History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c5.13

Language: English

c5.13.1

The narration of events above, it would have been noted, assumes the existence of a period of prosperity reflected in the Śangam literature anterior to the coming of the Pallavas of Kanchi into the region of Toṇḍamaṇḍalam. The assumption is based on evidence which an effort has been made to upset by another assumption without any valid evidence, we should say, of a Chola interregnum in the rule of the Pallavas of Kanchi on the basis of the statement that Kumāraviṣṇu II had to retake his capital from his enemies. The difficulties against accepting this assumption are many and fundamental; anything like a capture of Kanchi by the Cholas and even its retention in the hands of the Cholas for some little time till recapture by Kumāraviṣṇu, would hardly satisfy the conditions of the Chola Karikāla’s capture of Kanchi, because the Chola Karikāla is associated, in the Śangam literature so called, with a succession of rulers extending over three or four generations, during which since his conquest Kanchi remained a Chola viceroyalty. The provision of an interval of that length before Kumāraviṣṇu II retook Kanchi would be on the face of it impossible.

c5.13.2

Karikāla is supposed to have introduced the arts of agriculture and civilization into the bulk of the region constituting Toṇḍamaṇḍalam, and the viceroyalty was held with distinction by Chola princes immediately following him and subsequently by an illegitimate scion of the Chola family, Toṇḍamān-Iḷam-Tiraiyan, before it passed into the possession of the Pallavas of the inscriptions. There is not the slightest hint of all this in the various charters, of which we have information, and Bappa Dēva’s civilizing effort in the region farther north seems almost to indicate an extension of the effort of Karikāla. Looked at from any point of view therefore, it seems impossible to postulate a Chola interregnum in the middle of the succession of Pallava rulers of the Sanskrit charters and the effort seems to us futile. We have almost fifteen generations of rulers subsequent to the Samudragupta invasion. Although we cannot be very definite about the order of succession or of the detailed history of the period, the general trend seems clear enough to rule out the possibility of this interregnum. There is the evidence of the Śaṅgam literature by itself and the evidence of the later Pandya charters leading thereto, and they seem alike to negative this possibility.

c5.13.3

Whether the Śaṅgam actually existed or no, the existence of something like a Śaṅgam and of a body of literature known as Śaṅgam literature came to be an accepted article of faith among the Tamils at the commencement of the seventh century A.D. among the Tevāram hymners like Appar and Sambandar. For a tradition like that to grow and for a body of literature to get thus distinctly classified, we do require a certain efflux of time, and that could not be less than half a dozen generations or more, and thus the indication seems to be that the period of the Śaṅgam literature will have to be referred to a time anterior to the advent of the Pallavas of the Sanskrit charters into the region of Kanchi. A Chola interregnum associated with the name of Karikāla in the generations immediately preceding Kumāraviṣṇu II seems impossible of justification.

c5.13.4

The period of the Pallavas of the Sanskrit charters marks the advent of a new dynasty, their long, but fairly successful, struggle against hostile occupation of the territory of Toṇḍamaṇḍalam, probably by the Kaḷabhras, their assertion of their overlordship over the Gangas, and a similar recognition of their overlordship at any rate, by the Kadambas after a struggle ending in the final establishment of the Pallava authority there till Simhavarman, the father of Simhaviṣṇu the first Great Pallava, founded a dynasty of powerful rulers for the next two centuries and a half, all require the couple of centuries that are left between the invasion of Samudragupta and the accession of Simhavarman, the father of Simhaviṣṇu. The accession of these powerful rulers to authority in this region is almost coeval with the rise of the Chāḷukyas into view in the region north of their territory.