History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c24.14

c24.14

The script at Koetei, after a very able and exhaustive treatment, has been dated by Dr. Vogel in the middle of the fourth century, ‘a somewhat earlier date than that proposed by M. Finot who has assigned them to approximately 400 A.D.’ Now a generation before 350 A.D. will bring us about 325 A.D. which is the time of the Pallava King Skandavarman II, the Conqueror (‘Vijaya’), whose date we have ascertained to be C. 297-332 A.D. (p. 195 above). The script agrees with the script of the time of this Pallava king and his successor Simhavarman I.¹ We know that in the time of Vijaya Skandavarman Sanskrit became the language of the Pallava inscriptions. It seems that the kingdom in Borneo was founded in or about the time of Vijaya Skandavarman, who firmly got established at Kāñchī and had a long and prosperous reign. The sacrifices of the orthodox Pallava type, and no performance of an aśvamedha, and the name-ending in imitation of the Pallava designation, would lead us to infer not a peaceful local venture of an individual, but an undertaking directed by the Pallava emperor or under his ægis.