Political History Of Ancient India

SR No.: 032292
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hemchandra Raychaudhari
Publisher: University of Calcutta
Publication Year: 1950
Total Pages: 714
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 428

THE PERIOD OF KĀŅVA RULE 399 The chronology of the Kāņva dynasty is a matter of controversy. In his Early History of the Deccan, Sir R. G. Bhandarkar observes, "the founder of the Andhrabhrityas is said to have uprooted not only the Kāņvas, but 'whatever was left of the power of the Sungas. And the Kāņvas are pointedly spoken of as Sunga-bhrityas or servants of the Sungas. It, therefore, appears likely that when the princes of the Sunga family became weak, the Kāņvas usurped the whole power and ruled like the Peshwas in modern times, not uprooting the dynasty of their masters but reducing them to the character of nominal sovereigns. Thus then these dynasties reigned contemporaneously, and hence the 112 years that tradition assigns to the Sungas include the 45 assigned to the Kāņvas."
Now, the. Purāņic evidence only proves that certain princes belonging to the Sunga stock continued to rule till the so-called "Andhra-bhritya” conquest and were the contemporaries of the Kāņvas. But there is nothing to show that these rois faineants of the Sunga stock were identical with any of the ten "Sunga” kings mentioned by name in the Purāṇic lists, who reigned 112 years. On the contrary, the distinct testimony of the Purānas that Devabhūti, the tenth and last "Surga” of the Purāṇic lists, was the person slain by Vasudeva, the first Kāņva, probably shows that the rois faineants, who ruled contemporaneously with Vasudeva and his successors, were later than Devablūti, and were not considered to be important enough to be mentioned by name. Consequently the 12 years that tradition assigns to the ten “Sunga” kings from Pushyamitra to Devabhūti do not include the 15 assigned to the Kāņvas. It is, therefore, not unreasonable to accept with slight modifications the views of Dr. Smith regarding the date of the family. According to the system of chronology adopted