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Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Kotilingala

Village on the south bank of the Godavari in the old Karimnagar district, at the mouth of the Peddavagu stream. Its large early mound, ringed by a mud fort, has given what its excavation report calls the earliest inscribed coins of the Deccan. They name local kings, Gobhada, Kamvaya, Narana and Samagopa, and the only known coins of Simuka, first king of the Satavahanas. Scholars disagree on whether these kings ruled before the Satavahanas, under them or beside them.

Kotilingala is a village on the south bank of the Godavari, in the old Karimnagar district of Telangana.12 Beside it lies a large early mound, ringed by a mud fort.1 Coins found here name local kings who ruled in the last two centuries BCE, and the first Satavahana king, Simuka.34 Scholars disagree on whether those kings ruled before the Satavahanas, under them or beside them.56

About the sources. This page rests mainly on three studies in the History collection. V. V. Krishna Sastry, then an assistant director of excavations in the state archaeology department, described the mound in his thesis of 1978.7 The thesis rests on his own digs and surveys in the Karimnagar region.7 Ajay Mitra Shastri discussed the coins in 1987.8 Rachna Lodaya’s later thesis summarises the excavation report of 2006, which has not been consulted here.9 All three are cited, not quoted.

Where it is

Krishna Sastry placed Kotilingala where the Peddavagu stream joins the Godavari, in the Peddapalli taluk.1 He gave its distance from Karimnagar as about 65 km.1 In the 1961 census it was a hamlet of the village of Kapparaopet in the Sultanabad taluk.2 A Telugu local history of Karimnagar district places it in Velgatur mandal, 3 km east of the Karimnagar–Lakshettipet road.10

The mound and the mud fort

According to Krishna Sastry, the mound stood about 6 m above the plain and covered roughly 50 hectares.1 He called it the biggest mound so far found in the Karimnagar region.111

A mud fort encloses the mound, with gates facing the four directions.1 Its rampart rises 6 to 9 m above the plain.12 The Godavari guards it on the north and the Kapparaopet stream on the east and south.12 The main gate faced south, towards a highway.12 On the river side, floods have worn the rampart down, but a gate in its middle could still be traced.12 Krishna Sastry thought goods and water came in through it.12 High mounds at the corners mark old bastions (towers).12

Rain gullies across the mound showed layers of settlement 2 to 2.5 m thick, with several house floors.13 The ancient bricks were 55 to 60 cm long, and the villagers had taken most of them to build their own houses.113 Iron slag and ore lay about in plenty.13

Outside the fort, on the north, a line of brick buildings runs along the river.13 Krishna Sastry suggested that they mark a wharf.13 In his view the fort and the wharf show a town of trade and power.13 He called the site one of the strongholds of the early Satavahanas.13 He also counted it as a jaladurga (water fort), since rivers protected it.14

Parabrahma Sastry, the historian of the Kakatiyas, named Kotilingala, with Pedubankur in the same district, among the sites that show Satavahana settlement in Telangana.15 See Peddabankur.

Inscriptions

Krishna Sastry found short label inscriptions on a stone slab in a field wall, on the path from Kotilingala to the hill of Munulagutta.13 He dated their Brahmi letters (an early Indian script) to the 2nd–1st century BCE.13 On a sandstone pillar in a paddy field about a kilometre away, he read the label “Nagegopinikeya”, in letters of the 1st century CE.13

Munulagutta itself lies about 5 km from Kotilingala.1 On its top are early stone buildings and rock shelters, one with an early Brahmi label.1 Krishna Sastry thought Buddhist or Jain monks lived in the shelters.1

How the coins came to light

Krishna Sastry noted in 1978 that none of the many Satavahana coins found in the Deccan was a coin of Simuka.16 Then a man named Narahari gave about six coins, collected from the surface, to the epigraphist P. V. Parabrahma Sastry.1617 He identified them as coins of Simuka.1617 Krishna Sastry recorded that these coins were collected at Kotilingala.13 Shastri cites their publication in the Numismatic Digest, volume II.1819

The Department of Archaeology and Museums of Andhra Pradesh excavated the site from 1979 to 1983.9 Lodaya writes that its report appeared in 2006.9 According to her, the report credits the site with the earliest inscribed coins of the Deccan.3 Their legends are in post-Asokan Brahmi of the 2nd to 1st century BCE.3 Most of the coins came from clear layers of the dig, and some from the surface.3

