The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c20.9

v1.c20.9

somewhat difficult. The Asiatic Society’s plate of Vināyakapāla, dated in V.S. 988, informs us that Mahendrapāla had a son named Bhoja II by his queen Dehanāgā-devī, and another son Vināyakapāla by the queen Mahī-devī. The latter is represented as meditating on the feet of his father, as well as of his illustrious half-brother. The Asni stone pillar-inscription of Mahīpāla, dated in 974 V.S., tells us that Mahīpāla meditated on the feet of Mahendrapāla. That Mahīpāla was a son of Mahendrapāla is also clear from the plays of Rājaśekhara. The Siyadoni stone inscription mentions Kṣitipāla after Mahendrapāla, though the relationship between the two is not specified. The inscription supplies the date V.S. 964 for Mahendrapāla and V.S. 1025 for Devapāla, the son of Kṣitipāla. The Partabgarh inscription of Mahendrapāla II, dated in V.S. 1003, mentions Vināyakapāla as meditating on the feet of Mahendrapāla I. The Khajuraho inscription of Dhaṅga, dated in V.S. 1011, tells us that the Candella Yaśovarman received an image of Vaikuṇṭha from the *Hayapati* Devapāla, the son of Herambapāla. The latter had received the statue from the Sāhi king of Kīra in return ‘for a force of elephants and horses.’¹ The late Dr. Kielhorn assumed the identity of this Devapāla with the Devapāla of the Siyadoni inscription,² and thereby identified his predecessors Kṣitipāla and Herambapāla. As *Kṣiti* and *Mahī* mean the same thing, he further assumed the identity of the princes named Kṣitipāla, Mahīpāla, and Herambapāla.³ It remained for Prof. D. R. Bhandarkar to show that Vināyaka and Heramba also mean the same deity and hence to propose the identification of Vināyakapāla with the three mentioned above.⁴ The chronology of the immediate successors of Mahendrapāla, according to this view would be as follows: