History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c10.34

c10.34

The only class of evidence available to us to write an account of the Vishṇukuṇḍins is the inscriptional one. About four records have been discovered. These include the Rāmatīrtham, Chikkula and Pulimboru grants all of which were discovered only in comparatively recent years. The first two of these have been critically edited in the volumes of *Epigraphia Indica*. According to these records, Mādhava I was succeeded on the throne by his son Vikramēndravarman I, then by Indrabhaṭṭārakavarman and Vikramēndravarman II. The last mentioned record takes the line still further and mentions the names of Vikramēndra, Govindavarman, and Madhavavarman II. Practically nothing is known of the first two sovereigns—Madhava I and Vikramēndravarman I. The Rāmatīrtham plates ² help us to know that Indrabhaṭṭārakavarman must have ruled at least for a period of thirty-seven years as these plates were recorded in that year. This document consists of three copper-plates from Rāmatīrtham written in Sanskrit prose, and record the fact that Indravarman granted to a certain Brahman the village of Peruvāḍaka in Plaki-Rāshṭra (l. 6). The record also mentions that Mādhavarman performed eleven horse-sacrifices, and hundreds of other sacrifices. Then after mentioning that Vikramēndra was an ornament of both the families, the Vākāṭakas and the Vishṇukuṇḍins, the record states the important fact that Indravarman encountered ‘ in hundred-thousands of battles numerous four-tusked elephants ’ (l. 5) a probable allusion to the fact that this king spent the major part of his reign in fighting with his enemies.³