History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c5.5.4

c5.5.4

This traditional connection is on a footing with that between the Ikshvākus and the Gurjara Pritiharas of Kanauj. During this period and almost contemporaneously with the Toṇḍamān-Iḷam-Tiraiyan, the territory of the elder Tiraiyan seems to have been held in power by a chieftain generally associated with Vēṅgaḍam and described ordinarily by the name Pulli, chief of the Kaḷvar or, as the correcter reading would warrant, Kaḷavar. The forest region therefore in the middle seems to have constituted a block inhabited by the people Kaḷavar who had their tribal ruler with headquarters at Vēṅgaḍam. That is the position that we derive from the Śangam literature of Tamil as such. Toṇḍamān-Iḷam-Tiraiyan passed away and with him Śangam literature as well perhaps, and we are left in the dark altogether as to what had befallen Kanchi or the territory dependent thereon. That is the Tamil side of the evidence from the Śangam literature leaving aside the question of the age of the Śangam for the present.