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Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Narasimhavarman I

Pallava king of Kanchi (about 630–668), son of Mahendravarman I, called Mahamalla and Vatapikonda, 'conqueror of Vatapi'. He defeated the Chalukya Pulakesin II and took the Chalukya capital Badami (Vatapi). The Telugu provinces lost in his father's reign were not recovered, and the Chalukya Vikramaditya I, whose grants reach the Nellore country, fought him and his successors.

Narasimhavarman I was the most successful of the Pallava kings against the Chalukyas of Badami. R. Gopalan dated his reign about 630–660; G. Jouveau-Dubreuil, 630–668.12 He did not win back the Telugu provinces that his father had lost. In Sewell and Aiyangar’s account his kingdom had shrunk in the north through the Chalukya conquest and grown somewhat in the south.3

Family

Narasimhavarman I was the son of Mahendravarman I.4 The Velurpalayam plates say that from Mahendra “was born Narasimhavarman I”, who took the pillar of victory standing in the centre of Vatapi.5 See Mahendravarman I. His son Mahendravarman II succeeded him, and his grandson was Paramesvaravarman I.46

The war with Pulakesin II

The Kuram plates of his grandson say that Narasimhavarman defeated Pulakesin II in the battles of Pariyala, Manimangala and Suramara. Gopalan identified Manimangala with Manimangalam, about twenty miles from Kanchi, and concluded that the Chalukyas had invaded the Pallava country again early in his reign.1 Narasimhavarman then sent an army under his general Siruttondar against the Chalukya capital, Vatapi (Badami), which it took and sacked. He took the title Vatapikonda, “conqueror of Vatapi”.15 Sewell and Aiyangar dated the capture of Badami to 642.7

The Chalukyas in the Nellore country

The Chalukya Vikramaditya I, who began to reign about 655, fought three successive Pallava kings: Narasimhavarman I, Mahendravarman II and Paramesvaravarman I. His Gadval plates of 674 name all three.87 A grant of Vikramaditya I is the earliest record in Butterworth and Venugopaul Chetty’s collection of Nellore inscriptions. They saw in it “an indication of the dispossession of the Pallavas from this part of the East Coast by the Western Chalukyan dynasty”.9 The Nellore gazetteer of 1942 describes his grant from Talamanchi in the Kovur taluk. It thought that the Pallavas, after raiding the Chalukya territories for some time, lost their hold on the Telugu and Kannada borderlands.1011

Footnotes

  1. Gopalan, History of the Pallavas of Kanchi (1928), p. 97 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. G. Jouveau-Dubreuil, Ancient History of the Deccan (1920), p. 70, genealogical table (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  3. Robert Sewell and S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 23 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  4. R. Gopalan, History of the Pallavas of Kanchi (1928), p. 83 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  5. Gopalan, History of the Pallavas (1928), p. 98 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  6. Gopalan, History of the Pallavas (1928), pp. 103–104 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  7. Sewell and Aiyangar, Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (1932), p. 24 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  8. D. C. Sircar and P. Seshadri Sastri, “Vunna Guravayapalem Plates of Paramesvaravarman I, Year 19”, Epigraphia Indica XXXII (1957–58), p. 95 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  9. Alan Butterworth and V. Venugopaul Chetty, A Collection of the Inscriptions on Copper-Plates and Stones in the Nellore District, Part I (1905), Preface, p. vi (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  10. Gazetteer of the Nellore District, brought up to 1938, Vol. A (1942), p. 32 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  11. Gazetteer of the Nellore District, brought up to 1938, Vol. A (1942), p. 33 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

Dynasties

Pallavas

c. 250–900 CE

Dynasty of Kanchi (Kanchipuram) whose kings held the Telugu country south of the Krishna for much of the 4th to 7th centuries CE. Their earliest charters, in Prakrit, were sent from Kanchi to an officer at Dhanyakataka near Amaravati. A later line issued Sanskrit grants of villages in the Guntur and Nellore country from camps such as Palakkada and Dasanapura. The Chalukyas took Vengi and the Guntur country early in the 7th century. But Pallava kings still granted villages in Nellore until about 700, and their vassals held parts of Chittoor and Rayalaseema until the Chola conquest about 900.

References

Sources (6)
  1. R. Gopalan, History of the Pallavas of Kanchi (opens in a new tab), University of Madras, 1928, pp. 97–104. [Public domain]
  2. G. Jouveau-Dubreuil, Ancient History of the Deccan (opens in a new tab), The author, Pondicherry (translated by V. S. Swaminadha Dikshitar), 1920, pp. 70. [Public domain]
  3. Robert Sewell (ed. S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar), The Historical Inscriptions of Southern India (Collected till 1923) and Outlines of Political History (opens in a new tab), University of Madras, 1932, pp. 23–24. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  4. D. C. Sircar and B. Ch. Chhabra (eds.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXXII (1957–58) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1959, pp. 95. D. C. Sircar and P. Seshadri Sastri, Vunna Guravayapalem Plates. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  5. Alan Butterworth and V. Venugopaul Chetty, A Collection of the Inscriptions on Copper-Plates and Stones in the Nellore District, Part I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1905, vi. [Public domain]
  6. W. E. Johns, Gazetteer of the Nellore District, brought up to 1938, Vol. A (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1942, pp. 32–33. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]

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