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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXIX
the total absence of any definite date of the reign of Vigrahapala II, the attitude of the former group of scholars would no doubt appear to be more reasonable. And the present record showing that Vigrahapala III ruled at least for about 17 years goes considerably in favour of this view. In the present state of our knowledge, therefore, it is better to think that it was Vigrahapala III who reigned for at least about 26 years and that Vigrahapala II had a much shorter reign.
The rule of Vigrahapala III in Tirabhukti or North Bihar about the third quarter of the eleventh century has now to be reconciled with Kalachuri expansion in that area. Such facts as that the city of 'Banaras'' belonged to the territory of Gang' about 1034 A.C. when, according to Baihaqi, Ahmad Niyältigin, a general of Ma'sud I (circa 1030-40 A.C.) invaded it,' and that the Benares plate (Kalachuri year 793-1042 A.C.) of Kalachuri Karna (1041-72 A.C.) records the grant of a village in the Kāši district point to the inclusion of the eastern U. P. in the dominions of Karna and his father Gängeyadeva Vikramaditya. The Karanbel inscription3 assigns to Karna a victory over Gauda and the Bheraghat inscription speaks of his hostility with Vanga, while his Paikore pillar inscription points to his advance as far east as the Birbhum District of West Bengal. Under these circumstances, the Nepalese manuscript of the Rāmāyaṇa, completed in [Vikrama] Samvat 1076 (1019 A.C.) when Tīrabhukti was under the rule of Gangëyadeva, may be regarded as proving Kalachuri occupation of North Bihar in the first half of the eleventh century. It should, however, be pointed out that we have inscriptions of Mahipala I (circa 988-1038 A.C.) from Sarnath near Banaras (dated Vikrama Samvat 1083-1026 A.C.) in the eastern U.P., from Nālandā, Bodhgaya and Tetrawan (dated in the regnal years 11 and 31 or 21) in South Bihar and from Imadpur (dated in the regnal year 48) in the Muzaffarpur District of North Bihar, while two inscriptions (dated in the regnal year 15) of Nayapala (circa 1038-55 A.C.) come from Gaya in South Bihar. The Tibetan life of the Bengali Buddhist monk Atisa Dipankara Sri-Jñana refers to an invasion of Magadha or South Bihar under Nayapala, father of Vigrahapala III, led by 'king Karnya of the west', i. e., Kalachuri Karna. According to this tradition, Nayapala ultimately succeeded in defeating the invader, while, according to the Ramacharita, Vigrahapala III defeated Karna and married the latter's daughter Yauvanasri. It has been supposed that this refers to a second invasion led by Karna against the Pāla empire. In any case, the present inscription shows that North Bihar was reconquered by the Palas from the Kalachuris at least before the 17th year of Vigrahapala's reign. Karna's son Yaśaḥ karna (circa 1072-1125 A. C.), however, claims to have devastated Champaranya (modern Champaran in North Bihar) according to the Bheraghat inscription. It seems, therefore, that the Paias were struggling with the Kalachuris in Bihar, both North and South, for a considerable period of time.
Another interesting fact revealed by the Bangaon plate is the great importance attached by the local Brāhmaṇas of North Bihar to their relation with a Brāhmaṇa of Kōlancha or Kröḍāñcha. Ghantisa, a Brahmana of Tirabhukti, is found to trace his ancestry to a Kōlāñcha Brāhmaṇa named Kachchha through the granddaughter of the latter. His partiality to the Brahmanas of Kōlancha is also indicated by the endowment made by him out of his own land in favour of
1 Ray, D. H. N. I., Vol. II, p. 773.
* Ibid., p. 738; Bhandarkar, List, 1223; cf. the Sarnath inscription (Kalachuri year 810-1059 A.C.; Bhandar
kar's List, No. 1225) of the same king.
Ray, op. cit., p. 778.
Ibid., p. 784.
Ibid., p. 774; ABORI, Vol. XXIII, pp. 291 ff.; Bhandarkar, List, p. 392, note 3.
See History of Bengal, op. cit., p. 174.
Ray, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 326.
Hist. Beng., op. cit., p. 146. Ray, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 787.
