SAKA SATRAP

also called Kshatrapa either of two dynasties of satraps in northwestern India who ruled with considerable independence on behalf of the Pahlava suzerains. The two families are both known to Indian literature as the Sakas (from the native word for Scythians) and to most Western historians as the Kshatrapas. The shorter lived of the two families bears the name Kshaharata and is known for two rulers, Bhumaka and Nahapana, whose reigns are established by coinage and by a few surviving inscriptions that appear to fix the year AD 124 as a date in Nahapana's reign. These documents claim that Nahapana ruled over a large area in western India around the Gulf of Cambay, which he could only have won from the Andhras. This possession was, however, brief because the Andhra king Gautamiputra is known to have destroyed the Sakas in the latter part of the Saka year 46 (AD 124125). The second dynasty of satraps, founded by Chastana in AD 78, ruled for two or three centuries in western India and gave its name to the Sakanripakala, or era of Saka kings, in Indian history. The rulers of this house can be dated with incomplete accuracy from their coinage. Chastana is mentioned by Ptolemy as ruling into the 2nd century (probably AD 78110) and also considerably aggrandized his holdings at the expense of the Andhras. The wars of these Sakas with the Andhras continued for several regnal generations. The first great Saka ruler was Rudradaman I, Chastana's grandson, who reigned after AD 130. The direct line of Chastana became extinct in AD 304305 with the death of Visvasena, son of Bhartridaman. It is doubtful that the dynasty was important in the 4th century, although one of its membersprobably Rudrasimha IIIis recorded as the Saka king killed by Candra Gupta II when he sacked the Saka capital in AD 388.