The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c15.111

v1.c15.111

We are further told that the *Gaudeśvara* Kumārapāla, having heard of the disaffection (*vikṛtim*) of Tiṅgyadeva, who had been formerly treated with high honour, appointed Vaidyadeva, as a ruler (*nareśvaratve*) in his place. The latter thereupon marched with his younger brother Budhadeva against that ruler (*Avanīpati*), and after defeating and killing him occupied his throne. Now who was this Tiṅgyadeva²? In the inscription itself he is described as a prince who ruled in the east (*Hari-harid-bhūvi*) of the Pāla dominions. As the land granted was situated in Kāmarūpa-*Maṇḍala* and Prāgjyotiṣa-*Bhukti*, and as the family of the donee belonged to Varendrī, *i.e.*, North Bengal, which bordered on Kāmarūpa, it is likely that he was a ruler of at least a portion of the Brahmaputra valley, which adjoined the kingdom of the Pālas on the west. It is also probable that he acknowledged the hegemony of his Western neighbours. Sir E. Gait has suggested that Vaidyadeva conquered Kāmarūpa and nominally remained a feudatory of the Pālas.³ It has recently been suggested that the Pālas conquered only a portion of the great kingdom of Kāmarūpa bordering on Gauḍa, wherein Tiṅgya was placed as a vassal; on his rebellion, Vaidyadeva defeated him, and was appointed a feudatory ruler in his place.¹ If this suggestion is accepted, it is likely that Tiṅgyadeva was placed in Kāmarūpa by Rāmapāla, who is credited with its conquest in the *Rāmacarita* of Sandhyākara Nandī.² In the present state of our knowledge it is impossible to decide what was the exact position of Tiṅgyadeva in relation to the two dynasties of the Pālas ruling in Bengal and Assam or what were the boundaries of his dominions. He certainly appears to have been a ruler of at least a portion of the Brahmaputra valley, in which he was supplanted by Vaidyadeva in the first half of the 12th century A.D.³ It is not impossible that Vaidyadeva was succeeded in his dominions by his brother Budhadeva, who so ably assisted him in gaining his throne; but of this we have no evidence.