പേജുകള്‍‌

PALLAVA DYNASTY


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 [vaśāvatāra], which resembled a partial incarnation [aśāvatāra] of Visnu, as it displayed unbroken courage in conquering the circle of the world...and which resembled the descent of the Ganges [gagāvatāra] 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.
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.