Pallavas ruled regions of northern Tamil
Nadu and southern Andhra Pradesh between the second to the ninth
century CE. The Pallavas gained prominence after the eclipse of
the Satavahana dynasty, whom the Pallavas served as feudatories. A
number of legends are associated with the origin of the Pallava
Origins
The Three Crowned Kings , refers to the triumvirate of
Chola, Chera and Pandya who dominated politics of the ancient Tamil
country, Tamilakam, which was made up of the regions of Chola Nadu, Chera
Nadu and Pandya Nadu. The Pallavas found no mention as rulers in Tamil regions
during this time. The earliest Tamil literature which throws light on a region
associated with the Pallavas is Ahananuruwhich locates two Tiriyans—the
elder Tiriyan in Gudur, Nellore district, with a kingdom extending
to Tirupati or Thiruvengadam; and the younger Tiraiyan whose
capital was Kanchipuram. The Sangam
work, Perumbanarruppatai, traces the line of the younger Tiriyan (aka Ilam
Tiriyan) to the Solar dynasty of Ikshvakus, while later Tamil commentators
identify him as the illegitimate child of a Chola king and a Naga princess.
PT Srinivasa Iyengar states 'Tondaiyar' means
the "tribe whose symbol was the Tondai creeper". Tondai
or Coccinia indica is commonly known as Kōvai in Tamil in
modern times, but the name Doṇḍe is the ordinary name
for the plant in Telugu.Synonyms of Doṇḍe, Tonde or Tondai
(Coccinia indica) are Cephalandra indica and Coccinia grandis.
The Proceedings of the First Annual Conference of South
Indian History Congress also notes: The word Tondai means a creeper
and the termPallava conveys a similar meaning . Since Pallavas ruled
in the territory extending from Bellary to Bezwada, it led to
the probability of a theory that the Pallavas were a northern dynasty who
having contracted marriages with princesses of the Andhra
Dynasty inherited a portion of Southern Andhra Pradesh..
KA Nilakanta Sastri postulated that Pallavas were descendants of a
North Indian dynasty of Indian origin who moved down South, adopted local
traditions to their own use, and named themselves after the land called Tondai
as Tondaiyar. KP Jayaswal also proposed a North Indian origin for
them, putting forward the theory that the Pallavas were a branch of
the Vakatakas. The association with Vakatakas is corroborated
by the fact that the Pallavas adopted imperial Vakataka heraldic marks, as is
evident from Pallava insignia. The Pallavas had on their seal, the Ganga and
Yamuna, known to be Vakataka insignia.
A Sangam Period classic, Manimekhalai, attributes
the origin of the first Pallava King from a liaison between the daughter of a
Naga king of Manipallava named Pilli Valai (Pilivalai), with a Chola King
Killivalavan, out of which union was born a prince, who was lost in
ship wreck and found with a twig (pallava) of Cephallandra indica (Tondai)
around his ankle and hence named Tondai-man. Another version
states "Pallava" was born from the union of Asvathama with
a Naga Princess also supposedly supported in the sixth verse of the
Bahur plates which states "From Asvathama was born the king named
Pallava".
Though Manimekhalai posits Ilam Tiriyan as a Chola, not
a Pallava, historically however, the Velurpalaiyam plates dated to 852 CE, does
not mention the Cholas. Instead it credits the Naga liaison episode, and
creation of the Pallava line, to a different Pallava king named Virakurcha,
while preserving its legitimizing significance:
...from him
(Aśvatthāman) in order (came) Pallava, the lord of the whole earth, whose fame
was bewildering. Thence, came into existence the race of Pallavas... [including
the son of Chūtapallava] Vīrakūrcha, of celebrated name, who simultaneously
with (the hand of) the daughter of the chief of serpents grasped also the
complete insignia of royalty and became famous.
