The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c15.68

v1.c15.68

As the names of the next group of princes who ruled in the Assam valley uniformly end in *pāla*, it is convenient to designate them as the Pālas of Kāmarūpa. The transition of the royal power from Pralambha’s successors to this new group is mentioned in the Bargaon grant of Ratnapāla. We are told that when Tyāgasiṁha the twenty-first sovereign of Kāmarūpa, counting from Śālastambha, departed from this world without leaving any of his race to succeed him, “his subjects thinking it well that a *Bhauma* (*i.e.* one of Naraka’s race) should be appointed as their lord, chose Brahmapāla, a kinsman of the deceased ruler, on account of his fitness to undertake the government of the country.” Thus, if the *praśastikāra* is to be believed, the new king was elected by his subjects, an incident which finds a parallel in the history of the founder of the Pāla dynasty of Bengal and Bihar.³ Brahmapāla, the founder of this new group of princes, apparently belonged to a collateral line of the same family as that of his predecessor, both tracing their descent from Narak’s line (*anvaya*). Both the dynasties certainly belonged to non-Aryan stock, as the sound of the name Harjara is distinctly non-Hindu.¹ But the names of his immediate successor and those of the Pālas show that they were speedily assimilated into the Hindu fold. They were right, however, in tracing their descent from Bhagadatta, the lord of the *Mleccha* Cīnas and Kirātas, inasmuch as they appear to have belonged to that great hive of Mongolian peoples which lies in the north, and east, of the Indian subcontinent. Both peaceful penetration and armed invasions by this stock, though never seriously affecting the general currents of Indian life, were nevertheless regular features in the history of this frontier. The invasion of the Ahoms, an offshoot of the Shan race in the 13th century, and of the Burmese in the 19th century, are only later episodes in this development. The Mongoloid physiognomy of the peoples of Assam and some of the districts of Northern and Eastern Bengal clearly shows the substantial accuracy of this conclusion.²