CHAPTER IV. 



The Second Empire. 



The period which follows is entirely different in character, the principal actors 

 having changed. The great Gurjara-Pratfhara Empire was rapidly dissolving and 

 the Rastrakuta kings were gradually becoming weaker. Rastrakuta. and Gurjara 

 invasions became things of the past. New actors were appearing in the political 

 arena. The invasion of the Great Cola Conqueror left a deep impression on north 

 eastern India. It gave Bengal a new dynasty of kings and indirectly hastened the 

 ruin of the Pala Empire. After the Badal pillar inscription of Narayanapala, there 

 is no other inscription which can throw light on the history of Northern Bengal for 

 three generations, i.e. till the time of Mahlpala I. About this time some Mongolian 

 tribes occupied the whole of the Northern Bengal and either massacred the old 

 inhabitants or gradually forced them back southwards. A monolithic pillar now 

 standing in the grounds of the place of the Maharajas of Dinajpur bears a record of 

 one of these Mongolian kings, who also claimed to be the lords of Gauda (GaudeS- 

 vara). At present the whole of Northern Bengal is strewn over with pre-Muham- 



madan ruins and so far the general theory had been, that 



Knmboja or Mongolian these temples, monasteries and towns were ruined at the 



lm aS1 s" tl ° a l t " lie °f tne Muhammadan occupation of the country. But 



recently a plausible theory has been started by Mr. Rama 

 Prasad Canda, B.A., on the basis of Dinajpur pillar inscription, according to which 

 the ruin of these ancient cities of Northern Bengal should be differently interpreted. 

 The inscription on the Dinajpur pillar was brought to notice in 1871 when it was 

 published with a rude lithograph. 1 The late Dr. Bloch examined the inscription 

 during one of his tours and hastily gave a reading which I am afraid cannot be 

 supported. Mr. Canda obtained some very clear and beautiful rubbings of this 

 inscription during one of his many visits and submitted a paper on it to the Asiatic 

 Society of Bengal. 2 According to Mr. Canda, the Koch, Mech and the Palias of the 

 present day are the descendants of the Mongolians who invaded and settled in North 

 Bengal during the latter half of the ninth and the tenth century a.d. The inscrip- 

 tion on the Dinajpur pillar, which forms the basis of Mr. Canda's paper, records the 

 erection of a temple of Siva during the reign of a king of Gauda of the Kamboja 

 race, in the year 888 of some unspecified era. The date is expressed as a chrono- 

 gram : Kunjara-Ghata-varsena, which probably means 888. 

 inscription. mi]PUr '^ s date cann °t be referred to the Vikrama era as in that 

 case it would be equivalent to 831 a.d., which is too early 

 to suit the characters used in this inscription. Neither can it be referred to the 



1 Ind. Ant., Vol. I, pp. 127 and 227. 2 J.A.S.B., N.S , Vol. VII, p 619. 



