A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c6.7

c6.7

After the close of the Sangam epoch, from about A.D. 300 to A.D. 600, there is an almost total lack of information regarding occurrences in the Tamil land. Some time about A.D. 300 or a little later the whole country was upset by the predatory activities of the Kalabhras who are described as evil rulers who overthrew numberless chieftains (adhirājar) of the land and got a stranglehold on the country. With the overthrow of the Kalabhras opens the new era of Pāndya-Pallava achievements from the close of the sixth century A.D. This obscure period of Tamil history was marked in the Deccan proper by the rise into prominence of several dynasties of kings who divided among themselves the heritage of the Sātavāhana empire, kept up its administrative and political system, and carried forward its artistic and cultural traditions. The Ābhiras and Traikūṭakas in the north-west, the Vākāṭakas in Berar, the Ikshvākus, Sālankāyanas and Vishnukundins in the eastern Deccan, and the Chutas, Kadambas, Gangas and Pallavas in the south Deccan are the most notable among these dynasties. Buddhism and Jainism made considerable progress in this period, the former inspiring the art of Ajantā, the Andhra country, and Sigiriya in Ceylon, the latter finding widespread acceptance among the kings of the western Deccan and the Tamil country and possibly also among considerable sections of their subjects. To this period also belong the earliest extant inscriptions from Burma, Malaya, Java, Borneo and Indo-China that furnish unmistakable evidence of the important part played by the Deccan and South India in the colonization and aryanization of these lands.