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Note the Persian-style headdresses in these Mamallapuram sculptures

There were a surprising number of correspondents who agreed that there was every likelihood of the Pallavas being descended from the Parthians of Persia. A corruption of the term ‘Parthian’ is the word ‘Pahlava’, sounding so similar to ‘Pallava’. Pahlavi is a recognised ancient language of Persia, deriving from the Aramaic, and, if I remember right, ‘Pahlavi’ was part of the old Shah’s name/title.

Amongst all the responses I received was a learned paper sent to me by a reader, titled India’s Parthian Colony. It is by a Dr. Samar Abbas, a Bhubaneshwar-based scientist. Among the points he makes is that many of the sculptures in Mamallapuram have an unquestionable affinity to Persian/Pahlava features. Apart from the lion symbol, so frequently found in Persia, he points to the numerous statues featuring the tall, cylindrical headdresses so common in Persia at one time. The pillars too resemble those of Perseopolis, and some of the roofs of the Pancha Rathas, as well as the tower of the Kailasanatha Temple in Kancheepuram, show a definite affinity to similar features in the shrines of Babylon, once part of the Parthian empire. Referring to anthropological evidence in many of the sculptures, he points out that many of the nobles are tall and are depicted with long, thin noses and elongated heads, typical Persian characteristics. These features are found in northern Tamil Nadu and southern Andhra Pradesh, amongst the Vellalas and the Reddis, many of whom are as fair and as thin as the Persians, it is pointed out.

The Pahlava hypothesis has it that there was a Parthian migration to North India, from where the migrants were pushed southwards by invading hordes from the north. In time, they settled in Tondaimandalam and evolved as the Pallavas. Like the Normans in England, the Germanic Lombards in Italy, and the Greek Ptolemys in Egypt, the Pahlavas in time adopted the local religion, Saivism, and language, Old Tamil, and became Dravidians.

Tondaimandalam’s bounds were the hills of Tirupati in the north, the Eastern Ghats in the west, the Pennar in the south, and the sea in the east. It is this sea that the Pallavas learnt to conquer. But were the Parthians a seafaring people?

Reader Pradeep Chakravarthy, a temple buff, feels that the name Varman in Pallava and Cambodian royalty is noteworthy. So is the brick construction in early Pallava temples and the stonework of the towers of Chola temples, both of which are not unlike Angkor Wat. He also points out that in many a Tamil Nadu temple there are ‘sages’ who have been sculpted with Chinese-style moustaches, and that in some Tamil Nadu temples the dwajasthambham over a tortoise can occasionally be seen, the significance of this being the Hindu cosmological belief that the world is supported by eight white elephants that stand over a tortoise. That sounds almost Thai. Chakravarthy, however, does not point out whether these influences came from the east or spread to it.

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