History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c5.10.3

c5.10.3

What is the cause of all this confusion and what is it that could satisfactorily explain all the facts mentioned above categorically? We have a specific lead in the Veḷvikudi plates for this, namely, that the Kaḷabhras came into the Tamil country as far south as the territory of the Pandyas, and upset the settled order to the extent of destroying a *Brahmadēya* gift (a free gift of land to Brahmans) which in orthodox parlance implies the destruction of a settled order of rule by the creation of a very considerable amount of confusion in the administration. If we could know something of these Kaḷabhras, we may possibly throw some light upon the causes of all the confusion in the history of the Pallavas during the period. For this again, there is a certain amount of light that we can derive from the Veḷvikudi plates themselves. The plates were issued by an individual sovereign, who restored the grant to the living representative of its original donee on satisfactory proof that the village was originally granted in the manner claimed. His father, generally known to epigraphists by the titles Tērmāran Rājasimha, we know, beyond doubt, was a contemporary of Nandivarman Pallavamalla (cir. A.D. 717 to cir. A.D. 782). Alloting him to somewhere about the middle of the long reign of Nandivarman, we may roughly place him in about A.D. 750 or A.D. 740.