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Samagopa

King known only from his coins, found at Kotilingala, Peddabankur and Dhulikatta in the old Karimnagar district and at Chandrapur in Maharashtra. He issued more coins than any other Kotilingala king. Rachna Lodaya takes him for the last local king before the Satavahanas, ousted by Simuka about 52 BCE; P. V. Parabrahma Sastry took him for a Sunga king.

Samagopa (also written Sama Gopa, Sanskrit Svamigopa) was a king known only from his coins.12 They were found at Kotilingala, Peddabankur and Dhulikatta in the old Karimnagar district, and at Chandrapur in Maharashtra.34 Rachna Lodaya places him last among the four local kings of the Kotilingala coins, just before the Satavahanas.56

His coins

Samagopa’s coins far outnumber those of the other Kotilingala kings.3 They come in several types, and P. V. Parabrahma Sastry sorted them in 1978 into bow-and-arrow, tree and bull types.3 Twenty-four coins came from clear layers of the Kotilingala excavation.3 Most are of copper, but some are of potin or lead.37 They weigh from 2 to 17 grams.7

The front carries signs such as a svastika, a bow and arrow, a tree in a railing and a horned bull.7 Every coin has the same sign on the back.7 It is a triratna or nandipada round a double circle.7 Krishna Sastry, writing of pots from the region, treats the nandipada as a trident-like sign.8

The legend is often only partly on the coin.910 Lodaya prints readings such as SA MI GO PA SA and (RA) NO SA MI GO PA.910 On some coins a six-armed sign is part of the design.11 On others it was punched on afterwards.11

According to Lodaya, the excavators dated Samagopa to the 1st century BCE.11 They based this on the shapes of the letters and on how the coins were struck.11

Coins struck again with the Satavahana sign

A. H. Siddiqui, K. Sandhya and Bhanu Kumari published coins of Samagopa in 1994.11 On these the Ujjain symbol had been struck over the old design.11 One of them, a square lead coin, reads RA NO SA MA GO PA (SA).11

Lodaya notes that in the Deccan the Ujjain symbol was otherwise known only on Satavahana coins.4 So she concluded that the Satavahanas conquered Samagopa at Kotilingala.4

Samagopa and Simuka

Coin collectors found three coins of Samagopa at Chandrapur, on the border of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.4 They came with coins of Simuka and other early Satavahana kings.4 Lodaya suggests that Samagopa had some hold or contacts in Vidarbha.4 This, she thinks, helped Simuka later to take Vidarbha too.4

Lodaya thinks Samagopa ruled large parts of the Deccan for a long time.56 She suggests that Simuka may first have been his officer.5 Their coins look alike, except that Samagopa’s carry a nandipada on the back and Satavahana coins the Ujjain symbol.5 In her account Simuka ousted Samagopa and began to rule the Karimnagar region about 52 BCE.512

Where the sources disagree

Parabrahma Sastry identified Samagopa with the ninth king of the Sunga dynasty of Vidisa.135 V. V. Krishna Sastry gives that king’s name as Samabhagha or Bhagavata.13 Lodaya gives it as Samabhadra.5 Krishna Sastry answered that no other evidence shows Sunga rule beyond Vidarbha.13

According to Lodaya, P. L. Gupta held that Samagopa was a local ruler of the Deccan.5 Gupta placed him after the Mauryas and before the rise of the Satavahanas.5 Lodaya agreed with Gupta.514 She pointed out that the Sungas and Kanvas ruled round Vidisa and left no sign of rule in the Deccan.514

Ajay Mitra Shastri counted the coins of Samagopa among those issued before the Satavahanas.2 From them he argued that the Satavahanas could not have risen before the middle of the 1st century BCE.2 See Kotilingala for the wider debate.

Footnotes

  1. Rachna Shamji Lodaya, An Integrated Approach to the Pre-Satavahana Coinage of the Deccan (PhD thesis, Deccan College, Pune, not before 2011), p. 122 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  2. Ajay Mitra Shastri, Early History of the Deccan: Problems and Perspectives (1987), p. 9 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. Lodaya, Pre-Satavahana Coinage of the Deccan (not before 2011), p. 124, citing P. V. Parabrahma Sastry (1978) and the Kotalingala excavation report (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  4. Lodaya, Pre-Satavahana Coinage of the Deccan (not before 2011), p. 129, citing P. P. Kulkarni (1990) (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  5. Lodaya, Pre-Satavahana Coinage of the Deccan (not before 2011), p. 130 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11

  6. Lodaya, Pre-Satavahana Coinage of the Deccan (not before 2011), p. 199 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  7. Lodaya, Pre-Satavahana Coinage of the Deccan (not before 2011), p. 125 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  8. Krishna Sastry, Proto and Early History of the Karimnagar Region (1978), p. 336 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  9. Lodaya, Pre-Satavahana Coinage of the Deccan (not before 2011), p. 126, type C (i) (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  10. Lodaya, Pre-Satavahana Coinage of the Deccan (not before 2011), p. 127, type C (iii) (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  11. Lodaya, Pre-Satavahana Coinage of the Deccan (not before 2011), p. 128, citing A. H. Siddiqui, K. Sandhya and Bhanu Kumari (1994) (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  12. Lodaya, Pre-Satavahana Coinage of the Deccan (not before 2011), p. 200 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  13. V. V. Krishna Sastry, Proto and Early History of the Karimnagar Region (PhD thesis, Karnatak University, 1978), p. 205 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  14. Lodaya, Pre-Satavahana Coinage of the Deccan (not before 2011), p. 131 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

References

Sources (3)
  1. Rachna Shamji Lodaya, An Integrated Approach to the Pre-Satavahana Coinage of the Deccan (opens in a new tab), Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Pune (PhD thesis, guide V. D. Gogte), not before 2011, pp. 124–131, 199–200. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]
  2. Ajay Mitra Shastri, Early History of the Deccan: Problems and Perspectives (opens in a new tab), Sundeep Prakashan, Delhi, 1987, pp. 9. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]
  3. V. V. Krishna Sastry, Proto and Early History of the Karimnagar Region (opens in a new tab), Karnatak University, Dharwar (PhD thesis, supervisor B. K. Gururaja Rao), 1978, pp. 205, 336. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]

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