The Lords of Dakshinapatha : The Satavahanas

The once formidable Mauryan Empire after the death of Ashok began to disintegrate and the later Mauryans who came after Ashok could not stop this disintegration. In the areas which were earlier part of the Mauryan Empire, we find that new powers were emerging. If we look at the political map of India during this period, we find that in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, the Indo-Greeks had established their rule. And when we move to the east, we find that the kingdom of Kaling, which was once part of the Mauryan Empire, had now become independent. West of the Kalingan territory, we find that another power was emerging in the upper Dakkan region. In the periods to come, this power would dominate the whole Dakkan region. And we know them as Satvahanas. Most of our information about the early Satvahana rulers comes from the Puranas. And in the Puranas, we find that the Satvahanas are described as Andhra-Bhrityas and Andhra. The term Andhra-Bhritya means servants of the Andhras and it may have been the case that the ancestors of the Satvahanas were once part of the Mauryan Empire and during the Mauryan period, they served the Mauryan officials in the Andhra region. But with the decline of the Mauryan Empire, they might have moved westwards and established the newly founded Satvahana kingdom in the upper Dakkan region. The upper Dakkan region is also the region where we find the coins which are related to the early Satvahana rulers. So it is quite possible that this was the region where the first Satvahana kingdom emerged and it is the city of Pratishthan that became the capital of the early Satvahanas. The person who established the Satvahana dynasty was called Simukh and in the inscription, he is called Raja Simukh Satvahana. Although we do not have enough information about Simukh, but what we learn from the Puranas is that Simukh ruled for a total of 23 years and in the Jain sources, we are told that Simukh during the end of his life became cruel and he was deposed and then murdered. After the murder of Simukh, we find that his son was not old enough to become the next king. So, his younger brother Kanha became the next king of the Satvahanas and in his reign of 18 years, he extended the Satvahana power up to the Nasik region in the west. Now Kanha after ruling for a total of 18 years was succeeded by Simukh's son Satakarni and Satakarni was the first of the great Satvahana rulers because it was during his reign that Satvahana power expanded rapidly in different parts of the Dakkan region and we know about this because of an inscription that is found in a cave near Nasik. Near Nasik, there is a place called Nanaghat and here there is a cave in which an inscription is written. Now this inscription was commissioned by the queen of King Satakarni whose name was Naganika. It is from this inscription we learn that after coming to the throne, Satakarni made several conquests. Although Queen Naganika tells us that the horses of King Satakarni drank the waters of three oceans which is to say that King Satakarni was able to capture the whole peninsular India but that is not the case because we find that most of King Satakarni's conquest was restricted to the northern part of Dakkan where King Satakarni was able to capture the Vidarbh region, the Narmada valley and the western Malwa region. To celebrate these conquests, Queen Naganika tells us that King Satakarni performed two Ashwamedha sacrifices and a Rajasuya sacrifice thus establishing himself as the Samrat with the title of Lord of Dakshanpath. According to the Puranas, Satakarni reigned for a total of 9 years but in this short period of his reign, he was able to expand the Satvahana power making the Satvahanas the dominant power in the whole southern India. From Naganika's inscription, we find that when Satakarni died, his two sons Vedasiri and Satasiri was not old enough to become the next Satvahana king. So Queen Naganika became the regent of Satvahana empire. The Puranas doesn't mention Vedasiri so it appears that Vedasiri might have died earlier and it was Satasiri who became the next king of the Satvahanas. Now what we find is that from the reign of Satasiri to the next king who came after him, we do not have enough information about these kings. It is only with the reign of the 6th king of the Satvahana line whose name was Satakarni II, we get some information. So it is from the reign of King Satakarni II, we have some new information. So we find that it was during his reign that the eastern Malwa region was conquered. Now Satakarni's reign is also important because it was the longest reign in Satvahana history. We find that Satakarni II ruled for a total of 56 years. After the death of King Satakarni II, our sources again become scant and we do not have enough information about the fate of Satvahana kings who came after him. The Puranas only provide us the list of Satvahana kings and we find that the 17th king of the Satvahana line whose name is Hal, we have some information. We know about King Hal only because of the fact that he supposed to have authored a work in Maharashtri Prakrit titled Gatha Saptasati. Now apart from this fact, we do not have enough information about his reign also. But it appears that this period of Satvahana history was a period of steady growth. But this steady growth begins to fall apart in the second half of 1st century AD where we find that once prosperous empire, the Satvahanas are now facing an existential threat and this existential threat is coming from the north. In northern India, during this period, the Kushanas were extending their empire and they had conquered the upper Gangetic plains. Now the upper Gangetic plains were earlier controlled by the Shakas and with the conquest of the Kushanas, they were now being displaced and they started moving southwards and it is these Shakas who were now moving southwards that were conquering the Satvahana territory. This crisis which the Satvahanas were now facing started with the movement of the Shakas from the north to the south and it literally shook the Satvahana power to the core. We find that with the rise of Shaka power in the Dakkan region, the Satvahana territory became much more reduced and once a prospering empire, the Satvahanas were now facing annihilation. But the story of the Satvahanas doesn't end here because we find that soon after this crisis, the Satvahanas again rose and they were able to again capture most of their territory. Now in this video, I will mostly talk about the early Satvahanas before this crisis which was created by the Shakas. Now in this video, you have also noticed that I didn't mention any chronology. This has to do with the debate that revolves around the chronology of the Satvahana history. We find that there are two groups in this debate. The first group argues that the period of the Satvahanas starts around 30 BC whereas the second group takes this chronology back to 230 BC. So we find that these two different groups provide us a completely different chronology and this debate arises from the fact that the different Puranas provide us different lists of the Satvahana kings and since there are no new evidence concerning Satvahana chronology, this debate has not been resolved yet. So we have to remember that the period of the Satvahanas is highly debated. But what is generally accepted is that the Satvahanas belonged to the post-Mauryan period i.e. the period after the decline of the Mauryan Empire. And if you want to know more about the post-Mauryan period, please click on this playlist. Thank you for watching.