page_title: History of India
section_title: Pallava Empire
hierarchical_section_title: History of India / Classical and early medieval periods (c. 200 BCE – c. 1200 CE) / Classical period: Gupta Empire (c. 320 – 650 CE) / Pallava Empire
caption_attribution_description: English: Shore temple, Mahabalipuram, South India.
context_page_description: According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. However, the earliest known human remains in South Asia date to 30,000 years ago. Settled life, which involves the transition from foraging to farming and pastoralism, began in South Asia around 7,000 BCE. At the site of Mehrgarh, Balochistan, Pakistan, presence can be documented of the domestication of wheat and barley, rapidly followed by that of goats, sheep, and cattle. By 4,500 BCE, settled life had spread more widely, and began to gradually evolve into the Indus Valley Civilization, an early civilization of the Old world, which was contemporaneous with Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. This civilization flourished between 2,500 BCE and 1900 BCE in what today is Pakistan and north-western India and was noted for its urban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainage, and water supply.
  In the early second millennium BCE, persistent drought caused the population of the Indus Valley to scatter from large urban centres to villages.
context_section_description: The Pallavas, during the 4th to 9th centuries were, alongside the Guptas of the North, great patronisers of Sanskrit development in the South of the Indian subcontinent. The Pallava reign saw the first Sanskrit inscriptions in a script called Grantha. Early Pallavas had different connexions to Southeast Asian countries. The Pallavas used Dravidian architecture to build some very important Hindu temples and academies in Mamallapuram, Kanchipuram and other places; their rule saw the rise of great poets. The practice of dedicating temples to different deities came into vogue followed by fine artistic temple architecture and sculpture style of Vastu Shastra.
  Pallavas reached the height of power during the reign of Mahendravarman I (571–630 CE) and Narasimhavarman I (630–668 CE) and dominated the Telugu and northern parts of the Tamil region for about six hundred years until the end of the 9th century.
caption: The Shore Temple (a UNESCO World Heritage site) at Mahabalipuram built by Narasimhavarman II.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 60D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2013:07:05 12:37:21", "Image Artist": "balasubramanian s", "Image Copyright": "500px.com/photonforge", "Image ExifOffset": "276", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "946", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8695", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/350", "EXIF FNumber": "11", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:07:02 09:43:30", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:07:02 09:43:30", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "8451211/1000000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "6918863/1000000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-1", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "11", "EXIF SubSecTime": "18", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "18", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "18", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "800", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1200", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1036800/181", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "691200/119", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Bracket", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "3181403060", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[11, 16, 0/0, 0/0]", "EXIF LensModel": "11-16mm", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "0000000000"}