A short note on Satavahanas and Andhras

[Guest guest]

Dear all, At the time of invasion of Alexander, the Prasii or the Pataliputra was being ruled by Satavahanas. The description of Prasii is made by Megasthanese in his Indika, as quoted by Pliny:

" The Prasii surpass in power

and glory every other people, not only in this quarter, but one may say in all

India, their capital Palibothra, a very large and wealthy city, after which some

call the people itself the Palibothri,--nay even the whole tract along the

Ganges. Their king has in his pay a standing army of 600,000 foot-soldiers,

30,000 cavalry, and 9,000 elephants: whence may be formed some conjecture as to

the vastness of his resources. " But in the same vein, he describes Andhras or Andarae, who are very powerful, though not as much as Satavahanas : " Next come the Andarae, a still more powerful race,

which possesses numerous villages, and thirty towns defended by walls and

towers, and which supplies its king with an army of 100,000 infantry, 2,000

cavalry, and 1,000 elephants. " Satavahanas, may be Telugu (or its forerunner, Paisaci) speaking , but are from Maharashtra. They must have been vassals to Andhras before they captured power at Magadha(and hence, the name Andhra bhrityus) Andhras are the rulers of Potali or today's Bodhan, which is in Andhra pradesh, extremely near to Maharashtra Border and in fact, lies on the way (or near to the way to ) Aurangabad and Nasik.

Potali was called Asmika(or Assika) country and was one of the sixteen janapadas. At one point of time, its king was Assika who became a Rajarshi as per Mahabharat and an Asoka as per Buddhist chronicles. He was ordained by Mahakatyayana. On the other hand, Satavahanas are purely Hindu kings, though they have encouraged Buddhism also.

best regards, Kishore patnaik