The Pallava king Narasimhavarman

Pallava capital

In his conflict with the Pailavas he almost reached the Pallava capital, but the Pailavas purchased peace by ceding their northern provinces to Pulakesin II. About A.D. 610 Pulakesin II wrested from the Pailavas the region between the Krishna and the Godavari, which came to be known as the province of Vengi. Here was set up a branch of the main dynasty, and it is known as the Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi. However, Pulakesin’s second invasion of the Pallava territory ended in failure.

The Pallava king Narasimhavarman (A.D. 630668) occupied the Chalukya capital at Vatapi in about A.D. 642, when Pulakesin II was probably killed in fight against” the Pailavas. Narasimhavarman assumed the title of Vatapikonda or the conqueror of Vatapi. He is also said to have defeated the Cholas, the Cheras’, the Pandyas and the Kalabhras.

Towards the end of the seventh century there was a lull in this conflict, which was again resumed in the first half of the eighth century A.D. The Chalukya king Vikramaditya II (A.D. 733745) is said to have overrun Kanchi three times. In 740 he completely defeated the Pailavas.

His victory ended the Pallava supremacy in the far south although the ruling house continued for more than a century afterwards. However, the Chalukyas could not enjoy the fruits of their victory over the Pailavas for long for their own hegemony was brought to an end in 757 by the Rashtrakutas.

Temples

Besides the performance of Vedic sacrifices, I the worship of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, especially of the last two, was getting popular. From the seventh century the Alvar saints, who were great devotees of Vishnu, popularized the worship of this god. The Nayannars rendered a similar service to the cult of Siva. The Pallava kings constructed a number of stone temples m the seventh and eighth centuries for housing these gods.

The most famous of them are the seven rather temples found at Mahabalipuram, at a distance of 65 km from Madras. These were built m the seventh century by Narasimhavarman, who founded the port city of Mahabalipuram or Mamallapuram This city is also famous for the Shore Temple, which was a structural construction. In addition to this the Pallavas constructed several structural temples at their capital Kanchi. A very good example was the Kailasanath temple built in the eighth century.

The Chalukyas of Badami erected numerous temples at Aihole from about A.D. 610. Aihole contains as many as 70 temples.

Understanding of ancient materials

In theory, these could not fail to locate any conspicuous architectural remains. However, today, with labor costs enormously increased, they would be prohibitively expensive and involve a great deal of work, which would be likely to prove pointlessly repetitive.

The truth is that the disposal of trial excavations, their area and shape, can only be determined by practical considerations, depending on inferences made from the conformation of the mound itself. In addition, the nature of these can only be adequately explained by citing a variety of practical examples, as it is intended to do in the pages, which follow.

However, for the moment it may be well to return to the subject of wall tracing and the understanding of ancient materials.

In the very early stages of community life in the Near East, walls were often built of pies, which is the equivalent of the South American term, adobe; that is, simple clay mixed with straw and built up in convenient lumps or slabs. After this came the almost universal use of sun dried mud bricks, prismatic in shape but of widely varying dimensions. Mud brick, as is now generally known, is made with the aid of a four-sided wooden mound, having no top or bottom.