The Foundation of Muslim Rule in India: A History of the Establishment and Progress of the Turkish Sultanate of Delhi, 1206–1290 A.D. c6.s6.1

c6.s6.1

The principal feature in the political condition of Northeastern India during the period under review was the rapid dissolution of the Pala empire. Rampala (c. 1126) who succeeded in recovering his ancestral throne from the Kaivarta usurper Dibya, was able to revive for a short period the imperial glory by obtaining victories in Utkala, Kalinga and Kamrup. But his death was followed by an almost immediate collapse. His viceroy, Vaidyadeva, declared independence in the Brahmaputra valley¹. The feudatory kings of the Varman dynasty ruling over eastern and part of southern Bengal also set themselves up as independent sovereigns². Even the petty rulers of Apara-Mandara (in western Bengal, Hooghly district) repudiated their vassalage and, what is more, entered into alliance with the Senas who, under Vijayasena (1097-1159), had lately asserted independence over a part of Radha (West Bengal)³. Under Kumara-pala (1126-30) and Madanapala (c. 1130-50) the Pala dominion fast dwindled in size and came to comprise only a small portion of the Varendri division of North Bengal. In Bihar their power was circumscribed by the independent principality of Yakshapala, at Gaya, a former vassal of Rampala⁴. Another recently independent dynasty, calling themselves Pithipatis, ruled in parts of the Gaya and Hazaribagh districts⁵.