History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c16.s2.49

c16.s2.49

128. Now, who could this great ruler be, who is the overlord of the three Tamil kingdoms at the time and who is causing his rule from the Mūshika country up to the Southern Konkan? Who is this man called Kanaka? The Pallavas are evidently superseded at this moment by this new dynast. This Kanaka, according to the Purāṇic description, is nearly the emperor of the South. The only ruling family to whom the description can refer was the newly founded Kadamba dynasty. Mayūraśarman, the Brahmin general of the Pallavas, had got a feudatory state from the Pallava Emperor [Pallavendra]. On the defeat of the Pallavas of Kāñchī, who were the leading power of the South, at the hand of Samudra Gupta, Mayūraśarman probably declared his independence. His son Kaṅga-varman seems to defied Samudra Gupta to be the Emperor of both the North and the South. The date of Kaṅga-varman is about 350 A.D.¹