- Śaka Satrap
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▪ Indian dynastyalso called Kshatrapaeither 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 Śakas (from the native word for Scythians) and to most Western historians as the Kshatrapas.The shorter lived of the two families bears the name Kshaharāta and is known for two rulers, Bhūmaka and Nahapāna, whose reigns are established by coinage and by a few surviving inscriptions that appear to fix the year AD 124 as a date in Nahapāna's reign. These documents claim that Nahapāna 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 Gautamīputra is known to have destroyed the Śakas in the latter part of the Śaka year 46 (AD 124–125).The second dynasty of satraps, founded by Chasṭana in AD 78, ruled for two or three centuries in western India and gave its name to the Śakanripakala, or era of Śaka kings, in Indian history. The rulers of this house can be dated with incomplete accuracy from their coinage. Chasṭana is mentioned by Ptolemy as ruling into the 2nd century (probably AD 78–110) and also considerably aggrandized his holdings at the expense of the Andhras. The wars of these Śakas with the Andhras continued for several regnal generations. The first great Śaka ruler was Rudradāman I, Chasṭana's grandson, who reigned after AD 130. The direct line of Chasṭana became extinct in AD 304–305 with the death of Viśvasena, son of Bhartṛidāman. It is doubtful that the dynasty was important in the 4th century, although one of its members—probably Rudrasimha III—is recorded as the “Śaka king” killed by Candra Gupta II when he sacked the Śaka capital in AD 388.
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Universalium. 2010.
