The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c16.222

v1.c16.222

informs us that Vijaya married Vilāsadevī, a daughter of the Sūra family.¹ As V. 3 of the Naihati grant of Vallālasena tells us that the predecessors of Vijayasena were ornaments of the Rāḍhā country,² we can now safely conclude that a line of kings really existed in Western Bengal who were known as Sūras.³ Unfortunately, we do not know anything about the exact relationship between this Raṇaśūra and Mahīpāla. But from the description of him in the Tirumalai inscription, he appears to have been quite independent of the Pāla king. The area over which Mahīpāla held sway is further circumscribed by the mention of Govindacandra of the *Vaṅgāla-deśa*, or Eastern Bengal.⁴ Like Dharmapāla of *Daṇḍa-Bhukti*, this prince also was long unknown and unconnected with any of the other ruling dynasties of the lower Ganges valley. But recently a number of copperplates and an image-inscription have revealed the existence in Eastern Bengal of a line of princes whose names end in *Candra*. *The Rampal grant* of Śrīcandra was discovered somewhere in Rampal by a cultivator while digging land. It is a single plate; at the top, in the middle, is attached a circular seal "which has in its upper part, the emblem of a Buddhist wheel of law with two deer in couchant posture on both sides of it. Just below the wheel and above the legend *Śrī-Śrī-Candradevaḥ* something like the emblem of a small conchshell is seen. Beneath the legend again the representation of a digit of the moon with floral decorations on the three sides of it may be marked. The characters of the inscription belong to a variety of alphabets used in India in the 11th and 12th centuries A. D." The inscription opens with a verse in praise of *Jina* (*i.e.*, Buddha), *Dharma* and *Bhikṣu-saṅgha*. Then we are given the following genealogical information about the donor: