History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c11.s1.7

c11.s1.7

The only Tamil historical piece, as distinguished from religious works of which as we said, there is a large quantity that has come down to us from Pallava times, is the poetical work entitled *Nandikkalambakam*, which in a hundred and ten stanzas commemorates the martial exploits of a certain Pallava king Nandi, probably Nandivarman III. This king, as we shall see, lived in the second quarter of the ninth century. The meagreness of purely Tamil literary enterprise, if we except the *Tēvāram* and *Vaishṇava Prabandham*, probably indicate that the Pallava kings were essentially patrons of Sanskrit learning and Brahmanic culture. The bulk of Tamil literature known as the *Śangam* works preceded, as we stated above, the advent of the Pallava kings of Kāñchīpuram.