The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c14.42.4

v1.c14.42.4

It is however not impossible that the Pālas, who dominated the lower Ganges valley, extended their hegemony over Nepal under Mahīpāla and Nayapāla.² This, in the opinion of Lévi, would offer an explanation, for the presence in Nepal of MSS. copied under the Pāla kings, specially under the two abovementioned princes. But this contention of Lévi, though possible, is far from conclusive. As he has himself shown, Buddhism had, at this time and even earlier, united the Nepal valley and the dominions of the Pālas in a closer bond. The Pālas possessed Bodh-Gaya and Sarnath, two of the most sacred sites of Buddhism, while the *vihāra* of Vikramaśilā was a great centre of knowledge and Buddhist piety. Under the circumstances, communication was frequent between the mountain-kingdom and the empire of the Pālas. Amongst the doctors at Vikramaśilā in the 11th century Tāranātha mentions Vairocana Paṇḍita, Ratnakīrti and Kanakaśrī who all came from Nepal. Lévi refers to a notice of a Chinese mission, according to which 300 *Śramaṇas*, after visiting Magadha under the Pālas, returned by way of Nepal. The Tibetan mission sent to Vikramaśilā in about 1040 A.D. to bring back Atīśa met a Nepalese prince on the Indian frontier who went to the same monastery. In the reign of Devapāla, the Indian savant Vajradeva is reported to have gone to Nepal.