Historically, early relations between Nagas and Pallavas became
well established before the myth of Pallava's birth to Ashwatthama took
root. Apraśasti (literally "praise"), composed in 753
CE on the dynastic eulogy in the Kasakadi (Kasakudi) plates, by the Pallava
Trivikrama, traces the Pallava lineage from creation through a series of mythic
progenitors, and then praises the dynasty in terms of two similes hinged
together by triple use of the word avatara ("descent"), as
below:
From [them] descended the
powerful, spotless Pallava dynasty [vaṁśāvatāra], which
resembled a partial incarnation [aṃśāvatāra] of Visnu, as
it displayed unbroken courage in conquering the circle of the world...and which
resembled the descent of the Ganges [gaṅgāvatāra] as it purified
the whole world.
Historian KR Subramanian states the Pallavas were originally not a
Tamil power, they were a Telugu power; and Telugu Sources know of a Trilochana
Pallava. Trilochana Pallava was killed by a Chalukya King near
Mudivemu, Cuddapah District. A Buddhist story describes Kala the Nagaraja,
resembling the Pallava Kalabhartar as a king of the region near Krishna
district. The Pallava Bogga may be identified with the kingdom of Kala in
Andhra which had close and early maritime and cultural relations with
Ceylon. Rev Heras also identified King Bappa with Kalabhartar (aka
Kalabhartri), "the head jewel of the family", whom Rev Heras proposes
as the founder of the dynasty, detecting in the references to Bappa in the
Hirahadagalli and Uruvapalli plates, "the flavour of antiquity and
veneration which always surround the memory of the founder of a
dynasty".
The earliest inscriptions of the Pallavas were found in the
districts of Bellary, Guntur and Nellore. After
a careful study of Pallava genealogy with all the available material, of no
less than 45 inscriptions, Rev. H. Heras put forth the theory that there was an
unbroken line of Pallava kings, twenty-four of them in number, who originally
ruled at some city of the Telugu country, possibly at Dasanapura, which the
Darsi Copper Plates state as their adhisthana. Dasanapura has
been identified as Darsi, in Nellore district.
Expansions into Tamil Regions
The Velurpalaiyam Plates state this of the Pallava, Simhavishnu:
He quickly seized the country of the Cholas embellished by the
daughter of Kavira (i.e. the river Kaveri), whose ornaments are the forests of
paddy (fields), and where (are found) brilliant groves of areca (palms).
The Chola country did not originally belong to the Pallavas and it
was the Pallava King, Simhavishnu, who captured the Chola
country. This military operation was opposed by many southern kings
which can be discerned from the Kasakudi Plates which state that Simhavishnu
vanquished the following rulers:
The Malaya, Kalabhra,
Malava, Chola and Pandya (kings), the Simhala (king) who was proud of the
strength of his arms, and the Keralas.
The Pallavas captured Kanchi from the Cholas as recorded
in the Velurpalaiyam Plates, around the reign of the fifth king of the Pallava
line Kumaravishnu I. Thereafter Kanchi figures in inscriptions as
the capital of the Pallavas. The Cholas drove the Pallavas away from
Kanchi in the mid-4th century CE, in the reign of Vishugopa, the tenth king of
the Pallava line. The Pallavas re-captured Kanchi in the mid-6th
century, possibly in the reign of Simhavishnu, the fourteenth king of the
Pallava line, whom the Kasakudi plates state as "the lion of the
earth". Thereafter the Pallavas held on to Kanchi till the 9th century CE,
till the reign of their last king, Vijaya-Nripatungavarman.
Other conquests and expansions
The Pallavas were in conflict with major kingdoms at various
periods of time. A contest for political supremacy existed between the early
Pallavas and the Kadambas. Numerous Kadamba inscriptions provide details
of Pallava-Kadamba hostlities. The Pallavas also contracted
matrimonial relationships with Kadambas. According to the Velurpalaiyam Plates
the mother of the Pallava king Nandivarman was a Kadamba princess named
Aggalanimmati. The Velurpalaiyam Plates also state that Nandivarman
had to fight for his father's throne.
