Scripts across Southeast Asia, including Khmer, trace back to a South Indian dynasty
The Pallavas, rulers of southern India from 275 to 897, built the Shore Temple at Mamallapuram and made Kanchipuram their capital. They also developed a script that became the ancestor of Tamil and Grantha writing and, further afield, of several Southeast Asian scripts, Khmer among them.
The dynasty rose after the fall of the Satavahana Empire, which it had once served as a vassal, and peaked under Mahendravarman I (600 to 630) and his son Narasimhavarman I (630 to 668). For centuries it dominated the southern Telugu lands and northern Tamil country, while fighting almost constantly with the Chalukyas to the north and the Chola and Pandya kingdoms to the south. The Chola ruler Aditya I finally defeated it in the 9th century.
Where the Pallavas came from is still argued over. Their earliest records, copper plates from the 4th century, are in Prakrit and resemble Satavahana documents, which led historians such as K. A. Nilakanta Sastri to see them as newcomers from Andhra who pushed south to Kanchi. Others, including N. Subramanian, argue for local Tamil roots, while a Chola prince named Ilandiraiyan is traditionally called the founder. Pallava family legend went further, claiming descent from the Mahabharata warrior Ashwatthama and a Naga princess. Even the name is debated: in Sanskrit it means creeper or branch.
Control of Kanchi swung back and forth. The Pallavas seized it from the Cholas, lost it in the mid-4th century, then retook it in the mid-6th century from the Kalabhras, possibly under Simhavishnu, whom one grant hails as lion of the earth. After that the Tamil region was split between the Pallavas in the north and the Pandyas at Madurai in the south.
Court culture shifted with power. Prakrit dominated official inscriptions until the 6th century; Sanskrit then became the language of literature and high culture. Kings stacked up honorific titles, often ending in malla, wrestler: Mahendravarman I was Shatrumalla, overthrower of enemies, and great kings were Mahamalla. The Chinese traveller Xuanzang visited Kanchipuram and praised the kindness of their rule, and their temples laid foundations for later South Indian architecture.
Source: Pallava dynasty
