Tribes in Ancient India c5.95

c5.95

In the ninth century A.D. the Kāmbojas are said to have been defeated by Devapāla, the great king of the Pāla dynasty of Bengal.⁶ But during the latter part of the 10th century the tables were turned, and the rule of the Pāla kings of Bengal was interrupted by the Kāmbojas, who set up one of their chiefs as king.⁷ In a place called Vānagarh in Dinājpur, Bengal, mention is made of a certain king of Gauḍa, born in the Kāmboja family. It is probable that the Kāmbojas first attempted to conquer Gauḍa during the reign of Devapāla, but were defeated at that time.⁸ R. P. Chanda surmises that in the middle of the tenth century A.D., the Kāmbojas again attacked North Bengal, and that its present inhabitants (of Koch, Mech, and Paliā) are descended from them.¹ The Kāmboja rulers were expelled by Mahīpāla I, the ninth king of the Pāla line, who is known to have been reigning in A.D. 1026, and may be assumed to have regained his ancestral throne about A.D. 978 or 980.²