Satavahanas
The first great empire of Andhra — bridge between Mauryan north and Sangam south, patrons of Buddhism, minters of lead & silver, guardians of the Dakshinapatha trade.
Why this matters
The Satavahanas are the single highest-yield topic in Ancient Andhra — coins, ports, Nasik & Nanaghat inscriptions, Amaravati stupa, matronymic names, Gautamiputra vs Nahapana. Expect 2–3 questions every APPSC prelim.
Matsya, Vayu, Vishnu Puranas; Gunadhya's Brihatkatha; Hala's Gathasaptasati
Nasik Prasasti (Gautami Balasri); Nanaghat inscription (Naganika); Hathigumpha (Kharavela); Myakadoni, Amaravati
Lead, potin, silver & copper coins bearing ship, elephant, chaitya, horse motifs
Amaravati, Bhattiprolu, Nagarjunakonda, Ghantasala, Chandavaram stupas; Karle, Nasik, Bhaja caves
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea; Ptolemy's Geography
Simuka (Sisuka)
c. 230 BCE – 220 CE
Srikakulam (early), Amaravati (main), Pratishthana / Paithan (west)
Prakrit (Brahmi script)
Vedic Hinduism (rulers) + Buddhism (patronised)
Gautamiputra Satakarni
Dakshinapatha — Muziris to Kalinga
Very High (2–3 Qs)
Gautamiputra Satakarni
Nasik Prasasti
Amaravati Mahachaitya
Hala's Gathasaptasati
Roman coin hoards + ship coins of Yajna Satakarni
Satavahana capital was only Amaravati → WRONG (also Pratishthana / Paithan in west)
- Satavahana Dynasty (c. 230 BCE – 220 CE)
- Simuka (c. 230–207 BCE)Founder; built Chaityas at Amaravati.
- Krishna (207–189 BCE)Brother of Simuka; Nasik cave inscription.
- Satakarni I (c. 180–170 BCE)Third king; wife Naganika issued Nanaghat inscription; performed two Ashvamedhas.
- Hala (c. 20–24 CE)17th king; author of Gathasaptasati (Prakrit love poetry).
- Gautamiputra Satakarni (106–130 CE)23rd king; greatest ruler; defeated Nahapana; called Ekabrahmana, Trisamudratoyapitavahana.
- Vasishthiputra Pulumavi (130–158 CE)24th king; Amaravati stupa completion; Ptolemy mentions him.
- Sri Yajna Satakarni (165–194 CE)Last great ruler; ship-motif coins point to overseas trade.
- Pulumavi IV (c. 220 CE)Last known king; empire fragments into Ikshvakus, Chutus, Abhiras.
c. 230 BCE
Simuka founds dynasty
Rises on Mauryan collapse.
c. 180 BCE
Satakarni I
Two Ashvamedhas; Naganika inscription.
c. 20 CE
Hala
Composes Gathasaptasati.
c. 78 CE
Nahapana invades Deccan
Kshaharata Kshatrapas seize Nasik & Aparanta.
c. 106 CE
Gautamiputra crowned
Begins reconquest.
c. 124 CE
Defeat of Nahapana
Jogalthambi hoard: Nahapana coins re-struck by Gautamiputra.
c. 130 CE
Nasik Prasasti
Gautami Balasri records her son's exploits.
c. 150 CE
Amaravati stupa completed
Under Vasishthiputra Pulumavi.
c. 194 CE
Sri Yajna Satakarni ends
Ship coinage — Roman trade at peak.
c. 220 CE
Fall of dynasty
Ikshvakus succeed in Andhra; Chutus in Karnataka.
Simuka
Founder
Overthrew last Mauryans; built early chaityas.
Satakarni I
3rd king
Two Ashvamedhas; wife Naganika — first known queen inscription.
Hala
17th king
Poet-king; Gathasaptasati (700 Prakrit verses) — earliest Telugu-word attestations.
Gautamiputra Satakarni
Zenith ruler
Defeated Nahapana; Nasik Prasasti; Ekabrahmana.
Vasishthiputra Pulumavi
Successor
Completed Amaravati stupa; married Rudradaman's daughter.
Sri Yajna Satakarni
Last great king
Ship-coins — Roman trade zenith.
Gautami Balasri
Queen-mother
Author of the Nasik Prasasti.
Naganika
Queen of Satakarni I
Nanaghat inscription lists dana of the family.
- Kingship — hereditary, but the king was 'Ekabrahmana' (protector of Brahmins); not divine but dharmic.
- Empire divided into Ahara (province / district) under an Amatya; town = Nagara under Nagarika.
- Village = Grama under Gramika; village council of elders (Gramavriddha) advised him.
- Feudatory chiefs — Mahabhoja (coastal Deccan), Maharathi (Karnataka), Mahasenapati (frontier) — held tenurial land grants.
