The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c35.s1.40

c35.s1.40

From about the fourth to the eighth century the Pallava dynasty plays a great part in the history of Southern India. But there was no Pallava country with traditional limits. The Pallava domination, while it lasted, extended in degrees varying from time to time over all the three ancient kingdoms, the extent of such domination being in proportion to the vigour of the Pallava chiefs and the weakness of their rivals. This fact has been held to indicate that the Pallavas, like the Marāthās, were a predatory clan, tribe, or caste, which rose to power by violence, and superimposed its authority upon the Rājas of the territorial kingdoms. It is, however, possible that the Pallavas were not one distinct tribe or class, but a mixed population, composed partly of foreigners and partly of south Indian tribes or castes, differing in race from the Tamils, and taking their name from the title of an intruding foreign dynasty, which obtained control over them and welded them into an aggressive political power.¹ The tradition of the Pallava rule is faint, and the existence of the dynasty was unknown to European scholars until 1840, when the discovery of a copper-plate inscription drew their attention to the subject.² Since then many similar discoveries have been effected, and much progress has been made in the reconstruction of the dynastic framework of Pallava history.