Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c19.s2.t1.9

c19.s2.t1.9

² The *Pallavas*—a people of unknown origin, claiming descent from Aśvatthāman and Nāga princesses, are the most important of all the dynasties that succeeded the Sātavāhanas in the Far South. The claim of descent from Brāhmaṇas of the Bharadvāja *gotra*, the performance of the *Aśvamedha* and patronage of Sanskrit learning, connect the dynasty with the Śuṅgas, while the Brāhmaṇa-Nāga connection, (*cf. Saṁkīrṇa-jāti*, *Brahma-kshatra*, *SII*, Vol. xii, Nos. 7, 48) the performance of Vedic sacrifices including the horse-sacrifice, early association with the Sātavāhana Janapada in the Bellary district and the use of *Prākṛita* in their early records, connect the family with the Sātavāhanas. There is no question of any Parthian affinity as the genealogical lists of the family are singularly devoid of Parthian nomenclature. The elephant's scalp used as a crown is no test of race. The well-known hostility of the family to the Cholas and the decidedly northern character of their culture preclude the possibility of a pure Tamil extraction. The first great Pallava king, Śiva-Skanda-varman, is known from the inscriptions found at Mayidavolu (in Guṇṭūr) and Hīrahaḍagalli (in Bellary) to have ruled over an extensive empire including Kāñchī, Andhrāpatha and Sātāhani *raṭṭha*, and performed the *Aśvamedha* sacrifice. About the middle of the fourth century A.D. the emperor Samudra Gupta invaded Southern India, defeated the reigning Pallava king, Vishṇugopa, and gave a severe blow to the power and prestige of the empire of Kāñchī which, in the long run, probably led to its disruption. The evidence of the Penukoṇḍa Plates, the Tālagunda inscription and the Hebbata grant (IHQ, 1927, 434) seems to suggest that the Pallava supremacy continued for some time to be acknowledged by the early Gaṅgas of Anantapura and East Mysore and the early Kadambas of Vaijayantī (Banavāsi) and Mahisha-Vishaya (Mysore). The history of the Pallavas
* Kings marked with asterisks may have been identical. But this is by no means certain. The settlement of early Pallava genealogy and chronology must still await future discoveries.