History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c7.s1.32

c7.s1.32

Yet another View.—Mr. Rasanayagam who does not agree with the views and conclusions arrived at by the Professor seeks to find the home of Pallavas in the south in the region known as Maṇipallavam to the early Tamils.¹ According to him Kiḷḷi’s son Iḷam Tiraiyan through the Nāga princess mentioned in the early Tamil work Maṇimēkhalai was really the first Pallava king. In this work he is described as the son of Kiḷḷi by Pilivaḷai, a daughter of Vaḷaivaṇan, the Nāga king of Maṇipallavam. He was lost in a ship-wreck and was found washed ashore with a coil round his ankle of a twig of the Toṇḍai-creeper (Caphallandra Indica). Hence his name Toṇḍamān-Iḷam-Tiraiyan. Iḷam-Tiraiyan was therefore the first to become an independent king and progenitor of the Pallava dynasty. His period is fixed as the third quarter of the second century A.D. The dynasty was called the Pallava designated after the mother’s native place Maṇipallavam. The titles, such as Ankura, and Pōttaraiyan which were assumed by Pallava kings are synonymous with the word Pallava and remind us of the origin of the name from Maṇipallavam.