Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/226

 188 THE SUNGA, KANVA, AND ANDHRA DYNASTIES included thirty walled towns, besides numerous villages, and the army consisted of one hundred thousand in- fantry, two thousand cavalry, and one thousand ele- phants. The capital of the state was then Sri Kakulam, on the lower course of the Krishna. The nation thus described was evidently independ- ent, and it is not known at what time, in the reign either of Chandragupta or Bindusara, the Andhras were compelled to submit to the irresistible forces at the command of the Maurya kings and recognize the suze- rainty of Magadha. When next heard of in Asoka's edicts (256 B.C.), they were enrolled among the tribes resident in the outer circle of the empire, subject to the imperial com- mands, but doubtless enjoying a considerable degree of autonomy under their own raja. The withdrawal of the strong arm of Asoka was the signal for the dis- ruption of his vast empire. While the home prov- inces continued to obey his feeble successors upon the throne of Pataliputra, the distant governments shook off the imperial yoke and re-asserted their independ- ence. The Andhras were not slow to take advantage of the opportunity given by the death of the great em- peror, and, very soon after the close of his reign, set up as an independent power under the government of a king named Simuka. The new dynasty extended its sway with such extraordinary rapidity that, in the reign of the second king, Krishna (Kanha), the town of Nasik, near the source of the Godavari in the West-