History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c5.10.4

c5.10.4

We want six generations to come to the period when the Pandya country emerged from out of the Kaḷabhra rule and got back into Pandya rule, and a certain ruler by name Kaḍumkon is stated in the grant to have done this. Even allowing the moderate span of twenty-five years' rule to each of these six generations, Kaḍumkon's rule would come to somewhere about A.D. 600 more or less, bringing him roughly into contemporaneity with the first great Pallava ruler, Simhavishṇu. The period of the Kaḷabhra interregnum, according to the Vēḷvikuḍi plates thus coincides with the period of Pallava history under the rule of the Pallavas of the Sanskrit charters. If the Kaḷabhras created confusion in the Tamil country, they must have come from elsewhere into it. Wherefrom did they come? It is obvious that they did not come from the south. The Pandya country seems the southern limit of their reach. During the period, Chola rule seems to have gone into eclipse of a more or less thorough character. The natural inference therefore would be that they probably advanced southwards. If they were in the Chola country before coming to the Pandya, could we not reasonably infer that they had been in the Pallava country before coming into the Chola, or at least had something to do with the Pallava? If so, who could these Kaḷabhras be, why were they so-called, and what would be the cause of their southward migration?