Story of the tender leaf
The article "From Cambodia to Kanchipuram" that appeared in the Young World dated March 16 referred to the regime of the Pallavas.
The Mahaswami of Kanchi, Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati, was keenly interested in research into ancient temple inscriptions and copper plate inscriptions. The following is what he has said about the origin of the Pallavas in one of his discourses.
"Pallavam means a tender leaf. The words Potham or Pothram also mean the tender leaf. There is a story that a damsel from Deva loka had a child through Asvathama in the forest and that she laid that child on a bed of tender leaves and went away and, since the child grew upon that bed, he came to be called Pallavan and later became the king. In the stone inscriptions in Sanskrit found in Amaravathi in the Telugu region, this story has been described in detail. In the copper edicts of Nandi Varman found in a place near Arakonam also this story is mentioned. Asvathama was a Brahmin of the Bharadwaja gothram. His father Dronacharya also had the name Bharadwaja. In all their edicts the Pallavas have referred to themselves as belonging to "Bharadwaja gothram".
"The tender leaf is also called Potham or Pothram. Pallava Maharaja became `Pothra Athirajan' and that is why Simha Vishnu Pallava Chakravarthi became Simha Vishnu Pothrathirajan."
Quoted from Voice of God - Vol. V (English translation of Deivathin Kural) published by the Mahaswami Peetarohana Satabdi Committee, Mumbai.
V. Krishnamachari
A-9 Jeevan Naiya
Chembur Naka,
Mumbai
Correction
In the article "Fortified in Legend" that appeared in the YW dt March 23, it was wrongly mentioned that the Jhansi fort was situated in Madhya Pradesh. The fort is situated in Uttar Pradesh.
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