During the reign of Vishnugopavarman II (approx. 500-525 CE),
political convulsion engulfed the Pallavas due to
the Kalabhra invasion of the Tamil country. Towards the
close of the sixth century, the Pallava Simhavishnu stuck a blow against the
Kalabhras. The Pandyas followed suit. Thereafter the Tamil country was divided
between the Pallavas in the north with Kanchipuram as their capital,
and Pandyas in the south withMadurai as their capital.
After the Kalabhra upheaval the long struggle between the Pallavas
and Chalukyas of Badami for supremacy in peninsular India
began. Both tried to establish control over the Krishna-Tungabhadra
doab. Under Skandavarman I, the Pallavas extended their dominions north to
the Krishna River and west to the Arabian Sea. Although the
Chalukya ruler Pulakeshin II almost reached the Pallava capitalm his second
invasion ended in failure. The Pallava ruler Narasimhavarman
occupied Vatapi, defeated the Pandyas, Cholas and Cheras.
The Gupta King, Samudragupta led an expedition to the
south, travelling through the forest tracts of Madhya Pradesh to Orissa,
Vishakapatnam, Godavari, Krishna and Nellore district, and intruding into
Kanchi the capital of the Pallavas. Retreating into their homeland
of Nellore and Guntur for a while the Pallavas returned to Kanchi with renewed
vigor. They then ruled with Kanchipuram as their capital uninterrupted until
hostilities with Chalukyas surfaced.
The conflict between Pallavas and Chalukyas resumed in the first
half of the eight century with multiple Pallava setbacks. The Chalukyas overrun
them completely in 740 CE, ending the Pallava supremacy in South India.
Birudas
The royal custom of using a series of descriptive honorific
titles, birudas, was particularly prevalent among the Pallavas. The
birudas of Mahendravarman I are in Sanskrit, Tamil and Telugu. The Telugu
birudas show Mahendravarman's involvement with the Andhra region continued to
be strong at the time he was creating his cave-temples in the Tamil
region. The suffix "Malla" was used by the Pallava
rulers. Mahendravarman I used the biruda, Satrumalla, "a warrior
who overthrows his enemies", and his grandson Paramesvara I was
called Ekamalla "the sole warrior or wrestler". Pallavas
kings, persumably exalted ones, were known by their title, Mahamalla or the
"great wrestler".
Languages used
All the early Pallava royal inscriptions are
either in Prakrit or in Sanskrit language, considered the official languages of
the dynasty while the official script was Pallava grantha.Similarly,
inscriptions found in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka State are in Prakrit and not
in Telugu or Kannada.The phenomenon of using Prakrit and Sanskrit as official
languages in which rulers left their inscriptions and epigraphies continued
till 6th century CE. It would have been in the interest of the ruling elite to
protect their privileges by perpetuating their hegemony of Prakrit in order to
exclude the common people from sharing power (Mahadevan 1995a: 173-188). The
Pallavas in their Tamil country also adopted the same method. They used Sanskrit
language and Pallava grantha scripts in their official orders.
The earliest copper-plate muniment (legal
document) so far discovered in India, is by the Pallavas at an early undated
time. This document was the renewal of a previous grant of a garden made
by an earlier king Bappa, to twenty Brahman families of
the Atreya, Harita, Bhradvaja, Kausika,Kasyapa, and Vatsya
gotras, who were settled in Southern India around the date of this grant.The
grant mentions certain specified shares for the Brahmans, and free from all
taxes ; to which was now added a new grant of a piece of land in a
neighbouring village for a threshing-floor, and of another piece for
house-sites, together also with four cultivating labourers, and two other
agricultural serfs attached to the soil. This endowment was created for the
increase of the merit, longevity, power, and fame of the donor's family and
race.
