The Pallavas of Kanchi

Detail

Who they were and when

• The Pallavas ruled from Kanchi (today's Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu). NCERT (Class 9, Ch 5 "State and Society up to 1000 CE") dates the dynasty c. 275–897 CE.
• Kanchi was the Pallava capital from the 3rd to the 9th century CE [5].
• Their land covered much of northern Tamil Nadu and southern Andhra.
• The dynasty's high point was the 7th century, under two kings — father and son.

Note: Britannica describes the Pallavas as "an early 4th-century to late 9th-century line of rulers" [5]. NCERT's c. 275–897 CE is the version to use in the exam; the difference is only about when the line's earliest rulers are counted from.

Mahendravarman I (reigned c. 600–630)

• A king who was also an artist. He was a fine poet and wrote a satirical Sanskrit play (a play that makes fun of people — here, of fake holy men).
• He was a big patron of art and building, and he started a new style in Dravidian architecture that scholars call the "Mahendra style" [5].
• Some of the most decorated monuments at Mamallapuram, especially those for the god Shiva, were made in his reign [5].

Narasimhavarman I 'Mamalla' (reigned c. 630–668)

• His title Mamalla means "great wrestler/warrior".
• He defeated the Chalukya king Pulakeshin II and captured Badami (also called Vatapi) [5] — this avenged an earlier Pallava defeat [5].
• But he did not stay. He withdrew, and the river Tungabhadra stayed as the unwritten border between Pallavas and Chalukyas. Neither side put this in writing; both simply kept to it.
• He sent a naval expedition to Sri Lanka to put a Sinhalese prince back on the throne. This shows Pallava sea power, not just land power.
• The five rathas (monolithic temples) at Mahabalipuram were built in his reign [5].

Kanchi — a city of trade and many faiths

• Trade goods passing through Kanchi: spices, textiles (including silk) and ivory.
• The port was Mamallapuram (Mahabalipuram). Diggings there have produced ancient Chinese, Persian and Roman coins — proof of long-distance sea trade.
• The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang visited Kanchi. He counted:
• 100 Buddhist monasteries with 10,000 priests — the number is probably exaggerated;
• 80 Hindu temples;

• many Jains.

• So Kanchi held Buddhists, Hindus and Jains at the same time. The Pallavas were patrons of Jain, Vaishnavite and Shaivite schools.

Language and learning

• The Pallavas supported both Sanskrit and Tamil.
• The Sanskrit poet Dandin was connected with their court.

Art at Mamallapuram

• Two kinds of work here, and the exam asks you to tell them apart:
• Rock-cut caves (mandapas) — a hall cut into the rock face [2][3].

• Monolithic temples — carved out of a single rock, standing free. At Mamallapuram these are the rathas, temples shaped like chariots [2][3].

• The five rathas are named after the Mahabharata characters: Draupadi, Arjuna, Bhima, Dharmaraja and Nakula–Sahadeva rathas. Each ratha is cut from a single slab of rock, with bas-reliefs (carvings that stand out a little from a flat surface) of elephants and Nandi the bull [4].

• Subjects carved: gods and goddesses, and scenes from the Mahabharata.
• The Durga–Mahishasura panel shows the goddess fighting the buffalo-demon. It is full of movement — the figures look like they are really in battle.

• The giant open-air relief called the 'Descent of the Ganges', also known as 'Arjuna's Penance' [2][4] — described as the second largest ancient monolithic structure in Asia [4].

• Structural temples (built stone by stone, not cut from rock) came later, on a big scale under Pallava Rajasimha (c. 700–728 CE) — this ended in the famous Shore Temple [3].

• The Shore Temple is really three shrines: the Rajasimhesvara (small, west-facing), the Kshatriyasimhesvara (larger, east-facing) and the Nripatisimha Pallava Vishnugriha (an oblong flat-roofed shrine holding a reclining Vishnu) [3].

• Kanchipuram itself has the Kailasanatha temple, built a little after the Shore Temple, with a tall superstructure and small shrines attached to its walls [5].

• The Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984 [2][4]. UNESCO dates the sanctuaries to the 7th and 8th centuries, carved along the Coromandel coast [2].

Water, land and village government

• The Pallavas built many irrigation tanks in Tamil Nadu. Many still work today — a rare case of ancient public works still in daily use.
• They gave tax-free land grants to villages. Such a village was called a Brahmadeya village (Class 9, Ch 5 "State and Society up to 1000 CE") — land given to Brahmanas, free of tax.
• Village assemblies under them already ran small committees called variyams. Each committee had one job:
• irrigation (tanks and channels),
• gardens,

• temple management.

• This committee habit did not die with the Pallavas. It is the base on which Chola local self-government was built.

The end

• The Pallavas ruled until the late 9th century.
• They were overthrown by the Chola king Aditya I. Chola power then replaced Pallava power in the Tamil country.

Prelims Hooks

• Pallava capital = Kanchi / Kanchipuram; dynasty dated c. 275–897 CE (NCERT); capital city from the 3rd to 9th century CE [5].
• Mahendravarman I (c. 600–630) [5] — poet, wrote a satirical Sanskrit play; gave his name to the "Mahendra style" of Dravidian architecture [5].
• Narasimhavarman I 'Mamalla' (c. 630–668) [5] — defeated Pulakeshin II, captured Badami/Vatapi; sent a naval expedition to Sri Lanka.
• Pallava–Chalukya boundary after the Badami campaign = the river Tungabhadra (unwritten).
• Port of the Pallavas = Mamallapuram; finds there include Chinese, Persian and Roman coins.
• Xuanzang at Kanchi: 100 Buddhist monasteries, 10,000 priests (likely exaggerated), 80 Hindu temples, many Jains.
• Monolithic = carved from a single rock; the five rathas at Mahabalipuram are named after Draupadi, Arjuna, Bhima, Dharmaraja, Nakula–Sahadeva [4]; built under Narasimhavarman I [5].
• 'Descent of the Ganges' / 'Arjuna's Penance' — giant open-air relief; called the second largest ancient monolithic structure in Asia [4].
• Shore Temple built under Rajasimha (c. 700–728 CE); a complex of three shrines [3]. Mahabalipuram inscribed by UNESCO in 1984 [2][4].
• Pallava tax-free village grant = Brahmadeya; village committees = variyams (irrigation, gardens, temples).
• Sanskrit poet at the Pallava court = Dandin. Pallavas ended by the Chola Aditya I, late 9th century.

Mains Points

• Victory without annexation. Narasimhavarman I took Badami but pulled back to the Tungabhadra. Use this to argue that early medieval southern warfare aimed at prestige and plunder, not at swallowing the rival's core land — the Deccan settled into a long Pallava–Chalukya balance rather than one empire.
• The state as patron, not as a sect. The same dynasty funded Jain, Vaishnavite and Shaivite institutions, supported Sanskrit and Tamil together, and ruled a capital where Xuanzang saw Buddhist monasteries, Hindu temples and Jains side by side. Good evidence against treating any early Indian kingdom as single-religion.
• Rock to structure — a traceable line of architecture. Cave mandapas → monolithic rathas under Narasimhavarman I → fully built structural temples under Rajasimha (Shore Temple) → the Kailasanatha at Kanchi [3][5]. This is the run-up to the Chola temple style; you can date a southern temple by where it sits on this line.
• Pallava roots of Chola local government. The variyam committees for irrigation, gardens and temples, plus Brahmadeya grants and still-working irrigation tanks, show that the famous Chola village assemblies were an inheritance that the Cholas refined, not an invention. Useful for any question on continuity in South Indian administration.