Gudivada

Gudivada is the headquarters of the taluk of the same name in the Krishna delta. Alexander Rea put it twenty miles north-west of Machilipatnam (then Masulipatam).¹ The Imperial Gazetteer of 1908 placed the town at 16° 27′ N, 81° E and called it “a place of great antiquity”.² It noted a ruined Buddhist stupa (relic mound) in the middle of the town.² To the west lay an old town site where Andhra lead coins had been found.² For the Satavahana period it is one of the main find-spots of the dynasty’s coins.³

The stupa

The remains of the stupa stand in a low mound in the village, about 140 feet square.¹ This is much smaller than the mound at Amaravati.¹ A district officer named Boswell first reported it to the Madras Government in 1870.¹ He recorded its local name, lanja dibba (“harlot’s mound”), and a story that a dancing girl had raised it.¹

People told Boswell of a stone casket dug up there with a pearl, gold leaf and other relics.¹ They also told of ninety-nine Buddhist or Jain temples and ninety-nine tanks in former times.¹ Boswell later reported that the mound had been dug for bricks for road-making.¹

The sources differ on when the stupa was destroyed:

• In a letter quoted by Rea, Walter Elliot said that a brick mound was demolished about 1840 to repair the road between Vijayawada (then Bezwada) and Bandar.⁴ Four stone vases were found in it, each containing a crystal reliquary (relic box).⁴ They were set in the sides of the mound, not at the centre.⁴
• In 1886 Elliot dated the demolition by the Public Works Department to about 1842.⁵
• The 1910 revision of Fergusson’s History of Indian Architecture says the stupa was destroyed “it is said about 1860”.⁶

Robert Sewell obtained an account from a Public Works subordinate.¹⁴ It told of four stone receptacles, each holding a casket, found “at the four corners”.¹⁴ Sewell could not learn what they contained or what had become of them.¹⁴

Rea dug three trenches round the mound in 1892.⁴ He found the foundations three feet below the level of the roads.⁴ The brickwork survived to a height of nine to eleven feet.⁴ The brick was laid in circular courses and was solid to the centre, as at Bhattiprolu.⁴ Sewell, on an earlier visit, had found no trace of sculptures or of a rail.¹

The ancient village and its finds

West of the town the ground rises to a large cultivated mound called Lamapadu dibba.⁷ Long low ridges, each about a quarter of a mile long, mark the walls of a square fort that enclosed the ancient village.⁷ Local tradition linked the village with ninety-nine Buddhist temples and tanks.⁷ It also said the village was a place of importance in the grain trade between Vijayawada and Eluru (then Ellore).⁷ Bricks and broken pottery lie on the surface, and small objects turn up after rain or ploughing.⁷

Robert Sewell collected coins, beads and other small objects there.⁷ Alexander Cunningham read three of the lead coins as issues of the Andhra kings Gautamiputra Yajna Sri and Sri Chanda.⁷ Sewell also had three coins showing a ship with a crescent-shaped hull, two masts and a large steering oar.⁷

Sewell found a terracotta female head with braided hair.⁷ The beads were of clay, bone, crystal, glass, amber and many kinds of stone, including garnets.⁷ Some pots had mouths three or four feet across, probably for storing grain.⁷ Sewell concluded that the people had been “highly experienced lapidaries” (workers in precious stones).⁷

Rea himself collected 120 lead coins on the site and published the best 72.⁸ He arranged them by their main design: a stupa (chaitya), a horse, a lion, a ship and an elephant.⁹¹⁰ Most have the “Ujjain symbol” on the reverse.⁹¹⁰ He argued that they were struck between a broad reverse die and a narrow obverse punch.⁹¹⁰

E. J. Rapson noted that coins of both Andhra lead fabrics (types of make) occur together at Gudivada.³¹¹¹² His catalogue includes Gudivada specimens of Vasishthiputra Pulumavi and Siva Sri Satakarni.³¹¹¹² The 1910 revision of Fergusson dated the Gudivada coins, mostly of lead, probably to the first three centuries CE.⁶

In the courtyard of the Bhimesvara temple Rea saw a seated Jain image under a seven-headed serpent.⁷ The temple Brahmins claimed it and worshipped it as Munisvarasvami.⁷

See also Satavahanas and Trade and economy.

Footnotes

1. Alexander Rea, South Indian Buddhist Antiquities (1894), p. 18 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

2. Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series: Madras, Vol. I (1908), p. 322 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. E. J. Rapson, Catalogue of the Coins of the Andhra Dynasty, the Western Ksatrapas, the Traikutaka Dynasty, and the “Bodhi” Dynasty (1908), p. lxxi and n. 1 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. Rea, South Indian Buddhist Antiquities (1894), p. 19 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

5. Walter Elliot, Coins of Southern India (1886), p. 22, n. 1 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

6. James Fergusson, rev. James Burgess, History of Indian and Eastern Architecture, Vol. I (1910), p. 83 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

7. Rea, South Indian Buddhist Antiquities (1894), p. 20, quoting Robert Sewell (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴

8. Rea, South Indian Buddhist Antiquities (1894), p. 21 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

9. Rea, South Indian Buddhist Antiquities (1894), p. 22 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

10. Rea, South Indian Buddhist Antiquities (1894), p. 23 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

11. Rapson, Catalogue of the Coins of the Andhra Dynasty (1908), catalogue p. 20 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²

12. Rapson, Catalogue of the Coins of the Andhra Dynasty (1908), catalogue p. 29 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²