Satavahana economy, society, Buddhism, art and…

Core facts

Main occupation: agriculture. Main revenue: land tax, usually one-sixth of the crop.
Land measure: nivartana. Satavahanas made the earliest known tax-free land grants in the Deccan (to Brahmins and Buddhist monks).
Guilds = shreni; head = setthi / shreshthi. Guilds took deposits and paid interest (like banks).
Coins: karshapana (silver or copper) and suvarna (gold); 1 suvarna = 35 karshapanas (Nasik cave inscription of the Saka Ushavadata: 70,000 karshapanas = 2,000 suvarnas). Most Satavahana coins are lead or potin (copper alloy).
Kondapur (Sangareddy): coins and coin moulds → called a Satavahana mint.
Trade with Rome: Roman coins found at Peddabankur (Peddapalli) and Kondapur (Sangareddy).
Western ports: Bharukaccha (Broach), Sopara, Kalyan. Eastern ports (in Andhra Pradesh): Maisolia (Machilipatnam area), Ghantasala.
Official language: Prakrit. Hala: Gatha Saptashati. Gunadhya: Brihatkatha in Paisachi Prakrit. Sarvavarma: Katantra (Sanskrit grammar).
Telangana Buddhist sites: Dhulikatta (Peddapalli), Phanigiri (Suryapet), Nelakondapalli (Khammam), Gajulabanda (Suryapet), Kotilingala (Jagtial).
Acharya Nagarjuna: Mahayana philosopher of the Madhyamika (Shunyavada) school; letter Suhrllekha to a Satavahana king.
Art: the Amaravati school (limestone/marble relief); paintings of Ajanta caves 9 and 10 are of the Satavahana period.

Explained

1. Agriculture and land

Crops: rice, millets (jowar), wheat, pulses, sesame, sugarcane, cotton; Gatha Saptashati describes village farm life.
Irrigation: wells, tanks and channels; water-lifting wheels are mentioned in Nasik inscriptions (a guild of "water-machine" workers).
Land grants: kings gave villages and land to Brahmins and Buddhist monks with immunities (officials and soldiers could not enter; no taxes). Gautamiputra Satakarni granted land to monks at Nasik.
Taxes: land tax (one-sixth), a tax on crafts (karukara), tolls and dues on trade. Salt making was a royal monopoly (books).

2. Crafts and guilds

Crafts: weaving (cotton and muslin), metal work (iron, copper, gold), bead making, ivory, pottery, potters, oil pressers, bamboo workers, corn dealers.
Guilds (shreni): each had a head (setthi) and its own rules (shreni-dharma). They:
- took deposits from donors and paid fixed interest
- funded caves, stupas and gifts to monks
- sometimes acted as town councils (nigama).
Example (Nasik inscription of Ushavadata, son-in-law of the Saka Nahapana): 2,000 karshapanas deposited with a weavers' guild at 1% a month (12% a year), 1,000 with another at 3/4% a month (9% a year), the interest to clothe monks.
Telangana evidence: iron slag and furnaces at Kondapur and Peddabankur; goldsmiths' and bead workshops at Kotilingala and Kondapur (excavation reports as summarised in the books).

3. Trade and towns

Internal routes: the Dakshinapatha linked Pratishthana, Telangana towns and the east coast. Telangana towns on these routes: Kotilingala, Dhulikatta, Peddabankur, Kondapur, Phanigiri, Nelakondapalli.
Foreign trade: with the Roman Empire (exports: cotton cloth, muslin, spices, pepper, ivory, precious stones; imports: gold and silver coins, wine, glass). Later, trade with South-East Asia from the east coast.
Sources: the Periplus (1st century CE) and Ptolemy name Deccan ports and markets.
Telangana towns (excavated):

Site	District	What was found
Kotilingala	Jagtial	Fortified town; pre-Satavahana and early Satavahana coins
Dhulikatta	Peddapalli	Mud-fort town by the Hussaini vagu; stupa; Satavahana coins; ivory, beads
Peddabankur	Peddapalli	Large settlement (about 30 ha); ring wells and drains; brick buildings; punch-marked, Roman and Satavahana coins; iron working
Kondapur	Sangareddy	Town with houses, stupa and chaitya; about 2,000 coins and coin moulds (mint); a Roman gold coin of Augustus
Kadambapur	Karimnagar	Megalithic and early historic settlement

4. Coins

Metals: lead (most common in the Deccan), potin, copper, and silver (portrait coins, copying the Western Kshatrapas, in the late period).
Symbols: elephant, lion, horse, Ujjain symbol (a cross with four circles), hill (chaitya) symbol, ship (Yajnasri).
Re-struck coins: Gautamiputra re-struck the silver coins of Nahapana (Jogalthembi hoard, near Nashik).
Roman coins have been found at Telangana sites: Peddabankur (with a terracotta of a Roman trader) and Kondapur (gold coin of Augustus, in the site museum).

