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Chapter V

CONCLUSION

Having dealt with the historical and cultural geo­

graphy and ethnography of the records of the Pallavas,

it would be better to state some general observations.

The first and foremost is that the Pallava Times was a

period of transition and transformation. The transition

was from the traditional literary and Sangam era to the

historical inscriptional and Brahmanical era and the

transformation was from the Dravidian Paganism and Pan­

theon to the Neti? Aryan pantheism. Let us summarise how

the transition and transformation can be accounted for.

The transition and transformation are more conspi-

• cuous in the field of ethnography than in that of geo­

graphy.

\ The mixed character of the Pallava Historical and Cultural E e o g r a p h v - Dravidian and Indo-Arvan

In the field of geography the names of the villages

and the divisions and sub-divisions and also of the

dominant units are, more or less, intact with Dravidian 1 character, though there are a few Indo-Aryan elanents,

1 For the chronology and nature of the dimensions, overlapping nature, change in nomenclature of the units both Dravidian and Indo-Aryan a reference can be made to the second Chapter. c- n 0 >1 J

both in the Divisions and the Dividing units. It has also to be noted that it is now time to alter the conven­ tional opinion that the Pallava system of territorial administration was purely on the Mauryan lines. The statement of Krishnaswamy Aiyangar that "there is nothing in the now accessible documents to indicate that they were 1 the innovations by the Pallavas", with reference to the

Mauryan influence on the Pallava Administration, is not beyond question. The dominant units of the Pallava geography KSttam, Kurram, nSdu and Qr, though not the innovations of the Pallavas, were not the Mauryan contri­ butions too. It was the indigenous Dravidian - Tamil -

^angam units that the Pallavas adopted, especially the

Imperial line. When the Dravidian system has dominated the Pallava system as the epigraphs stand evident, it is incorrect to say that the Pallava system was run on the

Mauryan lines. Even in the case of the Indo-Aryan facet of the Pallava system, again the Mauryan influence is t not all. There is the Gupta influence as the contemporary force too. Thus the indigenous, the Mauryan and Gupta % influences have resulted in the comprehensive Pallava system.

1 Aiyangar S.K ,, Some Contributions of South of India To Indian Culture, p. 40l. There ie one more uniqueness of the Pallava units and that is ’ rashtra’ of the Indo-Aryan units. In the case of the use of *rashtra\ the Pallavas stand next only to the Mauryas and they are the first dynasty not only of but of the Deccan too to have followed the Mauryas in this respect as we do not find ’ rashtra* in the administration of the Satavahanas,

The Pallava Ethnography - Religion and iaociety

As indicated in the preceding chapter, in the final analysis, the ethnographic study the Pallava personal names results in the study of the ethnography of the

Brahmins which brings out the migration of the Brahmins.

As there is evidence for the movement of Brahmins from one region to another within the South, applied further, the very movement to the south might have been there.

The migration was possible when they are a people with a faith exogamy and schools of thought not indigenous to the south. That the migration must have been south­ ward through the Deccan is clear in that the earliest reference to the Brahmins is in the record found on the fringe of the Deccan and that the later references are in the records found in the interior South, As moat of the Pallava gotras have greater antiquity than the non-

Pallava gotras, it only establishes that the Pallavas are, apart from being the first historical Brahmanical settle­ ment in South India, are a great ethnographic unit to be reckoned with in any study of the Indian exogamy of the early Historical period. The Gotra table also establishes, probably, that a few families might have migrated towards the North, Though North-West India is the home of

Brahmanism, in the Brahmanical expansion into the interior, there need not have, necessarily been, an inch to inch movement. There might be holding of the pockets here and there and some of the families of some of the pockets of the Deccan, South India, might have migrated to the upper pockets later.

The Pallava Gods and Goddesses

Dealing with the significance of personal names after gods and goddesses we find only one god dominant

Dravidian in its origin but later absorbed in the Neo-

Aryan pantheon. It is *Muruga’ called in the Indo-Aryan usage. *Skanda’ , ’ Kumara' or *Subrahmanya’, "^radition takes that ’Muruga’ is the Tamil God and he is not only indigenous and Dravidian in his origin but, even to-day, the most popular God of indigenous Tamilnad.

