AMRAVATI EVERENCE ONLINE MUSEUM

Amravathi

Mahachaitya.

        Amaravathi is a village in Guntur district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Located on the banks of Krishna River, it is a part of the Amaravathi mandal of Guntur revenue division.

       Although now it is officially designated as a village administered by a gram panchayat, it is an important historic town, and served as the capital of the Satavahana kingdom in ancient days. Sri Amaralingeswara Swamy temple is located at the Amararama Pancharama Kshetrasi te in this village, which makes it a holy town for the Hindus. It is also a historic Buddhist site, and the Amaravathi Mahachaitya stupa was built here between the 2nd century BCE and the 3rd century CE. Designated as a historic site by the Government of India, Amaravathi has been chosen as one of the sites for Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) scheme of Government of India.

       Amaravathi, the new capital of Andhra Pradesh, is named after this historic site. The Amaravathi village is one of the several villages covered under the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region. The foundation stone of the new capital city was laid at Uddandarayunipalem, which is located around 23 km from the Amaravathi village.

        The recorded history of Amravathi and nearby Dharanikota dates to 5th century BCE. It was the capital of Satavahanas who ruled from 3rd century BCE to 3rd century CE. After the decline of Satavahanas, Andhra Ikshvakus and later Pallava kings ruled Krishna river valley.    Subsequently, Eastern Chalukyas and Telugu Cholas held sway over the region. Kota Kings were in control of Amaravati during the medieval times. Kota kings were subdued by Kakatiyas in 11th century CE and Amaravati became part of the unified Telugu empire. The Skanda Purana gives a picture of the place and the Siva temple located here.

         Amaravathi was part of Delhi Sultanate, Musunuri Nayaks, Bahmani Sultanate,  Vijayanagara Empire, Sultanate of Golconda and Mughal Empire successively before the founding of the Nizam of Hyderabad in 1724. It was ceded to France in 1750 but was captured by England in 1759. Guntur returned to the Nizamate in 1768 but was ceded to England again in 1788. It was briefly occupied by Hyder Ali. It was part of Madras Presidency during the British colonial period.

JANAPADA’S  IN INDAN STATES

       

 

        The Bronze, Silver Punch mark coins have been found all over the India.

     The earliest of these were issued by Janapada’s and Maha janapada’s which existed after The Bharat war (11^th century B.C.). All these gradually merged with the expanding Magadha empire by 4^th  century B.C. The states  Janapada’s  of which coins are known so far are :-

·        SURASENA – Modern Braj, The regin around MATTHURA

·        UTTARA PANCHALA – The ROHILKHAND region

·        DAKSHIN PANCHALA – The doabarea stretching for GANGA-CHAMBAL

·        CHEDI – The region south of YAMUNA

·        KOSALA – The area bounded by GOMTI on the west, SARPIKA- Modern sai on the east and NEPAL hills on the north.

·        KASI – The region around VARANASI

·        MALLA – Dist. of DEORIA and surroundings

·        MAGADHA – Area bound by GANGA on the north, son on the west, plateau of CHOTA NAGPUR to the south and BHAGALPUR region to the east.

·        VANGA – BANGAL

·        DAKSHINA KOSALA – Western ORISSA and eastern MADHYA PRADESH

·        ANDHRA PRADESH – The delta of GODAVARI and KRISHNA

·        ASMAKA – Area on both side of GODAVARI bordering ANDHRA PRADESH

·        AVANTI – UJJAIN region

·        SURASHTRA – The KATHIAWAR region

·        GANDHARA – North western region on barder of AFGANISTHAN

·        KUNTALA – Satara region, western MAHARASTRA

       The early history of Ujjain goes back to the period of Iron Age India. By the 6th century BC, the large kingdom of Avanti, with its capital at Ujjaini, is mentioned in Buddhist literature as one of the four great powers along with Vatsa, Kosala and Magadha. Ujjain lay on the main trade route between North India and Deccan going from Mathura via Ujjain to Mahismati (Maheshwar) on the Narmada, and onto Paithan on the Godavari, western Asia and the West. The Northern black polished ware - the NBP as it is often called which is technically the finest pottery of the time, with a brilliantly burnished dressing almost of the quality of a glaze in colour from jet black to a deep grey or metallic blue and iron, found their way to the northern Deccan from the Gangetic plains through Ujjain.

         The articles of export to the western Asia such as precious stones and pearls, scents and spices, perfumes, silks and muslin, reached the port of Brighukachcha from the remote north through Ujjain. All this finds a detailed and interesting description in the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, an account of an unknown Greek merchant who made a voyage to India in the second half of the 1st century AD. The Periplus talks of a city called Ozene to the east of Barygaza (Broach) which fed all commodities to trade like onyx, porcelain, fine muslin and quantities of ordinary cotton, spikenard, costus bodellium to this important port and to other parts of India

            Sangam age Malayaman coin in 1st -3rd cen AD.

HISTORY

       The hereditary chiefs,MALAYAMAN belonged to Malayaman-nadu (Sangam literature). They had their capital at Tirucoilur, on the river of Ponnaiyar. Tirucoilur was situated on the early trade route from north to the south and enjoyed trade with Satavahanas. Principle port of them was at Arikamedu on the east. Sangam literature mentions of Tirumudikari, a Malayaman chief who fought alongside Perunarkilli Chola to defeat Cheral Irumporai (Irumporai Cheras). Vastly,  Cholas, Cheras and even Satavahanas controlled the destiny in times.

                                          COINAGE

        The Malaya mans issued copper coins of quadrilateral shape which carried their royal emblem "Horse" sometime facing left or sometime to right. In some of the older coins (early coins) a legend "Malaya man" above the horse motif decorated the coin obverse. Most of their coins, on the reverse carried the symbolical map of their territory "A wide curved river with fishes flowing in it, and a rectangular town beside the river". This basically depicts the kind of territory they ruled. The Malaya man coins generally weighed between 2 to 4 gms and are of thin fabricun likethecontemporaryCheras. 

Kushans AD 30 – 230

Listing of Kushan royal tamgas

Chinese sources describe the Guishuang (貴霜), i.e. the Kushans, as one of the five aristocratic tribes of the Yuezhi (月氏), with some people claiming they were a loose confederation of Indo-European peoples,  though many scholars are still unconvinced that they originally spoke an Indo-European language.

For well over a century, however, there have been many arguments about the ethnic and linguistic origins of the Da Yuezhi (大月氏), Kushans (貴霜), and the Tochari, and still there is little consensus.

The Yuezhi had been living in the arid grasslands of eastern Central Asia's Tarim Basin, in modern-dayXinjiang, China, possibly speaking varieties of the Tocharian languages, until they were driven west by the Xiongnu in 176–160 BCE. The five tribes constituting the Yuezhi are known in Chinese history as Xiūmì (休密),Guìshuāng (貴霜), Shuāngmǐ (雙靡), Xìdùn (肸頓), and Dūmì (都密).

John Keay contextualizes the movements of the Kushan within a larger setting of mass migrations taking place in the region:

Head of a Kushan prince (Khalchayan palace, Uzbekistan).

Some traces remain of the presence of the Kushans in the area of Bactria and Sogdiana. 

Kujula Kadphises (ca. 30 – ca. 80),  Vima Taktu or Sadashkana (ca. 80 – ca. 95)

Vima Kadphises (ca. 95 – ca. 127),  Kanishka I (ca. 127 – ca. 140)

 Vāsishka (ca. 140 – ca. 160), Huvishka (ca. 160 – ca. 190), Vasudeva I (ca. 190 – ca. 230)