- Land grants of tax-free Agraharas to Brahmins and Buddhist monasteries — beginning of the Indian feudal system.
- Standing army: elephants, cavalry, infantry, chariots (chatur-anga); navy for coastal trade protection.
- Justice — king was the final court of appeal; Dharmashastra + local usage applied.
- Agriculture the mainstay — paddy, cotton, sugarcane, oilseeds; irrigation from Krishna & Godavari canals.
- Land revenue = 1/6 of produce (shadbhaga); collected in cash or kind by Rashtrika officials.
- Craft guilds (sreni) of weavers, potters, smiths, oil-pressers acted as bankers and issued their own coins & seals.
- Textile industry (cotton of Masulipatnam, muslins of Uraiyur) — famous throughout the Roman world.
- Mines: iron (Karimnagar), lead (Kurnool), diamonds (Krishna valley) — hence lead coinage.
- Court language: Prakrit (specifically Maharashtri) written in Brahmi.
- Hala's Gathasaptasati — 700 lyric verses on rural love — earliest to record Telugu words (atta, pillai, potta).
- Gunadhya's Brihatkatha in Paisachi Prakrit — lost; survives via Kshemendra & Somadeva Sanskrit renderings.
- Sanskrit patronised late; Vasishthiputra Pulumavi issued bilingual coins.
- Sarvavarman composed Katantra Vyakarana (Sanskrit grammar) at Hala's court.
- 'Andhrabhritya' theory (V. Smith): Satavahanas were 'servants of Andhras' — later became rulers.
- 'Native Andhra' theory (K. Gopalachari): Andhra-jatiya of Aitareya Brahmana proves indigenous origin.
- 'Western origin' theory (Rapson): They started in Maharashtra (Pratishthana) and moved east.
- Matronymic names (Gautamiputra, Vasishthiputra) indicate a strong Deccan (possibly matrilineal) tradition.
- Modern consensus: Andhra people of the Krishna-Godavari doab who expanded westwards.
- Satakarni I extended power to Malwa and performed two Ashvamedha and one Rajasuya sacrifices; called 'Dakshinapathapati'.
- Kharavela of Kalinga (Hathigumpha) claims to have attacked Satakarni's western frontier — earliest inscriptional reference.
- Nahapana of the Kshaharata Kshatrapas overran Nasik, Poona and coastal Konkan (c. 78–124 CE).
- Gautamiputra Satakarni defeated & killed Nahapana — re-struck his silver coins (Jogalthambi hoard).
- Nasik Prasasti of Gautami Balasri titles him 'Ekabrahmana', 'Kshatriya-darpa-mana-mardana', 'Trisamudratoyapitavahana' (whose horse drank the waters of three seas).
- Vasishthiputra Pulumavi kept the empire together and completed the Amaravati Mahastupa.
- Sri Yajna Satakarni recovered Aparanta from Rudradaman I; his ship-motif coins prove flourishing Roman trade.
- After Pulumavi IV, the empire fragmented into Ikshvakus (Krishna valley), Chutus (Karnataka), Abhiras (Nasik) and Vakatakas (Vidarbha).
- Two great highways — Uttarapatha (north) and Dakshinapatha (south) — met at Pratishthana.
- Inland trade routes: Pratishthana → Tagara → Ujjain → Bharuch (west); Amaravati → Kalinga → Tamralipti (east).
- Major inland marts: Pratishthana, Tagara, Dhanyakataka (Amaravati), Vengipura, Kondapur, Karimnagar.
- Roman trade at peak — the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (c. 60 CE) and Ptolemy (c. 150 CE) list Andhra ports.
- East-coast ports: Ghantasala, Kantakasola, Kaduru, Motupalli, Masulipatnam (Maisolia), Kalingapatnam.
- West-coast ports (under Satavahana control at zenith): Sopara, Kalyan, Bharuch.
- Exports: cotton textiles, muslin, spices, ivory, precious stones, iron, sandalwood.
- Imports: Roman gold coins (aurei), wine, glass, tin, coral, red coral, singing boys/girls.
- Roman coin hoards found at Akenapalli, Gootiparthi, Nasthullapur, Yeleswaram, Bandarulanka.
- Ship-motif coins of Yajna Satakarni prove active overseas fleet.
- Guilds functioned as bankers — accepted deposits, financed traders, endowed monasteries.
- Nasik inscription records Usavadata's deposit in a weavers' guild for perpetual maintenance of monks.
- Coinage: mainly lead (unique to Deccan), also potin, copper, silver (few gold).
- Coin motifs: ship (Yajna Satakarni), elephant, horse, bull, chaitya, tree-in-railing, Ujjain symbol.
- Bilingual coins in Prakrit (obverse) & Tamil/Dravidian (reverse) show south-Indian reach.
