The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c15.76

v1.c15.76

It is not unlikely that much of the above is merely the vapourings of the poet's brain. But, as is usual in such cases, there may have been in it some grains of facts of contemporary incidents which conveniently gave rise to such pretensions. Now taking for granted that Hoernle was correct in assuming the date of Ratnapāla to be *c.* 1010-1050 A. D.,² the two kings from the peninsular portion of India who invaded Northern India about this time were the Cola king Rājendra I (*c.* 1013-44 A.D.)³ and the Cāḷukya Vikramāditya VI (*c.* 1076-1126 A. D.). They might conveniently be described as *Keraleśa* and *Dākṣiṇātya-kṣoṇīpati*. It is interesting to note that the *Vikramāṅkadevacarita* actually refers to an invasion of Kāmarūpa by Vikramāditya during the reign of his father Someśvara I (*c.* 1040-1069).¹ By *Bāhikas* and *Tāikas* (Tājikas?) the author probably meant the Turkish invaders who under their leaders Maḥmūd of Ghazni and his son Mas‘ūd harried a considerable portion of Northern India during the period 1000 to 1037 A. D., and are reported to have come as far east as Benares. The *Gurjarādhipa* referred to here may have been Rājyapāla (*c.* 1018-19), or even Trilocanapāla (*c.* 1019-27), the contemporaries of Sulṭān Maḥmūd. The presence of the Gurjaras in Magadha and North Bengal probably made them familiar to the Kāmarūpa poets. As to the *Gauḍendra*, he certainly belonged to the dynasty of the Pālas, who, as we have seen, were the neighbours of the princes of the Brahmaputra valley from the 9th century A. D. onwards.²