278 
E. A. Gait — The Koch Kings of Kdmarupa. 
[No. 4, 
In Glazier’s Report on Rangpur, I) harm a Pala is mentioned as the 
founder of a dynasty. It is said that he was succeeded by his son 
Bhava Chandra, whose successor, Pala, was the last of the line. The 
remains of a fortified city which even now retains the name of Dharma 
Pala, are still to be seen in Rangpur, and in the Baghdwar pargana of the 
same district are the ruins of Udayapura, the city of Udaya or Bhava 
Chandra. 
Leaving the Pala dynasty we come upon somewhat more certain 
The Khyen dynasty, ground. Tradition says that there was a cer- 
KTiladhvaja. tain jj^ahman who had a most restless and 
troublesome cowherd. Going one day to chastise him, he found him 
asleep and a cobra shading him with its hood. He then noticed from 
the marks on his feet that he was destined to be a king. He informed 
him of the fact, released him from menial work and made him promise 
to make him his mantri when he rose to power. In course of time, 
acting under the advice of the Brahman, the quondam cowherd deposed 
the last representative of the Pala race and ascended the throne, 
making the Brahman his councillor. He assumed the name of Nila-' 
dhvaja, and bringing many Brahmans from Mithila did much towards 
re-establishing Vedic observances. He is said to have belonged to the 
Khyen tribe, but on conversion to Hinduism, he declared his caste to be 
that of High S'udra, just as the next dynasty — the Koch— called them- 
selves Rajavariisis. He removed the capital to Kamathapura,* on the 
western bank of the Dliarla in Koch Bihar. The ruins still exist, and 
are described by Dr. Buclianan-Hamilton who visited them in 1 809. f- 
He says that the city was very extensive, being no less than 19 miles 
in circumference, of which five were protected by the Dharla and the 
rest by a rampart and a ditch. The city was built on the usual plan, 
enclosure within enclosure, wall within wall, the king’s palace occu- 
pying the centre of the whole. 
His son Chakradhvaja succeeded him, and the latter was in turn fol- 
Chakradhvaja, milam- lowed by his son Nilambara, who attained to 
bartu great power. His dominions included the 
* He was on this account known as Kamathesvara. It is doubtful how far 
Niladhvaja’s empire extended, and it is not unlikely that in some portions of 
Eastern Kamardpa other rulers were at the same time exercising sovereign rights. 
The Musalman historians of the time sometimes refer to Kamarupa and Kamatha as 
if the kingdoms were distinct, and sometimes speak as if the terms were synony- 
mous and referred to one and the same country. “Comotay ” is shown in the Map 
in Blaev’s Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, Vol II (Amsterdam 1650) ; but the map is 
too sketchy to enable the boundaries of the country to be ascertained from it. 
t Buchanan-Hamilton’s account is reproduced almost verbatim in Hunter’s 
Statistical Account of Koch Bihar, p. 362. See also Statistical Account of Bang- 
pur, p. 314. 
