Q1.
What, according to you, could the tradition of using the mother’s name at the beginning of a king’s name signify?
Answer
It signifies that in Sātavāhana society a mother's family and a mother's own standing were a source of a king's prestige — worth announcing in his official name, on his coins and in his inscriptions.
Take the example the book gives:
Gautamīputra Sātakarṇi = ‘Sātakarṇi, son of Gautamī'
His mother: Gautamī Balaśhrī — a powerful queen who donated land to Buddhist monks and had an important inscription carved at Nāśhik
The coin in Fig. 6.10 reads, in Brahmi: Rāño Gotamiputasa Siri-Sātakaṇisa — ‘King Lord Sātakarṇi, son of Gautamī'
His mother: Gautamī Balaśhrī — a powerful queen who donated land to Buddhist monks and had an important inscription carved at Nāśhik
The coin in Fig. 6.10 reads, in Brahmi: Rāño Gotamiputasa Siri-Sātakaṇisa — ‘King Lord Sātakarṇi, son of Gautamī'
What it can signify:
- Women held real influence. Gautamī Balaśhrī made grants and issued an inscription in her own name — actions of a person with authority, not merely a royal relative.
- The mother's lineage mattered. A prince's claim to the throne was strengthened by naming the family he came from on his mother's side.
- Respect for the mother was a public value, not a private feeling — otherwise it would not be stamped on the coinage.
- It distinguished princes. Several princes of one royal family could share a throne-name like ‘Sātakarṇi'; adding the mother's name told them apart.
Why it is striking: most ancient dynasties named a king after his father. The Sātavāhanas did the opposite — a reminder that Indian society was not uniform, and that different regions worked out different customs about family and inheritance.
Did you know? The Naneghat inscriptions (Fig. 6.9) centre on another Sātavāhana woman — a widow queen who performed several Vedic rituals, including the aśhvamedha yajña, a ritual usually associated with kings.