Political History of Northern India

SR No.: 001744
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Gulabchandra Chaudhary
Publisher: Sohanlal Jain Dharm Pracharak Samiti Amrutsar
Publication Year: 1954
Total Pages: 482
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, History, & Culture
File Size: 10 MB

Page 83

I. THE PALAS
We neither know the condition of Eastern India after the downfall of the imperial Guptas nor do we catch any glimpse of the time of Harşa from the Jain sources. They also do not supply any reference regarding Sasanka and later Guptas and have no record of the anarchy which prevailed before the foundation of the Päla dynasty. The Pala dynasty which emerges about the middle of the eighth century A.D., was a single ruling dynasty for about four centuries in Bengal. It is said that the first ruler of this dynasty, Gopala, was an elected king, for which, however, there is no Jain support. On the other hand, we have several references to Dharmapăla who is generally regarded as the son and successor of Gopala.
Origin: Before proceeding to any detail, we should first enquire into the origin or ancestry of the Pälas. In a Campú kavya called Udayasundarikatha, composed by the poet Soddala (a friend of some of the Jain scholars. of Gujarat in the eleventh century A.D.), Dharmapala is said to have belonged to the family of Mändhätä. As Mandhātā is a well known Puranic king of the Solar Race, this reference supports the view that the Pālas belonged to the Solar Race, which is corroborated by the statements made in the Kamauli copper plates of Vaidyadeva. Vaidyadeva was originally the minister of a Pāla king Vigrahapala III. This Vigrahapala is stated there to have belonged to the Solar dynasty. Strangely enough we do not find any mythical pedigree of the dynasty in the Pala records. Perhaps one of the reasons why no reference to the origin and caste of the Pālas occurs in their own records is that they were Buddhists and did not care much to adopt Brahmanical institutions or traditions. It should be observed, however, that early Buddhist tradition does not betray any aversion to tracing the origin of Buddhist republican tribes and dynasties
etc.
CHAPTER IV
THE DYNASTIES OF EASTERN INDIA
1 GOS., XI. p. 155. Soddala's Jain friends were Swetambara Candanăcārya, Khadgacārya, Vijayasimhācārya, and Mahākirti Digambara. Ibid. p. 4 बलीयसा सप्ताङ्गसमप्रेणोत्तरापथस्यामिना मान्धातृवंशप्रभवेण भूनृता धर्मपालेन
3
Ep. Ind., II. p. 350.