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The early and the great Pallavas - Part 1
1.0 introduction
The Pallava dynasty ruled regions of northern Tamil Nadu and southern Andhra Pradesh between the 2nd and 9th centuries CE. The Pallavas were originally the feudatories of the Satvahana empire and gained prominence after their eclipse. A number of legends are associated with the origin of the Pallavas. The Pallavas find no mention as rulers of Tamil regions during the period when the Three Crowned Kings namely, the Cholas, Cheras and Pandyas, warred against each other and sought control of Chola Nadu, Chera Nadu and Pandya Nadu which made up the ancient Tamil country, Tamilakam. Some details of Pallava kings are found in the Sangam Period classics Ahananuru, Manimekhalai and Perumbanarruppatai. It is generally believed by many experts that the Pallavas were Kurumbar/Kurubas.
Traditionally Kanchi is considered to be the homeland of Pallavas. Tamil literature relates the story of Chola King Killivalavan who moved his capital to Uraiyar after the destruction of the Chola capital of Puhar. Mudaliyar C. Rasanayagam of Colombo claims that Killi Valavan had a liaison with the daughter of Naga king Valaivanam of Manipallavanam (in Jaffna peninsula) in Ceylon. From this union was born a child who was named Tondaiman Ilantirayan whom his father, Killi Valavan, made the ruler of a territory which was named Tondamandalam with capital at Kanchi. It is pointed out that name Pallava derives from the last syllable of Manipallavanam.
The origin of the Pallavas is shrouded in controversy. Various theories speculate the Pallavas as having Tamil, Sri Lankan, Telugu and Persian origins. Some historians have concluded that the Pallavas were Kshatriyas of the Vakataka dynasty of the North.
2.0 POLITICAL HISTORY
There are two distinct phases of the dynasty of the Pallavas.
- Those who ruled before AD 600, and
- Those that came after 600 AD.
The former could be called the early Pallavas and the latter the Imperial Pallavas.
The earlier among the early Pallavas could be further divided into those who issued the Prakrit charters and those who issued the Sanskrit charters. In fact there are only three rulers who are known to us to be connected with the Prakrit charters.
The first ruler clearly mentioned is Sivaskandavarman (Skandavarman). Some inscritpions mention him as Yuvaraja which suggests that his father - whose name is not known to us - was also a ruler.
A Prakrit stone inscription from the Guntur district mentions a Simhavaraman who is speculated to be the father of Sivaskandavarman. Sivaskandavarman had a son Buddhavarman, who had a son called Buddhyankura born to the queen Charudevi. Charudevi's grant in Prakrit, a gift to temples, mentions the early Pallava rulers beginning with one Bappa, whihc however may also mean ‘father’.
A study of the Pallava charters, the Mayidavolu copper plate (Gunter district: present day Andhra Pradesh) grant and the Hirahadagalli copper plate grant both issued by Sivaskandavarman from Kanchi indicate the very early Pallava contact with Kanchi. Sivaskandavarman assumed the title of Dharma Maharaja and performed the Asvamedha and other Vedic sacrifices. Vijayaskandavarman known to us from the British Museum plates was not perhaps the same as Sivaskandavarman who issued the above-mentioned copper plates.
Based on this evidence two lines of rulers emerge. One is Sivaskandavarman, son of Simhavarman and the other is Buddhyankura, son of one Budhavarman, descendant of one Bappa.
3.0 THE PALLAVA GRANTHA
The Pallava script was developed in southern India during the Pallava dynasty, (ca. 3rd-5th century AD) and is the source of the script of the south indian languages.The Pallava script was based on the Brahmi script and consists of a matched set of symbols for consonants, as well as ways to write consonant clusters.At first the script was used to write Sanskrit, varieties of Prakrit, including Pali, and a number of other languages. Later it became popular for religious and politcal inscriptions on stone monuments and for 500 years it was used in this way, with alterations and adaptations, to write most of the languages of Southeast Asia.
Other scripts whihc owe their origin to or were influenced by Pallava, including Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Sinhala, Burmese, Khmer, Lanna, Thai, Lao, Cham, Javanese, Balinese, Buginese and Sundanese.
