History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c15.s2.6

v1.c15.s2.6

The later Pallavas were like the earlier ones great Śaivas and they have left behind them temples and caves and rock-cut rathas which are yet the admiration of the world. They surpassed the Chālukyas in this respect. The Rājasinheśvara or Kailāsanātha temple in Kānchī is famous. Who this Rājasinha was is not quite clear, but he seems to have been Narasinhavarman II (some scholars take him to be Narasinhavarman I). The birudas or titles of these kings are so numerous that it is really difficult to identify them. These birudas are the fancies of poet-flatterers. The Rājasinheśvara temple contains many such e. g. Atyantakānta, Ranachanda and so on, but as plainly showing that these Pallavas were Kshatriyas as Hiuen Tsang states, we may quote one viz: Śrikshatra-chūdamani. The Māmallapura temple of Śiva contains a short inscription in it viz. अतिरणचण्डपल्लवेश्वरगृह. In the Kailāsanātha temple in an inscription the pedigree of the Pallavas is given as (1) Brahmā (2) Angiras (3) Brihaspati (4) Śamyu (5) Bharadvāja (6) Droṇa (7) Aśvatthāmā (1) Pallava. In his line was born Ugradanda who defeated Ranarasika probably a Chālukya king. His son was Rājasinha. Dubreuil opines that Ugradanda and Lokāditya mentioned in the inscriptions of the Kailāsanātha temple at Kānchī mean Parameśvara I and Ranarasika is Vikramāditya I. Thus this Chālukya after defeating the Pallavas was in turn defeated on the banks of the Kāveri by three kings united viz. Kānchī Sinhala and Pāndya kings. The date of this defeat is 674 A. D. (see Dubreuil p. 42 noted before). The builder of the Rājasinheśvara temple would then be Narasinhavarman II of about 700 A. D. The rock-cut temples at Māmallapura near Madras called the "Seven Pagodas" and the cave temples at Mahendravādi and Māmandūr were excavated by order of these Pallava kings from Mahendravarman I (Smith). There are at Māmallapura (the name Mamalla is derived from Mahāmalla a title of Narasinhavarman I) three Śaiva temples and one Vaishnava. Dubreuil thinks that Mahendravarman and his father originally ruled in the Telagu country to the north of the Krishna and the cave works and rock-cut temples he execdted during his reign at Kānchī were copied from similar buildings and excavations at Amarāvati. The art thus in his opinion goes back to the Buddhistic period and is Greek in origin,