Short notes Essay on Discovery of Memorial Pillar

In July 1995, a memorial pillar was discovered at Amaravati in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh.

The pillar belongs to the first century AD and the script indicates that it belongs to the Satavahana period. The significance of the discovery is that it is the first pillar honouring martyrs to be found in the region.

The pillar bears an inscription which mentions the families of the ‘brahman’ martyrs. The inscription is in the Brahmi script, though the language is Prakrit.

The pillar is 2.9 metres high, made of stone and unearthed from a paddy field by a farmer. The pillar which is eight sided on the top half and nearly half a metre thick, depicts a nobleman sitting with one folded leg (sukhasana position,).

Experts believe that it is the standard posture for a royal person when he is out of the court. Next to the nobleman is a serving man, fanning him and another one has a bowl of fruit in his hand. Three more men are depicted beside a horse.

The group of men is framed by petals of lotus and below this stone carving is the four-line script.

The Satavahanas had waged wars to establish their supremacy in the region; perhaps that explains the existence of this memorial pillar.

Further north is Kolhapur where rich hoard of bronze objects was found. There is imported statuette of Poseidon among them “side other objects of indigenous manufacture. Udgaon-Madhavpur, a suburb of adjacent Balgaum ve yielded a great quantity of coins and other objects.

Further south, in Banavasi a Satavahana inscription has been found. In the Karimnagar region of Hyderabad excavations have yielded a rich flection of coins and terra-cottas and several structures of bricks of various sizes laid in mud mortar.

The fortified site of Shulikata was surrounded y a mud rampart and had a large brick structure. In Kotalingala large quantities of iron slag and ore. We were found. It is only during the Satavahana le that fortified settlements came into existence in e Deccan, and excavations indicate a marked provenient in the construction techniques.

There was brick-construction for walls as also fortifications, the floors were made of well-compacted mud and the roofs were of tiles laid on posts.

Probably the most famous Satavahana king is Sri Yajna Satakarni who ruled from 170 to 199 ad. Cording to the information available, he was the t to reign over both the western and eastern rovinces.

He was succeeded by Vijaya, Sri Chandra and a king named Pulumayi. The other Satavahana kings, by the names of Kama Kumbha and Rudra Satakarni ruled over Madhya Pradesh and the eastern Deccan.