DYNASTIC HISTORY 31 CHAPTER ONE DYNASTIC HISTORY A fundamental problem for the historical study of the Amarāvatī stūpa is the uncertainty of its chronological framework. One important reason for this problem is that the Amarāvatī inscriptions do not record any dates, but include inscriptions that mention the names of two Sātavāhana kings. Former studies have thus argued eagerly over the chronology of this dy- nasty in order to fix the date of the stūpa, although they have reached little agreement. Moreover, concentrating as it does on the Sātavāhanas, this debate has largely ignored other political formations in this region. The environmental setting of the Amarāvatī region, which may have crucially affected the way of life of pre-modern society, also went unnoticed. To compensate for these deficiencies, this chapter will firstly examine the geographical setting of the coastal Andhra region in south-eastern Deccan, especially the lower Krishna valley that includes Amarāvatī. Secondly, I will examine the broad political history of this region by com- bining the latest archaeological, numismatic and epigraphic surveys. Finally, I will suggest a reasonable dating for the dynastic sequence to establish a chronological framework. I. The Pre-Historic and Geographical Setting 1. The Lower Krishna Valley The lower Krishna valley, the main geographical area of this study, is lo- cated on the southern side of coastal Andhra. Its modern administrative divisions mainly cover the Guntur, Krishna and Nalgonda districts. The valley is distinguished by two basic geographical features: (1) the Krishna river running from west to east; (2) the Eastern Ghāts Mountains (Nallamalai range) extending from south to north along the coast (Map 2). The Krishna, originating in the Western Ghāts Mountains and running across the Deccan, creates fertile deltas in the coastal area before discharging into the Bay of Bengal. The Eastern Ghāts, on the other hand, serve as a geographical bar- rier dividing the coastal plain and the Deccan plateau. 32 CHAPTER ONE Map 2. Contours of the lower Krishna valley and surroundings..