Let us now turn for a moment to the history of the south.  It is even more obscure both in events and chronology than that of the north, but we must not think of the Dravidian countries as uninhabited or barbarous.  Even the classical writers of Europe had some knowledge of them.  King Pandion (Pandya) sent a mission to Augustus in 20 B.C.[120] Pliny[121] speaks of Modura (Madura) and Ptolemy also mentions this town with about forty others.  It is said[122] that there was a temple dedicated to Augustus at Muziris, identified with Cranganore.  From an early period the extreme south of the peninsula was divided into three states known as the Pandya, Cera and Cola kingdoms[123].  The first corresponded to the districts of Madura and Tinnevelly.  Cera or Kerala lay on the west coast in the modern Travancore.  The Cola country included Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Madras, with the greater part of Mysore.  From the sixth to the eighth century A.D. a fourth power was important, namely the Pallavas, who apparently came from the north of the Madras Presidency.  They had their capital at Conjeevaram and were generally at war with the three kingdoms.  Their king, Narasimha-Varman (625-645 A.D.) ruled over part of the Deccan and most of the Cola country but after about 750 they declined, whereas the Colas grew stronger and Rajaraja (985-1018) whose dominions included the Madras Presidency and Mysore made them the paramount power in southern India, which position they retained until the thirteenth century.

As already mentioned, the Deccan was ruled by the Andhras from 220 B.C. to 236 A.D., but for the next three centuries nothing is known of its history until the rise of the Calukya dynasty at Vatapi (Badami) in Bijapur.  Pulakesin II of this dynasty (608-642), a contemporary of Harsha, was for some time successful in creating a rival Empire which extended from Gujarat to Madras, and his power was so considerable that he exchanged embassies with Khusru II, King of Persia, as is depicted in the frescoes of Ajanta.  But in 642 he was defeated and slain by the Pallavas.

With the death of Pulakesin and Harsha begins what has been called the Rajput period, extending from about 650 to 1000 A.D. and characterized by the existence of numerous kingdoms ruled by dynasties nominally Hindu, but often descended from northern invaders or non-Hindu aboriginal tribes.  Among them may be mentioned the following: 

1.  Kanauj or Pancala.  This kingdom passed through troublous times after the death of Harsha but from about 840 to 910 A.D. under Bhoja (or Mihira) and his son, it became the principal power in northern India, extending from Bihar to Sind.  In the twelfth century it again became important under the Gaharwar dynasty.

2.  Kanauj was often at war with the Palas of Bengal, a line of Buddhist kings which began about 730 A.D.  Dharmapala (c. 800 A.D.) was sufficiently powerful to depose the king of Kanauj.  Subsequently the eastern portion of the Pala kingdom separated itself under a rival dynasty known as the Senas.