The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c16.193.3

v1.c16.193.3

1019), when *Mahārājādhirāja Puṇyāvaloka Somavaṁśodbhava Gauḍadhvaja Śrīmad-Gāṅgeyadeva* was reigning in *Tīra-Bhukti*.¹ Some scholars have identified this Gāṅgeyadeva with the Tripurī Kalacuri Gāṅgeyadeva, the father of Lakṣmī-Karṇa. As his Piawan rock inscription is dated in K.E. 789 ? (1037 A.D.), there is no inherent impossibility in the identification of the two kings.² If they are identified, then we must assume that Gāṅgeyadeva conquered Tirhut and also Benares, which lay between his territories and *Tīra-Bhukti*, some time before 1019 A.D. This conflicts with the interpretation of the Sarnath inscription according to which Mahīpāla was in possession of that city about 1026 A.D. (Unless we now hold that building or repairing of temples in one of the sacred places of Buddhism by a Buddhist king need not necessarily imply his possession of that place,³)we have to agree with Prof. Lévi that this Gāṅgeyadeva was perhaps a member of a local branch of the Kalacuris, for one of whom we have the Kahla (Gorakhpur Dist. U.P.) plates dated in V.S. 1134 and 1135 (A.D. 1077 and 1079).⁴ The only other possible interpretation, if we accept the identification of the *Gauḍadhvaja* Gāṅgeyadeva with the father of Lakṣmī-Karṇa, is to suppose that the latter was defeated some time between A.D. 1019 and 1026 by Mahīpāla, who conquered Benares from the Kalacuri ruler.