Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c5.s2.t2.2

c5.s2.t2.2

This alphabet was confined to the old Tŏṇḍaināḍu or Pallava kingdom of Conjeveram¹, and is an offshoot of the early Cera before the full development of the horizontal line at the top of the letters of that alphabet; it is, therefore in origin, very near the Cave character; and the introduction of this alphabet into Tŏṇḍaināḍu is, probably, to be placed about the fourth century. In the second century A. D. (as we know from Ptolemy) this country was inhabited by nomads. In the seventh century Hiouen-Thsang found a small kingdom of which Kańśi (or Conjeveram) was the capital. He calls it Ta-lo-pi-tcha or Draviḍa[^1). The name of the family of kings of which inscriptions occur at Seven Pagodas (Māmalaippuram, the old port of Conjeveram) was Pallava, and they appear to have been formidable enough to have been attacked by the Western Cālukyas about the middle of the seventh century. Still later (about the eighth or ninth century) the country was conquered (according to Ellis) by the Cōḷas who had revived again after a long eclipse.