The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c7.s8.t4.2

c7.s8.t4.2

The period embraced by the long reigns of Dharmapāla and of his son Devapāla covers nearly a century, including the period spent in consolidating the district of Bengal by Gopāla after his election by the people. This was a period of the greatest activity of the Bengali people in various directions, as will appear from the monumental relics discovered and collected by the Varendra Research Society (Rajshahi). This period has another importance, as we know from the book of Lāmā Tārānātha. It is during these long regions of Dharmapāla and his son Devapāla, that an eastern school of sculpture and painting was established by Dhīmān, born in Varendra, and by his son Vītapāla. The reputed minister Guravamiśra enabled his master Dharmapāla, originally a lord only of the Eastern quarter, to extend his dominions to all the quarters, over all the territories between the Himalayas on the North and the Vindhya mountains on the south between the two seas. The Lord Gauḍa (probably Devapāla)²⁶ suppressed the Utkalas, humbled the Hūṇas, and crushed the pride of the Lords of Drāviḍa and Gurjara.