5. Society

Four varnas existed but were not rigid; foreigners (Sakas, Yavanas) were absorbed and inter-marriage occurred (the Satavahanas themselves married into a Saka family).
Gautamiputra claimed to have stopped the mixing of varnas (Nasik), which shows mixing was real.
Family: joint families; kings named after mothers. Women: queens issued inscriptions and made gifts (Naganika, Gautami Balasri); ordinary women donated to stupas. Women of the elite could hold property.
Occupational groups: halika (ploughman), gahapati (householder-landowner), setthi (merchant), kolika (weaver), kamara (smith), vadhaki (carpenter), gandhika (perfumer).
Festivals and pastimes (from Gatha Saptashati): seasonal festivals, music (veena, flute, drum), dance.

6. Religion

Vedic religion: the kings performed Ashvamedha and Rajasuya (Satakarni I), worshipped Indra, Vasudeva, Sankarshana, Surya (Naneghat invocation), and gave land to Brahmins.
Buddhism: patronised mainly by queens, merchants and guilds; kings also gave grants. Schools: early Theravada/Hinayana groups, Chaityaka-related schools in the Krishna valley, and Mahayana under Acharya Nagarjuna.
Jainism: strong in Telangana; Jain tradition links Simuka with Jainism; rock-cut beds for monks at Munulagutta near Kotilingala (no inscription fixes whether Jain or Buddhist).
Acharya Nagarjuna (c. 2nd century CE): founder of Madhyamika philosophy (doctrine of shunyata, "emptiness"); main work Mulamadhyamakakarika; Suhrllekha ("Letter to a Friend") addressed to a Satavahana king (tradition: Yajnasri). Buddhist tradition links him with Sriparvata (Nagarjunakonda, in Andhra Pradesh).

7. Buddhist sites in Telangana

Site	District	Highlights
Dhulikatta	Peddapalli	Mahastupa and vihara by the Hussaini vagu; limestone slabs with Muchalinda (five-hooded serpent) sheltering the Buddha symbol; Brahmi inscription of about the 2nd century BCE
Phanigiri	Suryapet	Hill shaped like a snake's hood (phani = snake, giri = hill); mahastupa, votive stupas, apsidal chaitya halls, viharas, pillared halls; famed sculptures; Buddha footprints; site on the Dakshinapatha
Nelakondapalli	Khammam	Large brick mahastupa, viharas, bronze Buddha; mud-fort town; 3rd–4th century CE remains
Gajulabanda	Suryapet	Mahastupa and vihara remains (state conservation works)
Kotilingala	Jagtial	Stupa remains; rock-cut monks' beds at nearby Munulagutta
Kondapur	Sangareddy	Stupa and chaitya within the town

8. Architecture and art

Stupa: a solid dome over relics, with railing (vedika), gateways (torana) and, in the Krishna valley, projecting ayaka platforms with five pillars on each side.
Chaitya: prayer hall with a stupa at one end (rock-cut examples: Karle, Bhaja, Nasik, Kanheri in Maharashtra).
Vihara: residence for monks (cells round a hall).
Amaravati school (Krishna valley, in Andhra Pradesh): narrative relief panels in light green-white limestone; lively, slender figures; scenes of the Buddha's life and Jatakas. Phanigiri and Dhulikatta sculptures belong to this tradition.
Painting: Ajanta caves 9 and 10 (Maharashtra) are early chaitya halls with paintings of the Satavahana period.

9. Language and literature

Work	Author	Language	Note
Gatha Saptashati	Hala (compiler)	Maharashtri Prakrit	700 short verses on village love and life; earliest Prakrit anthology of its kind
Brihatkatha	Gunadhya	Paisachi Prakrit	Lost; known through Sanskrit retellings: Kathasaritsagara (Somadeva), Brihatkathamanjari (Kshemendra)
Katantra Vyakarana	Sarvavarma	Sanskrit	Short grammar; legend says written to teach Kuntala Satakarni Sanskrit quickly
Lilavati	Kutuhala (c. 8th–9th century)	Prakrit	Later poem on Hala's marriage
Madhyamika works, Suhrllekha	Acharya Nagarjuna	Sanskrit	Mahayana philosophy

Telugu: scholars find early Telugu-type words in Gatha Saptashati (for example atta, pilla, potta, addam) and in Satavahana-period records, showing Telugu developing alongside Prakrit.