The grant was issued from Kanchipura, and it was
dated on the fifth day of the sixth fortnight of the rainy season in the eight
year of the donor's reign. The grant was made by the Pallava king
Sivaskanda-varman, who is mentioned as a member of the spiritual guild of rishi
Bharadvaja, and an offerer of the Agnishtoma, Vajapeya, and Asvamedha vedic
sacrifices.
The entire body of the inscription is in an old
form of Prakrit; but a short benediction in Sanskrit is added at its close,
with the king's name on the seal in its Sanskrit form. With regard to the date
of the grant, Professor Buhler remarks that "it is impossible to say how the
donor is connected with the other Pallava kings known from the sasanas as yet
published, or to fix the period when he reigned", but he derives an
argument for a tentative early date from the circumstance of its being written
in Prakrit.
Assuming the correctness of the identification
of the Pallavas with the pauranic Pahlavas, and of the Pahlavas with
the Parthians, there are good historical grounds for supposing
that Parthian colonies established themselves in the Deccan at a very
early period. From the time of the separation
of Bactria from Syria in the middle of the 3rd century BCE,
the tendency of the Bactrians, forced by the pressure of their western and
northern neighbours, was to extend themselves southwards into India. The Parthians,
after their conquest of the Bactrians about a century later, followed up their
successes by overrunning the Indian provinces of Bactria. The natural effect of
this latter movement was to press the conquered Indo-Bactrians still further
southwards and eastwards into India, with the concurrent tendency on the side
of the Parthians always to follow up the retreat of their vanquished foes.
After another interval, the Indo-Parthians were themselves forced out
of their possessions in Afghanistan, Punjab, and Upper India by the Scythian invasion,
and their only possible refuge then was in the south.
Foulkes says in the article "The Early
Pallavas of Kánchípura" published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society of Great Britain and Ireland as follows:
We can follow the footsteps
of the refugees, by means of the inscriptions of the Kshatrapas, as far as the
upper basin of the Godavari and the northern coast of
the Konkans ; and when these substantial materials fail us in tracing
their further progress southwards, the very natural conjecture arises that some
one of the more enterprising of the defeated Parthian generals would adventure
at the head of his remaining troops into the wide plains of the Dakhan (deccan)
and carve out for himself a kingdom there, or, perhaps, enter into the service
of the existing rulers of the Dakhan as an auxiliary defensive ally, having
some frontier province committed to him for the payment of his troops, and with
the ultimate inevitable result of establishing his own independent rule there.
At this point of our tentative theory we are met by the Ceylonese records
showing the great growth of the power of these Parthian colonists at a
sufficiently early time, whatever dates may hereafter be attached to the early
kings of Ceylon...
An outline of this kind, pending the discovery of more definite materials to fill in the details, quite consistently prepares us for the next succeeding historical appearance of the Pallavas in Sir Walter Elliot's Vengi copper plates of Vijaya Nandi-varman and the subsequent inscriptions of the Chalukyas, at whose arrival in the Dakhan they found the Pallavas in possession of its western districts, as far at the least as the vicinity of Badami in the middle basin of the Krishna, and of its eastern districts as far north at least as Rajahmahendri in the lower basin of the Godavari, and with their capital still at Kanchipura, where Sivaskanda-varman of our present grant reigned several centuries before.....I believe it to be, and his reign fell at any time about the end of the first century CE, or the beginning of the second.
An outline of this kind, pending the discovery of more definite materials to fill in the details, quite consistently prepares us for the next succeeding historical appearance of the Pallavas in Sir Walter Elliot's Vengi copper plates of Vijaya Nandi-varman and the subsequent inscriptions of the Chalukyas, at whose arrival in the Dakhan they found the Pallavas in possession of its western districts, as far at the least as the vicinity of Badami in the middle basin of the Krishna, and of its eastern districts as far north at least as Rajahmahendri in the lower basin of the Godavari, and with their capital still at Kanchipura, where Sivaskanda-varman of our present grant reigned several centuries before.....I believe it to be, and his reign fell at any time about the end of the first century CE, or the beginning of the second.
