Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/441

 EXTENT OF THE PALLAVA KINGDOM 383 tribute and blackmail. This view of the nature of the Pallava government explains the fact that its existence was forgotten. Every man could tell the position of the Chola country, but nobody could define the Pallava country, the extent of which depended on the relative strength of a predatory tribe. In fact, during the seventh cen- tury, almost the whole of the traditional " Chola coun- try " was in subjection to the Pallavas, and the special Chola territory was limited to a small and unhealthy tract in the north. About the time (642 to 655 A. D.) the Pallavas succeeded in imposing their rule for a few years upon the whole of the Western Chalukya kingdom, and at an unspecified date they levied tribute even from the Kalinga territory in the north. The three Pallava chiefs held their courts at Kanchi, or Conjevaram, a strongly fortified town, between Madras and Arcot; at Vengi, between the deltas of the Krishna and Godavari; and at Palakkada, or Palghat, in Malabar, situated at the gap in the Western Ghats. A town named Dasanapura, from which some grants were issued, does not seem to have been the capital of a principality, and may have been only a precinct of Kanchi, which was always the headquarters of the clan. In religion the Pallavas were, so far as is known, orthodox Hindus, with the exception of one Buddhist chief, Simha-varman n, who is described as a lay wor- shipper of Buddha, and as having presented an image at Amaravati. Several of the princes were devoted to