History of the Pallavas of Kanchi c9.s2.87

c9.s2.87

Simhavarman.—The next Pallava king was Simhavarman in whose eleventh year the Uruvapalli plates of Y. M. Viṣṇugopa is dated. It is not apparent why Y. M. Viṣṇugopa should have addressed the grant in the reign of Simhavarman. The probability is that he did not reign and therefore dated the record in the reign of his elder brother, or possibly in that of his. In the latter case this Simhavarman becomes identical with the donor of the four grants, the Ōmgōḍu plates dated in the fourth year of his reign in the month of Vaiśāka Śuklapaksha-panchami addressed from Tāmrāpa, the Pikira grant dated in fifth year and issued from Mēnmatura, the Uruvapalli plates dated in the eleventh year of his reign, and issued from Palakkada, and the Mangalūr grant issued from Vijaya-Daśanapura and dated in the eighth year of Simhavarman II. Thus we have for this king at least four different copper-plate charters dated in the different years of the reign and issued in different places which were obviously the places where the king happened to be in camp just when the grants were issued. It has been already pointed out that these places Vijaya Tāmrāpasthāna, Mēnmatura, Daśanapura and Palakkada have not been identified though the suggestion has been made that they should be looked for in the Nellore District. The late Mr. Venkayya writes in his *Ancient History of the Nellore District*,¹ ‘that it is not impossible that Daśanapura was the ancient name of the modern village of Darśi. It is called Darśi and Dariśi in inscriptions of the fourteenth century found as the place.’ He also thinks that the place might have been the capital at the time that the Mangaḍūr grant was issued in the eighth year of Simhavarman. If this is so why is it not possible to hold Palakkada, Tāmrāpa, and Mēnmatura also at the capital of Simhavarman? But such an assumption does not seem to be justified unless we have good reason for regarding that this period was one of constant warfare, and that the kingdom of Simhavarman was frequently threatened, with the result that he had to be continuously changing his capital from one seat to another. But there is no definite evidence to prove that this was a fact. It is assumed by certain scholars that the Pallava kings of this period had lost their possession of Kāñchi and retired to the Telugu districts in and around Nellore, wherefrom they continued to rule and issue their copper-plates. This explains according to them the charters of Simhavarman and others during this period being addressed not from Kāñchīpuram as in the case of earlier copper-plates but from places in the Telugu districts. For instance Mr. Krishna Sastri says :— . . . ‘ About A.D. 350 the Pallavas,—perhaps on account of the disturbances caused by the victorious campaign of Samudragupta from the north or owing to the rise of the Kadambas mentioned in the Tālgunda inscription¹ were dispossessed of their territory round Kāñchi and pushed back further into the interior.’ Again the same authority says² :—