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a local chieftain like Isvaraghosha, or Damodara, or Harikaladeva3 Hindu sovereignty in early mediaeval Bengal.
RAKSHASKHALI ISLAND PLATE OF MADOMMANAPALA; SAKA 1118
121 the last remnants of
The mention of a Pala anvaya coming from Ayodhya is as indefinite as it is misleading. For one thing, it cannot be the legendary city of the Ikshvaku kings far in the north. I believe that Maḍommanapala's Ayodhya should rather be looked for much nearer home. In fact, the Diamond Harbour Subdivision of the district of Twenty-four Parganas in Bengal still boasts of two different localities called Ayodhyanagara, one of which may well have been the seat of Maḍommanapala's family. It is in any case noteworthy that Dvärahaṭaka, from which place the grant was announced, is spoken of as the mukti-bhumi of Madömmaṇapala. It is just possible that this Dvärahaṭāka was the nucleus around which Madōmmanapala and his predecessors had built up a small sphere of influence. As a matter of fact, Purvakhațika is expressly referred to as having been acquired (uparjjita, 1. 3) by the Pala family from Ayodhya.
It is clear, however, that this line of Pala chiefs swore allegiance, though perhaps only nominally, to some ruler with imperial pretensions. This last may have been the Sena king Lakshmanasēna, who, then very old and very pious, was passing his last few days in the fateful city of Nudia, leaving charge of the Purvakhațikā affairs in the hands of this trusted family of vassals.
Of the localities mentioned, Purvakhațikä occurs for the first time in the present record. A Paschimakhaṭika, included in the Vardhamanabbukti, already occurs in the Govindapur plate of Lakshmanasõna. It is probable that the present river Hooghly formed the natural boundary between the two khātikās. A place called Khadi, a close approximation to khātikā, still exists in the Diamond Harbour Subdivision of the district of Twenty-four Parganas. A Khādi mandala was formerly included in the Pundravardhana bhukti. Generally speaking, Purvakhātikā seems to have covered a large part of the present Western Sundarbans area. Dvarahaṭāka may have been the headquarters of Purvakhațikā. I am, however, unable to identify Dvärahaṭāka as well as the village of Dhamalitha.
1 N. G. Majumdar, op. cit., pp. 149-57.
Ibid., pp. 155-63.
Cf. supra, p. 120, f. n. 2.
Apart from this, other places with epic association exist in the present Sundarbans area. Such e.g., Indraprastha (V.R. S. Monograph No. 4, map facing p. 12; Ann. Rep. of V.R.S., 1930-31, p. 13), Mathurapur and Gada Mathura (V.R.S. Monograph No. 4, p. 9 and niap).
Dr. D. C. Sircar's theory (Indian Culture, Vol. I, pp. 679-82) that the Palas of the Rakshaskhäli inscription came from the south is full of improbabilities. His arguments, viz., (i) a possible philological affinity between namos, (ii) a date in the Saka calendar, (iii) an absolutely imaginary and ineligible parallelism between the Hindu and Jaina pantheon of divinities, (iv) a search for Ayodhya mentioned in our inscription in the south and (v) some possible link with a southern Ikshvaku dynasty of solar descent, are clearly strained and they lose much of their force by the uncertain and hesitant tone in which they are expressed. As I have pointed out above, the Ayodhya Pälas may not after all prove to be worthy of so much enthusiasm and legendary glamour that some superficial coincidences may appear to cast over them. Any way, it does not prejudice our case to reserve a final verdict till data of a more practical nature are available. Dr. B. C. Sen has also recently exposed the absurdity of Dr. Sircar's eurious and persistent southern complexes (Some Historical Aspects of the Inscriptions of Bengal, Calcutta University, 1942, p. 481.)
It is necessary to mention here that Mr. D. P. Ghosh suggested (I.H.Q., Vol. X, p. 321, f.n. 2) a GurjaraPratihära association for the Palas of Dvärahataka while the late Mr. J. C. Ghosh perhaps went too far when he thought (Indian Culture, Vol. II, pp. 138-39) of an Orissan nativity for them. Drs. R. C. Majumdar and Radhagovinda Basak describe Madammapapala as "a foreigner, his family having migrated from Ayodhya." (The Iliatory of Bengal, Vol. I, Dacca University, 1943, p. 281, f.n. 1.)
The absence of a personal seal in the present case perhaps suggests as much..
N. G. Majumdar, op. cit., p. 96, text 1. 34.
Sundarban (Bakultala) copper-plate insoription of Lakshmanasöna (N. G. Majumdar, op. cit., p. 171).
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