Pallava Architecture, Part I (MASI 17) c2.9

c2.9

Referring to two Pallava copper-plate grants in the *Epigraphia Indica, Volume XV*, page 246, Mr. Krishna Sastri tells us that :—" Three, and sometimes even four, distinct periods of Pallava history are recognized, the earliest covering roughly two centuries, viz., the 3rd and the 4th and the next roughly the 5th and part of the 6th century A. D. The third or rather the third and fourth periods together, extended from the latter part of the 6th down to almost the end of the 9th century A. D., when the kingdom proper of the Pallavas, viz., the Tonda-mandalam was conquered by the Chōlas of Tanjore. The continuity of the line during these several periods has not been clearly established. The rulers of the last dynasty of Pallavas down from the time of Simhavishnu were distinguished as the first builders of lithic monuments in Southern India, the bitter opponents of the progress of the Western Chālukyas of Bādāmi in the south, and the establishers of Pallava power in the heart of the Chōla country. These facts have been practically settled and have been derived from their own copper-plates, the copper-plate records of the contemporaneous Western Chālukyas and the Pallava stone inscriptions found pretty largely in Southern India." The earliest copper-plate records of the Pallava kings are in the Prākrit language and have been assigned to a period not much later than those of the Āndhras of the 2nd and 3rd centuries of the Christian era. These are :—(1) The Mayidavōlu plates of Siva-Skandavarman, (2) The Hirehadagalli plates of the same king, and (3) the British Museum plates of Chārudēvī. The earliest record of these early Pallavas is that of Siva-Skandavarman, issued while the latter was yet a crown-prince, and is dated from his capital at Kānchī, now the modern town of Conjeeveram in the Chingelput district, and is addressed to his Viceroy at Dhannakada (Amarāvatī) in the Āndhra country. The next is a record of the same king after his accession to the throne and is also dated from Conjeeveram. It refers to the grant of a village in Sātāhani-Rattha, a territorial division located in the Bellary district. The mention of this territory in this record of about the 3rd century and of Sātavaghani-hara in an Āndhra record of the 2nd century A. D., recently discovered in the Bellary district, not only indicates the possible identification of the two territorial divisions, but infers the political succession of the Āndhras by the Pallavas of Kānchī. The British Museum plates belong to the same early period and is a record of queen Chārudēvī, the wife of the crown-prince Vijaya-Buddhavarman and mother of Buddhyankura. It comes from the Guntur district and is dated in the reign of Vijaya-Skandavarman, who was evidently the grand-father of prince Buddhyankura and the ruling sovereign at the time of the grant. The record does not inform us of the relationship between Vijaya-Skandavarman and Siva-Skandavarman. These three ancient Prākrit grants show that there was a time when the court language in Southern India was Prākrit, also that the Pallavas were the political successors of the Āndhras and had their capital at Conjeeveram and that their kingdom at that period roughly included the Tonda-mandalam and the Āndhra country right up to the river Krishnā, including the Bellary district in the west.