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

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of these kings have been found in Magadha. Among these records one Jain inscription has so far been discovered regarding king Rajyapāla. It was found incised on a pillar at Baragãon near Bihar Shariff (Patna District) on the site of old Nālandā. The pillar and the record appear to have belonged to an ancient Jain temple. The inscription consists of five lines. of incorrect Samskṛt and records the visit of one Vaidyanath, son of Manorath, of the Vähikakula, to a temple in the month of Marga (śirşa) in the 24th year of the reign of the illustrious Rajapala (Rajyapāla). This inscription shows that, in the 24th year of reign of Rajyapala (c. 91135 A.D.), the Patna district and possibly Monghyr, Bhagalpur and the Santal Pargana also were included in the Pāla territory.
Makipala 1: Among the later Pälas, Mahipala I (c. 988-1038 A.D.) appears to be of some importance. The Jain sources have certain references regarding this king. According to Hemacandra, a king of Anga country was amongst the claimants of the queen Durlabhadevi at the time of her svayamvara, with whom the Caulukya king Durlabha, who later married her, had to fight. This Durlabha ascended the throne of Anahilapāṭaka about 1009-10 A.D. The rival king of Anga country, therefore, most likely seems to have been this Mahipala whose reign falls at the end of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh century.2
THE DYNASTIES OF EASTERN INDIA
The Prabhavaka carita also records in one place that a certain Dharma of Kaula sect, having defeated some top-ranking poets in various places, appeared at the court of Bhoja of Dhärä. In this connection it says that Dharma of the Kaula sect defeated Sambhu in the metropolis of Gauda Mahāmahipa. This Gauda king Mahämahipa is certainly the king Mahipala I of the Päla dynasty the period of whose reign coincides with that of king Bhoja I of Dhärä (c. 1010 A.D.-1054 A.D.).
We, however, do not know of the other members of the dynasty from Jain sources.
Thus the known kings of this family are:
Dharmapāla
Rājyapāla
T Mahipāla
1 IA., XLVII, p. 111. The pillar is now in a modern Jain temple at Baragaon; See also JBORS., Dec, 1928, p. 489.
DHNI., 11, pp. 945-46.
3 SJGM., XIII, p. 147, V. 256: etc.
शम्भुगाड महामही पकटके
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