Indian Antiquary Vol 46

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 54

52
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(MAROH, 1917
failure and Manavarma returned and waited till four kings had ruled in Ceylon. In other words he had to bide his time during the rest of the reign of Hattadhata II and the reigns of his successors till, in A. D. 891, he was able to reinstall himself on the throne in Anuradhapura. He ruled afterwards for thirty-five years. Assuming that he came to India a young man, about 65 years of active life seem possible ; but there is a discrepancy of about 35 years between the Ceylonese and Indian chronology. Let that pass. The synchronism is near enough, notwithstanding this discrepancy, to justify this assumption that Manavarma and Narasith ha-Varman I. Mahamalla were contemporaries.
What was the port of embarkation of this grand Armada? Narasimha ha's capital was at Kanchi, and Narasimha's name or title figures prominently in several of the structures in Mahabalipuram, considered the oldest according to architectural standards. The natural inference then would seem to be that this Mahabalipuram as it is now called, was the chief port of the Pallavas, and that, since the Pallava ruler, Mahamalla Narasimha attempted to enhance its importance by building these structures, it came to be known then Mamallapuram. This conclusion finds support in the following passage in the life of Hiuen Tsiang. The city of Kanchipura is situated on the mouth (bay) of the Southern Sea of India, looking towards the kingdom of Simhala, distant from it three days' voyage.' The city 8 of Kanchipura here referred to can be no other than the port of Kanchipura,' in all likelihood Mahabalipur. This probability is enhanced by what follows regarding the arrival of the two Buddhist Divines, Bodhimoghesvara and Abhayadamshtra, because of a revolution in Ceylon. They are said to have just arrived at the city, and this could only be in the port and not at the capital 40 miles inland. The corresponding passage in Watter's Yuwan Chwang Vol. II. p. 227, is Kanchipura is the sea port of South India for Ceylon, the voyage to which takes three days,
Compare with this the following description of Talabayanam by Tirumangai Alver:Oh my foolish mind, circumambulate in reverence those who have the strength of mind to go round the holy Talasayanam, which is Kaļalmallai, in the harbour of which, ride at anchor, vessels bent to the point of breaking laden as they are with wealth, rich as one's wishes, trunked big elephants and the nine gems in heaps.'
There still remains the form of the name Mallai, distinguished often as Kadalmallai, the Mallai close to the sea.' This is the name invariably used by Tirumangal Alvar, who lived one generation later than Narasimba. Even Bhatatta var, whose native place it was, refers to it as Mallai. This must have been an anterior name therefore, and the distinction 'Kadalmallai'raises the presumption that there was another Mallai, and possibly a people called Mallar, referred to by Tirumangai Ajvar in the designation of Paramosvaravarman, Pallavan Mallaiyarkón' (the king of Mallar.)
The first plate represents what is usually known as the Pancha Pandava Ratha. This name seems to have arisen at a time when the significance of the 'rathas' had long
8 Beal's Hiuen Tsiang, p. 139. 9 புலன்கொள் நிதிக்குவையோடு புழைக்கைம்மாகளிற்றினமும் சலங்கொள் நவமணிக்குவையும் சுமந்தெங்கும் சான்றொசிந்து கலங்களியங்கும் மல்லைக்கடன் மல்லைத்தல சயனம் வலங்கொள் மனத்தாரவரை வலங்கொள்ளென் மடநெஞ்சே.