History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c5.5.1

c5.5.1

So far as the Pallavas of the charters are concerned, whether the charters be issued in Prakrit or in Sanskrit, they are termed, the Pallavas of Kanchi, though several of the charters happened to be issued from localities comparatively far to the north of Kanchi. Several of the places in which their inscriptions and copper-plate charters have been found, or from which these were issued, are capable of location from the Bellary District eastwards up to the River Krishna in the north. Even so they seem to exclude the region which might geographically be described as the region of the Nalla Malais and the Pacha-Malais extending southwards along the mountainous tracts of the Eastern Ghats till we come past Tirupati into Chittoor, and the Bay of Bengal. From the Śaṅgam literature so-called of Tamil, we are enabled to make the following distribution of peoples, if not exactly of rulers and dynasties. The Pāṇḍya country was in the extreme south extending from coast to coast. The Chēra extended northwards from it along the coast stretching into the interior indefinitely, the actual eastern boundary varying from time to time almost up to the frontiers of Karur. Therefrom went northwards up to the borders of the great forest the territory known to Tamil literature as Koṅkānam (Konkan), over which ruled a particular chieftain known as Nannan till he was overthrown by the Chēras.