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Pulumavi III (Satavahana)

Pulumavi III, called Pulumayi IV by Vincent Smith, was the last king of the Satavahana dynasty in the Puranic lists, which give him seven years in the early third century CE. Little is known of him for certain. Some scholars identify him with the King Pulumavi of the Myakadoni rock inscription near Adoni, while its editor took that king to be the earlier Vasishthiputra Pulumavi. After him the Satavahana empire broke up.

Pulumavi III was the last king of the Satavahanas in the lists of the Puranas.1 He reigned in the early third century CE, when the empire was breaking up.23 The Puranas give him only seven years.1 Vincent Smith called the last three kings “mere names”, though coins prove that one of them, Chandra Sri, was real.3 But some scholars have linked this king with a rock inscription near Adoni.45

In the Puranas

In F. E. Pargiter’s translation, the Puranas end the Andhra list thus: after Vijaya and Candasri Satakarni, “another of them Pulomavi will reign 7 years”.1 Pargiter noted that the words may also mean “the last”.1 The Puranas then say that these thirty Andhra kings will enjoy the earth for 460 years.1

Robert Sewell’s list (1932), which follows Vincent Smith, calls him Pulumayi III, or Pulomavi.2 It gives him seven years from about 229 CE.2 Sewell wrote that the dynasty came to a complete end about 236 CE, for reasons that are not well known.2

Coins and inscriptions

Smith found almost nothing for him. His table of the later Andhra kings, where he is Pulumayi IV, lists no inscription that is surely his.6 It adds that some coins bearing the name Pulumavi are hard to assign to a particular king.6 Smith expected that research would one day find coins of this king too.3

The Myakadoni question

The Myakadoni inscription, on a boulder near Adoni, is dated in the eighth year of “Siri-Pulumavi, King of the Satavahanas”.7 Its editor, V. S. Sukthankar, knew of at least four kings called Pulumavi.7 Smith’s list gave the two later ones only about seven years each, too few for a record of the eighth year.7 So Sukthankar chose the earlier Vasishthiputra Pulumavi, though he admitted the choice was uncertain.7

G. Jouveau-Dubreuil disagreed in 1920. He found the letters of the inscription “much less archaic” than those of the great Pulumavi’s records.4 In his view they looked more like the letters of the Chutus and the early Pallavas.4 So he thought it “very probable” that the Myakadoni king was the last king of the Matsya Purana’s list.4 He set aside the seven years of the Puranas, which he did not trust.4

Dubreuil saw a lesson in the record. It shows a great general, Skandanaga, governing the country south of the Tungabhadra in the eighth year of this king.4 To Dubreuil this helped to explain why the dynasty fell.4

D. C. Sircar, in 1939, also called Myakadoni the only inscription of Puloma or Pulumavi, the last king of the list.5 Because it lies in the Bellary district, he could not be sure that this king ruled the Andhra country proper.5 In 1959 he noted that the Myakadoni king is generally placed after Yajna Sri.8

After him

Sewell wrote that a Pallava king, Bappa, set up a new dynasty between about 225 and 250 CE.2 It ruled from the Krishna river south to Kanchi, while the kings of Kalinga held the north-east.2 See also the Ikshvakus.

Where the sources disagree

  • The Myakadoni king. Sukthankar (1918) identified him with Vasishthiputra Pulumavi.7 Dubreuil (1920) and Sircar (1939) took him to be the last Pulumavi.45
  • His number. Sewell calls him Pulumayi III.2 Smith calls him Pulumayi IV.3
  • The end of the dynasty. Smith ends it about 225 CE.3 Sewell ends it about 236 CE.2

Footnotes

  1. F. E. Pargiter (ed.), The Purana Text of the Dynasties of the Kali Age (1913), p. 72, translation and notes (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  2. Robert Sewell, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 325 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  3. Vincent A. Smith, The Early History of India, 4th ed. (1924), pp. 223–224 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  4. G. Jouveau-Dubreuil, Ancient History of the Deccan (1920), p. 51 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  5. D. C. Sircar, The Successors of the Satavahanas in Lower Deccan (1939), p. 163 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  6. Smith, Early History of India (1924), table “The Later Andhra Kings and Connected Dynasties”, PDF p. 271 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  7. V. S. Sukthankar, “A New Andhra Inscription of Siri-Pulumavi”, Epigraphia Indica XIV (1918), p. 154 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

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

Dynasties

Satavahanas

c. 200 BCE – 225 CE

The Satavahanas were a Deccan dynasty called the Andhras in the Puranas. Their later kings ruled the Krishna valley, the Godavari delta and parts of Rayalaseema in the 2nd and early 3rd centuries CE. Scholars still debate where and when the dynasty began and when it reached the Telugu country.

References

Sources (7)
  1. F. E. Pargiter (ed.), The Purana Text of the Dynasties of the Kali Age, with Introduction and Notes (opens in a new tab), Oxford University Press (Humphrey Milford), London, 1913, pp. 72. [Public domain]
  2. 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; paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  3. 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, pp. 223–224 and table (PDF p. 271). [Public domain]
  4. F. W. Thomas (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XIV (1917–18) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, Calcutta, 1918, pp. 154. V. S. Sukthankar, 'A New Andhra Inscription of Siri-Pulumavi' (No. 9). [Public domain]
  5. G. Jouveau-Dubreuil, Ancient History of the Deccan (opens in a new tab), The author, Pondicherry (translated by V. S. Swaminadha Dikshitar), 1920, pp. 51. [Public domain]
  6. D. C. Sircar, The Successors of the Satavahanas in Lower Deccan (opens in a new tab), University of Calcutta, 1939, pp. 163. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]
  7. 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. D. C. Sircar, 'Two Inscriptions from Guntur District' (No. 8). [Public domain in India]

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