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History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c15.s1: Literature During the Pallava Age

History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c15.s1

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English

Literature During the Pallava Age

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² Kūram plates ; *S. I. I.*, vol. i, p. 153.

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Kāñchīpuraka, possibly because it was famous for Sanskrit learning even then. Even in the Sangam age it will be remembered that Aravana Adigal taught Buddhistic philosophy at this place and at a subsequent period Dignāga the logician who is believed to have been the author of Nyāyapravēśa spent considerable time at Kāñchī and was perhaps a product of mediæval Pallava culture. Later, Mayūra Śarman, the progenitor of the Kadamba family, had to proceed to this place for the completion of the Vedic studies. It is not surprising therefore that Simhavishṇu about the close of the sixth century when he heard of Bhāravi staying with Durvinīta, the Western Ganga king, invited him to his court according to the Avantisundarikathāsāra.¹ It is by no means unlikely that Kirtārjunīya the well-known work of this poet was composed about this period.

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¹ See App. Avantisundarikathāsāra.

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Of Mahēndravarman I, the illustrious son and successor of Simhavishṇu, more is known. His great command of Sanskrit is fully seen in his work Mattavilāsa Prahasana which has survived to our times. This has already been noticed while dealing with this king in an earlier chapter. The great musical inscription at Kuḍumiyāmalai about the same period, as well as the beautiful Sanskrit compositions at the Trichinopoly rock-cut temple and elsewhere are also indicative of the refined taste for Sanskrit composition at this period. It was during the reign of one of his successors that Daṇḍin, the celebrated savant, spent considerable time in the Pallava court, even paying a visit to the wonderful sculptures of Mahāmallapuram. It is not improbable that this was towards the close of the seventh century A.D. The Avantisundarikathāsāra contains interesting details of an earlier sojourn of Daṇḍin in the south, while quite young, when Kāñchīpuram was in the throes of foreign invasion and siege by the Chāḷukyas, when the citizens of the place had to desert the city temporarily. Daṇḍin returned to Kāñchī long after and in all probability flourished for long at the Pallava court. Mātṛidatta, a poet and scholar and Rāma Śarman, also figure among the friends of Daṇḍin and were perhaps associated with him at Kāñchīpuram. The names of Sanskrit poets at the Pallava court during this period other than these are not known. It is held by some scholars that the Sanskrit plays published recently in Trivandrum as Bhāsa’s were abridgements made during this period of earlier works of Bhāsa and Śūdraka for being staged at the Pallava court. It has been suggested by Mr. L. D. Barnett that these are the works of an anonymous author in the court of the Pāṇḍyan King Rājasimha.¹ But as we have got evidence that the Pallava court was the great centre of Sanskrit learning during this period it seems to be more correct to regard that the dramas referred to above were intended to be staged at the Pallava court as is evident from the colophons of some of these plays.² It has been presumed also that the work was composed at Kāñchī from the occurrence of the name of Dantivarman in the manuscripts of Mudrā-rākshasa found in Malabar in the last benedictory verses.

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¹ J.R.A.S. for 1919, p. 233.

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² इमां सागरपर्यन्तां हिमवद्विन्ध्यकुण्डलाम् । पृथ्वोमेकातपत्रङ्कां राजसिंहः प्रशास्तुनः ॥

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The Tēvāram and the Nalāyira Prabandham hymns were also produced during the age of the Pallava monarchs. We have already seen that Appar, the first of the Tēvāram hymnists was the well-known contemporary of Mahēndravarman I who was converted to Śaivism by him. His hymns in the Tēvāram collection number over 3000 and are full of Sanskrit expressions and Brahmanical culture and tradition. Tiruñāna-Sambandar was his younger contemporary and flourished during the reign of Narasimhavarman I. During his period Śaivism was very much in the ascendant and Śiva temples were very numerous in South India. According to the Periyapurāṇam account he is said to have succeeded in converting Neḍumāṛan the contemporary Pāṇḍyan King to Śaivism after a successful disputation with the Śamaṇas who were very powerful at this period at Madura. His poems in the *Tēvāram* number nearly 4000. Sundarar the last of the sixty-three Śaiva saints appears to have lived in the ninth century and mentions Appar and Sambandar who preceded him. His *Tiruttoṇḍatokai* was the basis on which Nambiyāṇḍār Nambi composed his *Aṇdādi* and these two formed the main sources of Śekkilār for writing the *Periyapurāṇam*. Sundarar's hymns amount to eleven hundreds nearly in the *Tēvāram*.

