History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c13.27

c13.27

Reign of Nandivarman II Pallavamalla, circa A.D. 710 to 775.—Let us first take up the duration of the reign. There is considerable difference of opinion as to the exact period of his reign. Certain scholars, including the officers of the Epigraphical Department¹ do not believe that Nandivarman Pallavamalla had anything like a length of reign indicated by the Taṇḍantōṭṭam and Koṟṟanguḍi plates, and the inscriptions of Tiruvallam and Seven Pagodas all of which they wrongly assigned to Nandivarman III. It will be recollected that the Tiruvallam record is dated is the sixty-second year and that the inscription discovered at the Seven Pagodas² is dated in the sixty-fifth year of Nandivarman. So far as we know this is the longest reign in the Pallava family and this is all the more remarkable because it was followed by another long reign namely that of Dantivarman, one of whose inscriptions is dated in the fifty-first year of his reign,³ the two reigns together covering 116 years. The officers of the Epigraphical Department however have been continuously attributing the high regnal years to Nandivarman III⁴ son of Dantivarman for reasons not altogether convincing or clear. Even in the Epigraphy Report for 1922-23 we come across with the following remarks:—