History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c10.4

c10.4

The Tāḷguṇḍa pillar inscription of Kakutsthavarman gives a glimpse into the circumstances leading to the establishment of the political power of this Brahman dynasty in the Dakkan. This record in graphic language describes how the first member of this dynasty Mayūraśarman, a Brahman belonging to the Mānavyasa-gotra, and a native of Sthāṇukuṇḍūr came to the city of Kāñchīpuram for completing his Vedic studies, how he had a quarrel with a Pallava horseman, and how not bearing to be told that the Brahman caste was inferior to that of the Kshatriyas he put himself at the head of a band of adventurers and attacked the Pallava sovereigns in the inaccessible forests of Śrī-Parvata. Then with the aid of the Bṛihat-Bāṇas and others he founded the Kadamba kingdom of which Banavasi was the capital. The Pallava kings had to admit his claims as a ruling power and had to effect a temporary compromise. Now we must try to find out what was the probable period of Mayūraśarman and who his Pallava contemporary was. As we have already suggested, this dismemberment of the Pallava kingdom must have followed the confusion which resulted from the invasion of Samudragupta about A.D. 340. The Kadamba Prakrit inscription of Maḷavaḷḷi¹ written as it is in Prakrit, though it does not mention the name of the king, may be taken to refer to the most ancient king of the Kadambas presumably Mayūraśarman. In regard to his Pallava contemporary only the vaguest guess can be made. As we have assigned Mayūraśarman to about A.D. 350 his Pallava contemporary must have been either Viṣṇugopa or his immediate successors Vīrakūrcha or Skaṇdavarman I.