Page:The Pālas of Bengal.djvu/18

Dharmmapāla.Dharmmapāladeva, the second king of the Pāla dynasty, was the real founder of the greatness of his line and the Empire over which his successors ruled. He was also the leading figure in Northern Indian politics in the last half of the eighth and the first half of the ninth centuries A.D. Most probably Bengal enjoyed some respite from foreign invasions during the reign of Gopāla I, and after him, his son felt strong enough to take part in the disputes of the contemporary monarchs of Northern India, and to conduct long campaigns. Before proceeding to discuss the events of his reign we should consider his date which is the first fixed point in the History of Bengal during this period. The chronology of the Pālas of Bengal was for a long time in a hopelessly confused state. Leaving aside the earlier theories about the dates of the Pālas we find even in recent times widely divergent theories about the date of Dharmmapāla. In the XVth Volume of his reports the late Sir Alexander Cunningham fixed the date of Dharmmapāla's accession in 831 A.D. In his article^[1] on the Cambay plates of Govinda III, Mr. D. R. Bhandarkar places Dharmmapāla in the earlier part of the tenth century.^[2] Dharmmapāla's date seems to have become fixed from synchronisms, which have been given for the first time in the preface of the Rāmacarita of Sandhyākaranandi by the learned Editor. The synchronisms have also been noticed almost simultaneously by two other scholars—Mr. V. A. Smith^[3] and Mr. D. R. Bhandarkar.^[4]

The first question about the true date of Dharmmapāla was raised incidentally in 1891 by the late Dr. Kielhorn on a passage in the Bhagalpur grant of Nārāyaṇapāla:—

Jitv = endra-rāja-prabhṛtīn = arātīn = upārjjitā yena Mahodaya Śrīḥ, dattaḥ punaḥ sa valin = ārthayitre Cakrayudhāy = ānativāmanāya.^[5]

At that time Dr. Kielhorn was unable to identify the kings Indrarāja or Cakrāyudha. The discovery of the Khalimpur grant supplied some additional facts and the well-known verse:—

Bhojair-Matsaiḥ sa-Madraiḥ Kuru-Yadu-Yavan = Āvantī-Gandhāra-Kīrair = bhupair = vyālola-mauli-praṇati-pariṇataiḥ sādhu saṅgīryamānaḥ,
Hṛṣyat Pañcāla-vṛddh-oddhṛta-kanakamaya-svābhiṣekodakumbho dattaḥ śrī-Kānyakubjas = sa-lalita-calita-bhrulatā-lakṣma-yena.^[6]

For a long time nothing could be made out of the historical allusions in the two verses quoted above. It was known to the scholars that a certain verse of the Jaina Hari-vaṁśa-purāṇa referred to a king named Indrarāja who was a contemporary of Vatsarāja and was living in the year 705 of the Śaka era, i.e. 783 A.D.^[7] But so far nobody was able to connect Indrāyudha with the Indrarāja of the Bhagalpur grant. Some time before November 1896, a stone inscription was discovered in some excavations which were being carried

1. Arch. Survey Rep., Vol. XV, p. 150.
2. Epi. Ind., Vol. VII, p. 33.
3. J.R.A.S., 1908, p. 252.
4. Epi. Ind., Vol. IX, p. 26, note 4.
5. Ind. Ant. Vol. XX, pp. 187-88.
6. Epi. Ind., Vol. IV, p. 248.
7. Ind. Ant., Vol. XV, p. 141, Peterson's 4th report on the search of Skt. MSS. in the Bombay Presidency.