The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c16.130.3

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.