1 In the later period of the South Indian History as it is even to-day, there have been many Brahmin migrations Northward and some of the families are in the with traditional origin in Tamilnad for example the Vinjimur family in the Northern Circars. Vinjimur is a village near Kanchi in the Ghingleput district of Tamilnad. T,

Unfortunately the position is not clear about the other except that there are gode and goddesses both Saivite and Vaishnavite i.e . both Dravidian and

Xndo-Aryan getting fused into the Neo-Aryan Pantheon called in the modem era and this aspect is de­ tailed out in the concerned chapter. Individually all overlap each other except *Muruga* in the name of ’ Skanda’ and ’ Kumara*. Chronologically ’ Skanda’ is distributed more or less, throughout the Pallava period,^

The fact that ’ Skanda’ a Saivite God dominates not only the Saivite Pantheon but the entire pantheon should not mean that Saivism was dominant as the number of

Saivite Gods and Vaishnavite Counterparts or more or less the same.

Historically, the Pallavas are known for their equal patronage of both Saivism and and it is re- plected in their records as in the they had con- structed.

Thus, the Pallavas had patronised in the award of thoir grants, both Saivite and Vaishnavite Brahmins. The

Pallava toleration of the rival faiths like ,

1 Please see K.A.N, Sastri’ s article on Somaskanda’ already referred to. Ante p^+- and that indigenous culture which refused to be fv absorbed in the ^ev Aryan culture is also reflected in the names like »Buddha Varman’ the name of a Pallava kingI Vajranandin a Jain saint and Perungavidi ^adaiyan

P a ^ i a poet, respectively who were donees.

Thus what we have already touched upon in the first chapter is well revealed in the records, i.e . how the two compartments of the way of life of the indigenous/

Tamil/Dravidian/Sivite culture and the Sanskrit/Vaishna- vite/Indo-Aryan cultures could create not only the %eo

Indo-Aryan thought of modern Hinduism but also, parti­ cularly in the South, the Dravidia'n or Tamil Vaishnavism essentially non-Brahmin and partly Brahmin,

Before the advent of the Pallavas, essentially reflected Saivite ideas. It was the greatest happening of the Pallava region that Vaishnavism was made popular in the Tamil literature.

The ’ Nalayira Divya Prabandham’ the greatest Vaishna- vite literature of South India - Tamilnad wherein are reflected the Vedic and the Brahmanical ideas of the

Sanskrit literature which is called ’ Uravi^a Veda Sajiigaram’ was a contemporary work with reference to the Pallava royalty too. It may look as a paradox that a book purely on the Indo-Aryan thought should be called ^Dravidian’ .

It only shows the deep penetration of the Indo-Aryan thought into the life of the common folk who were not

Brahmins. Thus the common man of the soil of bouth-India-

Tamilnad who was first brought up in the Paganism of the

Early Sangam classes, then in Sivism, was, under the

Pallavas influenced by the Vaishnavite cult too. This C ) transformation can be traced in *Nambi*. *NambiV is a

Dravidian word signifying a Vaishnavite Bhaktjiia too.

It can also be pointed out that the father of iioiith Indian

Vaishnavism viz: NammSlvar was not a Brahmin but a Com­ moner - Dravidian and a contemporary of the Pallavas.

The present cult divisions of the Tamil Society owe their place to the Pallava rule. The germs of such divisions as Vaishnavite Vedic Brahmanism of the Sanskrit literature (The Vadai^alai Cult); Saivite Vedic Brahmanism of the Sanskrit literature, Vaishnavite Vedic Brahmanism of the Tamil literature (The Tenkalai cultJ of the

Brahmins, Vaishnavite Vedic Brahmanism of the Sanskrit literature, Vaishnavite Vedic Brahmanism of the Tamil literature, Saivite indigenous {Non-Vedic Brahmanism) thought of the Tamil literature of the non-Brahmins can be traced, of course partially, in the ethnographic study of the Pallava personal names. It is this multiplicity and fluidity of the ethnographic traits that have been responsible for the fact that they refuse any rigid classification. The only exception was the cult of

*Somaskanda* that has been conspicuous, as it should be, during the period of transition and transfonnation, with ; on

its indigenous foundations.