The script is also known as Southern Gupta Brahmi, proto-Kannada, Tamil Grantham, and by a number of other names.
So although the emerging script has also been called proto-Telugu, proto-Kannada, Kadamba, a form of Grantha, or simply Southern Brahmi, it seems certain that during the reign of the Pallava kings, the script in question accompanied priests, monks, scholars and traders into SE Asia, and etched itself proudly into stone as the earliest relics of writing there. This South Indian east-coast region was surely a major conduit for the Vedic and Buddhist influences being firmly established in the kingdoms and cultures further east. There was even a king of the Pallava lineage (Kadavesa Harivarma) ruling Kambujadesa (modern day Cambodia and Vietnam) in the 8th century.
But already many features which identify the Pallava script were visible in the writing systems of earlier and nearby dynasties. In particular, the Chalukya Empire of Karnataka and Central India (to the west and northwest) and the more local Kadamba dynasty (Canarese) within that, centered at Banavasi; and the Vengi region to the north, at the time of the Andhra Ikshvakus. Regions to the south and southwest of Pallava territory appear to have taken the Brahmi design in a slightly different direction: the Chola, Pandya and Chera dynasties of what is now Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
The exemplary feature of Pallava (as we may call the representative script) has two related aspects. It is among the very first significant developments of Brahmi in India; and still being an inscribed form, it takes care in combining both rounded and rectangular strokes, and adding typographical effects such as notches (to signify the 'head' or attachment point) and space-filling tails. This made Pallava eminently suitable for civic and religious inscriptions, still having a monumental feel like the long-respected northern imperial Brahmi, yet more decorative.
In India, the basic Kadamba-Pallava script evolved almost directly into early forms of both the Kannada and Telugu scripts. There is some similarity with early forms of Grantha and Tamil, but these already have many different consonant bases. The later advent of relatively rapid writing upon leaves and paper allowed the glyphs become more rounded and incorporate and the script incorporated a lot of loops.
Pallava traders and travelers introduced their writing to Southeast Asia, and it was by all accounts much admired, appreciated and emulated. Earliest exported texts are in Sanskrit and Pali, but soon local languages adopted forms of the script. This style of writing with some modifications is followed in:
- Pyu (Burma)
- Mon - Burmese
- Kawi - Javanese, Balinese, Sundanese, Buginese and others (Indonesia, Philippines, Borneo)
- Lanna, Tham (Thailand)
- Khom (Thailand)
- Khmer - Cambodian
- Thai and Lao
- Tai Lue and other Tai language scripts (Burma, South China, Thailand, Vietnam)
- Cham (Vietnam)
4.0 THE GREAT PALLAVAS
Towards the close of the 6th century, the Pallava Simhavishnu stuck a blow against the Kalabhras. The Pandyas followed suit. Thereafter the Tamil country was divided between the Pallavas in the north with Kanchipuram as their capital, and Pandyas in the south with Madurai as their capital.
Simhavishnu was also known as Avanisimha. A sculptural representation of this war-like king, attended by his two queens is found in bas-relief in the northern niche of a cave temple, known as the Adivaraha Mandapa at Mahabalipuram.
His son and successor, Mahendravarman II (600-630 A.D.) was the most remarkable of the Pallavas monarch. An ardent Jaina in his earlier life, he was later persuaded by one Appar, a Saiva saint, to worship Shiva.
He was contemporary of Harshavardhana and was also a dramatist, musician and poet of same standing. He was the author of a play, Mattaritasa-Prahasana (The Delight of the Drunkards) and was also associated with the so-called 'musical inscription' at Pudukkottai.
His various birudas such as Mattavilasas, Gunabhara, Vichitra-chitta, Lattankura and the like, seem to allude to those accomplishments. He introduced the cave style of architecture. Mahendravarman-I suffered severe defeats at the hands of Chalukya Pulakesin - II. The territory of Vengi was lost to Pulakesin who sent his brother, Vishnuvardhana, there to start the line of the Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi.
After the Kalabhra upheaval the long struggle between the Pallavas and Chalukyas of Badami for supremacy in peninsular India began. Both tried to establish control over the Krishna-Tungabhadra doab.
