Indian Epigraphy c15.t11.6

c15.t11.6

The date of the Gaya inscription² of Govindapāla is quoted as Vikrama 1232, Vikārin, Āśvina-sudi 5 falling in the 14th year of the *gata-rājya* of king Govindapāla. The date corresponds to the 22nd September, 1175 A.D. The colophons of several Buddhist manuscripts copied in the Patna-Gaya region of Bihar refer to the reign of Govindapāla; but, while only one of them mentions the 4th year of his *vijaya-rājya* and two others refer respectively to his 18th *atīta* year and the 38th year of his *vinaṣṭa-rājya* (i.e. lost sovereignty), three of the colophons speak of the years 24, 37 and 39 as belonging to that monarch but do not mention his *rājya* either as *pravardhamāna-vijaya* or as *gata*, *atīta* or *vinaṣṭa*.³ Since the date of the Gaya inscription corresponds to the 2nd September 1175 A. D. and falls in the 14th year of Govindapāla’s sovereignty which was then *gata*, i.e. a thing of the past, the 22nd of September in the year 1162 A.D. falls in the first year of this reckoning. Govindapāla is generally believed to have belonged to the Pāla dynasty of Bengal and Bihar and to have been the successor of the Pāla king Madanapāla whose inscriptions have been found in the Patna-Gaya region, the latest of them being dated the 11th of Jyaiṣṭha in his 18th regnal year and in Śaka 1083.⁴ The date of the inscription corresponds to the 4th May 1161 A.D. The above facts show that Govindapāla succeeded Madanapāla in 1161 or 1162 A.D., that he ruled at least upto his 4th regnal year and that his sovereignty became *gata*, *atīta* or *vinaṣṭa* sometime before the 22nd September 1175 A. D.¹ His *gata*°, *atīta*° or *vinaṣṭa-rājya* reckoning was thus not counted from the end of his reign or *vijaya-rājya* (as is often wrongly believed) but was undoubtedly counted in continuation of his ordinary regnal or *vijaya-rājya* reckoning.