Vigrahapāla are not known. Most probably he lost even what had belonged to Gopāla II as his son Mahīpāla I is said to have recovered his paternal kingdom. His only recorded war seems to have been conducted in Eastern Bengal. In the Āmgāchi and Dinājpur grants there is a verse about this:—
Deśe prāci pracura-payasi svaccham = āpīya toyaṁ svairaṁ bhrāntvā tad = anu malay-opatyakā-candaneṣu,
Kṛtvā sāndrais = taruṣu jaḍatāṁ śīkarair = abhra-tulyāḥ prāley-ādreḥ kaṭakam = abhajan yasya senā-gajendrāḥ.—verse 11 Dinajpur grant of Mahīpāla.[1]
But this is not very certain, as in the Āmgāchi grant of Vigrahapāla the verse is attributed to Vigrahapāla III.[2]
After the death of Vigrahapāla II, Mahīpāla succeeded to what remained of the first Empire of the Pālas. In his Dinājpur grant he is said to have recovered the kingdom of his father:—
Hata-sakala-vipakṣaḥ saṅgare vāhu-darppād = anadhikṛta-viluptaṁ rājyam = āsādya pitryaṁ
Nihita-caraṇa-padmo bhūbhṛtāṁ murdhni tasmād = abhavad = avani-pālaḥ Śrī-Mahīpāladevaḥ.[3]
After the recovery of his paternal kingdom, Mahīpāla I must have turned his Mahīpāla I conquers Magadhaattention to the West. In his sixth year Nālanda was included in his kingdom as a manuscript copied at that place in that year of the king has been acquired for the Asiatic Society of Bengal by Mahāmahopādhyāya Hara Prasāda Śāstrī. Magadha seems to have continued in the possession of the king for a long time. In the eleventh year of the king an image of Buddha was dedicated in or near the temple of the Mahābodhi at Bodh-Gaya, and in the same year the great temple at Nālanda was restored, as it had been burnt down in a fire. After the conquest of Magadha, Mahīpāla seems to have attacked Tīrabhukti or Mithilā which continued in the possession of the king at least till his 48th year. His kingdom seems to have extended as far as Benares and continued to be included in it till 1020 A.D. In that year, two persons were deputed by the king, named Sthirapāla and Vasantapāla, to execute some repairs near the Buddhist city. The state of the Gurjara kingdom of Kanauj favoured the occupation. Occupies Benares.Only a few years before it had been devastated by Sultan Mahmūd of Ghazni, and after his departure, the king Rājyapāladeva had been deposed and murdered by the Indian Princes for having submitted to an alien conqueror. At that time Trilocanapāla was seated on the throne of the Gurjara-Pratīhāras and most probably his power did not extend beyond the confluence of the Yamunā.
In spite of the victories during the earlier part of his reign, Mahīpāla I suffered some very severe reverses from the time of the rise of the Cedis, under Gāṅgeyadeva