History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c6.s2.17

c6.s2.17

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.