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Simuka

Founder of the Satavahana dynasty, named on a label over a carving at Nanaghat in the western Ghats. The Puranas call him the first Andhra king. A tradition of the Telugu country, recorded by James Burgess, gave a legendary founder a first capital at Srikakulam on the Krishna. Depending on the scholar, his dates range from the late 3rd to the 1st century BCE.

Simuka was the first king of the Satavahana dynasty, and almost nothing is known of his reign. Nanaghat is a pass in the western Ghats between Pune and Nasik.123 In its cave, a label carved above one of a row of ruined figures gives his name: “Raya Simuka Satavahano”, “King Simuka Satavahana”.123 It is this label that fixes the family name of the dynasty.2

In the Puranas

The Puranic king-lists name the first Andhra king in corrupted forms such as Sisuka, Sipraka and Sindhuka.45 E. J. Rapson and James Burgess both took these to be distortions of the Simuka of Nanaghat.45

According to the Puranas he rose to power by killing Susarman, the last king of the Kanva dynasty of Magadha.6 The Bhagavata Purana describes him only as “a strong Sudra”.6 The Puranas give him a reign of 23 years, and several of them make the second king, Krishna, his brother.74

Vincent Smith rejected the Kanva story for Simuka. In his reckoning the last Kanva fell about 28 BCE, long after the dynasty began, so the slayer of Susarman must have been a later Andhra king.89

Dates

Writers have placed Simuka very differently:

  • Rapson (1908): the dynasty arose soon after the death of Asoka (232 BCE). The third king, Sri Satakarni, was reigning about 168 BCE.101
  • Smith (1924): the dynasty began about 240 or 230 BCE, with Simuka asserting independence at or soon after the end of Asoka’s reign. He dated the script of the Nanaghat label to about 200 BCE.91112
  • Robert Sewell (1932), after Smith: accession about 220 BCE and a reign of 23 years.7
  • Ajay Mitra Shastri (1987): coins of local kings at Kotilingala and elsewhere came before the Satavahanas, so the dynasty cannot have risen before the middle of the 1st century BCE.13
  • Rachna Lodaya (thesis, not before 2011): Simuka began to rule in the Karimnagar region about 52 BCE, after ousting the local king Samagopa.14

The Nanaghat records

Besides Simuka, the labels on the carvings at Nanaghat name Queen Nayanika, King Sri Satakarni and several princes.115 Rapson, following G. Bühler, read Sri Satakarni as “son of King Simuka Satavahana”.115

The long Nanaghat inscription records great sacrifices and gifts to Brahmans, and Burgess attributed it to Simuka himself.16 Rapson attributed it to Queen Nayanika, widow of Sri Satakarni, acting as regent for her son.17 See Sri Satakarni.

Simuka and the Telugu country

No inscription of Simuka is known from the Telugu country in these sources. Burgess recorded a tradition that the first Andhra capital was at Srikakulam on the Krishna, about nineteen miles west of Machilipatnam (then Masulipatam).165 In this tradition a legendary emperor Sumati founded it, “by whom is probably meant Simuka”.165

The Godavari district gazetteer of 1907 repeated the Srikakulam tradition.18 Smith noted that the river had since cut away the old site.11

Simuka’s coins, however, have been reported from Kotilingala on the Godavari, in the old Karimnagar district.1920 P. V. Parabrahma Sastry identified them in 1978.19 Ajay Mitra Shastri wrote in 1987 that they were Simuka’s only known coins, and that they spell his name Chhimuka.20

A broken inscription at Amaravati names a “king Sri Sivamaka Sada”, and Burgess wondered whether this was the Simuka of Nanaghat.21 Rapson preferred to identify him with the much later Siva Sri Satakarni, and D. C. Sircar doubted that he was a Satavahana at all.2223 See Amaravati inscription of King Sri Sivamaka Sada.

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. xviii (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  2. K. P. Jayaswal and R. D. Banerji, “The Hathigumpha Inscription of Kharavela”, Epigraphia Indica XX (1933), p. 74 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. Rapson, Catalogue of the Coins of the Andhra Dynasty (1908), p. xlii (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  4. Rapson, Catalogue of the Coins of the Andhra Dynasty (1908), p. xix and nn. 3–4 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. Burgess, Amaravati and Jaggayyapeta (1887), p. 4 and n. 1 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  6. Rapson, Catalogue of the Coins of the Andhra Dynasty (1908), p. lxiv (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  7. Robert Sewell, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 324 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  8. Vincent A. Smith, The Early History of India, 4th ed. (1924), p. 216 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  9. Smith, Early History of India (1924), p. 217 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

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

  11. Smith, Early History of India (1924), p. 218 and n. 2 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  12. Smith, Early History of India (1924), p. 230 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

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

  14. Rachna Shamji Lodaya, An Integrated Approach to the Pre-Satavahana Coinage of the Deccan (PhD thesis, Deccan College, Pune, not before 2011), p. 130 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  15. Rapson, Catalogue of the Coins of the Andhra Dynasty (1908), p. xlvi (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  16. James Burgess, The Buddhist Stupas of Amaravati and Jaggayyapeta (1887), p. 3 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

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

  18. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari (1907), p. 18 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  19. V. V. Krishna Sastry, Proto and Early History of the Karimnagar Region (PhD thesis, Karnatak University, 1978), pp. 204, 211 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  20. Shastri, Early History of the Deccan: Problems and Perspectives (1987), p. 12 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  21. Burgess, Amaravati and Jaggayyapeta (1887), p. 61, n. 2 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

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

  23. D. C. Sircar, “Two Inscriptions from Guntur District”, Epigraphia Indica XXXII (1959), pp. 84–85 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

Dynasties

Satavahanas

c. 200 BCE – 225 CE

Deccan dynasty, called the Andhras in the Puranas, whose later kings ruled the Krishna valley, the Godavari delta and parts of Rayalaseema in the 2nd and early 3rd centuries CE. Its beginnings, its dates and when it reached the Telugu country are all debated.

References

Sources (10)
  1. 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, xvi–xix, xlii, xlv–xlvi, lxiv. [Public domain]
  2. 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. 3–4, 61. [Public domain]
  3. 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. 324. [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, pp. 216–218, 230. [Public domain]
  5. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1907, pp. 18. [Public domain]
  6. Hirananda Sastri (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XX (1929–30) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1933, pp. 74. K. P. Jayaswal and R. D. Banerji, 'The Hathigumpha Inscription of Kharavela' (No. 7). [Public domain]
  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. 84–85. D. C. Sircar, 'Two Inscriptions from Guntur District' (No. 8). [Public domain in India]
  8. 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. 204, 211. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]
  9. Ajay Mitra Shastri, Early History of the Deccan: Problems and Perspectives (opens in a new tab), Sundeep Prakashan, Delhi, 1987, pp. 9, 12. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]
  10. 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. 130. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]

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