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Chinna inscription of Yajna Sri Satakarni

A damaged six-line Prakrit inscription on a stone found on the sea-shore south of the Krishna near the village of Chinna, Kistna district, and later kept in the Madras Museum. It is dated in the 27th year of Gautamiputra Siriyana Satakani (Yajna Sri Satakarni). It is the latest dated record of that king.

The Chinna inscription is the only inscription from the Telugu country that E. J. Rapson could attribute to the Satavahana king Yajna Sri Satakarni. James Burgess, though, also counted a record of Sri Yajna among the Amaravati inscriptions. The Chinna record is dated in the king’s 27th year, the latest year known for him.12 Its findspot is on the coast south of the Krishna.34 This makes it one of the main pieces of evidence for Satavahana rule in the lower Krishna region in the later 2nd century CE.34

The stone

G. Bühler edited the inscription in 1892 from two rubbings given to him by James Burgess.3 He reported that the stone “was originally found on the sea-shore south of the Krishna river close to the village of China in the Kistna district”.3 By then it was in the Madras Museum.3 It carries six unequal lines, all damaged, the lower ones more than the upper.3 Bühler described the letters as of the ordinary Andhra type, “but rather ornamental”.3

Text and translation

Only parts of the six lines can be read. Bühler’s translation runs:

Success! Adoration to divine … The year twenty-seven (20+7) of the existence of the power of the king, the lord Siriyana Satakani, the son of the (Queen of the) Gautama (race), the fourth (4) fortnight of summer, the fifth (5) day—on the above (date) by the lord, the Mahataraka Maha.e…, a sacrificer, …to (Bud)dha (?)5

The purpose of the record is uncertain. The syllables dhaya at the start of the last line may be the end of Budhaya, “to the Buddha”.5 If so, it may have recorded a Buddhist gift or dedication.5 Bühler took Mahataraka to be a title.5 E. J. Rapson classed the record as a private dedication.6

Bühler drew attention to the phrase vasasataya before the date.5 He took it to mean something like “of the existence of the power” of the king.5 He compared it with the “victorious reign” phrases of later Sanskrit records.5 He rejected Bhagvanlal Indraji’s suggestion that a similar word meant “in the century of years”.5

The king and the date

The king is named Siriyana Satakani, son of a queen of the Gautama family, that is, Gautamiputra Yajna Sri Satakarni.5 Bühler noted that the Vayu and Matsya Puranas give this king 29 years.5 He called the agreement with a record of the 27th year “very remarkable”.5 He took it as evidence that the Puranic figure was true.5

Some scholars read a word in the inscription, araka, as a title equal to Sanskrit aryaka. Vincent Smith’s table records the inscription as using aryaka in place of the usual svami.7 D. C. Sircar reported that other scholars disagreed with this reading. Even if it were accepted, he wrote, it could not show whether Yajna Sri had an Aira mother or belonged to another family.8 Yajna Sri is not called a Satavahana here.8

The calendar date depends on the chronology adopted for Yajna Sri:

  • Rapson (1908) dated his accession to about 169 CE, but only from the Puranic reign-lengths, which he distrusted.1
  • Burgess (1887) placed his reign about 178–200 CE.2
  • Sewell (1932), after Vincent Smith, placed his accession about 184 CE.9

The site’s start year of 195 CE is therefore an approximation.

The style of the letters

Sircar found the script of the Chinna inscription close to that of the Ikshvaku inscriptions of about the middle of the 3rd century.10 In his view it did not look earlier than the Kodavali and Myakadoni inscriptions.10 Yet the kings named in those records are generally placed later than Yajna Sri.10

Sircar still counted it among the “Later Satavahana” inscriptions of the Krishna–Guntur region and its neighbourhood.4 The others were the Amaravati inscription of Pulumavi, the Kodavali inscription and the Myakadoni inscription.4

Editions

  • G. Bühler, Epigraphia Indica I (1892), pp. 95–96.3
  • Later discussions in the Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India for 1913–14 and the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal XVI (1920), cited by Sircar; not consulted for this page.84

Footnotes

  1. E. J. Rapson, Catalogue of the Coins of the Andhra Dynasty, the Western Ksatrapas, the Traikutaka Dynasty, and the “Bodhi” Dynasty (1908), p. xli (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  2. James Burgess, The Buddhist Stupas of Amaravati and Jaggayyapeta (1887), p. 5 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  3. G. Bühler, “A New Inscription of the Andhra King Yajnasri Gautamiputra”, Epigraphia Indica I (1892), p. 95 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  4. Sircar, “Two Inscriptions from Guntur District” (1959), p. 86 and n. 5 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  5. Bühler, “A New Inscription of the Andhra King Yajnasri Gautamiputra” (1892), p. 96 and notes (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12

  6. Rapson, Catalogue of the Coins of the Andhra Dynasty (1908), p. lii (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  7. Vincent A. Smith, The Early History of India, 4th ed. (1924), table “The Later Andhra Kings and Connected Dynasties”, PDF p. 271 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  8. Sircar, “Two Inscriptions from Guntur District” (1959), p. 85, n. 3 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  9. Robert Sewell, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 325 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  10. D. C. Sircar, “Two Inscriptions from Guntur District”, Epigraphia Indica XXXII (1959), p. 83, n. 9 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

References

Sources (6)
  1. Jas. Burgess (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. I (1888–92) (opens in a new tab), Government of India, Calcutta, 1892, pp. 95–96. G. Bühler, 'A New Inscription of the Andhra King Yajnasri Gautamiputra' (No. XV): text and translation. [Public domain]
  2. E. J. Rapson, Catalogue of the Coins of the Andhra Dynasty, the Western Ksatrapas, the Traikutaka Dynasty, and the 'Bodhi' Dynasty (Catalogue of the Indian Coins in the British Museum) (opens in a new tab), British Museum, London, 1908, xli–xlii, lii. [Public domain]
  3. D. C. Sircar and B. Ch. Chhabra (eds.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXXII (1957–58) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1959, pp. 83, 85–86. D. C. Sircar, 'Two Inscriptions from Guntur District' (No. 8), notes 9 and 3. [Public domain in India]
  4. Vincent A. Smith (rev. S. M. Edwardes), The Early History of India from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, 4th ed. (opens in a new tab), Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1924, table (PDF p. 271). [Public domain]
  5. Robert Sewell (ed. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar), The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (Collected till 1923) and Outlines of Political History (opens in a new tab), University of Madras, 1932, pp. 325. [Public domain in India]
  6. James Burgess, The Buddhist Stupas of Amaravati and Jaggayyapeta in the Krishna District, Madras Presidency, Surveyed in 1882 (opens in a new tab), Trübner & Co. for the Archaeological Survey of Southern India, 1887, pp. 5. [Public domain]

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