112 R. D. BANERJI ON 



(8) A MS. of the Prajnaparamita of 8000 verses in the collection of the Royal 

 Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland written at Nalanda in the fourth year 

 of the King's reign : — 



1. Mdta-pitr-purvamgamam krtvd sakala-satva-rds'er-anuttara-jnana-phal-dvdp- 



taya iti \\ Paranies'vara Paramabhattdraka Paramasaugata Mahdrdjd- 

 dhirdja Sri-mad-Govindapdlasya-vijaya-rdjya-samvatsare 4 £uny-odaka- 

 grdma-vdstavya Sri-man-N aland a- 



2. m-astu sarva-jagatdm. 1 



It will be observed that out of these eight records only two mention the King 

 as living. In No. 8 we find the usual titles and no peculiarity, consequently it can be 

 admitted that Govindapala reigned for at least four years. In No. 4 though titles 

 have been omitted yet the absence of such formulae as " Par antes' varetyddi Rdjdvall- 

 purvvavat " at the beginning, and such phrases as " gatardjye," " atitardjye" and 

 ' ' vinasta-rajye " make it certain that the King Govindapala was alive in the 37th 

 year from the date of his consecration, i.e. 1197 a.d. This being admitted, we find 

 that the phrases gata and atlta are used in other records in a peculiar sense, signifying 

 that the reign of the Prince was at an end, in that particular locality, but that it was 

 still continuing at some other place. Thus in the Gaya Inscription of the Vikrama year 

 1232 the use of the word gata means that Govindapala's reign had ceased at Gaya, 

 but was continuing somewhere else. The use of the word Atlta in the MS. discovered 

 by Mahamahopadhyaya Hara Prasada Sastri, which was copied in 38th year of his 

 reign, signifies that his reign was at an end at the place where the MS. was copied. 

 Only the use of the special word Vinasta in No. 6 signifies that the remnants of his 

 authority was destroyed in that year, as has been correctly interpreted by Bendall/ 



by the Muhammdans under Bakhtyar-Khilji. It appears 

 that Govindapala ruled lower part of Eastern Magadha 

 close to Nalanda and yet bore the title of Gaudetvara. He was recognized as the real 

 King by Buddhists in all parts of the country. He managed to continue his reign till 

 1 199, when Cauhan, Gaharwar, Pala and Sena were all swept away by the whirlwind 

 of Muhammadan invasion. 



Postscript. 



An inscription of the time of Vigrahapala III was found by me recently on the 

 pedestal of an image of Buddha in the Indian Museum. This appears to be the in- 

 scription mentioned by Cunningham." It runs as follows : — 



1. ori-mad-Vigrahapdla-deva-rdjya samvat 13 mdrgga dine 14. 



2. Deya [dha] rmmoyam suvarnnakdra Dehekasya 1 Sake sutasya 11 



" The year 13, the 14th day of Marggasirsa, of the reign of the illustrious Vlgraha- 

 paladeva. The religious gift of the goldsmith Deheka, son of Sahe." 



1 J.R.AS. (N.S.), Vol. VIII (1876). p. 3 ; Astasbasrika-Prajnaparamita (Bib. Ind., Calcutta, i«88). Preface, p. xxii, 

 Note. 



1 Catalogue of Buddhist Sanskrit MSS. in the University Library, Cambridge, Introduction, p. iii. 

 S AS R., Vol. Ill, p 121, no. 7. 



