Contribution of Coins to Satavahana History D. Raja Reddy

Satavahana was one of the most illustrious dynasties of ancientIndia but they have been the subject of controversies which havenot yet abated. Several questions have been raised concerning them.Firstly who were the Satavahanas? Were they really Andhras asrepresented by the Puranas but nowhere in their records were theSatavahanas called Andhras. In fact, contemporary inscriptions likeHathigumpa and coins referred to them as Satavahanas but not asAndhras. Secondly when did their rule begin? Was it 230 B.C. or inthe third quarter of the first century B.C. However there is agree-ment as to when their rule ended which was around 230 A.D. Thirdlyhow long their rule lasted. Was it 456 to 460 years or for a muchshorter period? Lastly where did their rule begin? Was it coastalAndhra, Vidarba, Western Maharashtra or in Telangana region.

The three major source materials available for the study ofSatavahana history are the literary works, inscriptions and coins ofthat period. Considering the long duration of the Satavahana rule itmay be said that the source materials of all the three types whichare available are, indeed, meager. Literary works of Satavahanaera only help in gaining a glimpse of the social, religious and eco-nomic aspects of life of people of those times but are not very help-ful to historical documentation. There are 30 odd inscriptions of theSatavahana period available. About a third of them are official, butthe majority of these have been issued by private individuals andsince they are mostly religious in nature their usefulness is limited.The coin finds are of three types namely hoards, strays and sitefinds. Obviously the coins found in excavations will be more usefulthan the other finds, since stratigraphic evidence and dating of as-sociated material help in dating the coins. Hence a careful study ofnumismatic material already available and that which is going to befound in future would be of great value and importance to the writ-ing of Satavahana history. The discovery of Kotalingala coins in1978 was a significant event in Andhra numismatics 1. The varietyof coins unearthed at this site was staggering and they includedpunch marked, uninscribed and inscribed coins. The inscribed coinsbelonged to Pre- Satavahana and early Satavahana rulers namelyGobada, Narana, Kamvayasa, Sirivayasa, Samagopa, Chimuka,

Satasa and Satakarni. There were satrap coins of Mahatalarvara,Mahasenapati and Sebaka at this site. No post Satavahana coinswere found at Kotalingala. Following is a description of the contri-bution of coins to Satavahana history.

Satavahanas and Andhras are one and the same:|The names and list of kings as provided in the Puranas is similarto the names of Satavahana kings found in inscriptions and coinsand hence they are considered as one and the same.

Correct name of the first king of Satavahana dynasty:Chimuka was the correct name of this king who was variously calledin the Puranas as Sisuka, Sindhuka, Chhismaka, Sudraka andBalihita. Naneghat inscription mentions Simuka as Rano SimukaSatavahana of Satavahana kula. This inscription was incised fewdecades after his rule whereas coins were issued during kings ruleand hence the Chimuka name is correct one (Fig.1). Puranas werewritten centuries after the events have taken place and hence manyinaccuracies crept into them.

Fig. 1: Two coins of chimuka satavahana. The legend in the leftsided coin (Rano) Chimuka Sata (Vahana). Legend on the rightside coin Rano Chimuka Siri Satavaha (na).

Who was king Satavahana of coins:Five ‘puranas’ namely Matsya, Vayu, Visnu, Brahmanda andBhagavata mention genealogy and chronology of the Satavahanakings. The names, number and the years of rule of kings listed inthese puranas, vary. Nevertheless, all are consistent that there wasno king by the name Satavahana or Sadavahana even though allthe kings are said to belong to ‘Satavahana ‘ kula’. Satavahana andChimuka of the coins are one and the same 2. There are threekinds of Chimuka coins which are found at Kotalingala (Fig.2). Thereare coins with the personal name of the king as ‘Siri Chimuka’.Second type of coins names him as ‘Siri Chimuka Satavahana’.Third types of coins simply call him as ‘Siri Satavahana’. All of thesecoins are of elephant type and their reverses contain ‘Ujjain’ sym-bol. It appears that Chimuka issued coins in his personal name inthe beginning of his rule and later called himself as Satavahanaand surprisingly no other king of this dynasty called himself asSatavahana.

Fig. 2: Left sided coin legend Rano Chimuka. Right sided coin (Ra)no Satavaha (na).

Kotalingala in Telangana was the beginning of the rule ofSatavahanas:Though Satavahana coins were found from 1830 onwards the coinsof the first ruler Chimuka were only found only at Kotalingala inTelangana. It may be worth recalling that in coastal Andhra regionno coins of early rulers of Satavahana dynasty were ever found.Early ruler’s coins of Satavahana dynasty were found in Telanganaat various Satavahana sites such as Peddabunkur, Dhulikatta andKondapur besides Kotalingala thereby confirming that Satavahanaswere Andhras and their rule began in Telangana. Rama Rao stud-ied 38512 Satavahana coins in Hyderabad museum and 6000 suchcoins in Madras museum and opined that Satavahana rule com-menced in Telangana 3. Rapson reported that the Satavahana coinsfound in coastal Andhra belonged to those of later Satavahana kingsbeginning with Gautamiputra Satakarni 4. It is well known that thecapital of later rulers of this dynasty was Amaravati or Dhanakatakain Andhra region.

