Western Satraps: A Visual History

The Western Satraps (Western Kshatrapas) were Saka rulers of western India, in Gujarat, Malwa, Saurashtra and Rajasthan, from about 35 to 405 AD. Two dynasties held the office: the Kshaharatas (Nahapana) and the Kardamakas (Chastana and Rudradaman I). Nominally subordinate to the Kushans at first, they fought the Satavahanas for the Deccan, controlled the great port of Bharuch and issued a continuous silver coinage dated in the Saka era. Rudradaman's Junagadh inscription is the first major Sanskrit prose text. Chandragupta II of the Guptas conquered them around 400 AD.

When it existed: the era ribbon

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Western Satrap territory

Timeline of the Western Satraps

1. 35
   First Western Satraps under Kushan overlordship
2. 100
   Nahapana
3. 125
   Nahapana destroyed by Gautamiputra
4. 130
   Rudradaman I
5. 150
   Junagadh inscription
6. 300
   Satraps under pressure from the Sasanians
7. 405
   Guptas annex the west

Nahapana

The Kshaharata Nahapana ruled around 100-125 from Bharuch, controlling the Deccan trade routes; his son-in-law's inscriptions at Nasik and Karla record gifts to Buddhist monks. The Periplus names 'Nambanus' as king of Barygaza (Bharuch), the chief port for Roman trade. Gautamiputra Satakarni destroyed him around 125 and restruck his coins.

Rudradaman

Chastana founded the Kardamaka line at Ujjain, dating his coins in the Saka era; Ptolemy the geographer names 'Tiastanes' of Ozene. His grandson Rudradaman I twice defeated the Satavahanas but spared their king, his son-in-law, and repaired the Sudarshana lake dam at Junagadh after a storm in 150. His inscription there, on a rock also bearing Ashoka's edicts, praises his Sanskrit learning and refusal to tax his people for the repairs.

Long survival and end

Successive Kardamaka satraps struck dated silver drachms year after year, providing one of the most precise chronologies in ancient India. They fought Satavahanas, Abhiras and later the Sasanian Kushanshahs. Around 400 Chandragupta II Vikramaditya defeated the last satrap Rudrasimha III and annexed the west, taking over the coinage; the Gupta silver coins copy the Saka type.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Indo-Scythian Kingdom (150 BC to 400)
• Kushan Empire (30 to 375)
• Satavahana dynasty (100 BC to 225)
• Gupta Empire (320 to 550)
• Sasanian Empire (224 to 651)
• Roman Empire (27 BC to 476)

8 surprising things about the Western Satraps

1. The Junagadh inscription of 150 AD is the earliest long inscription in classical Sanskrit and mentions the Mauryan governors who first built the dam 400 years before.
2. Western Satrap coins carry the ruler's portrait, the date in the Saka era and Greek-derived legends, and give a year-by-year record for three centuries.
3. The Saka era of 78 AD, still India's official calendar era, is named after these Sakas.
4. Ptolemy's Geography (c. 150) names the satrap Chastana as king of Ujjain.
5. The Kalakacharya legend says Saka kings were brought to Ujjain by a Jain monk to avenge his sister; it may recall the satraps' arrival.
6. The Western Satraps outlasted their Kushan overlords by 150 years.
7. Rudradaman claimed to have won the hand of many princesses at swayamvaras, self-choice ceremonies.
8. The dynasty ruled 370 years, longer than the Mauryas, Guptas and Mughals.

Sources

• Western Satraps Wikipedia
• Shaka satrap Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Rudradaman I Wikipedia
• Upinder Singh, A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India (2008) Pearson

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