History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c7.s1.51

c7.s1.51

That the rule of the Pallavas of Kāñchī was preceded by that of the Chōḷas is made clear not only by the evidence of Tamil literature, but also from the testimony of the Mackenzie manuscript accounts to which reference had been made already. These accounts although belonging to the early part of the nineteenth century, being the traditional account furnished by the village elders in the days of Col. Colin Mackenzie, profess to relate the early history of the region known as Toṇḍamaṇḍalam which corresponded to the region ruled over by the Pallava kings. ‘According to the *Ancient History of Toṇḍamaṇḍalam*, one of the accounts in the Mackenzie collection, the region was occupied by the Kurumbas who are said to have been responsible for the erection of the twenty-four forts, and the division of the region into twenty-four districts. These are also said to have carried on a sea-trade with the merchants of Kāvēripaṭṭinam. It is from these Kurumbas that one Ādoṇḍachakravarti, said to be an illegitimate son of the contemporary Chōḷa king, is described as having conquered the region and acquired it for the Chōḷas setting up his own rule at Kāñchī after uprooting the Kurumbas. The region which was till then known as Kurumbabhūmi is said to have been renamed Toṇḍamaṇḍalam atter the name of the conquering Chōḷa prince. If we properly interpret the traditional account in the light of the facts regarding the occupation of the region around Kāñchīpuram by Iḷam-Tiraiyan, it is easy to understand that in this account we find preserved the earliest reminiscence of the conquest of the region around Conjeevaram by the Chōḷas. When did this happen? Early scholars who noticed the account have been misled into thinking that this conquest was made in the eleventh century.¹ They have been led to think so by the reference that the contemporary Chōḷa king in these accounts was Kulōttunga, and there was a Kulōttunga ruling in the eleventh century. But all the other details in the account are against this date. The conditions of the territory and the state of civilization at the time of Ādoṇḍaichōḷa, the first Chōḷa representative, are too primitive to apply to a period like the eleventh century by which time the region had become fully civilized under the Pallavas who are known to have beautified Toṇḍamaṇḍalam, and whose sway over the region had already lasted for eight centuries. It looks therefore probable that the traditional account has mistaken the actual name of the contemporary Chōḷa king at the time of the subjugation of the Kurumbas which must have been made by some member of the family of the early Chōḷa Karikāla in the second century A.D.