The s (

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system), based on the ...

:आन्ध्रभृत्य) was an Indian dynasty mentioned in the

Puranas Purana (; sa, , '; literally meaning "ancient, old"Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature (1995 Edition), Article on Puranas, , page 915) is a vast genre of Indian literature about a wide range of topics, particularly about legends an ...

. Lists of Andhrabhrtyas have been mentioned in various Puranas. They are mostly identified with

Satavahanas The Satavahanas (''Sādavāhana'' or ''Sātavāhana'', IAST: ), also referred to as the Andhras in the Puranas, were an ancient Indian dynasty based in the Deccan region. Most modern scholars believe that the Satavahana rule began in the lat ...

which replaced the house of the

Maurya The Maurya Empire, or the Mauryan Empire, was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power in the Indian subcontinent based in Magadha, having been founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 322 BCE, and existing in loose-knit fashion until 1 ...

in the

Deccan The large Deccan Plateau in southern India is located between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, and is loosely defined as the peninsular region between these ranges that is south of the Narmada river. To the north, it is bounded by the ...

about 230 BC, reigning until the end of 3rd century AD. At the height of its power the dynasty succeeded in extending it reign far to the north, possibly right up to the

Magadha Magadha was a region and one of the sixteen sa, script=Latn, Mahajanapadas, label=none, lit=Great Kingdoms of the Second Urbanization (600–200 BCE) in what is now south Bihar (before expansion) at the eastern Ganges Plain. Magadha was rul ...

. The term Andhrabhrtya has been used very ambiguously by some historians, sometimes it is used to mean the Satavahanas and sometimes it is used to mean their feudatories. Yet again certain historians claim that the

Chutus The Chutu dynasty (IAST: Cuṭu) ruled parts of the Deccan region of South India between first and third centuries CE, with its capital at Banavasi in present-day Karnataka state. The Chutus probably rose to power as Satavahanas feudatories, and ...

, who were Nagas, the younger branch of the Imperial Andhras were called Andhrabhrtya. The designation ' or ' is found in the Puranas which represents its founder as or servant of the last king. Sir

R. G. Bhandarkar Sir Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar ( mr, रामकृष्ण गोपाळ भांडारकर) (6 July 1837 – 24 August 1925) was an Indian scholar, orientalist, and social reformer. Early life Ramakrishna Bhandarkar was bo ...

following the

Vishnu Purana The Vishnu Purana ( IAST:, sa, विष्णुपुराण) is one of the eighteen Mahapuranas, a genre of ancient and medieval texts of Hinduism. It is an important Pancharatra text in the Vaishnavism literature corpus. The manusc ...

styles the dynasty founded by

Simuka Simuka ( Dhamma lipi𑀲𑀺𑀫𑀼𑀓, ''Si-mu-ka'') was an Indian king belonging to the Satavahana dynasty. He is mentioned as the first king in a list of royals in a Satavahana inscription at Nanaghat. In the Puranas, the name of the first A ...

as Andhrabhrtya, i.e. Andhras who were once servants. But that designation is also applied to the seven s who are mentioned as the successors of the line of the Simuka.

References

See also