Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/13

Rh century, were at feud with the Pallavas of the south. "The son of Mahēndra Varman I," writes Rai Bahadur V. Venkayya, "was Narasimha Varman I, who retrieved the fortunes of the family by repeatedly defeating the Chōlas, Kēralas, Kalabhras, and Pāndyas. He also claims to have written the word victory as on a plate on Pulikēsin's * back, which was caused to be visible (i.e., which was turned in flight after defeat) at several battles. Narasimha Varman carried the war into Chālukyan territory, and actually captured Vātāpi their capital. This claim of his is established by an inscription found at Bādāmi, from which it appears that Narasimha Varman bore the title Mahamālla. In later times, too, this Pallava king was known as Vātāpi Konda Narasingapottaraiyan. Dr. Fleet assigns the capture of the Chālukya capital to about A.D. 642. The war of Narasimha Varman with Pulikēsin is mentioned in the Sinhalese chronicle Mahāvamsa. It is also hinted at in the Tamil Periyapurānam. The well-known saint Siruttonda, who had his only son cut up and cooked in order to satisfy the appetite of the god Siva disguised as a devotee, is said to have reduced to dust the city of Vātāpi for his royal master, who could be no other than the Pallava king Narasimha Varman."

I gather, from a note by Mr. F. R. Hemingway, that the Pallis "tell a long story of how they are descendants of one Vīra Vanniyan, who was created by a sage named Sambuha when he was destroying the two demons named Vātāpi and Enatāpi. This Vīra Vanniyan married a daughter of the god Indra, and had five sons, named Rūdra, Brahma, Krishna, Sambuha, and Kai, whose descendants now live respectively in the country north