A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c11.68

c11.68

From the middle of the fourth century, the Kadambas rose to power in the south-west Deccan as a result of the Pallavas' weakened position after Samudragupta's invasion of the South. The earliest Kadamba inscription is in the Prākrit language and is found engraved on a pillar below a shorter record of the Chutus. The Kadambas were a Brahmin family which derived its descent from Hāriti and belonged to the Mānavya gōtra. They were devoted to the study of the Vedas and the performance of Vedic sacrifices. The Kadamba king Mayūraśarman entered the ghatikā (college) at Kāñchipuram with the intention of studying the entire Veda; but a fierce quarrel with a mounted Pallava guard encouraged him to forsake the scholar's cell for the battlefield. He overpowered the Pallava frontier-officials and entrenched himself in the dense forests round about Śrīparvata after levying tribute from the Brihadbāṇas and other subordinates of the Pallavas. He continually harassed the Pallava forces sent against him and peace only came when they recognized his sovereignty over all land between the western sea and Preharā (by which, perhaps is meant the Tungabhadra or Malaprabha). A short stone inscription in Prākrit from Chandravalli mentions in relation to Mayūraśarman a tank, and the names of Ābhira, Sakasthāna, Sayindaka, Punnāṭa and Mokari, among others; the import of the record is by no means clear.