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History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c6.s2: Literature

History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c6.s2

Language
English

Literature

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Next to inscriptions we might consider the testimony of literature and literary tradition. For the earliest period of the history of the Tamil land we are almost entirely dependent on a class of Tamil works known as the Śangam classics and attributable to the first and second centuries of the Christian era. The age of the Śangam has been the subject of keen discussion among scholars, and attempts have been made to bring it to the seventh and the eighth centuries. The late Mr. Swamikannu Pillai working from the astronomical details in the eleventh *Paripāḍal* arrived at the conclusion, in his *Indian Ephemeris*,¹ that the author of the piece must have lived in the seventh century. But the generally accepted date, namely, first and the second centuries A.D., seems established on satisfactory grounds, and the new dates have so far not been proved to be beyond doubt correct. The orthodox estimate of the Śangam age expounded by the late Mr. Kanakasabhai Pillai and more fully by Dr. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar has been followed here.

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¹ vol. i, p. 108.

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The Śangam works although they mention several kings and chieftains in the Tamil land contain no mention of the Pallavas (even where they actually describe Kāñchī), or of any member of the various Pallava dynasties known to us from inscriptions. The inference seems, therefore, to be fully justified that the Pallava kings reigned after the age of these Śangam works. Otherwise it is difficult to understand the silence of these works about the dynasty of the Pallavas of Kāñchī especially as we learn from them that the region around Kāñchī was ruled over by Toṇḍamān-Iḷam-Tiraiyan, one of the Chōḷa viceroys. The Śangam works however mention a people known as the Toṇḍaiyar among others who are sometimes considered to be the same as, or closely related to, the Pallavas.² But the available evidence does not seem sufficient to warrant our identifying the Toṇḍaiyar with the Pallavas as the former term appears to be a tribal name like the Aruvāḷar, Vaḍavar, etc., while Pallava looks more like a family name than that of a tribe. One Śangam work called *Perumbāṇārrupadai*, written by Rudran-Kaṇṇanār who has also celebrated the Chōḷa king Karikāla and his capital town Kavēripaṭṭinam, is mainly devoted to a description of the condition of Kāñchī during the rule of Toṇḍamān-Iḷam-Tiraiyan who appears to have preceded the Pallava kings at Kāñchī and who, according to certain scholars, was an early Pallava king. With the exception of this poem the other pieces in the Śangam works do not contain any reference either to Kāñchī during the age of the Pallavas or about the Pallavas themselves. Suggestions have been put forward that the Pallavas were foreigners to the south, that the Pallava power was superimposed upon the Tamil land, and that the Tamils therefore scrupulously omitted to mention them, and, even when they did so, mentioned them with contempt. As an illustration the definition in the Pingalandai which gives us the synonyms for the Pallavas, includes terms such as Kayavar, Patakar and Niśar. But against this it must be said that this reference does not apply to the Pallava kings who are referred to in the Tēvāram hymns and in the works of some of the Vaishṇava Āḷvārs of the eighth century in terms of praise.¹

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² *Ind. Ant.*, vol. lii, pp. 75-80.

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¹ Periya-Tirumoḷi, ii, 9.

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In addition to the references in the hymns of the Śaiva and Vaishṇava saints about these kings new light is thrown on the age of Simhavishṇu in one of the recently-discovered Sanskrit works entitled the Avantisundarikathasāra which, in its historical introduction, not only contains an important synchronism between Simhavishṇu of Kāñchī, Vishṇuvardhana, the early Chāḷukya, and Durvinīta, the early Gaṅga.² This work also gives valuable particulars relating to the literary history of the Pallava age and the patronage of the Pallava kings. The association of Daṇḍin as well as Bhāravi with the Pallava court at Kāñchī, which this work establishes, is very important for understanding the nature of Pallava culture during this period.³

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² Special note by Editor.

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³ See the Age of Bhāravi and Daṇḍin, Q.J.M.S., vol. xii, p. 10 and the Second All Ind. Ori. Conf., 1922, Proc., pp. 194, 306-7.

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Of a similar nature is the discovery of the work Mattavilāsa-Prahasana, a burlesque written by the Pallava king Mahēndravarman I, which depicts vividly the contemporary life of religious sects such as the Śākyabikshus and Kāpalikas in the city, and of which glimpses are obtainable in the hymns of the Ālvārs and the Nāyanmārs in some of the *Prabandha* and the *Tēvāram* hymns. This work has recently been published by the Travancore Government.¹ There seems to be no doubt that the author of this play Śrī Mahēndravikramavarman is identical with the Pallava king Mahēndravarman known, from inscriptions and copper-plates, to have reigned in the first quarter of the seventh century. A recently-discovered panel in the Ādivarāha temple in the Seven Pagodas represents him with his two queens, their identity being placed beyond question by the inscriptions over the reliefs.² Some of his titles such as *Avanibhājana*, *Guṇabhara*, *Śatrumalla*, *Mattavilāsa*, found in the various cave temples excavated by him, occur in the course of the play Detailed reference will be made to the work in the section on the literature of the Pallava age.

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¹ Trivandrum Sanskrit Series, No. LV.

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² Special note by Editor.

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Among literary works that throw light upon the Pallava age in Tamil, *Nandikkalambakam* deserves prominent mention. This work which consists of about a hundred and odd verses is devoted to a description of the exploits of Nandivarman III, whose death the author laments in the course of the work. A number of verses in the poem describe the martial exploits of this sovereign, his patronage of letters, his capital cities, the extent of territory, and other particulars which together give a detailed record of his reign. The author is regarded by tradition as one of the younger brothers of the king himself although this is considered doubtful. The work has been for a long time out of print and is noticed in some detail in the section dealing with literature of the Pallava age.

