History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c9.s2.3

c9.s2.3

What were the circumstances, political and otherwise, which brought about the matrimonial alliance of Vīrakūrcha, a member of the Pallava family with the daughter of a Nāga king which gave him virtually a wife and a kingdom? To this question no definite answer is possible in the present state of our knowledge relating to the political condition of the Dakhan in the fourth century A.D. Dr. S. K. Aiyangar has however attempted to solve the problem. In the course of his valuable contribution on the Pallavas he identifies² the Nāga family with which Vīrakūrcha became connected with the family of Skaṇdanāga, the Śātavāhana viceroy of the region round Adoni and who probably belonged to a clan of the family of Śātavāhanas other than that which ruled in the Dakhan but connected by blood, and perhaps even by alliance, with that clan. ‘At one time under the rule of the later Sātavāhanas these Nāgas appear to have extended their territory and even acquired a considerable portion of the kingdom of the Sātavāhanas themselves. If the Pallava chieftain in the neighbourhood made himself sufficiently distinguished, a marriage alliance with these Nāgas, from whom came the early Sātavāhana queen Nāganika, would have been possible for him. The hint, vague as it is, in the inscription seems to let us into the secret of the rise of the dynasty of the Pallavas to power.’