Indian Antiquary Vol 52

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 91

APRIL, 19.3]
THE ORIGIN OF THE PALLAVAS
113 to 135 A.D. The destruction of Puhâr was therefore a little before this. It is also said in the Manimekalai that while Killi was reigning at Uraiyur, his brother Iļamkilli or Iļamko was at Kanchi, and after him Kilļi's son by a Någa princess, Tondairân Iļantirayan, was installed at Kânchi. All these facts, taken from the Tamil Epics, were given by Prof. Krishnaswami Aiyangar in a very valuable and instructive paper, published in the Indian Antiquary. But if he had dived deeper, he would have found more information throwing a great deal of light on the origin of the Pallavas. Tondaimán Ilantirayan was the son of Killi by Pilivalai, the daughter of Valaivanan, the Naga king of Mani-pallavam. He was lost in a shipwreck on his way from Mani-pallavam to Puhâr, but was afterwards found washed ashore coiled up in a tondai creeper, and he was therefore called Tondaimán Iļantirayan, Tondaimân, and also Tirayan, because he was washed ashore by the sea. The sove. reignty of Toncaimandalam, separated from Cholamandalam, was assigned to him by his father, and he was the first king of Tondaimandalam, which was so called after his name, with his capital at Kanchi. Killi is also alleged to have caused a grove and a tank to be made at Kážchi in imitation of those in the island of Mani-pallavam.10 This tank was perhaps the one referred to in the Kasakudi plates as the tank of Tirayan.1! Ilantirayan was the first independent king who reigned at Kanchi, and the dynasty started by him was called the Pallava dynasty. He must have come to the throne about the third quarter of the second century A.D. The destruction of Puhår and the consequent removal of the capital to Uraiyûr before 150 A.D., is confirmed by Ptolemy, the Alexandrian geographer, who wrote his work about that time, as he calls Orthoura (Urantai or Usaiyûr) the capital of the Cholas. As, perhaps, Iļantirayan's Någa mother was not considered equal in rank to his father, his dynasty was not called by the usual patronymic, but was designated by his mother's native place Mani-pallavam. Mani-pallavam has been identified as the Jaffna Peninsula, which was then an island; and to observers sailing up from India the island would have appeared just like a sprout or growth on the mainland of Lanka, and hence it was called 'pallavam,' which in Tamil means 'a sprout' or 'the end of a bough.' The name Mani-pallavam occurs only in the Manimekalai. The more ancient name of the island was Manipuram ; and the Sinhalese called it Mani-Nagadipa, as it was populated by the Nâgas and governed by Nâga kings.12 The prefix Mani appears to have been retained and the name pallavam added by the Tamils, as it appeared like a sprout springing from a mother tree. The later Pallavas called themselves by the birudas Buddhyankúra, Nayan. kära, Tarunankûra and Lalitankůra, with the Sanskrit ending ankúra ineaning 'a sprout.' The title Potharâyar, adopted by the Pallava kings, is also derived from the Tamil word pôtu, meaning 'a sprout and synonymous with pallavam. These facts clearly show that they retained the nemory of their origin and adopted titles bearing the same meaning as the Tamil word pallavam.13
In the Râyakotta plates, 14 a Pallava king Skânda Sishya, supposed to have lived earlier than Vishņugopa (330 A.D.), claims descent from Asvaddhaman, the Brahman warrior of the Mahabharata, through a Någa princez8. The origin of Iļantirayan was either forgotten by
. Mahavanoa, List of Kings, part I; but Mr. Geiger gives 171-193 A.D. for Gajabahu. 7 Perumpamarrupadai, 1. 37. 8 Ante., vol. XXXVII, Celebrities in Tamil Literature, p. 235. 9 Perumpanarrupadai, 11:31–37. 10 Manimekalai, Canto XXVIII, 11 : 201 - 207. 11 South Indian Inscriptions, vol. II, No. 73. 11 JOBRAS., vol. XXVI, Någadipa and Buddhist Remains in Jatkaa. 15: Epigraphic Indica, vol. VII, p. 145. 6 Ibid., vol. V, No. 8.