[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [History of the Pallavas of Kanchi](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.gopalan-1928) › c8.3 # History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c8.3 History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c8.3 - **Language:** English ### [c8.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.gopalan-1928.c8.3) The Pallava inscriptions and copper charters are divisible as already indicated into three sections. To the first group belongs the Prakrit charters which though bearing no date in any known era have been on palæographical grounds assigned to the third and the fourth centuries of the Christian era. It is well known from the history of the Āndhras that they continued to be powerful in the southern region almost till the first quarter of the third century A.D. We know from the Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudragupta that about the middle of the fourth century A.D. there reigned in the region extending to the banks of the Krishna, a Pallava king named Vishṇugopa. The contemporaneity of Samudragupta with Vishṇugopa of Kāñchī, who was undoubtedly one of the early kings of the Pallava dynasty of Conjeevaram, leads to the conclusion that Vishṇugopa must have reigned some time about A.D. 340 to 350. But a recent attempt has been made to fix the initial date of the Gupta era at A.D. 200-201 which would put back Samudragupta's period to the middle of the third instead of the fourth century. But this theory rests at present on Jain tradition merely and has serious objections against it. If this date be accepted, Vishṇugopa of Kāñchī would have to be placed in the middle of the third century, the period of the Pallava kings of the Prakrit charters, and this would necessitate the putting back of the kings of the Prakrit charters to the second century—a position which would be difficult to accept in the present scheme of Āndhra chronology. Without taking up this matter we may proceed to put together the order of succession for the earliest period, which may be styled the age of the kings, of the Prakrit charters, circa A.D. 200-350. The three important Prakrit charters which are the earliest of the Pallava charters—the Mayidavōlu plates, the Hirahaḍagalli plates and the British Museum plates have been published in the \*Epigraphia Indica\* with text, translation and valuable notes by Bühler, Hultzsch, Leumann and others. - [Previous: c8.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.gopalan-1928.c8.2) - [Next: c8.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.gopalan-1928.c8.4) - [Up: c8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.gopalan-1928.c8) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.gopalan-1928.c8.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.gopalan-1928.c8.3) · Pramāṇa