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To these may be added the Digambara Jaina work called *Lokavibhāga*³ discovered and noticed by R. Narasimhacharya till recently Director of the Mysore Archæological Department. It furnishes us with an important chronological datum from which the initial year of one of the early Pallava kings Simhavarman may be fixed. The work consists of eleven *prakaraṇas*, the last being *mokṣabhāga*. The opening verse is in praise of Jineśvara. The second verse gives, *kṣētra, kāla, tīrtha, pramāṇa-puruṣa* and their *charita* as the five divisions of a *purāṇa*; and in the third verse the author begins his subject, namely, the description of the world. All the MSS. of this work contain four stanzas which are important to Pallava chronology. The first stanza tells us that the science was first taught by Vardhamāna to Sudharma and others, that it was handed down in succession through a series of teachers, and that it was translated into Sanskrit by Rishi Simhasūri. The second stanza says that at a particular period, corresponding to certain planetary positions, Śarvanandi copied the work in the village named Pāṭalika of the Pāṇarāṣṭra. The third stanza gives us Śāka 380, corresponding to the twenty-second regnal year of Simhavarman, king of Kāñchī, as the year in which the work was completed. The fourth stanza informs us that the work consists of 1536 *anuṣṭub ślokas*. Śāka 380 is apparently the year in which the copying work was completed by Śarvanandi, and the author of the work Simhasūri probably flourished at an earlier period. Calculation shows that there cannot be any doubt about the correctness of the date. Pāṭalika, the village in which Śarvanandi copied the work, is identical with Pāṭalipura in South Arcot District at which, according to the *Periyapurāṇam*, there was a large Jaina monastery in the seventh century A.D.

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³ Mys. Archl. Rep. for 1909-10, p. 45.

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In addition to these sources we have the account given about the Tamil land, and the city of Kāñchī in particular, by the celebrated Chinese pilgrim and the Master of the Law, Hiuen Tsang, whose work has the advantage of being a contemporary account. The pilgrim appears to have visited Kāñchī about A.D. 640. The city having had the reputation of being a seat of Buddhistic learning and the city of birth of the celebrated Dharmapāla who preceded Śīlabhadra at the Nalanda University, the pilgrim spent a considerable time in it. Although he does not mention anything about the contemporary king or court, he has given an account of his impressions relating to the character of the people, soil, climate, temples and the state of Buddhism in the city.

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To these sources must be added the *Mahāvamsa*, the Ceylon Chronicle written in Pāli and giving the earliest known account of the kings of the island. This work is particularly useful for settling the chronology of early South Indian history as it describes the relations and the contact that existed between the kings of Ceylon and those who ruled in the Tamil land. So far as the Pallavas are concerned we find that in the days of Narasimhavarman I as well as in the closing days of the Pallava empire invasions of the island were undertaken by Pallava kings either on behalf of the ruling sovereign or actuated by love of conquest merely. Chapter 47 of this work is particularly interesting as it gives a glimpse into Pallava oversea enterprise in early times.

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Next comes tradition, living tradition, about the Pallavas and their age. It is surprising that the memory of the Pallava kings, although perpetuated in the names given after them to dozens of temples such as Paramēśvaraviṇṇagaram, Rājasimhēśvara, Kshatriyasimhapallavēśvara, Śatrumallēśvarālaya, Mahēndravishṇugṛha and to many places, has been forgotten and their good work lost sight of. Names of places such as Pallāvaram, Pallavaṇichharam, Nandipuraviṇṇagaram, Paramēśvaramangalam, Mahēndramangalam, Mahēndravāḍi, Mahāmallapuram clearly indicate that these were either founded or named after the kings bearing these names in the Pallava dynasty. In view of all this it is surprising that the memory of the dynasty has not survived to any appreciable extent in living tradition. The Mackenzie Manuscripts collected about a century ago by the indefatigable Surveyor-General, Col. Colin Mackenzie, although containing many accounts of the early history of the Pāṇḍyas, Chōḷas, Gangas, Mahrattas and others do not contain any account relating to the dynasty of the Pallavas. But some of the accounts professing to give the Ancient History of Toṇḍamaṇḍalam and the exploits of Ādoṇḍaichakravarti seem to preserve a distant reminiscence of what the people of the early part of the nineteenth century believed to have been the ancient condition of Toṇḍamaṇḍalam, by which name the region immediately around Kāñchīpuram was known. This class of traditional accounts preserved in the Mackenzie collection appears to depict the condition of Toṇḍamaṇḍalam prior to the days of Pallava advent. Some of them, such as the account of Toṇḍamān-chakravarti, relate to the conquest of the region from a rude and uncivilized tribe known as the Kurumbas and to the introduction of civilization by Ādoṇḍai-chōḷa. There seems to be warrant for presuming that this person was no other than Toṇḍamān-Iḷam-Tiraiyan who is immortalized in the *Perumbāṇāṟṟupaḍai* by Rudran-Kaṇṇanār. If so the Mackenzie collections may be taken as lending support to the view that the region of the Pallavas was under Chōḷa occupation before the Pallavas came from the north. The circumstances under which the Pallava conquest of the Chōḷa region was brought about are not known.

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