The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s11.388

Language: English

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The information given by the Kûram grant has now been amplified by a copper-plate grant from Kaśâkûḍi, near Karikal, in the Tanjore District, Madras Presidency.¹ This record repeats the Purâṇic genealogy which has been mentioned on page 317 above; and, after the eponymous Pallava, it places an Aśôkavarman, who, as Dr. Hultzsch remarks, "can scarcely be considered a historical person, but appears to be a modification of the Buddhist king Aśôka." After him, it says, there ruled and passed away a number of other Pallava kings, of whom it names Skandavarman, Kalindavarman, Kânagôpa, Vishṇugôpa, Vîra-Kûrcha, Vîrasimha, Simhavarman, and Vishṇusimha: some of these names have already occurred in the preceding pages; but the present mention of them does not help to settle the relative order of the charters from which they have come to light: it would appear that, when the present record was drawn up, the names of these previous kings were remembered, but nothing definite was known about them, and that the order of their succession, and their relation to each other and to the subsequent line of kings mentioned in the record, had been forgotten. In the connected line of kings, the record first mentions Simhavishṇu, apparently known also as Avanisimha, who, it says, defeated the Malaya, Kaḷabhra, Mâlava, Chôḷa, Pâṇḍya, Simhaḷa, and Kêraḷa kings.

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His successor was Mahêndravarman I., who annihilated his "chief enemies" at Puḷalûra: we may safely take these words as denoting the Western Chalukyas of Bâdâmi; and, since Puḷalûra is the name of a village in the Conjeeveram tâluka, the Chalukya army had evidently penetrated very far into the, Pallava dominions, and the asserted repulse of it is probably to be placed in the campaign in which Pulikêśin II. claims to have made the leader of the Pallavas take refuge behind the ramparts of Kâñchî, about A. D. 609. His son was Narasimhavarman I., who conquered Laṅkâ, i.e. Ceylon, and Vâtâpi. The Kûram grant has already mentioned the "destruction" of Vâtâpi by Narasimhavarman I., and has supplied the name of the Western Chalukya king in whose time (at the end of his reign) the invasion took place, viz. Pulikêśin II. And Dr. Hultzsch tells us that the statement about the conquest of Ceylon is confirmed by the Mahâvaṃsa, from which we learn that the Singhalese prince Mânavarman lived at the court of Narasimhavarman I., and helped him to crush his enemy king Vallabha, i.e. Pulikêśin II.;— that the grateful Narasimhavarman twice supplied Mânavarman with an army to invade Ceylon,— and that Mânavarman was successful on the second occasion, and then occupied and reigned over Ceylon. Narasimhavarman's son was Mahêndravarman II. Then there came Paramêśvarapôtavarman I., i.e. Paramêśvaravarman I. of the Kûram grant.³ His son was Narasimhavarman II.

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His son was Paramêś- varapôtavarman II., *i.e.* Paramêśvaravarman II. of the Kûram grant; further on in this record, he is called Paramêśvarapôtarâja. The record then tells us that, at the time when it was drawn up, the kingdom of Paramêśvaravarman II. was ruled by a certain Nandin, Nandivarman, or Nandipôtarâja, who had been "chosen by the subjects." And it exhibits this king's descent, and his relationship with Paramêśvaravarman II., as follows. The younger brother of the Simhavishṇu mentioned above, was Bhîmavarman. Then came¹ Buddhavarman. Then, Âdityavarman. Then, Gôvindavarman. Then, Hiraṇya, whose full name may safely be taken to have been Hiraṇyavarman, and whose wife was Rôhiṇî.² And their son was Nandivarman, to whom the record gives the birudas or secondary names of Kshatriyamalla, Pallavamalla, and Śrîdhara, and the paramount titles of *Mahârâja*, *Râjâdhirâja*, and *Paramêśvara*,³ and whom it further describes as a devotee of the god Vishnu. The record finally registers the fact that, at the request of his *Mukhyamantrin* or prime minister Brahmaśrîrâja or Brahmayuvarâja, Nandivarman, in the twenty-second year of his reign,⁴ granted to a Brâhmaṇ a village named Koḍukolli, which, on thus becoming a *brahmadêya*, received the new name of Êkadhîramangala, situated in Urrukkâṭṭukkôṭṭa or, in Sanskrit, Undivanakôshṭhaka, which was a subdivision of the Toṇḍâka *râshṭra*, and, by its modern name Urrukkâḍu, is to be placed closely in the neighbourhood of Conjeeveram.