The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c16.130

Language: English

v1.c16.130.1

The Nilgund stone inscription of Amoghavarṣa (866 A.D.) informs us that the rulers of Aṅga, Vaṅga, and Magadha worshipped him.² This statement is also found in the Sirur stone inscription (866-67 A.D.) of the same king.³ In the Deoli grant of Kṛṣṇa III, Kṛṣṇa II is said to have initiated the Gauḍas in *Vinayavrata* and received worship from Aṅgas, Magadhas and others.⁴ Bhoja was already in the possession of Mahodaya as early as 836 A.D. His Gwalior inscription, dated in 876 A.D., informs us that he was bent upon 'conquering the three worlds.'¹ During the remaining years of his reign and his son's rule there is unquestionable epigraphic evidence to show that the Gurjaras held the whole of Northern India from the Karnal district in the Punjab to the Kathiawar peninsula in the south,² and the borders of the Pāla dominions in the east. In the Sagartal (Gwalior) inscription Bhoja claims to have burnt in the fire of his rage the powerful people of Bengal (*bṛhad-vaṅgān*).³ The success of the Gurjaras against the Pālas is shown by a series of inscriptions discovered in Bihar.

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A slab of stone bearing the figures of the ten incarnations of Viṣṇu in the walls of a modern temple of Śiva at Ramgaya (just opposite the temple of Gadādhar at Gaya on the other side of Phalgu) bears a short inscription, which tells us that it was a gift of a certain Sahadeva in the 8th year (from) the *abhiṣeka* of Mahendrapāla.⁴ Another image-inscription of the same king was discovered at Gunariya, near the Grand Trunk Road in the Gaya district. It is dated in year 9 of the same king.⁵ A third inscription of the same king was recently discovered at Itkhori in the Hazaribagh district, on an image of Tārā.⁶ Another image inscription is reported to have been seen by Captain Kittoe⁷ while two other inscriptions said to have been discovered in Bihar and belonging to the reign of Mahendrapāla are preserved in the British Museum.⁸ It is thus clear that a large slice of Bihar including at least Gaya and Hazaribagh districts passed under the control of the Gurjaras. Bhoja had already obtained some successes against Devapāla. The pressure was continued in the subsequent period; but it appears that up to the 7th year of Nārāyaṇapāla, the Pālas succeeded in holding Magadha against the Gurjaras, who were now at the head of a mighty empire. As I have already shown, Vigrahapāla and Nārāyaṇapāla appear to have been rather men of peace, and were no match for their powerful rivals.

v1.c16.130.3

Their position seems to have grown worse when they also became the targets of the attacks of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa sovereigns. It is indeed significant that during this long period of more than half a century (*c.* 854-911 A.D.) there is not a single allusion in the Pāla records to a victory over the Gurjaras or the Rāṣṭrakūṭas. The silence of the *praśastikāras* bears eloquent testimony to the decadent state of Pāla power during these years. Our conclusion is remarkably confirmed by the recent discovery of a stone pillar-inscription of the 13th year of Mahendrapāla in the northern *Maṇḍapa* of the Paharpur *vihāra* in Rajshahi district (North Bengal).¹ The Dighwa-Dubauli plate of this Gurjara emperor, dated in V. S. 955 (A.D. 898), records his grant of land in Śrāvastī-*Bhukti* (Gonda and Bahraich districts in U.P.).² So it seems that some time after the 17th year of Nārāyaṇapāla (*c.* 874 A.D.) the Gurjaras gradually advanced eastward along the Northern bank of the Ganges, till in the 13th year of Mahendrapāla they annexed the whole of Tirhut and Northern Bengal. If the Uddaṇḍapura inscription of the 54th year of Nārāyaṇapāla has been correctly read we must suppose that the districts of Patna, Monghyr, Bhagalpur and the Santal Parganas, all on the southern bank of the Ganges in Bihar still remained under the Pālas, who possibly also ruled over portions of west, east and south Bengal.

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But as the Gurjara inscriptions show, their western rivals had crossed the Gandak and the Son in an enveloping movement to strangle their precarious existence in Bihar and West Bengal.