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No. 32]
RAJGHAT INSCRIPTION OF BHIMADEVA
areas of Bengal was conquered by the Turkish Musalmans about the beginning of the thirteenth century while it appears that the Gauda-Varendra ruler served by Bhimadova and his father and grandfather belonged to an indigenous royal family flourishing in the area in question before the Muslim conquest. It is extremely doubtful if the Muslim conquerors of the country thought it wise to appoint ministers from among the newly conquered people shortly after their conquest. Moreover the Muslim conquerors of India would have scarcely tolerated the construction of a Siva temple by their servant, which is stated to have been built to inspire wonder and admiration in the minds of Bhimadeva's enemies. It may of course be suggested that the names of the masters of Bhimadeva and his ancestors have not been mentioned in the inscription because they were servants of foreign rulers. But the above considerations lead us to think that the record was engraved before the Muslim conquest of Eastern India though probably not much earlier than the middle of the twelfth century.
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The second and third problems are very difficult to tackle. For the middle of the twelfth century, the description lord of Gauda (or Gauda-Varendra)' seems to suit the ruler of the Pāla dynasty. The Palas originally held sway over the major part of Bengal and Bihar and they are known to have enjoyed the title Gaudesvara. With the establishment of the Varman dynasty at Vikramapura in the present Dacca District in the latter half of the eleventh century South-eastern Bengal (called Vanga) was permanently lost to the Pala empire and, shortly after the middle of the twelfth century, Vijayasena, founder of the Sena dynasty of Radha in South-East Bengal, occupied practically the whole of Bengal including its western and northern parts. Henceforth Pāla rule was confined to the southern areas of Bihar. The Pala king Madanapala was ousted from Gauda-Varendra (i.e. the western and northern regions of Bengal) shortly after the date of his Manahali plate issued from Rāmavati (a city probably situated near modern Gaur in the Malda District) in the king's eighth regnal year corresponding to c. 1151 A.D. But the Pala kings were called Gaudiévara even when Gauda no longer formed a part of their dominions. Madanapala ruled in the period c. 1144-62 A.D. and is known to have recovered the western part of Bihar which had been lost to the Gahadavala king Govindachandra (1115-55 A.D.) who had his capital at the city of Banaras. The Patna-Monghyr region was u der Gähaḍavāla occupation from about 1124 to 1146 A.D. but appears to have been reoccupied by Madanapala about 1146 A.D. It is not impossible that the Pala king Madanapala, who had some success against the Gahaḍavalas of Banaras, was Bhimadeva's master. Bhimadeva's presence at Banaras may thus relate to a temporary occupation of Banaras by the Pala king. Unfortunately there is no indication in the record of Pala success against the king of the Banaras region. But the reference to the enemies may suggest that Bhimadeva did not visit Banaras in a private capacity on pilgrimage or was not settled at the holy place after retirement.
In connection with the construction of the Siva temple at Banaras by Bhimadeva, minister of the king of Gauda or Gauda-Varendra, we have also to think of the possibility of the work being done by him without visiting the place. We have instances of kings and queens making grants in favour of distant temples, far away from their dominions in some cases, without moving from their capital and of even ordinary people securing the merit of pilgrimage to holy places through proxies without personally visiting them. It was therefore not altogether impossible for Bhimadeva to have
IHQ, Vol. XXX, pp. 207-08.
See JBRS, Vol. XLI, Part 2, 1955, pp. 1 ff.
JAR, Letters, Vol. XVII, p. 29; above, Vol. XXVIII, p. 143.
See above, Vol. XXX, p. 22 and note; Vol. XXXI, p. 101 and note 8. For ordinary people performing pilgrimages to distant holy places by proxy, see P. Sreenivasachar, A Corpus of Inscriptions in the Telingans Districts, Nos. 50-51 (pp. 142, 152)
