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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA the total absence of any definite date of the reign of Vigrahapāla II, the attitude of the former group of scholars would no doubt appear to be more reasonable. And the present record showing that Vigrahapāla 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 Vigrahapāla III who reigned for at least about 26 years and that Vigrahapāla II had a much shorter reign.
The rule of Vigrahapāla III in Tīrabhukti or North Bihār 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 ‘Banāras’ ‘ belonged to the territory of Gang ’ about 1034 A.C. when, according to Baihaqī, Ahmad Nīyāltigīn, a general of Ma‘sūd I (circa 1030-40 A.C.) invaded it,[1] and that the Benares plates (Kalachuri year 793=1042 A.C.) of Kalachuri Karṇa (1041-72 A.C.) records the grant of a village in the Kāśī district[2] point to the inclusion of the eastern U. P. in the dominions of Karṇa and his father Gāṅgēyadēva Vikramāditya. The Karanbel inscription[3] assigns to Karṇa a victory over Gauḍa and the Bheraghat inscription[3] speaks of his hostility with Vaṅga, while his Paikore pillar inscription[4] points to his advance as far east as the Bīrbhūm District of West Bengal. Under these circumstances, the Nepalese manuscript of the Rāmāyaṇa, completed in [Vikrama] Saṁvat 1076 (1019 A.C.) when Tīrabhukti was under the rule of Gāṅgēyadēva,[5] may be regarded as proving, Kalachuri occupation of North Bihār in the first half of the eleventh century. It should, however, be pointed out that we have inscriptions of Mahīpāla I (circa 988-1038 A.C.) from Sārnāth near Banaras (dated Vikrama Saṁvat 1083=1026 A.C.) in the eastern U.P., from Nālandā, Bodhgayā and Tetrawan (dated in the regnal years 11 and 31 or 21) in South Bihār and from Imādpur (dated in the regnal year 48) in the Muzaffarpur District of North Bihār, while two inscriptions (dated in the regnal year 15) of Nayapāla (circa 1038-55 A.C.) come from Gayā in South Bihār.[6] The Tibetan life[7] of the Bengali Buddhist monk Atiśa Dīpaṅkara Śrī-Jñāna refers to an invasion of Magadha or South Bihār under Nayapāla, father of Vigrahapāla III, led by ‘king Karṇya of the west’, i.e., Kalachuri Karṇa. According to this tradition, Nayapāla ultimately succeeded in defeating the invader, while, according to the Rāmacharita,[8] Vigrahapāla III defeated Karṇa and married the latter’s daughter Yauvanśrī. It has been supposed that this refers to a second invasion led by Karṇa against the Pāla empire. In any case, the present inscription shows that North Bihār was reconquered by the Pālas from the Kalachuris at least before the 17th year of Vidrahapāla’s reign. Karṇa’s son Yaśaḥkarṇa (circa 1072-1125 A. C.), however, claims to have devastated Champāraṇya (modern Champāran in North Bihār) according to the Bheraghat inscription.[9] It seems, therefore, that the Pālas were struggling with the Kalachuris in Bihār, both North and South, for a considerable period of time. Another interesting fact revealed by the Bangāon plate is the great importance attached by the local Brāhmaṇas of North Bihār to their relation with a Brāhmaṇa of Kōlāñcha or Krōḍāñcha. Ghaṇṭīśa, a Brāhmaṇa of Tīrabhukti, is found to trace his ancestry to a Kōlāñcha Brāhmaṇa named Kāchchha through the granddaughter of the latter. His partiality to the Brāhmaṇas of Kōlāñcha 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. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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