SATAVAHANA rulers birth by ASWAMEGHA yagam,musham3@gmail.com

MUSHAM BANKNOTES ANCIENTCOINS,STAMPS,POSTALHISTORY MY @ MUSHAM3@GMAIL.COM


History of SATAVAHANA
Short references about coins
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Musham.Damodhar Rao,

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Satavahana rulers were quoted in old works like the Aitareya Brahmana,the Epics ,

the Paraná’s, the early Buddhist and Jain works.Gunadhya's Brhatkatha,

Hala's Gathasaptasati and Vatsyayana'sKamasutras reflected the

social and cultural life of the Satavahana period.

The Kathasaritsagara mentions the story of a king named Dipakarni

who saw a boy riding a Sata or lion, adopted him and named him

Satavahana

'Satavahana' and 'Satakarni' are the two standard names by which the

rulers of that dynasty are referred to in their inscriptions and coins.

Various explanations have been given for these names: Satkarni means

" the son of a horse", and explained in terms of the Aswamedha tradition.

Barnett explained Satkarni as meaning the son of Sata. Sometime it is taken

to mean as one who has a hundred ships, or one whose vehicle is drawn by

hundred bulls or the one with his ears bored. The Kathasaritsagara mentions

the story of a king named Dipakarni who saw a boy riding a Sata or lion,

adopted him and named him Satavahana or the one who had a lion for his vehicle.

It is also suggested that Satavahana is only a variant of 'Saptavahana',

meaning the sun, and that they were so called because they were the worshippers

of the sun. these theories, however, have been discarded by Dr. M. Rama Rao,

who has argued that the dynasty has been named after the founder of the dynasty,

who ruled before Simukha.

Przyluski thinks that Sata and vahana, the constituents of Satavahana, are both

Mundawords; the former is the Sanskrtisation of the Munda word sadam meaning

a horse and the latter ofhapan meaning a son. Satavahanas were “sons of horse”

as they believed themselves to be born of the chief queen with the sacrificial horse

in the Asvamedha sacrifice So many kings in the Puranic dynasties as well as in

historic ruling families werecelebrated performers of the Asvamedha sacrifice