Manchikallu Pillar Inscription of Pallava Simhavarman
Pallavas were originally indigenous subordinates, feudatories or executive officers of Satavahana dynasty but consequent to fall of the Satavahana empire, they started controlling Andhra and Tamilnadu.
Prakrit and Sanskrit were the languages spoken by them while script of the language was brahmi. Pallavas moved into Andhra, and then to Kanci (Kanchipuram in modern Tamil Nadu state, India), where they subsequently became rulers.
The founder of Pallava dynasty was Simhavarman, also called Simha Vishnu. He was a very powerful ruler.
and ruled the Pallava Kingdom from 575 to 600 AD. Simhavishnu had defeated the Kalabhras who were known as the evil rulers . He had also
defeated the cholas as well as ikshvakus and laid a firm foundation for the Pallava Empire.
He conquered the land up to the Kaveri and set up a capital at Kanchi (South of Chennai). He bore the title of ‘Avanisimha’ (Lion of the Earth)..
Simhavishnu is said to have been the patron of the Sanskrit poet Bharavi, who wrote about the duel between Siva and Arjuna known as Kirata Arjuneeya, after which Lord Shiva bestowed the divine ‘Pasupata’ missile on Arjuna.
After his death, his son, Mahendravarman, succeeded him and ruled from about 571 till 630 CE.
Pallava king Nandivarman was finally defeated by the Cholas, in the 9th century CE. Chola’s rule stretched over for over five long centuries until the 13th century. However, around the 2nd century, the state Andhra had a Chola kingdom that flourished far and wide.
Pallavas were brahmins of bharadwaj gotra and worshipped Lord Shiva & Lord Vishnu.
Inscription number 20.
Manchikallu Pillar Inscription of Pallava Simhavarman 1.
(Close of 3rd century A. D.)
Provenance: Manchikallu village, Palnad taluk, Gantur.
District: Andhra Pradesh.
Script: Brahmi of the southern class of 3rd to 4th century. A.D.
Language: Prakrit.
References: P. Seshadri Sastri, Journal of Andhra History and
Culture, II, No. 2 (July, 1944), pp, 68-69, D.C. Sircar, Ep.Ind, XXXII, pp.87-90.
Footnote 1.
The close resemblance between the palaeography and language of the present record and those of the Ikshvaku records, leads D.C Sircar to conclude, that it was the Ikshvakus, who were supplanted from the Krishna-Guntur region by the Pallavas about the end of the third and the
beginning of the 4th century A.D. The presence of Pallava Simhavarman in the vicinity of the Ikshvaku
capital of vijayapura situated in the Nagarjunikonda Valley, as suggested by the present inscription, indicates
that it was he, who destroyed that city together with its Buddhist establishment. Bull crest on their coins and seals shows that they were saivas. and their zeal for revitalising Brahmanism, is indicated by the assertion of Pallava kings,who flourished from 5th to 8th
century A.D. in their inscriptions of their ever-readiness to rescue the Dharma from decadence caused by the sins of the Kali Age. (कलियुग – दोषावसन्न – धर्मोद्वरण)
Footnote 2.
1. From the facsimile in Ep.Ind. XXXII, facing pp.87.
2. Expressed by a symbol over the last two syllables,सीह in 1.1.
3. Two letters, निय in Telugu-Kannada characters of the 7th century A.D., and traces of similar aksharas at the
end of 1.3 as well, belong to a different and later record.
4. Sircar: ki (ha) or ka (pa)
English Translation of the inscription.
Om ! Success! Presents of woollen carpets and other presents have been made by simhavarman (of the family)
of the Pallavas and of the Bharadvaja gotra, who holds the formula of Victory? in favour of the pupils of the lord, the
illlustrious Jivasivasvamin, after having performed santi and svastyayana for his own victory (and) the increase of his
religious merit and prowess, at the feet of the Bhattararaka — in the temple of Kapa —
Footnote 3.
or means, an adherent or head of any other than one’s own creed. But in the present context, the word seems to have been used in the sense
of the pupils, cf, A class fellow. The word is not found in sanskrit dictionaries. But kuttaka in Pali stands
for a woolen carpet, in which sense, it appears, the word kurttaka is used here. It has no relation to kurta,
used in the modern Indian languages, like Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali etc. in the sense of ‘a shirt, tunic, bodice or
Jacket’. as these garments are believed to have been borrowed from (the
Turkish during the Muslim period. Moreover, priests in India, particularly south India, scarcely use such a garment.
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