The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c14.42.5

v1.c14.42.5

Vāgīśvara Kīrti, a contemporary of Atīśa, went to the same country in the 2nd half of his life, while under the immediate successors of Nayapāla, Pham-mthiṅ with his brother Jñānavajra visited the valley to work for the salvation of its people. When Muḥammad-i-Bakhtyār captured Bihar in about 1193 A.D. Buddhaśrī, the *Sthavira* of the Mahāsaṁghikas at Vikramaśīlā, and many other scholars sought shelter in the hills of Nepal, no doubt taking large numbers of MSS. with them. Under the circumstances it would be perhaps going too far to infer from the find of MSS. copied under the Pālas a hegemony of the latter over Nepal. MSS. may have passed from one country to the another in the ordinary course of communication between the two neighbouring kingdoms, united closely by so many bonds of culture, religion and commerce.¹