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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. VIII.
fully developed and the other without it. The former is more common, while the latter occurs at least twice. The vowel is added to the consonant t in two different ways: one, as in modern Tamil, with a vertical stroke going upwards, and the other without it. The latter is perhaps meant to be Grantha, though it is used in Tamil words also. The akshara lu, which occurs twice (11. 8 and 16), differs from the modern form of it in the vertical stroke of the usymbol being omitted as in tu.
The inscription consists of 19 lines of Tamil prose and is dated during the reign of king Dantivarma-Maharaja, who was "the ornament of the Pallava family" and belonged to the Bharadvaja gôtra. There is thus no doubt that he belonged to the Pallava dynasty. The only other record of Dantivarma-Mahârâja hitherto known is mutilated, and the description of the king which we find in the Triplicane inscription is there missing. It is therefore uncertain if the two kings were the same. In any case, as the name Dantivarman does not occur in the hitherto known genealogies of the Pallavas, and as the alphabet of the Triplicane inscription does not look very ancient, it may be concluded that the Dantivarma-Maharaja of the subjoined record was later than the Pallava king Nandivarman Pallavamalla, who fought against the Western Chalukya Vikramaditya II. (A.D. 733-34 and 746-47).3
Nandivarman Pallavamalla is believed to have been the last powerful king of the Pallavas of Conjeeveram, who probably ceased to be a ruling power about the middle of the 8th century A.D. The Ganga-Pallavas appear to have taken their place, thongh the exact period when this happened is not yet known. Leaving out Vijaya-Narasimhavarman and VijayaIsvaravarman, whose relationship to the main line is not yet ascertained, four Ganga-Pallava kings are known, vis. Danti(vikrama)varman, Nandi(vikrama)varman, Nripatunga(vikrama)varman and Kampa(vikrama)varman. The last was probably a brother of the thirds and might have been his co-regent in a portion of the Pallava dominions; but he is not mentioned in the Bâhûr plates of Nripatunga. Adding together the latest known years of the other three (Dantivikramavarman 51 years,10 Nandivikramavarman 62 years, and Nripatungavikramavaran 26 years12), we get 139 years. The Chôla king Parantaka I. was actually ruling over the dominions of the Ganga-Pallavas, and therefore it may be supposed that the overthrow of the latter by the Cholas took place during the reign of his predecessor Aditya I. Accordingly, the event may be placed roughly in A.D. 900.13 Deducting the total duration of the reigns of the Ganga-Pallava kings, we obtain roughly A.D. 760 as the date of the accession to power of the first king Dantivikramavarman. This event cannot be placed earlier, because the Rashtrakuta king Govinda III. is reported to have levied tribute from Dantiga, the ruler of Kâñchi, about A.D. 804, and this Dantiga has been identified with the Ganga-Pallava king Dantivikrama
1 Compare Prof. Hultzsch's remarks in South-Ind. Inscr. Vol. III. p. 90.
2 Compare Prof. Hultzsch's remarks in ibid. Vol. II. p. 344, note 3. Dr. Fleet's Dyn. Kan. Distr. p. 328.
Above, Vol. V. p. 157.
Above, Vol. IV. pp. 178 and 360, and Vol. VII. p. 22 f. Dr. Fleet thinks that Vijaya-Narasimhavarman was the earliest of the Ganga-Pallavas, and that his initial date must be placed somewhere about A.D. 760 to, 770; above, Vol. V. p. 160.
Above, Vol. VII. p. 23 f.
7 Skandasishyavikramavarman of the Râyakota plates was also a Ganga-Pallava. He is said to have belonged to the family of another Skandasishya, who was the son of the Mahabharata hero Asvatthâman by a Naga woman; above, Vol. V. p. 52. We have however no clue as to the time when Skandafishyavikramavarman lived. Neither are we told what relationship he bore to the main line.
8 Above, Vol. VII. p. 196.
Extracts from this inscription were given by Prof. Hultzsch; above, Vol. IV. p. 180 f.
10 No. 262 of the Government Epigraphist's collection for 1904.
11 South-Ind. Inacr. Vol. III. p. 90.
See the Annual Report on Epigraphy for 1905-06, Part II., paragraph 10.
13 Above, Vol. IV. p. 182.
