TWO PANELS: One in Vaikunta Perumal temple (Kanchipuram)
The other in Angkor WatFriday, Mar 16, 2007
From Cambodia to Kanchipuram?
V.R. DEVIKA
The Hindu (India)
Is there a genealogical link between the royal house of the Kambojas and the Pallavas?
Nineteen-year-old Sinat Nhok plays on the Ksie deiv. It is a stringed musical instrument. He learnt to play it under the only living master of the instrument in Cambodia. Sinat comes from a poor village near Angkor Wat, the great temple for Vishnu in Cambodia. On a recent visit to India he got excited when he saw a similar instrument depicted on a panel on the walls of the Vaikunta Perumal temple in Kanchipuram.
Look at the two pictures of the musical instruments. One is on the wall of the eighth century Vaikunta Perumal temple in Kanchipuram and the other on the wall of the Bayon temple in Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
Did you know that the Pallavas and the Kambojas have a long connection? There is an interesting story about Pallavamalla Nandivarman's (730-800 A.D.) accession to the throne in Kanchipuram.
What legends say
The inscription on a panel in the Vaikunta Perumal temple tells us that when the Pallava King Paramesvara Varman II (705 - 710) died without a progeny, a group of scholars of the Ghatika (an assembly of learned people) made a long journey through forests, rivers and dense impenetrable jungles using many means of transport like palanquins, horses, elephants and boats and reached the kingdom of King Harivarma and asked him to come and rule in Kanchipuram. But the King said he had his own kingdom to rule but they could ask one of his four sons instead. The first three refused but the fourth one was willing. He was brought back in a similar long journey and anointed as King Nandivarma Pallavamalla in Kanchipuram. He was 12 years old then.
The mystery here is that the panel does not mention the place they went to bring the prince. Many scholars think it was a place in north Andhra as there is evidence that the Pallavas came from near the border of today's Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. (Some had argued that the Pallava is one of the five tribes mentioned in the Mahabharata as Pahlava along with Kamboja, yavana are of foreign origin.)
THE KSIE DEIV: A stringed musical instrument.
But several scholars believe that the word Gahana in the inscription may indicate the depth of the ocean and that the Ghatika scholars may have crossed the sea, but did they go to Kamboja and bring Nandivarman?
In a book Saving Angkor, C.M. Bhandari, India's former Ambassador to Cambodia (1991-94), writes of close genealogical links between a royal house of ancient Kamboja and that of Pallavas of Kanchi as a result of which following the death of the Pallava King Paramesvara Varman II, a prince from Cambodia also named as Paramesvara (alias Pallavamalla) was brought to south India and installed on the Pallava throne under the title of Nandivarman II. Wherein lies the truth? Where did Nandivarma Pallavamalla come from?
Nineteen-year-old Sinat Nhok plays on the Ksie deiv. It is a stringed musical instrument. He learnt to play it under the only living master of the instrument in Cambodia. Sinat comes from a poor village near Angkor Wat, the great temple for Vishnu in Cambodia. On a recent visit to India he got excited when he saw a similar instrument depicted on a panel on the walls of the Vaikunta Perumal temple in Kanchipuram.
Look at the two pictures of the musical instruments. One is on the wall of the eighth century Vaikunta Perumal temple in Kanchipuram and the other on the wall of the Bayon temple in Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
Did you know that the Pallavas and the Kambojas have a long connection? There is an interesting story about Pallavamalla Nandivarman's (730-800 A.D.) accession to the throne in Kanchipuram.
What legends say
The inscription on a panel in the Vaikunta Perumal temple tells us that when the Pallava King Paramesvara Varman II (705 - 710) died without a progeny, a group of scholars of the Ghatika (an assembly of learned people) made a long journey through forests, rivers and dense impenetrable jungles using many means of transport like palanquins, horses, elephants and boats and reached the kingdom of King Harivarma and asked him to come and rule in Kanchipuram. But the King said he had his own kingdom to rule but they could ask one of his four sons instead. The first three refused but the fourth one was willing. He was brought back in a similar long journey and anointed as King Nandivarma Pallavamalla in Kanchipuram. He was 12 years old then.
The mystery here is that the panel does not mention the place they went to bring the prince. Many scholars think it was a place in north Andhra as there is evidence that the Pallavas came from near the border of today's Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. (Some had argued that the Pallava is one of the five tribes mentioned in the Mahabharata as Pahlava along with Kamboja, yavana are of foreign origin.)
THE KSIE DEIV: A stringed musical instrument. But several scholars believe that the word Gahana in the inscription may indicate the depth of the ocean and that the Ghatika scholars may have crossed the sea, but did they go to Kamboja and bring Nandivarman?
In a book Saving Angkor, C.M. Bhandari, India's former Ambassador to Cambodia (1991-94), writes of close genealogical links between a royal house of ancient Kamboja and that of Pallavas of Kanchi as a result of which following the death of the Pallava King Paramesvara Varman II, a prince from Cambodia also named as Paramesvara (alias Pallavamalla) was brought to south India and installed on the Pallava throne under the title of Nandivarman II. Wherein lies the truth? Where did Nandivarma Pallavamalla come from?
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