaps be historical characters ; and, from the account
which represents Vikramāditya as having come to Ujjayini from Pratish-
thana, we may infer that they were connected with the Andhras? . It is
possible that we may recognise in this story the beginnings of that long
stuggle between the Andhras and the Çakas for the possession of Ujjayini,
the varying fortunes of which may be clearly traced when the evidence of
inscriptions becomes available in the second century A. D. ? With the im-
perfect documents at our disposal, we can do little more than suggest
such possibilities. It is hopeless to attempt to discriminate between the
elements which may be historical and others which are undoubtedly pure
romance in the great cycle of legend which has gathered around the name,
or rather the title, Vikramāditya, the Sun of Might. ' Many kings at
different periods and in different countries of India have been so styled ;
and it seems that the exploits of more than one of them have been confused
even in those legends which may be regarded as having some historical
basis. While it is possible, nay even probable, that there may have been
a Vikramāditya who expelled the Çakas from Ujjayini in the first century
B. C. , it is certain that the monarch who finally crushed the Çaka power in
this region was the Gupta emperor, Chandragupta II Vikramāditya (380-
(414 A. D. ). Indian tradition does not distinguish between these two.
regards the supposed founder of the era, which began in 58 B. C. (p. 515),
and the royal patron of Kālidāsa, who lived more than four hundred
years later, as one and the same person.
During the first quarter of the first country B. C. , such dominion
as the Andhras may have exercised over the region now known as Mālwā
must have been restricted to its western portion, Avanti, of which
Ujjayini was the capital ; for the Çunga kings were still in possession of
Akara or E. Mālwā (capital Vidicā). But there is evidence that, presum-
ably at some date after c. 72 B. C. when the Çungas came to an end, E.
Mālwā also was annexed by the Andhras. An inscription (no 346) on one
of the Bhilsa Topes (Sānchi, no. 1) records a donation made in the reign of
1 These kings belonged probably to the family of Gardabhilas, viho appear in the
Purāņas among the successors of the Andhra ; see Kali Age, pp. 44-6, 72.
? B. M. Cat. , Andhras &c. , pp. xxxv, xxxvi.
## p. 481 (#519) ############################################
XXI]
ANDHRA CONQUEST OF VIDIÇĀ
481
a king Çātakarņi, who cannot be identified more precisely, but who
must certainly have been an Andhra. The inscription is not dated ; but
there is now a general consensus among archaeologists that it probably
belongs to about the middle of the first century B. c. Andhra coins of a
certain type have also been attributed to E. Mālwā ; but their date is
uncertain, and they may belong to a later period”. The conquest of E.
Mālwā marks the north-eastern limit to which the progress of the Andhra
power can be traced from the evidence of inscriptions and coins.
The other great nation, which arose on the ruins of the Maurya em-
pire to take its part in the struggle for supremacy, had also its home in
the lowlands of the eastern coast. The Kalingas? , who occupied the country
of the Mahānadi, were no doubt connected ethnographically with the
Angas and the other peoples of the plains of Bengal with whom they are
associated in the Purāņas (p. 283). They had been conquered by Açoka
c. 262 B. c. 4 ; but at some time after his death they had regained their
independence ; and the next glimpses of their history are afforded by ins-
;
criptions in the caves of the Udayagiri Hill near Cuttack in Orissa”. The
immediate object of these inscriptions (nos. 1345-50) was to preserve the
memory of pious benefactors -- two kings, a queen, a prince, and other per-
sons-who had provided caves for the use of the Jain ascetics of Udayagiri;
and one of the inscriptions (no. 1345) in the Hathigumphā, or ‘Elephant
Cave,' contained a record of events in the first thirteen (or possibly four-
teen) years of the reign of one of the kings, Khāravela, a member of the
Cheta dynasty. This is one of the most celebrated, and also one of the most
perplexing, of all the historical monuments of India. Unfortunately it has
been badly preserved. Of its seventeen lines only the first four remain in
their entirety. These describe the fifteen years of the king's boyhood, the
nine years of his rule as prince (yuvarāja), his coronation as king when his
twentyfourth year was completed, and events in the first two years of his
reign. All the other lines are more or less fragmentary. Many passages are
irretrievably lost, while others are partially obliterated and can only be
restored conjecturally. Time has thus either destroyed or obscured much
of the historical value of this record.
Even the fundamental question whether the inscription is dated or not
is still in dispute. Some scholars contend that a passage in the sixteenth line
can only be interpreted to mean that the inscription was engraved in
the 165th year of the Maurya kings, or of the Maurya king while
1 B. M. Cat. , Andhras &c. , pp. xxiii, xxiv ; Marshali, Guide to Sānchi. p. 13 ;
Jouveau-Dubr uil, Anc. Hist. of the Deccan, p. 15.
2 B. M. Cat. , Andhras &c. , pp. xcv, xcvi.
3 Chapter XXIV, pp. 544-5.
4 Chapter XX, pp. 446, 453.
5 Chapter XXVI, pp. 578 ff.
9
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482
(ch.
INDIAN NATIVE STATES
others deny the existence of any such date'. The discussion of problems of
this kind does not fall within the scope of the present work ; but it may be
pointed out here that the acceptance of the supposed date would seem to
involve no chronological impossibilities, and that, in any case, the inscrip-
tion probably belongs to about the middle of the second century b. c. We
know from analogous instances that the origin of imperial eras is usually
to be traced to the regnal years of the founder of the empire. A Maurya
era, therefore, would naturally date from the accession of Chandragupta
c. 321 1. c. ; and, if such an era is actually used in the present instance,
the inscription must be dated c. 156 B. C. , and the beginning of Khāravela's
reign c. 169 B. C. With this hypothetical chronology other indications
of date seem to agree.
Epigraphical considerations show that the Hāthigumphā inscription
of Khāra vela and the Nānāghāt inscription of Nāganikā, the queen of
Cātakarņi, belong to the same period as the Nāsik inscription of Kțishņa? .
Even, therefore, if it must be admitted that the Hāthigumphā inscription
is undated, there is still reason to believe that Khāravela may have been
contemporary with Çātakarņi in the first half of the second century
B.