Fig. 3: Gobada coin on the left side and Samagopa coin on theright side.

Coins of unknown pre-Satavahana kings from Kotalingala:Coins of pre-Satavahana kings namely Gobada, Narana,Kamvayasa, Sirivayasa and Samagopa have been found atKotalingala. There was literary odd inscriptional evidence of exist-ence of these kings and coins unearthed these kings. Samagopacoins were countermarked by ‘Ujjain’ symbol thereby proving thatChimuka succeeded Samagopa at Kotalingala. Similarly coins ofmany unknown kings of the Satavahana family such as those ofRudra, Karna, kumba and Kausikaputra were found who were notlisted in literary sources.

Brahmi script of Satavahana silver coins:Gautamiputra Satakarni and his successors issued Satavahanasilver portrait coins. The legends of these coins were written inBrahmi script of those times. Obverse language was Prakrit andthe reverse was in Dravidian language though there is some con-troversy whether the language is ancient Tamil or Telugu. Silverportrait coins of Satavahanas were considered rare in earlier yearsbut they are being found in good numbers in recent times. A closestudy of these bilingual coins reveals that some of the same wordson these coins are written differently on two sides. It is well knownthat script of majority of Indian languages evolved from Brahmi slowlyover the centuries. The script noted on these Satavahana silverportrait coins reveals that the changes in the alphabets for writingPrakrit and Dravidian languages started already. Following is a de-scription of two Satavahana portrait coins 6.

Description of the two coins:

Vasistiputra PulumaviCoin 1 (Fig .4): No details of the size and weight are possible sincethe coin has been made into an ornament. Metal= Silver;shape= Round. Obverse: Portrait of the king facing right with orna-ments. Legend starting around 2’clock: Vasithaputasa SiriPudumavisa Rano.Reverse: six arched hill with a crescent at thetop to the right and an Ujjain symbol with crescent at the top. Riversign below. Sun symbol in the center at the top. Legend startsroughly at 12’oclock: Arhanasha Vahitti Makanasha TiruPudumavisha.

Fig: 4: Silver portrait coin of Vasistiputra Pulumavi

A perusal of the script reveals that similar words are written differ-ently in two languages namely Prakrit on the obverse and Dravidianon the reverse. It is well known that all native Indian scripts evolvedfrom Brahmi. These coins provide a proof that some of the alpha-bets kept changing by 2nd century AD. It is obvious that the ‘Sha’ isnot used in Prakrit where as ‘sa’ is used.

Metals used for coinage by Satavahanas:There was three tier system of coinage namely of silver, copperand lead at Kotalingala. Silver coins were those of imperial varietybelonging to Mauryan and pre- Mauryan dynasties. Silver portraitcoins are known of later Satavahana rulers and lone exception isSatakarni I. Punch marked were cut and circulated while coins ofbaser metals were issued in various denominations. One of theunique features of Andhra coinage was use of lead for coinage whichlasted for about 1000 years.

Vasistiputra Vijaya Satakarni

Coin.2 (Fig. 5): Metal= Silver; Shape= Round; Size= 1.5 x 1.75 cms;Weight= 2.2 gms;Obverse: Portrait of the king facing right with ornaments. Legendstarts at 3’o clock; Vasitaputa (sa) Vijaya Satakanisa Rano.Reverse: six arched hill with crescent above it. Ujjain symbol withsun mark in the center above. Legend starts at 12’o clockArahanasha Vahitaputashatiru Vijaya Hatakanisha.

Fig. 5: Silver Ported coin of Vijaya Satakarni

Lead is one of the oldest metals known to mankind but seldom hasbeen used for coinage except by ancient Andhra rulers. It startedwith the use of lead for making uninscribed coins and continued tillthe time of Vishnukundins. 21529 out of 38512 Satavahana coinsin the cabinets of state museum in Hyderabad are made of lead. Allthe Satavahana coins Chennai museum are made of lead. One ofthe unique features of ancient Andhra coins was that they usedlead for their coins from the earliest times, which raises two ques-tions. Why did they prefer lead for coinage and what were thesources of lead? The singular properties of lead, such as low melt-ing point of 327* C, ease of casting and fabrication, high density,acid resistance, chemical stability in air, water and earth probablymade Andhra rulers prefer this metal for coins. Lead has a silveryappearance when newly cast but oxidizes to dull gray color later.This and its softness make lead unattractive as a coinage metal.Next question to be answered is the sources of lead ore."Periplusof the Erythrean Sea' was the logbook of a Greek in Egypt whosteered his vessel to India stated that lead was imported from thewest in the 1st century AD. This knowledge made Pliny the elderstate that ' India has neither brass nor lead but exchanged preciousstones and pearls for them'. Pliny's statement is not completelycorrect since lead artifacts were found in areas of Indus valleycivilization. Kautilya mentioned how to detect lead ores and ancientIndians knew about lead. It is true that India never produced enoughlead for its needs and it is true of ancient times. Though lead oresare found in different parts of India, high-grade ores of large depos-its for commercial production are present in only three areas of ourcountry. Zawar-Rajpura- Rampura belt in Rajasthan with extensioninto adjacent Gujarat, Agnigundala- Bandlamattu-Jangamarajapallibelt in Kadapa basin and Sarigipalli- Dhumohali area in Orissa.Some of these like Zawar and Agnigundala have been mined inancient times. Chemical analysis of coins and ores especially oftheir content of rare earth elements and also their content of leadisotopes will prove conclusively which ores were used for makingwhich coins. Lead has four stable isotopes namely 204 Pb, 206Pb, 207 Pb and 208 Pb and lead isotope ratios of four known leadore sites are listed in table-I. The amount of each isotope that ispresent in a particular ore is determined when it is formed whichgives its own isotopic signature. During environmental industrialprocesses this isotopic ratio remains unchanged.

