History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c17.s2.27

c17.s2.27

When the main Vākāṭaka branch acquired the title of the S a m r ā ṭ, the title of Mahārājādhirāja was naturally dropped by the Pallava family. Śiva-Skandavarman was the first and the last man in our period to have assumed the imperial style in the South.¹ That Śiva-Skandavarman was already gone before Samudra Gupta's time is evident from Samudra Gupta's inscription where the ruler of Kāñchī is Viṣṇugopa. The time of Śiva-Skandavarman thus necessarily falls in the reign of the Samrāṭ Pravarasena I. From the time of Pravarasena I the Pallava king remains Dharma-Mahārāja, and the title allowed to the first G a ṅ g a king who was installed in the time of Pravarasena, was Dharma-Adhirāja (§ 190). The style of Dharma-Mahārāja becomes fixed with the Pallavas and the Kadambas in the South, and it travelled from the South before 400 A.D. to Champā (Cambodia)².