The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c16.162

v1.c16.162

During the latter part of the reign of Gopāla II, or during that of his son Vigrahapāla II, a great calamity appears to have fallen on the fortunes of the Pālas. Verse 12 of the Bangad grant of Mahīpāla I, son of Vigrahapāla II, tells us that this prince recovered his paternal kingdom, 'which had been snatched away through pride of prowess by people who had no claim to it.’¹ Who were these enemies conquered by Mahīpāla? The question is probably answered by the discovery of a pillar-inscription amongst the ruins of Bangad, in the district of Dinajpur, in North Bengal. The inscription contains only three lines, and records the erection of a temple of Śiva by a king of Gauḍa of the Kāmboja family (*Kāmbōjā-nvayaja Gauḍapati*). The inscription possibly contains a date in the compound *Kuñjara-ghaṭā-varṣeṇa*, which according to some scholars means ‘in the year 888.’ This date is then referred to the *Śaka* era (A.D. 966). But this view has not been accepted by some prominent orientalists. Sir R. G. Bhandarkar, for instance, took it to mean, ‘he who pours forth an array of elephants.’ Recently Mr. R. D. Banerji has referred the inscription, on palaeographic grounds, to the period between Nārāyaṇapāla and Mahīpāla I.² This conclusion seems to agree with the fact that during the reigns of Rājyapāla, Gopāla II, and Vigrahapāla II (*c.* 911-92 A.D.) no record of the Pāla rulers have yet been discovered in North Bengal. After the Badal *praśasti* of the time of Nārāyaṇapāla we have to come down to the reign of Mahīpāla I before we can find any inscription in that locality. Thus it is not unlikely that Mahīpāla probably referred to this portion of Bengal as snatched away from his family and recovered by him. There is no means of knowing either the names or the number of the Kāmboja kings who ruled in Gauḍa. It is difficult even to find out the origin of this line of princes. The word *Kāmboja* does not materially help us. It occurs once in the Monghyr grant of Devapāla in connection with his victorious campaigns. The context of the passage where it occurs, as well as its association with horses, would seem to indicate that the composer of the inscription was referring to the Kāmbojas who are coupled with the Gandhāras and placed somewhere near modern Afghanistan. Prof. Foucher has pointed out that Nepalese tradition applied the name *Kāmboja-deśa* to Tibet. Accepting this suggestion, Chanda held that "the *Gauḍapati* of the Kāmboja family probably came from Tibet, Bhutan, or some other Himalayan country at the head of a Mongolian horde who are now represented by the Koch, and the Pāliyās of Northern Bengal, also known as Rājvaṃśīs."¹ In this connection I would venture to point out that there was a Gandhāra and possibly also a Kāmboja as well on the north-eastern frontier of India, near the regions now known as Yunnan and Szechwan² and it is not unlikely that these conquerors of Northern Bengal may have come from that direction. The history of the Brahmaputra valley, as we have shown elsewhere, tells of more than one invasion by the Mongoloid tribes on its north-eastern frontier and the extension of the power of some of these conquerors to the west beyond the Karatoya is probably not beyond the range of possibility. An Assamese conquest of North Bengal, though only a temporary one, is shown by the Nidhānpur inscription of Bhāskaravarman.³