Lodaya divides the inscribed coins into two groups: those from before the Satavahanas and those of the early Satavahana kings.320 In her account the earlier group has two kinds of coin20:

  • coins of four kings who call themselves raja (king): Gobhada, Kamvaya, Narana and Samagopa20
  • coins with the titles Mahasenapati and Mahatalavara320

Coins without any legend were also found, both on the surface and in the layers of the dig.21

The four kings of the coins

Lodaya puts the four kings in this order, from the style of the coins and the shapes of the letters: Gobhada, Kamvaya, Narana and Samagopa.20 She thinks it impossible to say how they were related to each other.6 Coin legends are given below as the sources print them.

Gobhada

Gobhada (Sanskrit Gobhadra) is known from fifteen coins of the excavation.3 The four found in clear layers are large copper pieces, square or oblong, with a blank back.36 Their legend reads Rajno Gobhadasa.3 Lodaya counts him as the first local king in the Deccan to put his name on coins.6 See Gobhada.

Kamvaya

Two coins of Kamvaya came from the excavations.22 They are tiny, thin and oblong, with a triangle-headed standard and a bow and arrow on the front.22 The legend reads Rano Siri Kamavayasa or Rajno Kamavayasa Siri.22 Its letters resemble those on Gobhada’s coins.22 So Lodaya places Kamvaya just after Gobhada, in the later 2nd century BCE.22

Narana

Three square copper coins of Narana (Sanskrit Narayana) were found.22 Their legend reads Siri Naranasa, in letters of about the 1st century BCE.22 Below it are a tree, a lion with its tail raised and a triangle-headed standard.22 The back shows a hill sign topped by the triratna, a symbol linked with Buddhism.22

Lodaya notes that this is the first use of the triratna on coins of the Deccan.22 It may suggest, she writes, that Narana leaned towards Buddhism.22 According to her, the excavators also saw on his coins the first use of the Ujjain symbol on inscribed coins.6 That symbol is four circles joined by a cross.23

Samagopa

Samagopa (Sama Gopa, Sanskrit Svamigopa) issued far more coins than the other three, in several types and metals.222425 His coins were also found at Peddabankur and Dhulikatta, and at Chandrapur in Maharashtra.224 Some of them were later struck again with the Ujjain symbol.26 See Samagopa.

Other early coins

One small square copper coin from Kotilingala shows a horse facing left.27 Its legend begins Ma Ha Ta, part of the title Mahatalavara.27 Another copper coin has a bold svastika (an auspicious cross) in the centre.28 Its legend reads Ma Ha Se Na Pa Ti Sa Ga Ma Na Sa Ta (Sa).28

Lodaya counts Mahasenapatis and Mahatalavaras among the local governors of the Mauryas.29 In her view such governors set up kingdoms of their own and issued coins.29 Later, she writes, the Satavahanas absorbed them.29

The Satavahana coins

Krishna Sastry describes Simuka’s coins as follows.1617 The front shows an elephant facing left, with traces of the Ujjain symbol.1617 The legend reads “Siri Chimuka Sata”.1617 The back shows the Ujjain symbol with double circles and a crescent.1617

Parabrahma Sastry identified Chimuka with the Simuka of the Nanaghat label and of the Puranic king-lists.1630 From the letters he dated the coins to the last part of the 1st century BCE.1630 Shastri pointed out that the coins spell the name Chhimuka.31 In his view this explains Chhismaka, one of the forms of the name in the Puranas.31

According to Shastri, a fair number of coins of Simuka were found here.8 They came together with coins of Satakarni I and of a king called Satavahana.8 He adds that coins of King Satavahana were picked up here on the surface.32 Lodaya lists coins of Chimuka, of Siri Satakani (Sri Satakarni) and of Pulumavi from the site.4

These coins are of cheap metal.8 So Shastri argued that they had not travelled far and were used where they were found.8 He took them as proof that part of present Andhra Pradesh belonged to the Satavahanas from the start.8 Lodaya too argued that Simuka’s rule began in Telangana, since his coins had not been found elsewhere in the Deccan.6 She also notes two coins of Simuka reported from Pavanar in Vidarbha.4

The temple and the river festival

In 1961 the place of worship at Kotilingala was the temple of Koteswaraswamy, with a stone linga (an emblem of Siva).2 Pilgrims bathed at Jeedi Madugu, a bathing place on the Godavari, on Sundays in the month of Pushyam (December–January).2 A small fair was held on these days.2