Narasimhavarman I, surnamed Mahamalla (630-660 A.D.), the son and successor of Mahendravarma I is considered the greatest of the Pallava rulers. He is credited with repelling the second invasion of Pulakesin II, killing him and capturing the Chalukyan capital Vatapi and won thereby the title of Vatapikonda (conqueror of Vatapi).
It was possibly in his struggle with Pulakesin II that he received aid from the Simhalese Prince Mana-Vamma whom he afterwards assisted in securing the crown of Ceylon. Hiuen Tsang visited Kanchi about the year 642 A.D. during the reign of Narasimhavarman I. He was an ardent lover of art and consecrated cave-temples at different places such as Trichinopoly and Pudukkotai. His name is, however, best known in connection with the so-called Rathas of Mahabalipuram. The original name of the place, Mahamallapura commemorates its royal founder, Mahamalla, i.e., Narasimhavarman I.
Mahendravarman II (668-670 A. D.) ruled for a very short period, since he was killed by Vikramaditya I, the Chalukya king. The Pallava power began to dwindle during the reign of Narasimhavarman's grandson Parameshwaravarman I (670-680 A.D.)
He lost his capital (Kanchi) to the Chalukya prince Vikramaditya I, but seems to have recovered it soon. The reign of his son and successor Narasimhavarman II (680-720 A.D.) is marked by peace and prosperity. He is also known as Rajasimha. Besides the well known Kailasanatha temple at Kanchi, he built the Shore temple at Mahamallapura. He is also said to have sent embassies to China, and maritime trade flourished during his reign.
Parameshwaravarman II (728-731 A.D.), the next king faced the combined attack of Chalukyas and the Gangas in which he was killed. As there being no direct heir to the throne, the council of ministers appointed a member of the collateral branch of the family (descendent of Bhimavarman, a younger brother of Simhavishnu) who reigned as Nandivarman II (731-795 A.D.).
The Chalukya king, Vikramaditya II again invaded and captured the Pallava capital during his reign but withdrew from Kanchi without destroying it. He constructured the Vaikuntaperumal temple at Kanchi.
Ultimately, the conflict between Pallavas and Chalukyas resumed in the first half of the 8th century with multiple Pallava setbacks. The Chalukyas overrun them completely in 740 CE, ending the Pallava supremacy in South India
5.0 SALIENT FEATURES OF THE PALLAVAS
The royal custom of using a series of descriptive honorific titles, birudas, was particularly prevalent among the Pallavas. The birudas of Mahendravarman I are in Sanskrit, Tamil and Telugu. The Telugu birudas show Mahendravarman's involvement with the Andhra region continued to be strong at the time he was creating his cave-temples in the Tamil region. The suffix "Malla" was used by the Pallava rulers. Mahendravarman I used the biruda, Satrumalla, "a warrior who overthrows his enemies", and his grandson Paramesvara I was called Ekamalla "the sole warrior or wrestler". Pallavas kings, persumably exalted ones, were known by their title, Mahamalla or the "great wrestler".
All the early Pallava royal inscriptions are either in Prakrit or in Sanskrit language, considered the official languages of the dynasty while the official script was Pallava grantha. Similarly, inscriptions found in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka State are in Prakrit and not in Telugu or Kannada. The phenomenon of using Prakrit and Sanskrit as official languages in which rulers left their inscriptions and epigraphies continued till the 6th century CE. It would have been in the interest of the ruling elite to protect their privileges by perpetuating their hegemony of Prakrit in order to exclude the common people from sharing power (Mahadevan 1995a: 173-188). The Pallavas in their Tamil country also adopted the same method. They used Sanskrit language and Pallava grantha scripts in their official orders.
The earliest copper-plate muniment (legal document) so far discovered in India, is by the Pallavas at an early undated time. This document was the renewal of a previous grant of a garden made by an earlier king Bappa, to twenty Brahman families of the Atreya, Harita, Bhradvaja, Kausika, Kasyapa, and Vatsya gotras, who were settled in Southern India around the date of this grant. The grant mentions certain specified shares for the Brahmans, and free from all taxes ; to which was now added a new grant of a piece of land in a neighbouring village for a threshing-floor, and of another piece for house-sites, together also with four cultivating labourers, and two other agricultural serfs attached to the soil. This endowment was created for the increase of the merit, longevity, power, and fame of the donor's family and race.