Governance in Kanchipuram
Pallava power was well established at the time when
Sivaskanda-varman is styled " supreme king of great kings," a title
which implies paramount authority over other rulers subject to him ; and
the circumstance of his having offered the horse-sacrifice, which indicates his
own personal appreciation of his great power. His predecessor, immediate or
otherwise, King Bappa, was wealthy enough to make donations to Brahmans of a 100,000
Ox ploughs, whatever the multiple of exaggeration may be, and many millions of
gold coin.
Tho Pallava king was assisted in his government by
'ministers" of state and "privy councillors"; and his throne was
surrounded by "royal princes." As can be ascertained from the terms
of Professor Buhler's translation, they embraced "countries" governed
by "prefects" distributed into "provinces" administered by
their "lords," and subdivided into "districts" under the superintendence
of their "rulers". Their fiscal arrangements included "custom
houses" and "officers" of customs, and "spies" or
itinerant superintendents of revenue. They had also some kind of forest
department with its staff of "foresters." They maintained a standing
army, the brigades of which were commanded by "generals," and its
minor groups of rank and file had their non-commissioned officers or
"naicks".
Their village lands were occupied by ryots who paid "eighteen
kinds" of contributions to the crown, partly in kind and partly in money
("taxes"). Amongst those which were paid in kind were "sweet and
sour milk", "grass and wood" and "vegetables and
flowers". They had to plough the crown (state) lands by turns with their
"oxen in succession," and it was a part of their obligation to keep
the roads and irrigation works in repair by a system of "forced
labour". Salt and sugar were royal monopolies; and these not infrequently
involved the ryots in "troubles".
The crown had the power to confer grants of land for religious
uses, for "the increase of the merit, longevity, power, and fame of his
own family and race," and to exempt the grantees and their grant-lands
from the payment of the customary taxes. When such land-grants were made, the
agricultural "labourers," and the "kolikas" or village
staff, were transferred with the land. These "labourers" received for
their remuneration "half the produce," according to the system of
varam.
Pallava Chronology
Early Pallavas
The history of the early Pallavas has not yet been satisfactorily
settled. The earliest documentation on the Pallavas is the three copper-plate
grants, now referred to as the Mayidavolu, Hirahadagalli and
the British Museum plates (Durga Prasad, 1988) belonging to
Skandavarman I and written inPrakrit. Skandavarman appears to have
been the first great ruler of the early Pallavas, though there are references
to other early Pallavas who were probably predecessors of
Skandavarman. Skandavarman extended his dominions from
the Krishna in the north to the Pennar in the south and to
the Bellary district in the West. He performed
the Aswamedha and other Vedic sacrifices and bore the title of
'Supreme King of Kings devoted todharma'.
In the reign of Simhavarman IV, who ascended the throne in 436 CE,
the territories lost to the Vishnukundins in the north up to the
mouth of the Krishna were recovered. The early Pallava history from this
period onwards is furnished by a dozen or so copper-plate grants inSanskrit.
They are all dated in the regnal years of the kings.
The following chronology is gathered from these three
charters:
§ Simhavarman I 275–300 CE
§ Skandavarman
§ Visnugopa 350 – 355 CE
§ Kumaravishnu I 350–370 CE
§ Skandavarman II 370–385 CE
§ Viravarman 385–400 CE
§ Skandavarman III 400–436 CE
§ Simhavarman II 436–460 CE
§ Skandavarman IV 460–480 CE
§ Nandivarman I 480–510 CE
§ Kumaravishnu II 510–530 CE
§ Buddhavarman 530–540 CE
§ Kumaravishnu III 540–550 CE
§ Simhavarman III 550–560 CE
Later Pallavas
List of later Pallavas: ]Narasimhavarman I and Paramesvaravarman I were the kings who stand out with glorious achievements in both military and architectural spheres.Narasimhavarman II built the Shore Temple.