Common traps

✗ "Brihatkatha was written in Sanskrit." ✓ In Paisachi Prakrit; the Sanskrit Kathasaritsagara is a later retelling.
✗ "1 suvarna = 16 karshapanas." ✓ 1 suvarna = 35 karshapanas (Nasik inscription).
✗ "Most Satavahana coins are gold." ✓ Mostly lead and potin; gold coins are rare.
✗ "Kondapur is in Medak district." ✓ It is in Sangareddy district (formed from Medak in 2016).
✗ "Phanigiri is in Khammam district." ✓ Phanigiri is in Suryapet district; Nelakondapalli is in Khammam.
✗ "Acharya Nagarjuna founded the Yogachara school." ✓ He founded Madhyamika (Shunyavada); Yogachara is associated with Asanga and Vasubandhu.
✗ "Ajanta paintings are all of the Gupta–Vakataka period." ✓ Caves 9 and 10 are of the Satavahana period; most others are Vakataka period.
✗ "Land tax was one-fourth of the produce." ✓ Usually one-sixth.

Quick revision

Agriculture main occupation; land tax one-sixth; nivartana land measure.
First tax-free land grants in the Deccan: Satavahanas.
Shreni (guild), setthi (head); deposits at 12% and 9% a year (Nasik).
1 suvarna = 35 karshapanas; coins mostly lead and potin; ship coins of Yajnasri.
Kondapur (Sangareddy) = mint town (coin moulds).
Roman coins: Peddabankur (Peddapalli), Kondapur (Sangareddy).
Buddhist sites: Dhulikatta, Phanigiri and Gajulabanda (Suryapet), Nelakondapalli, Kotilingala.
Acharya Nagarjuna: Madhyamika; Suhrllekha.
Hala: Gatha Saptashati (Prakrit); Gunadhya: Brihatkatha (Paisachi); Sarvavarma: Katantra.
Ajanta caves 9 and 10: Satavahana-period paintings.

Go deeper: Deeper, Mains writing (beyond what TGPSC MPSO / ASO usually asks)

Deeper Advanced

A money economy, regional in character. Lead and potin coins in huge numbers point to everyday market use in the Deccan, unlike the gold-heavy Kushana north. Coin moulds at Kondapur show local minting.
Guilds as early banks. Fixed interest rates (12% and 9% a year) recorded in stone show that guild deposits were treated as perpetual endowments: the principal stayed with the guild and the interest funded the gift.
Telangana's place in trade. The Godavari towns (Kotilingala, Dhulikatta, Peddabankur) sat between the Paithan–Nasik markets in the west and the Krishna delta ports in the east. Roman coins at Peddabankur (Peddapalli) and Kondapur show that inland Telangana shared in Indo-Roman trade.
Who paid for Buddhism. Donor inscriptions at Deccan stupas name merchants, guild members, monks, nuns and women far more often than kings. Buddhism grew as a religion of trade towns.
Phanigiri today. Excavations by the Telangana Department of Heritage continue. In April 2024 it reported a hoard of 3,730 lead coins of the Ikshvaku period (elephant on one side, Ujjain symbol on the other) at Phanigiri; the site's Ikshvaku inscription is covered in TGH-AN-04.
Prakrit to Sanskrit. Satavahana inscriptions are Prakrit; Sanskrit grows in learned circles (Katantra, Nagarjuna). The full shift in inscriptions comes later, under the Ikshvakus (Ehuvala Chamtamula) and Vishnukundins.
Statement-level points.
- Paisachi = Brihatkatha; Maharashtri = Gatha Saptashati.
- Muchalinda carving = Dhulikatta; snake-hood hill = Phanigiri; bronze Buddha = Nelakondapalli.
- Kondapur's "mint" label comes from coin moulds, not from an inscription.

Mains writing Mains writing

Frame: The Satavahana age was Telangana's first urban phase: farming surpluses, guilds and Roman trade built towns, and Buddhism and Prakrit culture spread along the trade routes.
Points to use:
- Agrarian base and land grants (beginnings of Brahmin and monastic landholding).
- Guild economy and money (karshapana, suvarna; interest-bearing deposits).
- Telangana towns as trade nodes (Kotilingala, Dhulikatta, Peddabankur, Kondapur).
- Religious pluralism: Vedic kings, Buddhist queens and merchants, Jain centres.
- Cultural legacy: Amaravati-style art at Phanigiri and Dhulikatta; Prakrit literature; early Telugu words.
Way forward / heritage: protect stupas from encroachment, a Buddhist circuit (Phanigiri, Nelakondapalli, Dhulikatta, Kotilingala), site museums and digital catalogues of coins.
Model opening line: "The coins, guild records and stupas of the Satavahana age show a Telangana that was already part of a trade network reaching Rome."

Medha AI writes its own notes and checks them against the sources listed. Medha AI is an independent preparation service. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to APPSC, TGPSC (formerly TSPSC), MPSC, UPSC or any other commission or government body.

10.1.3 Satavahana economy, society, Buddhism, art and language

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