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About the age of Māṇikkavāśagar the well-known author of *Tiruvāśakam* and *Tirukkovai*, there exists some doubt. According to some Tamil scholars he preceded the three *Tēvāram* hymnists. But as he clearly refers to the Pandyan King Varaguṇa in his works there cannot be any doubt that he flourished in the earlier half of the ninth century. His *Tiruvāśakam* is a very popular work and celebrates Śiva's miracles in a simple and attractive style. His activities were confined to Chidambaram and its adjoining places and he does not appear to have come into active contact with the Pallavas.

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Of the twelve Vaiṣṇava saints known as the Āḻvārs some of whom flourished during the Pallava age the first four—Pēyāḻvār, Buḍattāḻvār, Poygaiāḻvār and Tirumaḻiśaiāḻvār, appear to have been contemporaries and lived at a time before the advent of the Pallavas to Kāñchīpuram. Tradition however records that Tirumaḻiśai was a contemporary of one of the Pallava kings, perhaps Toṇḍamān-Iḷamtiraiyan. Of the others Tirumaṅgaiāḻvār is the most important and has already been referred in a previous chapter. There is a credible Vaiṣṇava tradition that he held a successful disputation with the Śaiva saint Tiruñāna-Sambandar. If this can be relied on he should have lived an exceptionally long period of time. His work exceeds that of any other Āḻvar except Nammāḻvār and his peregrinations were spread all over South India. His great Pallava contemporary was Nandivarman Pallavamalla who reigned for an exceptionally long period of sixty-five years. This Āḻvār unlike the other Āḻvārs makes frequent mention of contemporary political occurrences including the martial exploits of the Pallava King referred to above. One of his verses contains an allusion to the repulse of the Chāḷukyan King which is corroborated by inscriptions. The war implements of the Pallavas as well as their other insignia also find mention in his hymns. The other Āḷvārs, such as Kulaśēkhara, Nammāḷvār, Periyāḷvār, Āṇḍāḷ, etc., did not flourish in Toṇḍamaṇḍalam and did not come into contact with the Pallava Kings.

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The origin and evolution of Pallava art and architecture does not properly belong to this work and may be studied elsewhere.¹ It may be however noted here that it is a mistake to suppose that temples did not exist in South India before the Pallava age, for mention is made of them in early Saṅgam works. They were then built only of wood and perishable material and consequently have not survived. The earliest inscriptional mention, in a Pallava record, of a temple occurs in the grant of Chārudēvi which evidences a donation of land to the temple of Nārāyaṇa at Daḷūrā early in the fourth century. During the reign of Mahēndravarman I, a commencement was made² in the art of monolithic temple building. The first specimens were all of them excavations of hillsides into temples such as those at Trichinopoly, Vallam and Māmaṇḍūr, modelled after the caves at Uṇḍavalli. A later development was from the cave temples to the Rathas like those of Mahābalipuram. From these, in due course of evolution, came structural temples, among the earliest and best known of which are the Shore-temple at the Seven Pagodas, the Kailāsanātha temple at Kāñchi and at Panamalai. The evolution continued in the days of subsequent Pallava kings till the rise of what is a distinct Chola style.

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¹ See the works of Prof. Jouveau-Dubreuil and Mr. Longhurst.

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² According to Prof. Jouveau-Dubreuil.

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