The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c16.20

Language: English

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Neither of these dynasties however appears to have succeeded in establishing a united and strong government in Bengal and Bihar. The result was that these rich tracts remained for about 50 years (c. 700—750 A.D.) a constant prey to foreign invaders. The first invasion so far recorded appears to have been that of the princes of the Saila family. The Ragholi (Balaghat district, C.P.) plates of Jayavardhana II inform us that his grandfather took Kāśi after killing its ‘self-conceited and cruel king,’ while the elder brother of this grandfather took the whole country of Puṇḍra after destroying its ruler. As the script of the inscription ‘very much resembles those of the Paithan plates of Govinda III, dated in the year 794 A.D,’ it is probably not unreasonable to refer the events recorded above to *c.* 725 A.D.¹ It is not improbable that the prince referred to as a Pauṇḍra king in this inscription was Jīvitagupta or one of the successors of Ādityasena. The invasion of the Sailas was followed by that of Yaśovarman, who is described in the *Rājataraṅgiṇī* of Kalhaṇa, as lord of “the land of Kanyakubja from the bank of the Yamunā to the Kālikā.”² Stein has identified this prince with ‘the king of Central India, *I-cha-fon-mo*, who in A.D.

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731 sent an embassy to the Chinese Court.’³ It appears from the Chinese annals that he was on his throne at least between 731 and 736 A.D., and it was probably during these years that he undertook a triumphal procession of *digvijaya* for the conquest of the countries all round his dominions, which is recorded in the *Gauḍavaho* of Vākpatirāja.⁴ In the course of his eastern expedition he seems to have met the king of Gauḍa, who is also called *Magadhādhipa*, not far from the ‘Vindhya region,’ and defeated him in a fierce battle, in which the vassals and nobles of the eastern king appeared “like sparks of light issuing from a shooting-star.” After the battle the *Magadhādhipa* was pursued and slain by Yaśovarman, who then proceeded eastwards and compelled the Vaṅga king though ‘powerful in the possession of a large number of warlike elephants’ to acknowledge him as his suzerain.¹ It is not certain who this ruler of Magadha-Gauḍa was; but that he was a powerful sovereign is clear from the fact that his dominions extended from the borders of Vaṅga (Eastern Bengal) to the Vindhyas. Possibly he was one of the Śaila rulers referred to above who conquered Kāśī and Puṇḍra in about the first quarter of the 7th century A.D. It is significant that the Śaila prince Śrīvardhana, who is probably not far removed from the 2nd quarter of the 8th century, is called ‘the lord of the Vindhya’ (*Vindhyeśvara*), the very mountain not far from which the two armies met for the first time.

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It is not improbable that the Vaṅga (Samataṭa) king defeated by Yaśovarman was one of the Khaḍga rulers referred to above. The success of Yaśovarman was however short-lived, and not long after 736 A.D., he fell a victim to the ambition of the Kārkoṭa king Lalitāditya Muktāpīḍa, probably known to the Chinese as *Mu-to-pi*.² We are told by Kalhaṇa that after annexing the dominions of the Kanauj king, Lalitāditya ‘proceeded with ease to the eastern ocean’ and reached the ‘“Gauḍa land.”’³ Another invasion of Bengal-Bihar was probably undertaken by the Kāmarūpa king Śrī-Harṣa (Hariṣa?), who is referred to in the Paśupati inscription of his son-in-law Jayadeva of Nepal (153 = 153 + 595 = 748 A.D?) as the ruler of *Gauḍa, Oḍra, Kaliṅga, Kosala and other lands*.⁴ This appears to have been followed by the invasion of the Kashmirian king Jayāpīḍa, who is reported by Kalhaṇa to have visited the lands east of Prayāga in the course of his adventures in the early part of his reign (c. 762-63 A.D.). We are told that Jayāpīḍa reached 'the city of Pauṇḍravardhana, subject to the king of Gauḍa and at that time protected by a prince called Jayanta.' The Kashmīrian monarch married Kalyāṇadevī, the daughter of Jayanta, and after conquering 'the chiefs of the five Gauḍas' (*Pañca-Gauḍ-ādhipān*), made his father-in-law their sovereign.

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Though it is not impossible that there may be some grain of historical fact in the stories of the adventures of Jayāpīḍa, all attempts to identify Jayanta must remain problematical.¹ As a result of all these invasions the lower Ganges valley must have been reduced to a chaotic condition. The Lāma Tāranātha, referring to the condition of this region just before the election of Gopāla, the founder of the Pāla dynasty, says: "There was no longer any member of it (the royal family of the Candras) a king; in Oḍiviśa, in Bengal and the other five provinces to the east, each Kṣatriya, Brāhman, and merchant (Vaiśya?) constituted himself king of his surroundings, but there was no king ruling the country."² The anarchic condition is more vividly expressed by the expression *Mātsyanyāya* which is applied by the Khalimpur inscription of Dharmapāla to describe the condition of North-eastern India before the election of Gopāla.³