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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. XXII.
In fact a record from Humcha states that Sripurusha slew the valiant Käduvetti of Kanohi and appropriated to himself, from the Pallavas, the title Permānadi' which was from this time onwards exclusively used to denote the Gangas." Pallavamalla, however, did not keep quiet. The present inscription records one invasion against the Ganga king. In the Tandaptõttam plates, dated six years later, i.e., in his 58th year, Pallavamalla claims to have taken from him & neck ornament which contained in it the gem called Ugródaya. Sripurusha, therefore, seems to have given trouble to Pallavamalla till late in the latter's reign.
The Bana country, known as Perumbānappādi, lay to the west of the Andhra country between the Pallava and the Ganga kingdoms. In the beginning, the Bānas offered opposition to Pallava expansion, but in the Pallava-Ganga fights, they had to join one side or the other. They first became the subordinates of the Gangas. Dindigarar, & Bāņa king ruling over Kaļbappunādu, was a subordinate of Sripurusha. A stone inscription of the time of the Ganga prince Madhava Muttaraga at Talla palla refers to his expedition against Māvali-Vānarasa and to the battle of Köyättür, i.e., Laddigam in the Chittoor district. Though forced by circumstances to join the Gangas at times, the Bāņas generally threw in their lot with the Pallavas. At the time of our record we see that the Bāna king sided the Ganga' in checking the Pallava aggression. In this attack the Pallava king must have felt the necessity for creating a buffer state of the Bāņa territory, for we find within the next few years the Bāņa chiefs figuring as subordinates of the Pallavas and acting as the guardians of the frontier territory of their overlords. In our inscription the Bäna contemporary of Pallavamalla is merely called by the general title Vänaraiyar without giving his actual name. It is evident that he cannot be Vikramaditya I., the son-in-law of Prithivipati I., as he figures in the 17th year of Nandivarman III.10 We may identify him with Nandivarman, the historical founder of the Bana kingdom.11 Our record gives us to understand that this Vänaraiyar did not take an active part in checking the Pallava attack on Penkulikkottai, though it indicates his support of the Ganga cause. It will be seen from the present inscription that he stood in the relation of a
1 Ep. Carn., Vol. VIII, Nr. 35. Though this record is about three oonturies later than the time of Sripurusha and also contains some wrong statements, the adoption of the title 'Permadi'i.e., Perumdnadiga) by the West ern Ganga rulers is borne out by their records ; but the other statements made in it cannot be accepted as correct unless we get reliable evidence in support of them.
* It has been suggested that Paramokvaravarman II was the Pallava king slain on the battlefield at Vilardo. Though probable, we do not know much about this ruler to st.rm it.
The Ganga ohiofs seem to have adopted not only the title Permdnadi but also other titles of the Pallavaa as well. Vijaya-Narasimhavikramavarman and Vijays-Isvaravarman whose inscriptions are found at Bangavādi in the Kolar district, Kilmuttugur and Valur in the North Aroot district and Hanumantapuram in the Salem district and who have been taken as Pallavas or rather Ganga-Pallavas hitherto, must really be Ganga chiefs adopting Pallava titles. These chiets do not call themselves Pallarms and their inscriptions are in Vattoluttu characters which we do not find in Pallava records. From the elephant and hans figures (above, Vol. IV, p. 177), carved in relief on one of the slabs containing an inscription of Narasimhavikramavarman, Dr. Hultzach also ooncluded that Narasimhavarman was probably – Western Ganga chief (ibid.).
. 8. I. I., Vol. III, p. 517, verbo 6. . Mysore Archeological Report for 1927, p. 100. • Ep. Carn., Vol. X, Bp. 13. This inscription is assigned by Ripe approximately to A.D. 725. In the battle of Soremati also tho Bapa chief sided the Ganga ruler (No. 543 of 1906).
The Banas figure as rabordinates of Pallavamalla, Danti, Nandi II and Nripatunga (abovo, Vol. XI, p. 235)
8.1. ., Vol. III, No. 47 and 48. 1. Ibid., p. 93.
11 Abovo, Vol. XVII, p. 3. This Bapa chiot must ovidently have been so called after the came of his Pallavs overlord Nandivarman (II).
