THE PALAS OF BENGAL. 109 



name of Nalanda(?) as the place of copying. 1 So it may be assumed with a tolerable 

 degree of certainty that Govindapala ruled a portion, probably the eastern one, of 

 Magadha. The records which mention this king contain some curious phrases and 

 will be edited before we come to discuss the events of the king's reign : — 



i. The Gaya Stone Inscription op Govindapaea. 



This record was found in the walls of a small shrine to the south of the main shrine 

 of Gadadhara, just below the courtyard of the Visnupad Temple at Gaya It has 

 already been mentioned by Cunningham, 2 who reproduced it in a lithograph, and by 

 Kielhorn." It is incised on the back-slab of an image of a female deity with four 

 hands and consists of fifteen horizontal and one vertical lines. A litigant is to be 

 found at the top of the record, which runs as follows : — 



i. Om* om svasti narno bhagavate Vasudevaya ,, Vrahmano dvitiya parardhe \ 



2. Varaha-kalpe vaiva&vata manvantare AstavimSatime yuge kalau purvvasam- 



3. -ndhyayam samvat 1232 Vikari sammvatsare Sri Govindapala-de- 



4. -va-gatarajye c iturddaSa sammvatsare Gayayam \\ V a&istha-gotro- 



5. -ti-guno dvivedah Sri Dallano [s] suta-sutam mahantam 1 Vidyadharam gu 



6. gulinam Gadabhrn-mathe anaklri dhanx dvijanim 11 bhoksatham-avdam pra- 



7. ti-so ia^-aiva k%rsapanl vrddhita-eva ladhvah Mulan-ca 1 pahcdsad-i 



8. -h-asti saksl Padm-abhidhano-tha ca ViSvarupa, 11 Nrsimha $rl-dharodeva 



9. Dharo Sri (?) dania (?) n%{ya)kau 1 Visjiu-seva-karau c-aite tapovana- 



nivasinah 11 Raghavah 



10. Srlkaro 5 Suko Damodarakah Hidharau Bhikhodeva nidhirddhaymml c-aitc 



pala- 



11. -na-karinah \ A-candrarkam-imam dharmmam palayisyanti ye sukham \ 



pratyavdam te- 



12. -Svamedhasya phalam prapsanti manavah \\ As - vine iukla-pancamyam 



bhojyam yo 



13. varayed-idam 1 Labhite s%v-asamligdh%m m%h%p%tak%-pancakam >i praSasti- 



14. -r-iyam krtd Sri-Yuktenirena likhitx c-ey%m K%jaslyl-Jaya-kum%rabhya / m \\ 



15. Om 5 Somes' varo-tr a saksasti Padmanabho Gayadvija Devarupasya purato datta 



c-aite Kaparddaka 1 . 



The only peculiarity noticeable in this inscription is the use of the word gate. The 

 words giving the regnal year may be taken — 



(1) to mean that the Vikari Samvatsara and v.s. 1232 fell in the 15th regnal 



year, i.e. when the 14th was expired; 



(2) to mean that Govindapala himself was dead, but this was the 14th year from 



the date of his consecration ; 



1 R. L. Mitra, Astasdhasrika Prajnaparamita (Bib. Ind.), p. xxii Note: but see also the Catalogue of the Hodgson 

 MSS. in the Royal Asiatic Society's Collection— J. R.A.S. (N.S.), Vol. VIII, p. 3. 

 ' Cunningham's Arch. Survey Report, Vol. Ill, p. 125, pi. XXXVIII, No. 18. 

 =■ Epi. Ind., Vol. V, App. p. 24, No. 166. 

 * Expressed by a symbol. 6 On right side. 



