Pallava dynasty

The Pallavas were a dynasty of southern India who ruled from around 275 to 897 CE, with their capital at Kanchipuram in the northern Tamil country. At their height in the seventh century they controlled the Coromandel coast and much of the southern Telugu lands. They are remembered above all as builders: their rock-cut shrines and early stone temples laid the groundwork for the architecture of medieval south India.

Where the Pallavas came from is still argued over. Their earliest records are copper-plate grants of the late third and early fourth centuries, written in Prakrit and found mostly in Andhra Pradesh, with one, the Hirahadagali plate, dated to 283 CE. One school of historians, including K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, sees them as former governors under the Satavahanas who moved south to Kanchi when that empire weakened. Others argue for a local origin in Tondaimandalam, the region around Kanchi, pointing to Tamil traditions that make a Chola prince, Ilandiraiyan, the founder of the line. Later Pallava inscriptions traced their descent from the epic hero Ashvatthaman.

The early rulers issued grants first in Prakrit and later in Sanskrit, and their dates are reconstructed from regnal years in these charters, so the chronologies proposed by different scholars do not fully agree. Kanchi itself changed hands more than once: it was lost to the Cholas in the fourth century and, after a period of disorder caused by the Kalabhras, retaken in the sixth. By the end of that century the Tamil country was split between the Pallavas in the north and the Pandyas of Madurai in the south.

The revival began with Simhavishnu, who ruled from roughly 575 to 600. His son Mahendravarman I (around 600–630) expanded the kingdom, commissioned the first rock-cut cave temples and is credited with writing a play, the Mattavilasa Prahasana. His reign also opened a long struggle with the Chalukyas of Vatapi, whose king Pulakeshin II raided Pallava lands. Mahendravarman's son Narasimhavarman I (630–668), called Mamalla, the "great wrestler", defeated the Chalukyas and in 642 captured and sacked Vatapi itself; the port of Mamallapuram took its name from him. He also sent armies to Sri Lanka to help a Sinhalese prince, Manavarman, take the island's throne. The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang visited Kanchipuram during his reign and reported about 100 Buddhist monasteries and 80 Hindu temples there.

The kings were Hindus who gave land to temples and Brahmins and performed Vedic sacrifices, yet other faiths were tolerated. Their period saw the spread of the devotional poet-saints of Shiva and Vishnu, the Nayanars and Alvars. Royal grants moved from Prakrit to Sanskrit, and from the reign of Paramesvaravarman I many were written partly in Sanskrit and partly in Tamil. The Pallava script, a form of Brahmi, fed into the later Tamil and Grantha scripts and influenced many scripts of Southeast Asia. In building, the Pallavas moved from caves to free-standing temples: the monolithic rathas of Mamallapuram, the Shore Temple of Narasimhavarman II and the Kailasanatha temple at Kanchipuram.

After Paramesvaravarman II the throne passed to a collateral branch, the Kadavas, beginning with Nandivarman II Pallavamalla, who reigned from about 732 to 796. The kingdom faced the Chalukyas, later the Rashtrakutas, and the Pandyas. In about 878 the last king, Aparajita, defeated the Pandyas at Thirupurambiyam with Chola and Western Ganga help, but the victory strengthened his Chola ally. Around 897 the Chola king Aditya I invaded, Aparajita was killed, and the Pallava lands passed to the Chola dynasty.

Our maps for 500, 600 and 700 draw the kingdom under the label "Pallavas", with the Chalukyas to the north and the Pandyas to the south; on our 800 map the Rashtrakuta state holds much of the area.