CDS (I) 2020 General Knowledge · Question 62 of 120

Correct — D, Satavahanas. Satavahana kings are named after their mothers, not their fathers, and the inscriptions make it unmistakable. Gautamiputra Satakarni means Satakarni, son of Gautami; Vasishthiputra Pulumavi means Pulumavi, son of Vasishthi. The naming element is the mother's gotra name, and the practice runs through the dynasty rather than appearing once. The most famous Satavahana record is itself a mother's: the Nashik prashasti was commissioned by Gautami Balashri, mother of Gautamiputra, and it is she who sets down his achievements — that he destroyed the Sakas, Yavanas and Pahlavas and restored the glory of the Satavahana line. Note that the naming does not make the succession matrilineal: the throne still passed from father to son. What it shows is the standing of royal mothers in Satavahana practice.

• (a)Mallas of Pava — The Mallas were one of the gana-sangha republics of the eastern Gangetic plain, known from Buddhist and Jaina texts as the people among whom the Buddha died at Kushinagara. They are identified by their clan name, not by any mother's name.
• (b)Videhas of Mithila — The Videhas belong to the later Vedic kingdoms of north Bihar, remembered through the Janaka line and the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad debates. Their rulers carry patronymics and titles, not matronymics.
• (c)Yaudheyas — The Yaudheyas were a republican people of the Punjab-Haryana region known mainly from their coins and seals, which carry the corporate legend of the gana rather than the personal names of mothers.

The Satavahanas ruled the Deccan from roughly the first century BCE to the third century CE, with Pratishthana (Paithan on the Godavari) as a capital and a heartland stretching between the Godavari and the Krishna. Their inscriptions are in Prakrit, cut into the Buddhist cave complexes of the western Deccan at Nashik, Karle and Kanheri. Their most distinctive habit is naming kings by the mother's gotra — Gautamiputra, Vasishthiputra, Kaushikiputra.

The item rewards a single remembered example. If you can recall Gautamiputra Satakarni and read the name apart — Gautami + putra, the son of Gautami — the answer falls out without any further knowledge. The three distractors are all pre-imperial or republican polities remembered by their group names, which is the pattern the naming habit breaks. One nuance worth carrying: a metronymic is not proof of a matrilineal system. Satavahana succession was through sons, and the mother's name marks her lineage and status rather than a rule of inheritance.

• Gautamiputra Satakarni literally means Satakarni, son of Gautami; Vasishthiputra Pulumavi means Pulumavi, son of Vasishthi.
• The Nashik prashasti was commissioned by Gautami Balashri, mother of Gautamiputra Satakarni, and records that he destroyed the Sakas, Yavanas and Pahlavas.
• Satavahana inscriptions are in Prakrit and cluster in the rock-cut Buddhist caves of the western Deccan.
• The dynasty's naming practice is metronymic, but the throne still descended from father to son.

• Reading a metronymic as evidence of matrilineal succession — the Satavahana throne still passed from father to son.
• Mixing up Gautamiputra, a Satavahana king, with Gautama, the Buddha's clan name.
• Treating the Yaudheyas or Mallas as dynasties; both were republican peoples known by a corporate name.

As a one-line identification of the dynasty with metronymic names, or through a named inscription — the Nashik prashasti of Gautami Balashri turns up often in matching sets.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Nashik prashasti, which records the achievements of Gautamiputra Satakarni, was commissioned by

  • (a)his queen Vasishthi
  • (b)his mother Gautami Balashri
  • (c)his minister Harishena
  • (d)his son Pulumavi

  Answer(b) his mother Gautami Balashri — the inscription is issued in her name and credits her son with destroying the Sakas, Yavanas and Pahlavas.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The inscriptions of the Satavahana rulers were composed mainly in which one of the following languages?

  • (a)Sanskrit
  • (b)Tamil
  • (c)Prakrit
  • (d)Pali

  Answer(c) Prakrit — Satavahana records in the western Deccan caves are in Prakrit; Sanskrit becomes the language of royal inscriptions only later.