History of Kanauj to the Moslem Conquest c17.s2.16

c17.s2.16

But in the east the Pālas, who had already reoccupied Uddaṇḍapura or Bihar probably in the confusion following the fratricidal struggle for the throne,⁴ seem to have taken advantage of this temporary shock to the fortunes of the Pratīhāra family, and they recovered some of their ancestral possessions upto the eastern banks of the river Son. This is evident from the Baragaon (Patna district) pillar inscription of the 24th year of Rājyapāla¹, and two other Pāla inscriptions that refer to the time of Gopāla II, and are incised on pedestals of images. One of them was discovered in the ruins of Nalanda in the Patna district, and records that an individual did honour to the image of the goddess Vāgīśvarī by covering it with gold leaf in the first year of Gopāla II's reign². The other was discovered in the ruins of Mahābodhi temple at Bodhgaya; it is undated and commemorates the installation of an image of the Buddha by Dharmabhīma³. These inscriptions no doubt belong to a period about two decades after the invasion of Indra III, but the re-assertion of Pāla power in Magadha cannot be far removed from this event, as the subsequent career of Mahīpāla appears to have been a glorious one.