The Pallava Vedic Brahmanism and the Aryanisation of South India

Since, of the ’ Sutras’ that of Kpastamba dominates, the theory establishing that Apastamba, the author of the Srauta, Grihya and Dharma Sutras, belongs to South

India and lived in the Godavari valley, gains further

strength especially when the Pallava early charters,

predominantly Sanskrit, are found in the coastal Andhra

Pradesh bordering the Godavary Valley. Thus a person

born in a non-Aryan country becdme a great exponent of

the Aryan thought.

Venkataraman says ’ Art and Culture of North India was transmitted through the early Pallavas ., The Pallava

Power saw the introduction of more Northern ideas and

Customs* and his statement is justified by the evidence

of the Pallava records.

The Grant of Brahmadeyams and Chaturvedi mangalam

is another instance of the recognition of the northern

culture under the Pallavas added by the epithets of the

Brahmins like ’ Chaturvedi’ , ’ Somayajin’ , ’ Bhatta’ ,

’ VasantaySjin’ , ’ Shadangavid’ , ’ Trivedin’ , *Kramavid’ ,

’ Da^apuriya’ , ’ SarvakratuySjin’ with their Vedic schools

and, in addition to the gotras already elaborated.

1 Venkataraman T .K ,, ’India’ Culture in Contacts JIH, IXXYIII, in South p. 10. o ^ {\

The reference to the Vedic sacrifices like’ A^vamedha’

and ’ Vajapeya’ is one more factor towards the establish­ ment of the influence of the Aryan thought over South

India.

It is notable that the Pallava records show only

Vedic Brahmanism and no sign of Hheistic religion’ that was the greatest contribution of the Pallavas not only to the South India but also |ndian culture. Thus, though,

historically, the Pallava times witnessed the fihakti movement of the SlvSrs and the Nayanmars, the Pallava records have no bearing on the movement. The Bhakti movement is only reflected in the contemporary Tamil literature. The Pallava documents, in the first three

centuries, have been in Indo-Aryan languages. Even later,

Tamil was not the sole language which had Sanskrit on

its par and even that Tamil portion of the Pallava records

does not reflect the Bhakti movement.

Language and Script

Another factor of the Aryanisation of South India -

Tamilnad is the introduction of the Granth^script called the Pallava-Grantha which may be an evolution of the ’ Brahmii^’ in Tamil inscriptions too. Thus, it may, per­ haps, be a paradijc again, that the first inscription of the oldest and most Dravidian literature is not' in the

Dravidian script but in the Indo-Aryan, Its Indo-Aryan 6 11

character is clear in that it is, today, the sacred

script of the Vadakalai Vaisnavite Brahmins and Saivite

Brahmins. The Pallava Grantha script was such an original

introduction that, till the current century when the

Devanagari script is being introduced, the aouth Indian

Sanskrit literature has ever been written and published 1 in the Grantha script.

The Dravldian Thought in the Pallava Records

Apart from Saivism of the Rudra cult and the Somaskandha

cult, we come across the Naga cult and Sakta cult. But

the establishment of the Naga and Sakta cults is tenta­

tive as we only deduce from the reference to quite a num­

ber of names with the component *Naga' as a prefix and

name proper and to Durga as the proper name. In fact to

*Dizrga’ there is only one reference.

The ’ KSpSlika’ and ’ KSlSmukha’ schools of Saivism

historically associated with the Pallava times, are not

• referred to in the Pallava records.

The synthesis of the Dravidian and Indo-Arvan Thoughts

After the amalgamation and the absorption of the

But the Indo Aryan character of the Grantha script will no longer be there if we accept Langdon who holds the derivation of the * firahmi* script from the Indus script which may, perhaps be Dravidian. It will finally lead to the Dravidian origin of the Pallava Grantha. ? 12

Dravidian in the Indo-Aryan was evolved a synthetic ijdeo

Aryan thought.

