Art. IX.—The Pallavas

Extract

The accumulation of materials for the history of the Pallavas during the last few years has been remarkably rapid and extensive: and those materials are of high quality and great importance. The broad outlines of the history of these old kings during the greater portion of their long political existence are now known fairly well: and we may wait hopefully for a similar discovery of such additional details as are wanted to fill up the open spaces within those outlines. A great gain has thus been obtained for the students of the ancient history of Southern India: the rule of a powerful and enlightened dynasty over a large portion of the Dakhaṇ now fills up a long period of time which until quite recently was supposed to have been occupied by the wanderings of a few half-savage nomads; and a natural position has been thus found in the civilized progress of these kings, for some of the most remarkable works of ancient Indian art, lying as they do within the limits which are now known to have formed the territory of the Pallavas. It is a very remarkable rehabilitation; and all the more so because it was so unexpected: and it is not the less welcome though it has destroyed the old pet theory of the Daṇḍakáraṇya in its numerous shapes and chameleon colourings, which has so persistently claimed to be the key of the ancient history of the Dakhaṇ.