70 R. D. BANERJI ON 



Vigrahapala are not known. Most probably he lost even what had belonged to 

 Gopala II as his son Mahlpala I is said to have recovered his paternal kingdom. His 

 only recorded war seems to have been conducted in Eastern Bengal. In the Amga- 

 chi and Dinajpur grants there is a verse about this : — 



De$e praci pracura-payasi svaccham = aplya toy am svairam bhrantvd tad = anu 



malay-opatyaka-candanesu, 

 Krtva sandrais = tarusu jadatam Slkarair = abhra-tulydh praley-adreh katakam-= 

 abhajan yasya sena-gajendrdh. — verse n Dinajpur grant of Mahlpala. 1 



But this is not very certain, as in the Amgachi grant of Vigrahapala the verse is 

 attributed to Vigrahapala III. 2 



After the death of Vigrahapala II, Mahlpala succeeded to what remained of the 

 first Empire of the Palas. In his Dinajpur grant he is said to have recovered the 

 kingdom of his father : — 



Hata-sakala-vipaksah sangare vahii-darppad = anadhikrta-viluptam mjyam—asadya 



pi try am 

 NiJiita-carana-padmo bhubhrtam murdhni tasmad = abhavad — avani-pdlah £rl- 



Mahlpaladevah. 6 



After the recovery of his paternal kingdom, Mahlpala I must have turned his 



attention to the West. In his sixth year Nalanda was 

 Mahlpala ^conquers i nc i u ded in his kingdom as a manuscript copied at that 



place in that year of the king has been acquired for the 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal by Mahamahopadhyaya Hara Prasada Sastrl. Magadha 

 seems to have continued in the possession of the king for a long time. In the 

 eleventh year of the king an image of Buddha was dedicated in or near the temple 

 of the Mahabodhi at Bodh-Gaya, and in the same year the great temple at 

 Nalanda was restored, as it had been burnt down in a fire. After the conquest of 



Magadha, Mahlpala seems to have attacked Tirabhukti or 

 Mithila which continued in the possession of the king at least 

 till his 48th year. His kingdom seems to have extended as far as Benares and con- 

 tinued to be included in it till 1020 a.d. In that year, two persons were deputed by 

 the king, named Sthirapala and Vasantapala, to execute some repairs near the Bud- 

 dhist city. The state of the Gurjara kingdom of Kanauj favoured the occupation. 



Only a few years before it had been devastated by Sultan 

 Mahmud of Ghazni, and after his departure, the king Rajya- 

 paladeva bad been deposed and murdered by the Indian Princes for having submitted 

 to an alien conqueror. At that time Trilocanapala was seated on the throne of the 

 Gurjara-Pratiharas and most probably his power did not extend beyond the con- 

 fluence of the Yamuna. 



In spite of the victories during the earlier part of his reign, Mahlpala I suffered 

 some very severe reverses from the time of the rise of the Cedis, under Gahgeyadeva 



1 J. A. SB., 1892, pp. 80 & 83. 2 Iiid. Ant., Vol. XXI, p. 101, and J.A.S.B., 1892, p. 83, note 26. 



3 J.A.S.B., 1892, pp. 8 — 84, 11. 23-24. 



