The oldest surviving monuments in Tamilnadu, South India are a group of rock-cut temples whose patrons were kings of the Pallava dynasty (c. 300-900). But exactly when they were created during that 600 year period, and in what stylistic sequence--these are questions of long-standing controversy, the resolution of which is the primary objective of this study.

After a methodological review in Chapter 1 of problems that have hampered previous, uni-dimensional studies (i.e., those that have relied almost exclusively upon evidence provided either by epigraphy, motif-taxonomy or cursory analysis of style), a synthetic approach is proposed. What follows in the subsequent chapters is a presentation of the Pallava monoliths (both the free-standing and the so-called cave-temples) as typifying four discrete periods: viz, those of the Archaic, Severe, Classical and Embellished styles. This periodization is supported by the following tripartite analysis: (1) proportional standards in architectural form (based upon a metrological survey of the cave facades); (2) changes in sculpture style (with special reference to relative naturalism, expressiveness and illusionistic spatial effects); (3) formal and conceptual interpretation of the dedicatory inscriptions which survive for seventeen (nearly half) of the monuments in question.

The major contribution of this study is the identification of nine cave-temples as constituting a pre-7th century, archaic group, all of which pre-date the six proven dedications of Mahendravarman I (c. 571-630). Thus the widely held presumption that Mahendra's cave-temple at Mandagappattu constituted the initial rock-cut monument in the region is proven false. To the contrary, it is argued that the introduction of the medium to Tamilnadu was roughly contemporary with the creation further north of the Gupta and Vakataka caves of the fifth century.

Of nearly equal importance is the independently verifiable attribution of three major monuments at Mahabalipuram to the patronage of Mahendra's son, Narasimhavarman I (630-c. 668). Together they provide a point of reference in the Classical period around which to establish a relative chronology for the remaining monuments at this most important of the Pallava sites.