The cultural study of the Pallava personal names gives the favourable answer to the question like state­ ment of ’ Slater’ ^ that, "for the most part, even the foreign observers in India tend to accept that Indian culture, religion and are of Aryan origin,”

The Pallava records bear testimony that the ancient

Indian culture is an intermingling of the Northern School of the Aryan thought and the tJouthern school of the

Dravidian thought. When we find the iiouthem school in its absoluteness in the early Sangam period, we find its coming into contact with the Northern school in the period of the later and a movaaent of the synthesis of the two schools took shape under the

Pallavas in such a way that the Dravidian thought got absorbed in the Neo Aryan thought and hence, as we find ■ the Dravidian contribution to the neo Aryan Pantheon 2 we can say that the statement of Sesha lyangar that "the

Vedic Gods must have been originally Dravidian deities" is largely true.

1 Slater Gilbert, "The Dravidian Element in Indian Culture", p, 46, 2 Sesha Iyengar, P ., Dravidian India, p. 96. As, unfortunately, this book was not available, this extract has been taken out from what Venkataraman has thoroughly discussed in his op,cit,, p. 23, o 1 0 ^ i

Vedlc Brahmanism

Vedic Brahmanism is undisputedly established in the historical-cultural ethnographic study of the Psdlava personal names. The Vedic Gods, schools and gotras and thought of the Indo-Aryan character and after which the

Brahmins and the Members of the Royalty and officials of the Royal household are named, are so dominant they stand a monumental testimony to the Aryanisation of the South Indian Ethnology, The Dravidian elements are there but not so dominant. 1 The Statements of Venkateswara like ”0f the Non-

Aryan people who contributed to the cultural life of

India, the Dravidians are undoubtedly the most important...

The Antiquity of their culture is proved by its independ- ance of Aryan influence..." are quite evident in the

Ethomographic study of the Dravidian elements in the

Pallava personal names. O'

The historical validity to the Brahmanical influence over South India is derived only from the undisputable evidence of the Pallava charters. The Pallavasware the first link between the traditional South India of its

Dravidian faith and the historical South India of the

Brahmanical faith.

1 Venkateswara, S.V. , Indian Gult»xre through the Ages. Vol. I , Introduction, pp 2 ^ A reference can be made to ’ Tamil India’ by M.S. Purnalingam Filial. Though it has pro-Dravidian bias,

Continued on next page. Thus any student interested in the study of the Indo-

Aryan elanents in the South Indian Culture and environ­ ment for an historical foundation has to be a student of the Pallava geography and ethnography that is best expressed in their recorde.

Thus, when, during the times of Pallavas the Guptas k. had been carrying on what was left undone by the S^ngaa and the Nand&s for the cause of Vedic Braihmanism in the

North and the Satavahanas had just established and con- tinued to aatablish what was later carried on by the

Rashtrakutas and the Ghalukyas in the same field in the

Deccan, the Pallavas were trying to do and succeeded to N have made Dravidian South India neo-Aryan South India.

Thus the Pallavas had wiped out, to a large extent, the Dravidian distinctions of race religion and culture and to an extent of the tongue too, by being instrumental for the creation of the South Indian Neo Aryan Pantheon and Hinduism, Thus the Pallavas are the greatest contri­ butors of South India towards the Neo-Aryan Pantheon Hinduism of India,

Foot-note continued from previous page, still there are certain non-controversial awpects and it is more useful for the favourable authorities cited thereby so as to know their new points than for its independent standing. 2 1 5

The history of the Pallava records has been the history of the South Indian contributions to and the acceptance of what later evolved as Hinduism by the re­ conciliation of the Aryan and Dravidian thoughts.

Conclusion

Before we wind up the discussion, it is better to refer to one great limitation. Ihat limitation is to

emphasise that what is essentially revealed in the personal nsmes of the Pallava records is only one section of the

society, in only one field and one sided. The religious

aspect and that too of the Brahmins only is reflected

and that is Vedic Brahmanism,