History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c5.6

Language: English

c5.6.1

On the other side of it, the region round Adoni is described in early inscriptions as Sātāhani Āhāra, sometimes as Sātavāhani Rāshṭra perhaps giving us the indication that it was a settlement of Sātavāhanas, which may be recent or early. It probably indicates that the Sātavāhanas were perhaps not exactly native to the locality, but acquired the territory and gave it their name to mark a new acquisition unless it be that other people called it by that name as the homeland of the Sātavāhanas. In either case, we find the Sātavāhana rulers on this border of the Tamil country, and one of the inscriptions of Pulumāvi mentions a great Sātavāhana general, Maha Sēnātipati Skandanāga, probably an earlier governor of a troublesome border country. The records of the Pallavas similarly have reference to this region, and are couched in a form like the Sātavāhana inscriptions in regard to language, the details of the definition of time, and even such details as do occur in regard to the very nature of the administration itself. The provenance of the ship-coins of lead or potin sometimes ascribed to the Pallavas, but more generally taken to be Sātavāhana coins, in the region extending from the Northern Pennar to the Southern gives an indication of an effort of the Sātavāhana to bring this region under their authority.

c5.6.2

The references to the successful struggle against the Āryans, which some of the Chola monarchs claim to themselves as well as the Malayamān ruler of Tirukovilūr perhaps is a reflex of this effort on the part of the Sātavāhanas. When the Pallavas therefore emerged from this region—and we are given the information in the earliest Pallava charter that the first great Pallava ruler of the locality referred to as Bappa Deva made a free distribution of a hundred thousand ox ploughs, etc., we seem to be introduced to an effort at civilizing the locality appearing very like an extension of the effort of Karikala to civilize Toṇḍamaṇḍalam itself. This will appear clearly from the sequel. The Pallava charters themselves seem to argue a connection with the Sātavāhanas of a more or less intimate character, political as well as institutional. This seems clear from the Prakrit charters much more pronouncedly than perhaps even the Sanskrit ones. The conclusion to which the epigraphists have arrived that the Pallavas of the Prakrit charters were earlier and ought so to be regarded seems well warranted by the circumstances of the case and the character of the documents as such. That these early rulers issued their charters in Sanskrit and Prakrit indifferently at the same time, and must be regarded as the same people is a conclusion which while it may cut the gordian knot seems to have little to justify it on the basis of the facts of the position.

c5.6.3

Superficial paleographical resemblances cannot be held to upset the more certain evidence of institutional continuity to which the Prakrit charters unmistakably point. Since the Pallavas issued their charters in Prakrit and of a style like that of the earlier Sātavāhana charters, does it not seem reasonable to argue that the early Pallavas of the Prakrit charters were officers of the Sātavāhanas, or at least officially connected with them and dependent upon their authority? It seems therefore reasonable to argue that the Sātavāhana governors of the south-eastern frontier gradually extended their territory, civilizing it as they conquered it, introducing the arts of agriculture and ultimately made themselves masters of the locality and extending southwards when the Tamil powers weakened to take into their territory Kanchi and Toṇḍamaṇḍalam. It was the conquest of this that gave them the standing to make themselves real rulers and whatever of title was wanting in it was made good ultimately by a marriage which brought along with it a further addition to the territory. This becomes clear both from the account that Mr. Gopalan has given of succeeding events as well as from the analysis of these inscriptions which he has provided in the appendix. The Pallavas of the Prakrit charters call themselves rulers of Kanchi. So do the Pallavas of the Sanskrit charters.

c5.6.4

But at the outset those Pallavas that issued these Sanskrit charters lay claim to having acquired their royal position by an influential marriage with a Nāga princess and by that means became ‘possessed of a wife and a kingdom simultaneously’ This could only mean that the Nāga alliance brought in an accession of territory which put their claim to independent rule on a really more legitimate footing than that of mere conquest or occupation, which might have been regarded as a mere act of usurpation.