A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c11.47

c11.47

Like the Pallavas the Sālankāyanas had the bull crest, but there is little else to show definitely that the two dynasties were closely related or that on that account the Sālankāyanas were left unmolested by their more powerful neighbours in the South. The Sālankāyana administrative system had much in common with that of the contemporary Pallavas. The village headman was called *mutuḍa*, or alderman, a title that does not occur elsewhere. The tutelary deity of the dynasty was the sun god and they worshipped Śiva or Vishnu in addition. Their charters bear a close resemblance in their script to the earliest inscriptions of the Hindu colonies of Indo-China and Malaysia, and there is good reason to hold that the Telugu country took a prominent part in the movement of colonization abroad.