History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c17.s3.1

c17.s3.1

§ 188. Under the Pallavas there came into existence a sub-kingdom of the Brahmin Kāṇvāyanas, who after their original home adopted their dynastic name ‘the Dynasty of the Gaṅgā,’ like ‘the Magadha Dynasty,’ of the Kaliṅga kings under the Guptas. The kings of the Gaṅga Dynasty, from the third king, were installed in each generation by the Pallavas of whom Siṃhavarman the ‘Pallavendra’ [‘the Pallava emperor’], and also his successor Skandavarman (III) are named in their earliest genuine copperplate.¹ These Kāṇvāyanas very likely were an off-shoot of the Imperial Kāṇvāyanas of Magadha, the last king of whom (Suśarman) was taken prisoner [प्रत्यक्षं]² and removed to the South by the Sātavāhana.³ From the point of view of cultural history the Brahmin subordinate dynasties become important. There had been already a class of political Brahmins in the South.