The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s11.400

c8.s11.400

about A. D. 935); and the characters of the whole record,—both of the original portion, and of the endorsement,—are considerably more modern, not only than those of other Pallava records, but also than those of two other copper-plate grants of Parântaka I. himself. This fact created a suspicion of forgery. But the final conclusion appears to be,¹ that, in this instance, there is nothing of a spurious nature, and that the grant and its endorsement were copied from a now lost, but genuine, original. And, this view of the case being taken, there is no objection to endorse, as authentic, certain further items of information which this record supplies, in addition to repeating, in slightly different terms, some of the statements made in the Kûram and Kasâkûdi records. Narasimhavarman I., it says, in addition to destroying Vâtâpi, repeatedly defeated the vallabha-king, or king Vallabha, i. e. Pulikêśin II., at Pariyala, Manimangala, Sûramâra, and other places. Paramêśvaravarman I. defeated the vallabha-army, or the army of Vallabha, i. e. of Pulikêśin’s son Vikramâditya I., in the battle of Peruvalanallûr. And Narasimhavarman II. was a paramamâhêśvara or most devout worshipper of the god Muhêśvara (Siva). This record represents Pallavamalla-Nandivarman as the son of Paramêśvaravarman II., which appears, at first sight, calculated to induce us to stamp the record as a forgery: the Kasâkûdi grant, however, describes Nandivarman as “chosen by the subjects;” and Dr. Hultzsch has suggested two possible explanations of the statement in the present record,—either that Nandivarman may have thought it politic to give himself as the adopted son of his predecessor; or that, through sheer carelessness, the scribe, who drafted the inscription, used the word putra, ‘son,’ while he wanted to represent Nandivarman only as a successor, and not as the son, of Paramêśvaravarman II. The record then mentions a military officer of Nandivarman named Udayachandra, belonging to the family of Pûchân, the members of which were hereditary servants of the Pallavas, and mentioned as lord of the city of Vilvalanagara, on the river Vêgavatî, which Dr. Hultzsch has identified with the modern Villivalam, in the neighbourhood of Conjeeveram, and near the confluence of the Vêgavatî and the Pâlâru. And it then describes various services which Udayachandra rendered to the king. The Dramila princes,—meaning probably some relations and followers of Paramêśvaravarman II. who were opposed to Nandivarman establishing himself on the throne,—had besieged Nandivarman in Nandipura; and Udayachandra came to the rescue, and killed, with his own hand, the Pallava prince Chitramâya and others. He defeated the hostile army on the battle fields of Nimbavana, Chûtavana, Samkaragrâma, Nellûr, Nelvêli, Sûravạundûr, and other places, and thus many times bestowed the kingdom on Nandivarman. At Nelvêli, he also slew in battle the Sabara king Udayana, and seized his mirror-banner embellished with a peacock’s tail. In the northern region, he also pursued and defeated the Nishâda chief Prithivîvyâghra, who was performing an aśvamêdha-sacrifice, and drove him out of the territory of Vishnurâja,—i. e. out of the land of Vengî, the kingdom of the