South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

a local chieftain like Īśvaraghōsha,^[1] or Dāmōdara,^[2] or Harikāladēva^[3] ─ the last remnants of Hindu sovereignty in early mediaeval Bengal.

The mention of a Pāla anvaya coming from Ayōdhyā is as indefinite as it is misleading. For one thing, it cannot be the legendary city of the Ikshvāku kings far in the north. I believe that Maḍōmmaṇapāla’s Ayōdhyā 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 Ayōdhyānagara,^[4] one of which may well have been the seat of Maḍōmmaṇāpāla’s family. It is in any case noteworthy that Dvārahaṭāka, from which place the grant was announced, is spoken of as the mukti-bhūmi of Maḍōmmaṇapāla. It is just possible that this Dvārahaṭāka was the nucleus around which Maḍōmmaṇapāla and his predecessors had built up a small sphere of influence. As a matter of fact, Pūrvakhāṭikā is expressly referred to as having been acquired (upārjjita, l. 3) by the Pāla family from Ayōdhyā.^[5]

It is clear, however, that this line of Pāla chiefs swore allegiance,^[6] though perhaps only nominally, to some ruler with imperial pretensions. This last may have been the Sēna king Lakshmaṇasēna, who,then very old and very pious, was passing his last few days in the fateful city of Nudia, leaving charge of the Pūrvakhāṭikā affairs in the hands of thistrusted family of vassals.

Of the localities mentioned, Pūrvakhāṭikā occurs for the first time in the present record. A Paśchimakhāṭikā, included in the Vardhamānabhukti, already occurs in the Gōvindapur plate of Lakshmaṇasēna.^[7] It is probable that the present river Hooghly formed the natural boundary between the two khāṭikās. A place called Khāḍi, a close approximation to khāṭikā, still exists in the Diamond Harbour Subdivision of the district of Twenty-four Parganas. A Khāḍī maṇḍala was formerly included in the Puṇḍravardhana bhukti.^[8] Generally speaking, Pūrvakhāṭikā seems to have covered a large part of the present Western Sundarbans area. Dvārahaṭāka may have been the headquarters of Pūrvakhāṭikā. I am, however, unable to identify Dvārahaṭāka as well as the village of Dhāmahithā.

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^[1]N. G. Majumdar, op. cit., pp. 149-57.
^[2]Ibid., pp. 155-63.
^[3] Cf. supra, p. 120, f.n. 2.
^[4] Apart from this, other places with epic association exist in the present Sundarbans area. Such are e.g., Indraprastha (V.R. S. Monograph No. 4, map facing p. 12 ; Ann. Rep. of V.R.S., 1930-31, p. 13), Mathurāpur and Gadā Mathurā (V.R.S. Monograph No. 4, p. 9 and map).
^[5]Dr. D. C. Sircar’s theory (Indian Culture, Vol. I, pp. 679-82) that the Pālas of the Rākshaskhāli inscription came from the south is full of improbabilities. His arguments, viz., (i) a possible philological affinity between names, (ii) a date in the Śaka calendar, (iii) an absolutely imaginary and ineligible parallelism between the Hindu and Jaina pantheon of divinities, (iv) a search for Ayōdhyā mentioned in our inscription in the south and (v) some possible link with a southern Ikshvāku 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 Ayōdhyā Pālas 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 date of a more practical nature are available, Dr. B.C. Sen has also recently exposed the absurdity of Dr. Sircar’s curious 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 Gurjara-Pratīhāra association for the Pālas of Dvārahaṭāka 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 Radha-govinda Basak describe Maḍāmmaṇapāla as “a foreigner, his family having migrated from Ayōdhyā.” (The History of Bengal, Vol. I, Dacca University, 1943, p. 281, f.n. 1.)
^[6] The absence of a personal seal in the present case perhaps suggests as much.
^[7] N. G. Majumdar, op. cit., p. 96, text l. 34.
^[8] Sundarban (Bakultalā) copper-plate inscription of Lakshmaṇasēna (N. G. Majumdar, op. cit., p. 171).