Pallava Architecture, Part I (MASI 17) c2.6

c2.6

During the last few years, a considerable amount of material relating to the above subject has been collected and published in the various epigraphical journals and official reports but being scattered through a number of different publications the information recorded is not readily accessible to the educated public. The late Rai Bahadur V. Venkayya of the Archæological Survey of India, and Mr. G. Jouveau-Dubreuil, Professor of the Pondicherry College, have done more than any other scholars to work out a plausible history of this elusive dynasty, and the brief historical account given here is taken mainly from Mr. Venkayya's article on The Pallavas, appearing in the Annual Report of the Archæological Survey of India for 1906-07, and from Mr. Jouveau-Dubreuil's two recently published little books—The Pallavas and Pallava Antiquities. Mr. Jouveau-Dubreuil has been, perhaps, rather more successful than previous scholars in collecting material for this interesting subject, because he is the first epigraphist in India to realize the importance of studying the architecture of a monument as well as its inscriptions. His original researches in this direction are most valuable and throw quite a new light on the manner in which inscriptions should be studied in future.