is mentioned as Adwand Bihar in the Ṭabaqāt-i-Nās̤iri of Minḥāj-ud-dīn[1] and as Uddaṇḍapura in another mediæval inscription in the town of the Gaya in Bengal.[2] The Tibetan historian Lama Tārānātha mentions it as Otantapura,[3] which is the nearest approach to the Sanskrit Uddaṇḍapura. Śūrapāla I or Vigrahapāla I married Lajjādevī, the daughter of the Haihaya king of Tripurī.[4] Vigrahapāla's father, Jayapāla, was a Hindu by inclination, as after his father Vak-pāla's death he is said to have performed the funeral ceremony according to Hindu rites. Umāpati, a learned Brahmana of Kāñjivilvī, is said to have got the Mahādāna on that occasion. The fact is recorded in a commentary on the Chandogapariśiṣṭa named Pariśiṣṭa-prakāśa by Umāpati's grandson, Nārāyaṇa:—
Kṣmāpālāj = Jayapālataḥ sa hi Mahāśrāddhaṁ prabhutaṁ.
Mahādānaṁ c-arthi-gaṇ = ārhaṇ = ārdra-hṛdayaḥ praty-agrahīt puṇyavān. — verse 8.[5]
The name of the village where Umāpati lived is given as Kāñjivindā in the 2nd verse, but it is clearly a mistake for Kanjivilva, the name of a well-known town. Nothing is known about the other relatives of this king, besides his son Nārāyaṇapāla who succeeded him. The votive inscriptions mentioned above were incised in the 2nd year of the king and most probably Vigrahapāla I or Śūrapāla I had a very short reign.
Nārāyaṇapāla succeeded to the throne in very troublesome times. The Gurjaras, after their long confinement in the desert, were issuing again for the conquest of Northern India, and this time they were destined to succeed and to make Mahodaya or Kānyakubja their capital. Bhoja I succeeded his father Rāmabhadra and at the beginning his kingdom seems to have consisted of the ancestral lands of the Gurjara-Pratīhāras. Step by step Bhoja advanced towards the North. Kanauj or Mahodaya became his capital as several of his grants were issued from that place. It is not known from whom the Gurjara king wrested Kanauj, and Bhoja I and his war with the Palas.it may be that it was taken either from the Pālas or one of their contemporaries. Nothing is known about the state of Uttarāpatha or Northern India about this time, but it is certain that the Pālas lost much of their territorial possessions during this period. Bhoja I invaded Bengal and defeated the king disastrously. The war with Bengal is mentioned in his Gwalior inscription:—
Yasya vain bṛhad = baṅgān = dahataḥ kopa-vahṇinā.
Pratāpād = arṇṇasāṁ rāśīn = pātur = vvaitṛṣṇam = āvabhau. — verse 21.[6]
