History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c13.s1.14

c13.s1.14

*State of Learning during Nandivarman’s Reign.*—The copper-plates of this and following period give excellent glimpses into the nature of learning during this period as well as of government, etc. The donees enumerated in the Kaśākkuḍi plates and the Taṇḍantōṭṭam plates numbering several hundreds are many of them, if we may judge from their titles, masters of three and four Vedas of the six angas, etc. Of the 244 and odd names that are mentioned in the Taṇḍantōṭṭam plates no less than a hundred were Chaturvēdis, 18 were Shaḍangavids, while there are several Kramavids, Bhaṭṭas and Trivēdis. The accomplishments of an average South Indian Brahman scholar in the field of Sanskrit learning during the eighth century may be gathered from the following description of the donee of the Kasākkuḍi charter dated in the twenty-second year of Nandivarman II's reign the object of which was to register a gift of village to a Brahman scholar whose name was Jyēshṭapada Somayāji. The extract gives some idea of what the average Brahmanical educational curriculum consisted in those times :—