The Telugu local history says that the Siva temple stands inside the old fort, with shrines of Koteswara and Siddheswara.1033 It suggests that the village name comes from kota (fort) and linga, or from the god Koteswara.10

Where the sources disagree

Sunga kings or local kings? Krishna Sastry reports Parabrahma Sastry’s 1978 view of the coins of Gobhada and Samagopa.5 Parabrahma Sastry took Gobhada for Bhagabhadra, the fifth Sunga king.5 He took Samagopa for the ninth Sunga king, whom Krishna Sastry names as Samabhagha or Bhagavata.5 On this reading, Krishna Sastry wrote, the Sungas of Vidisa would have ruled the Andhra country, with the early Satavahanas as their subordinates.5 Krishna Sastry answered that no other evidence shows Sunga rule beyond Vidarbha.5 One stray find, he wrote, cannot settle the question.5

Lodaya also rejected the Sunga link.634 She noted that the Sungas and Kanvas ruled round Vidisa, with no sign of rule in the Deccan.634 According to her, P. L. Gupta also regarded Samagopa as a local ruler of the Deccan.6

Before, under or beside the Satavahanas? Shastri counted the coins of Samagopa and Kamvaya among the coins issued before the Satavahanas.25 From them he argued that the Satavahanas could not have risen before the middle of the 1st century BCE.258 Lodaya agreed that the four kings came before the Satavahanas.634 She suggested that Simuka may have been an officer under Samagopa, since their coins are alike except on the back.6 Coins of Samagopa struck again with the Satavahana symbol suggested to her that the Satavahanas conquered him.4

Parabrahma Sastry’s reading, as Krishna Sastry set it out, would make the early Satavahanas subordinates of the Sungas instead.5 Krishna Sastry wrote that the Karimnagar region was governed by Maharathis and Mahatalavaras, under the early Satavahanas or some other power.35 Lodaya herself warned that not every local family need have vanished when the Satavahanas rose.29 Some, she thought, may have ruled again in the weak years of the dynasty.29

Dates. The excavators, as Lodaya reports them, dated Gobhada’s coins to the first half of the 2nd century BCE.3 K. D. Bajpai placed Gobhada about 125–100 BCE.3 The excavators dated Samagopa to the 1st century BCE.26 Lodaya dated Simuka’s rise in the Karimnagar region to about 52 BCE.636 Parabrahma Sastry dated Simuka’s coins to the last part of the 1st century BCE.16 Shastri set these late dates against older ones for the start of the dynasty, such as soon after 232 BCE (E. J. Rapson) or 240–230 BCE (Vincent Smith).31 See Satavahanas.

A capital? The Telugu local history calls Kotilingala the first capital of the Satavahanas.1037 Krishna Sastry called it only one of their strongholds.13 Lodaya wrote that Simuka set up his capital at Dhanyakataka, on the Krishna.34 Krishna Sastry also argued that a Godavari site like Kotilingala had a better claim than Bodhan to be Potali, capital of the old Asmaka country.38 Earlier in the same thesis, though, he had identified Potali with Paithan.39

Footnotes

  1. Krishna Sastry, Proto and Early History of the Karimnagar Region (1978), p. 210 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11

  2. A. Chandra Sekhar (Census of India), Fairs and Festivals, Karimnagar District (1964), p. 63, Sultanabad taluk, No. 1, Kapparaopet. Paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  3. Lodaya, Pre-Satavahana Coinage of the Deccan (not before 2011), p. 123, citing the Kotalingala excavation report (2006), K. D. Bajpai (1999) and P. Suryanarayana Reddy (1985) (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11

  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

  5. Krishna Sastry, Proto and Early History of the Karimnagar Region (1978), p. 205 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  6. 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 ↩12

  7. V. V. Krishna Sastry, Proto and Early History of the Karimnagar Region (PhD thesis, Karnatak University, 1978), title page and supervisor’s certificate dated 30 August 1978 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  8. Shastri, Early History of the Deccan: Problems and Perspectives (1987), p. 11 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  9. Lodaya, Pre-Satavahana Coinage of the Deccan (not before 2011), p. 122 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  10. Karimnagar History and Culture (Telugu), Part 3 (undated), p. 333 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  11. Krishna Sastry, Proto and Early History of the Karimnagar Region (1978), p. 384 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  12. Krishna Sastry, Proto and Early History of the Karimnagar Region (1978), p. 221 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  13. Krishna Sastry, Proto and Early History of the Karimnagar Region (1978), p. 211 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12