§ Simhavishnu 555–590 CE
§ Mahendravarman I 590–630 CE
§ Narasimhavarman I (Mamalla) 630–668 CE
§ Mahendravarman II 668–672 CE
§ Paramesvaravarman I 672–700 CE
§ Narasimhavarman II (Raja Simha) 700–728 CE
§ Paramesvaravarman II 705–710 CE
§ Nandivarman II (Pallavamalla) 732–796 CE
§ Dantivarman 775–825 CE
§ Nandivarman III 825–869 CE
§ Aparajitavarman 882–897 CE
The Genealogy of Pallavas mentioned in the Māmallapuram Praśasti
is as follows:
§ Vishnu
§ Brahma
§ Unknown / undecipherable
§ Unknown / undecipherable
§ Bharadvaja
§ Drona
§ Ashvatthaman
§ Pallava
§ Unknown / undecipherable
§ Unknown / undecipherable
§ Simhavarman I (circa 275 CE)
§ Unknown / undecipherable
§ Unknown / undecipherable
§ Simhavarman IV (436 CE - circa 460 CE)
§ Unknown / undecipherable
§ Unknown / undecipherable
§ Skandashishya
§ Unknown / undecipherable
§ Unknown / undecipherable
§ Simhavisnu (circa 550-585 CE)
§ Mahendravarman I (ca. 571-630 CE)
§ Maha-malla Narasimhavarman I (630-668 CE)
§ Unknown / undecipherable
§ Paramesvaravarman I (669-690 CE)
§ Rajasimha Narasimhavaram II (690-728 CE)
§ Unknown / undecipherable
§ Pallavamalla Nandivarman II (731-796 CE)
§ Unknown / undecipherable
§ Nandivarman III (846-69)
According to the available inscriptions of the Pallavas, historian
S.Krishnaswami Aiyangar proposes the Pallavas could be divided into four
separate families or dynasties; some of whose connections are known and some
unknown. Aiyangar states
We have a certain number
of charters in Prakrit of which three are important ones. Then follows a
dynasty which issued their charters in Sanskrit; following this came the family
of the great Pallavas beginning with Simha Vishnu; this was followed by a
dynasty of the usurper Nandi Varman, another great Pallava. We are overlooking
for the present the dynasty of the Ganga-Pallavas postulated by the
Epigraphists. The earliest of these Pallava charters is the one known as the
Mayidavolu 1 (Guntur district) copper-plates.
Based on a combination of dynastic plates and
grants from the period, Aiyangar proposed their rule thus:
Early Pallavas
§ Bappa - Virakurcha - married a Naga of
Mavilanga (Kanchi) - The Great Founder of a Pallava lineage
§ Simha Varman I (275–300 or 315–345)
§ Skanda Varman I (345–355) (Shivaskandavarman)
Middle Pallavas
§ Visnugopa (340–355) (Yuvamaharaja Vishnugopa)
§ Kumaravisnu I (355–370)
§ Skanda Varman II (370–385)
§ Vira Varman (385–400)
§ Skanda Varman III (400–435)
§ Simha Varman II (435–460)
§ Skanda Varman IV (460–480)
§ Nandi Varman I (480–500)
§ Kumaravisnu II (c. 500–510)
§ Buddha Varman (c. 510–520)
§ Kumaravisnu III (c. 520–530)
§ Simha Varman III (c. 530–537)
Later Pallavas
§ Simhavishnu (537-570)
§ Mahendravarman I 571–630
§ Narasimhavarman I (Mamalla) 630–668
§ Mahendravarman II 668–672
§ Paramesvaravarman I 672–700
§ Narasimhavarman II (Raja Simha) 700–728
§ Paramesvaravarman II 705–710
§ Nandivarman II (Pallavamalla) 732–796
§ Dantivarman 775–825
§ Nandivarman III 825–869
§ Nirupathungan (869–882)
§ Aparajitavarman 882–897
Other Relationships
Khmer folklore and inscriptions relate the Funan
dynasty’s origins with that of the Pallavas. Around 180, the
Kaundinya-Gunavarman line of the Khmer civilization was founded following the
consummation of a relationship between Prince Kaundinya – a Brahman and
worshipper of Ashwatthama - with Queen Somadevi of the Naga tribe. Kang
Tai, a Chinese envoy of the third century reports that when Kaundinya arrived
to Funan by ship, the local princess tried to capture it, but was forced to
surrender, the two eventually marrying to end the
war. The Cham king Prakasadharma (Vikrantavarman I) of
657 also relates his ancestry in an inscription to the episode of Kaundinya
settling his spear in a certain place, taking Somadevi, daughter of the Nagas,
as his wife and starting a family, beginning the first Funan dynasty. In
Sri Lanka, during the reign of the The Five Dravidians of
the early Pandyan kingdom, traditions mention how Queen Somadevi
of Eelam was taken by a Tamil chief to Tamilakkam as his wife during
war. She later gave birth to a future king, Chora-Naga.
