That the Girnár inscription describes Rudradáman as the exterminator of ‘the Yaudheyas’ and not of any king of the Yaudheyas confirms the view that their constitution was tribal or democratic.[62]
The style of the Yaudheya coins being an adaptation of the Kanishka type and their being found from Mathurá to Saháranpur where Kanishka ruled is a proof that the Yaudheyas wrested from the successors of Kanishka the greater part of the North-West Provinces. This is not to be understood to be the Yaudheyas’ first conquest in India. They are known to be a very old tribe who after a temporary suppression by Kanishka must have again risen to power with the decline of Kushán rule under Kanishka’s successors Huvishka (a.d. 100–123) or Vasudeva (a.d. 123–150 ?) the latter of whom was a contemporary of Rudradáman.[63] It is probably to this increase of Yaudheya power that Rudradáman’s inscription refers as making them arrogant and intractable. Their forcible extermination is not to be understood literally but in the Indian hyperbolic fashion.
The remark regarding the conquest of Śátakarṇi lord of Dakshinápatha is as follows: ‘He who has obtained glory because he did not destroy Śátakarṇi, the lord of the Dekhan, on account of there being no distance in relationship, though he twice really conquered him.’[64] As Śátakarṇi is a dynastic name applied to several of the Ándhra kings, the question arises Which of the Śátakarṇis did Rudradáman twice defeat? Of the two Western India kings mentioned by Ptolemy one Tiastanes with his capital at Ozene or Ujjain[65] has been identified with Chashṭana; the other Siri Ptolemaios or Polemaios, with his royal seat at Baithana or Paithan,[66] has been identified with the Pulumáyi Vásishṭhíputra of the Násik cave inscriptions. These statements of
Chapter V.
Western Kshatrapas, a.d. 70–398.
Kshatrapa IV. Rudradáman, a.d. 143–158. Ptolemy seem to imply that Chashṭana and Pulumáyi were contemporary kings reigning at Ujjain and Paithan. The evidence of their coins also shows that if not contemporaries Chashṭana and Pulumáyi were not separated by any long interval. We know from the Násik inscriptions and the Puráṇas that Pulumáyi was the successor of Gautamíputra Śátakarṇi and as Gautamíputra Śátakarṇi is mentioned as the exterminator of the Kshaharáta race (and the period of this extermination has already been shown to be almost immediately after Nahapána’s death), there is no objection to the view that Chashṭana, who was the next Kshatrapa after Nahapána, and Pulumáyi, who was the successor of Gautamíputra, were contemporaries. We have no positive evidence to determine who was the immediate successor of Pulumáyi, but the only king whose inscriptions are found in any number after Pulumáyi is Gautamíputra Yajña Śrí Śátakarṇi. His Kanheri inscription recording gifts made in his reign and his coin found among the relics of the Sopára stúpa built also in his reign prove that he held the North Konkan. The Sopára coin gives the name of the father of Yajñaśrí. Unfortunately the coin is much worn. Still the remains of the letters constituting the name are sufficient to show they must be read चतुरपन Chaturapana.[67] A king named Chaturapana is mentioned in one of the Nánághát inscriptions where like Pulumáyi he is called Vásishṭhíputra and where the year 13 of his reign is referred to.[68] The letters of this inscription are almost coeval with those in Pulumáyi’s inscriptions. The facts that he was called Vásishṭhíputra and that he reigned at least thirteen years make it probable that Chaturapana was the brother and successor of Pulumáyi. Yajñaśrí would thus be the nephew and second in succession to Pulumáyi and the contemporary of Rudradáman the grandson of Chashṭana, whom we have taken to be a contemporary of Pulumáyi. A further proof of this is afforded by Yajñaśrí’s silver coin found in the Sopára stúpa. All other Ándhra coins hitherto found are adapted from contemporary coins of Ujjain and the Central Provinces, the latter probably of the Śungas. But Gautamíputra Yajñaśrí Śátakarṇi’s Sopára coin is the first silver coin struck on the type of Kshatrapa coins; it is in fact a clear adaptation of the type of the coins of Rudradáman himself which proves that the two kings were contemporaries and rivals. An idea of the ‘not distant relationship’ between Rudradáman and Yajñaśrí Śátakarṇi mentioned in Rudradáman’s Girnár inscription, may be formed from a Kanheri inscription recording a gift by a minister named Satoraka which mentions that the queen of Vásishṭhíputra Śátakarṇi was born in the Kárdamaka dynasty and was connected apparently on the maternal side with a Mahákshatrapa whose name is lost. If the proper name of the lost Vásishṭhíputra be Chaturapana, his son Yajñaśrí Śátakarṇi would, through his mother being a Mahákshatrapa’s granddaughter, be a relative of Rudradáman.
Rudradáman’s other epithets seem to belong to the usual stock of
Chapter V.
Western Kshatrapas, a.d. 70–398.
Kshatrapa IV. Rudradáman, a.d. 143–158. Indian court epithets. He is said ‘to have gained great fame by studying to the end, by remembering understanding and applying the great sciences such as grammar, polity, music, and logic’. Another epithet describes him as having ‘obtained numerous garlands at the Svayamvaras of kings’ daughters,’ apparently meaning that he was chosen as husband by princesses at several svayamvaras or choice-marriages a practice which seems to have been still in vogue in Rudradáman’s time. As a test of the civilized character of his rule it may be noted that he is described as ‘he who took, and kept to the end of his life, the vow to stop killing men except in battle.’ Another epithet tells us that the embankment was built and the lake reconstructed by ‘expending a great amount of money from his own treasury, without oppressing the people of the town and of the province by (exacting) taxes, forced labour, acts of affection (benevolences) and the like.’
As the Kshatrapa year 60 (a.d. 138) has been taken to be the date of close of Chashṭana’s reign, and as five years may be allowed for the short reign[69] of Jayadáman, the beginning of the reign of Rudradáman may be supposed to have been about the year 65 (a.d. 143). This Girnár inscription gives 72 as the year in which Rudradáman was then reigning and it is fair to suppose that he reigned probably up to 80. The conclusion is that Rudradáman ruled from a.d. 143 to 158.[70]
Kshatrapa V. Dámázaḍa or Dámájaḍaśrí, a.d. 158–168.Rudradáman was succeeded by his son Dámázaḍa or Dámájaḍaśrí regarding whom all the information available is obtained from six coins obtained by Dr. Bhagvánlál.[71] The workmanship of all six coins is good, after the type of Rudradáman’s coins. On the obverse is a bust in the same style as Rudradáman’s and round the bust is an illegible Greek legend. Like Rudradáman’s coins these have no dates, a proof of their antiquity, as all later Kshatrapa coins have dates in Nágarí numerals. The reverse has the usual sun and moon and between them the arched symbol with the zigzag under-line. Around them in three specimens is the following legend in old Nágarí:
राज्ञो महाक्षत्रपस रुद्रदामपुत्रस[72] राज्ञः क्षत्रपस दामाय्सडस
Rájño Mahákshatrapasa Rudradámaputrasa Rájñaḥ Kshatrapasa Dámáysaḍasa.
Of the king the Kshatrapa Dámázaḍa[73] son of the king the Kshatrapa Rudradáman.