  14. Krishna Sastry, Proto and Early History of the Karimnagar Region (1978), p. 337 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  15. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal (1978), p. 197 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  16. Krishna Sastry, Proto and Early History of the Karimnagar Region (1978), p. 204 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  17. Krishna Sastry, Proto and Early History of the Karimnagar Region (1978), p. 328 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  18. Shastri, Early History of the Deccan: Problems and Perspectives (1987), p. 15, notes 52–53, citing Numismatic Digest II, part i, pp. 10 ff. and 13 ff. (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  19. Shastri, Early History of the Deccan: Problems and Perspectives (1987), p. 117, note citing Numismatic Digest II, part i, pp. 10–13 and 18–21, and part ii, pp. 24–33 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  20. Lodaya, Pre-Satavahana Coinage of the Deccan (not before 2011), p. 199 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  21. Rachna Shamji Lodaya, An Integrated Approach to the Pre-Satavahana Coinage of the Deccan (PhD thesis, Deccan College, Pune, not before 2011), p. 76 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  22. Lodaya, Pre-Satavahana Coinage of the Deccan (not before 2011), p. 124 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13

  23. Krishna Sastry, Proto and Early History of the Karimnagar Region (1978), p. 334 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

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

  25. 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

  26. 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

  27. Lodaya, Pre-Satavahana Coinage of the Deccan (not before 2011), p. 93, Mahatalavara coin (vi) (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  28. Lodaya, Pre-Satavahana Coinage of the Deccan (not before 2011), p. 101, Mahasenapati coin from Kotalingala (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  29. Lodaya, Pre-Satavahana Coinage of the Deccan (not before 2011), p. 91 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  30. Krishna Sastry, Proto and Early History of the Karimnagar Region (1978), p. 329 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  31. Shastri, Early History of the Deccan: Problems and Perspectives (1987), p. 12 and note 1 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  32. Shastri, Early History of the Deccan: Problems and Perspectives (1987), p. 41 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  33. Karimnagar History and Culture (Telugu), Part 3 (undated), p. 334 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  34. Lodaya, Pre-Satavahana Coinage of the Deccan (not before 2011), p. 131 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  35. Krishna Sastry, Proto and Early History of the Karimnagar Region (1978), p. 218 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

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

  37. Karimnagar History and Culture (Telugu), Part 3 (undated), p. 406 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  38. Krishna Sastry, Proto and Early History of the Karimnagar Region (1978), p. 214 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  39. Krishna Sastry, Proto and Early History of the Karimnagar Region (1978), p. 201 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

People

Gobhada

King known only from copper coins found at Kotilingala on the Godavari, inscribed 'Rajno Gobhadasa'. Rachna Lodaya counts him as the first local king of the Deccan to put his name on coins. The excavators dated his coins to the first half of the 2nd century BCE and K. D. Bajpai to about 125–100 BCE. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry took him for the Sunga king Bhagabhadra, an identification Lodaya rejects.

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.

References

Sources (6)
  1. 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. 204–205, 210–211, 214, 218, 221, 328–329, 337, 384. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]
  2. 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. 68, 76, 91, 93, 101, 122–131, 199–200. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]
  3. Ajay Mitra Shastri, Early History of the Deccan: Problems and Perspectives (opens in a new tab), Sundeep Prakashan, Delhi, 1987, pp. 9, 11–12, 15, 41, 117. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]
  4. P. V. Parabrahma Sastry, The Kakatiyas of Warangal, Government of Andhra Pradesh, 1978, pp. 197. Cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]
  5. A. Chandra Sekhar (Census of India), Census of India 1961, Vol. II: Andhra Pradesh, Part VII-B (17): Fairs and Festivals, Karimnagar District (opens in a new tab), Superintendent of Census Operations, Andhra Pradesh, 1964, pp. 63. Public domain in India; paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  6. Karimnagar History and Culture (Telugu), Part 3 (opens in a new tab), pp. 333–334, 406–407. Telugu; cite-only; paraphrased. [All rights reserved (cited, not reproduced)]

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