This signature is preserved which helps in detecting ores fromwhich coins were made. Hence isotope structure is sort of a fin-gerprint, which does not vary with the methods used for purifyingthe ore and also processes involved in minting of coins. This isevident from the lead isotope analysis of Agnigundala lead ore andtwo samples of lead concentrate prepared over a long period(Table-II). Same is true of the content of rare earth elements whichnumber fourteen and are not affected by contamination in ores and

Lead has Four Stable IsotopesPb - 204 = 1.48%Pb - 206 = 23.6%Pb - 207 = 22.6%Pb - 208 = 52.3%More than 25 radio active isotopes have been reported

Lead Isotope Analysis of Agnigundala Lead Ore and ConcentrateA B C

204/207 0.077 0.0769 0.0773208/207 2.185 2.197 2.204206/207 1.065 1.065 1.069Total 3.327 3.3389 3.3503Mean 1.109 1.112967 1.116767S.D 1.054689 1.060864 1.064154A=Lead Ore B=Lead Concentrete C=Lead Concentrate

Table: I

Table: II

Table: III

coins and this study also confirmed that Anantpur find of uninscribedcoins were made from Jangamarajapalli ore. The chemical analy-sis of Satavahana copper coins are listed in table-III. The copercontent of these coins varied greatly.

Naganika coin (Fig .6)Naganika was the wife of Satakarni I who performed ‘asvameda’twice and special coins were issued on that occasion. Naneghatinscription reveals that Naganika was the wife of Satakarni. Such acoin is described below. Only three other coins of Naganika areknown7.

Fig. 6

X-Ray diffraction studies of Satavahana coins:Chemical analysis of the coins by atomic absorption spectrometryor by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry which aredestructive and give the quantitative analysis of the different metalsin the coins. X-Ray diffraction study of coins is a qualitative testwhich gives the chemical finger print of the coins. X-Ray diffractionstudy of Satavahana copper and lead coins are presented in graphsI-VI. It appears that 4 of the coper coins were made from differentores where as the two lead coins have similar chemical composi-tion and hence they could have been made similar ore. X-Raydiffreaction study of two lead ores are presented both are galenabut there is diffence in their chemical composition. (Graph VII & VIII)

Graph I: Samagopa Copper Coin

Graph II: Satakarni Copper Coin

Graph III: Satavahana Copper Coin

Graph IV: Satavahana Copper Coin

Graph VI: Satavahana Lead Coin

Graph V: Satavahana Lead Coin

Graph VII: Jangamarajapalli Lead Ore

Graph VIII: Agnigundala Lead Ore

Conclusion:Coins contributed a great deal to the study of Satavahana historyby ending some of the controversies raised by the testimony of thepuranas, literary works and inscriptions. They brought to light thehitherto unknown rulers of the pre-Satavahana period, establishedthe identity of the founder of the Satavahana dynasty, his correctname, whom he succeeded and the place where their rule began.There is a need to study these ancient coins utilizing the latestscientific tools that are available to find out the sources of ores andthe method of manufacture of those coins.

References:

1. Reddy, DR., Reddy, PSN.: Kotalingala coinage ofSatavahanas and other local rulers-A profile, The numismatic society of Hyderabad, 1987.

2. Reddy, DR.: Who was king Satavahana of the coins?Studies in south Indian coins.XIX, p.35-39, 2009.

3. Rama Rao, M.: Satavahana coins the Andhra PradeshGovernment Museum, Museum series No.2, Hyderabad, 1961.

4. Rapson, EJ.: Catalogue of the coins of the Andhra dynasty,the Western Ksatrapas, the Trikutaka dynasty and theBodhi dynasty, Oriental Books reprint corporation,Delhi, 1975.

5. Reddy, DR., Varma, LB.: Some observations on the Brahmiscript of the Satavahana silver portrait coins. Studies insouth Indian coins. XIX, p.48-53, 2009.

6. Reddy, DR.: An overview of Andhra region coins, Studiesin South Indian coins, XV, p.7-29, 2005.

7. Chinmulgund, PJ.: A unique silver coin of Satakarni andNaganika. Journal of the numismatic society of India,XXXVIII, p.6-11, 1976.