- Rulers were orthodox Brahmanical Hindus — performed Ashvamedha, Rajasuya, Vajapeya sacrifices.
- Vishnu, Krishna, Vasudeva, Sankarshana worshipped; Nanaghat inscription salutes 'Vasudeva-Sankarshana'.
- Simultaneously patronised Buddhism — donated caves at Nasik, Karle, Bhaja; built Amaravati, Bhattiprolu, Ghantasala stupas.
- Mahayana Buddhism emerged in this period — Nagarjuna's Madhyamika philosophy at Dhanyakataka.
- Jainism present but minor — inscriptions at Bhattiprolu and Hathigumpha reference.
- Amaravati Mahastupa — 'Mahachaitya' — highest development of southern school; drum & dome faced with limestone slabs carved with Jataka scenes.
- Amaravati school of sculpture — three phases: Hinayana (aniconic, c. 2nd BCE), transitional, and Mahayana (Buddha figure, 2nd CE).
- Bhattiprolu stupa (Guntur) — yielded caskets with earliest Brahmi (Bhattiprolu variant) inscriptions.
- Other stupas: Ghantasala, Chandavaram, Jaggayyapeta, Nagarjunakonda (later expanded by Ikshvakus).
- Amaravati sculptures dispersed to Chennai, Kolkata & London (British Museum) museums.
- Sponsored the great western Deccan cave complex — Karle, Nasik, Bhaja, Kanheri, Junnar.
- Nasik cave 3 (Gautamiputra's), cave 10 (Nahapana's) — key inscriptional caves.
- Karle chaitya hall — largest and finest of Satavahana period; vault, horseshoe window, monolithic pillars.
- Sculpture: Yakshas, Yakshis, Mithuna couples, Jataka narratives — begins the classical southern idiom.
- Nanaghat inscription — Queen Naganika; lists sacrifices & donations.
- Nasik Prasasti — Gautami Balasri; longest & most famous Satavahana inscription.
- Hathigumpha of Kharavela — mentions attack on Satakarni.
- Myakadoni (Bellary) — mentions Pulumavi.
- Amaravati pillar inscriptions — donative records of guilds & individuals.
- Bhattiprolu casket inscriptions — earliest southern Brahmi variant.
- Copper-plates begin as a Satavahana innovation for permanent land grants — precursor to full medieval practice.
| Metal | Notable Motif | King / Region |
|---|---|---|
| Lead | Elephant, chaitya, tree-in-railing | Common to all — Deccan speciality |
| Potin (silver-copper alloy) | Ujjain symbol, bull | Western feudatories |
| Silver | Portrait bust in Greek style | Nahapana; over-struck by Gautamiputra (Jogalthambi hoard) |
| Copper | Horse, lion | Gautamiputra & successors |
| Lead (double die) | Ship with two masts | Sri Yajna Satakarni — Roman trade proof |
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'Andhra' = the people/dynasty; 'Andhrabhritya' = Puranic term ('servants of Andhras'), source of the modern name Satavahana.
Nasik = eulogy of Gautamiputra by his mother. Nanaghat = record of sacrifices & donations by Queen Naganika (wife of Satakarni I).
Satakarni I = 3rd king, two Ashvamedhas. Gautamiputra = 23rd king, defeated Nahapana.
Amaravati = southern, limestone, narrative panels. Gandhara = Greco-Roman Buddha. Mathura = red sandstone, indigenous Buddha.
Nahapana = Kshaharata Kshatrapa, killed by Gautamiputra. Rudradaman = Kardamaka Kshatrapa, defeated Vasishthiputra Pulumavi later.
SHG-PYS — Six Kings You Must Remember
Simuka · Hala · Gautamiputra · Pulumavi · Yajna · Sivaskanda. First, poet, greatest, consolidator, last-great, last.
- Simuka founded the dynasty c. 230 BCE.
- Satakarni I performed two Ashvamedhas; Naganika inscription at Nanaghat.
- Hala (17th king) — Gathasaptasati.
- Gautamiputra Satakarni (106–130 CE) defeated Nahapana; Ekabrahmana.
- Nasik Prasasti — by mother Gautami Balasri.
- Vasishthiputra Pulumavi — Amaravati Mahastupa; Ptolemy references.
- Sri Yajna Satakarni — ship-coins, Roman trade zenith.
- Fell c. 220 CE — Ikshvakus rise in Krishna valley.
Origin theories — 3 views
Complete king-list with dates (min. 8)
Nasik Prasasti — 3 titles of Gautamiputra
Coinage — metals, motifs, ship-coin
Amaravati school — 3 phases
Ports — east & west coast (min. 5)
Nahapana defeat — Jogalthambi hoard
Authentic APPSC & Competitive Exam PYQs will be added in a future update.