Kailāśa-nātha and Vaikuṇṭha Perumal

Both these temples of Conjeevaram are remarkable for the upsurge of intellectual life in this leading city of Carnatic India, the house of Dhanapāla, the great commentator when its fine series of temples were giving proof for its religious upsurge. For details see Brown.

As regards the Nandivardhana Group of temples, they may be passed over, as by their lack of verility [virility?] they connote the diminishing power of the dynasty. Pallavas thus were the harbingers of that potential architectural movement which not only gave the foundation to the development of later phases of Cholas and the subsequent rulers, but also to that Greater India phase as illustrated in the monuments of Indonesia.

Percy Brown’s observation in this respect is quoteworthy:

“For to the Pallavas is the credit of having kept burning brightly the torch, which, kindled by the Buddhists in the early centuries of the Christian era as seen at Amaravati, was bequeathed to these Simhavishnu [Siṃhaviṣṇu] “lion kings”. Later, its flame glowed with renewed brilliance in the hands of the Cholas and subsequently in Southern India, as their architectural undertakings eloquently testify. But perhaps its most potent influence was that which it transmitted beyond the seas, to Indonesia, where its effulgence, reflected in the vast monuments of those civilizations, and shone with even greater splendour than in the country of its origin.”