Pallava royal lineages were established in the old kingdom of
Kedah of the Malay Peninsula under Rudravarman
I, Chenla under Bhavavarman
I, Champa under Bhadravarman I and the Kaundinya-Gunavarman
line of the Funan in Cambodia, eventually their rule growing to form
the Khmer Empire. These dynasties' unique Dravidian
architectural style was introduced to build Angor Wat while
Tamil cultural norms spread across the continent, their surviving
epigraphic inscriptions recording domestic societal life and their pivotal role
in Asian trade routes.
Direct extensive contacts with these regions were maintained from
the maritime commerce
city Mamallapuram, where Mahendravarman I and his son
"Mahamalla"Narasimhavarman I built the Shore Temple of
the Seven Pagodas of Mahabalipuram.
Kadava kingdom
ReligionDuring the
thirteenth and the fourteenth centuries CE, a small principality of
the Kadava dynasty came into brief prominence. These rulers claimed
descent from the Pallavas. The notable rulers of this dynasty
are Kopperunchinga I (reigned c. 1216–1242 CE), and his son and
successor Kopperunchinga II (c. 1243–1279 CE). Together they extended
the influence of their kingdom and played a major part in the ultimate demise
of the Chola dynasty.
Pallavas
were followers of Hinduism and made gifts of land to gods and Brahmins. In line
with the prevalent customs, some of the rulers performed
the Aswamedha and other Vedic sacrifices. They were,
however, tolerant of other faiths. The Chinese monk Xuanzang who
visited Kanchipuram during the reign of Narasimhavarman I reported
that there were 100 Buddhist monasteries, and 80 temples in Kanchipuram.
Mahendravarman I was initially a patron of
the Jain faith. He later converted to Hinduism under the
influence of the Saiva saint Appar with the revival of Hinduism
during the Bhakti movement inSouth India.
Pallava architecture
The greatest accomplishments of the Pallava architecture are the rock-cut temples at Mahabalipuram. There are excavated pillared halls and monolithic shrines known as rathas in Mahabalipuram. Early temples were mostly dedicated to Shiva. The Kailasanatha temple in Kanchipuram and the Shore Temple built by Narasimhavarman II, rock cut temple in Mahendravadi by Mahendravarman are fine examples of the Pallava style temples.The temple of Nalanda Gedige in Kandy, Sri Lanka is another. The famous Tondeswaram temple of Tenavarai and the ancient Koneswaram temple ofTrincomalee were patronized and structurally developed by the Pallavas in the 7th century.The Pallavas were instrumental in the transition from rock-cut architecture to stone temples. The earliest examples of Pallava constructions are rock-cut temples dating from 610–690 CE and structural temples between 690–900 CE. A number of rock-cut cave temples bear the inscription of the Pallava king, Mahendravarman I and his successors.