History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c5.10.1

c5.10.1

Any reasonable investigation of this particular question requires a general idea of the whole position. Without assuming too much, we may take it that these are known facts in regard to the Pallavas. The first, according to generally accepted opinion, is that the earliest of them issued charters in Prakrit much in the style of the Sātavāhana charters, of which we have knowledge of the localities concerned. Three or four generations of these Pallavas happen to be known. The Allahabad Prasasti of Samudragupta makes mention of a Viṣṇugopa of Kanchi. Without pausing to enquire whether this Viṣṇugopa was a Pallava or no—there is nothing in the context of the inscription to indicate that he was not a Pallava as no ruler is mentioned by his dynastic name, but all of them are associated with their capitals—Viṣṇugopa must have been a ruler of Kanchi contemporary with Samudragupta. This may be taken to be the second established fact. Then it is that we come upon a confused dark period where more light would certainly be welcome. But soon after, for a couple of hundred years, we find a dynasty of rulers, the order of whose succession, we cannot as yet fix very definitely.