The grant was issued from Kanchipura, and it was dated on the fifth day of the sixth fortnight of the rainy season in the eight year of the donor's reign. The grant was made by the Pallava king Sivaskanda-varman, who is mentioned as a member of the spiritual guild of rishi Bharadvaja, and an offerer of the Agnishtoma, Vajapeya, and Asvamedha vedic sacrifices.
Pallava power was well established at the time when Sivaskanda-varman is styled " supreme king of great kings," a title which implies paramount authority over other rulers subject to him ; and the circumstance of his having offered the horse-sacrifice, which indicates his own personal appreciation of his great power. His predecessor, immediate or otherwise, King Bappa, was wealthy enough to make donations to Brahmans of a 1,00,000 Ox ploughs, whatever the multiple of exaggeration may be, and many millions of gold coin.
5.1 Administration
The Pallava king was assisted in his government by “ministers" of state and "privy councillors"; and his throne was surrounded by "royal princess." As can be ascertained from the terms of Professor Buhler's translation, they embraced "countries" governed by "prefects" distributed into "provinces" administered by their "lords," and subdivided into "districts" under the superintendence of their "rulers". Their fiscal arrangements included "custom houses" and "officers" of customs, and "spies" or itinerant superintendents of revenue. They had also some kind of forest department with its staff of "foresters." They maintained a standing army, the brigades of which were commanded by "generals" and its minor groups of rank and file had their non-commissioned officers or "naicks".
Their village lands were occupied by ryots who paid "eighteen kinds" of contributions to the crown, partly in kind and partly in money ("taxes"). Amongst those which were paid in kind were "sweet and sour milk", "grass and wood" and "vegetables and flowers". They had to plough the crown (state) lands by turns with their "oxen in succession," and it was a part of their obligation to keep the roads and irrigation works in repair by a system of "forced labour". Salt and sugar were royal monopolies; and these not infrequently involved the ryots in "troubles".
The crown had the power to confer grants of land for religious uses, for "the increase of the merit, longevity, power, and fame of his own family and race, and to exempt the grantees and their grant-lands from the payment of the customary taxes. When such land-grants were made, the agricultural "labourers," and the "kolikas" or village staff, were transferred with the land. These "labourers" received for their remuneration "half the produce," according to the system of varam
Pallava royal lineages were established in the old kingdom of Kedah of the Malay Peninsula under Rudravarman I, Chenla under Bhavavarman I, Champa under Bhadravarman I and the Kaundinya-Gunavarman line of the Funan in Cambodia, eventually their rule growing to form the Khmer Empire. These dynasties' unique Dravidian architectural style was introduced to build Angor Wat while Tamil cultural norms spread across the continent, their surviving epigraphic inscriptions recording domestic societal life and their pivotal role in Asian trade routes.
Direct extensive contacts with these regions were maintained from the maritime commerce city Mamallapuram, where Mahendravarman I and his son "Mahamalla" Narasimhavarman I built the Shore Temple of the Seven Pagodas of Mahabalipuram.
5.2 Religion
Pallavas were followers of Hinduism and made gifts of land to gods and Brahmins. In line with the prevalent customs, some of the rulers performed the Aswamedha and other Vedic sacrifices. They were, however, tolerant of other faiths. The Chinese monk Xuanzang who visited Kanchipuram during the reign of Narasimhavarman I reported that there were 100 Buddhist monasteries, and 80 temples in Kanchipuram.
Mahendravarman I was initially a patron of the Jain faith. He later converted to Hinduism under the influence of the Shaiva saint Appar with the revival of Hinduism during the Bhakti movement in South India.
The Pallavas were instrumental in the transition from rock-cut architecture to stone temples. The earliest examples of Pallava constructions are rock-cut temples dating from 610-690 CE and structural temples between 690-900 CE. A number of rock-cut cave temples bear the inscription of the Pallava king, Mahendravarman I and his successors.
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