The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c16.20.4

v1.c16.20.4

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