6 
SANDHYAKARA NANDI. 
conquest of Kanauj Dharmapala is described by Haribhadra as belonging to the 
family of a military officer of some king. From this it may perhaps be inferred 
that Dayita-Visnu was descended from that family mentioned in the Iran stone Boar 
inscription of the first year of Toramana, in which mention is made of a Maharaja, 
named Matr Visnu, brother of Dhanya Visnu, the son of Hari Visnu, grandson of 
Varuna Visnu and great-grandson of Indra Visnu. But after Dayita Visnu, there is no 
name in the Pala dynasty which ends in Visnu. So it indicates either illegitimacy 
or a cross-breeding, for the Visnus of Iran were Brahmans. This is a conjecture 
thrown out for whatever it may be worth. 
Haribhadra speaks of Dharmapala as a great athlete, who by his prowess could 
restrain an infuriated elephant ; also as a very pious 
Haribhadra, the Reformer. , , __ 
man. Haribhadra was a monk belonging to the Tantrika 
school of Asariga, and his preceptor was a very learned man, named Vairocana. 
The whereabouts of the Trikutaka-vihara is as yet unknown. May it be in the 
Traikutaka city of the Cedis in the Satpura range ? 
In the Khalimpur inscription, Dharmapala is described as i.e ., he was 
fair and as high as a stupa. He had a large army and 
I he Khalimpur g iaut - large navy. He could easily throw a boat-bridge across 
the Ganges. Where his capital was is not known. The Khalimpur grant was issued 
from Pataliputra, where he seems to have held a great Durbar and thrown a boat-bridge 
across the river. The grant was made in the 32nd year of his reign. The lands belonged 
to the Bhukti or province of Paundra-Varddhana. Four villages were endowed by the 
king himself at the request of Narayana Varma, his Mahasamantadhipati (the chief 
of his feudatories) and his Yuvaraja Tribhuvanapala/ to meet the cost of the Temple 
of Nunya Narayana, whose worshippers were Fata Brahmanas, i.e., Brahmanas from 
Gujrat where Vaisnavism greatly flourished at the time, and which still remains 
a great place for Vaisnavite worship. The name Nunya Narayana may seem 
strange, but we have in Nepal four Narayanas, as Isannarayana, Visannarayana, Cangu- 
narayana and Sikharnarayana. Narayanas of different localities had different names. 
It may be asked why did a Buddhist king endow a temple of Visnu. The Palas 
were tolerant towards all religions, as will be shown in their subsequent history. 
In the case of Dharmapala, he had a Hindu wife, Ranna Devi, the daughter of the 
Rastrakuta prince, Parabala, who in 861 erected a Vaisnava temple at Pathari. 
The queen’s influence must have been at work. 
Dharmapala was the real founder of the greatness of the Pala dynasty. Though 
, r , his father was elected king, we hear nothing more about 
Gopala, Dharmapala s lather. . 
him. Two short inscriptions were attributed to Gopala’ s 
time by Cunningham, but Babu Nilmani Chakravarti has shown that palaeographically 
they cannot belong to that early period. 1 2 The only fact that is known about Gopala, 
is that he had a wife named Dedda Devi, the mother of Dharmapala. 
1 I have in this ventured to differ from Mr. Vatavyala, for Nunya Narayana Bhattaraka cannot mean Bhatta 
Narayana — the Brahman from whom Mr. Vatavyala claimed his descent. 
2 J.A.S.B., 1908, p. 101 et seq. 
