42 U. C. Batavyal— Copper-plate Grant of Dharmap&la. [No. 1, 
According to this evidence, certain pious Brahmanas of the Lata 
country were already established in the territory of Paundravardhana, 
as the guardians of a temple, and Bhatta Narayana came to them as 
a friend. 
To students of classical Sanscrit, Lata is known as a seat of learn¬ 
ing, which gave its name to a peculiar style of alliterative composition, 
known as Lat-anuprasa. I think it was a district of Kannauj, the same 
as the country of Kdl&nca , of our tradition, whence the five Brah¬ 
manas came to Bengal (then Pundra) at Ad^ura’s invitation. 1 
Thus the five Brahmanas preceded Bhatta Narayana into this 
country by some time. They came at the invitation of the traditional 
Ad^ura (that probably was bis title) whose dynasty shortly after¬ 
wards was overthrown by the Palas. 
The Palas are known in history as kings of Gauda. We are all fami¬ 
liar with the name of the great city of Gaur, the capital of Bengal down 
to the time of Akbar, of which the ruins 8 can still be seen in the dis¬ 
trict of Malda. But we are not equally familiar with the fact that in 
the earlier centuries of the Christian Era, there were, on the north 
of the Ganges, as many as five kingdoms, or principalities, of the name 
of Gauda, or Gaur, extending from Oudh (Ayodhya) on the west, to 
Pundra, or Paundravardhana on the east. These were collectively known 
as Panca Gauda . The kings of these five Gaudas had political rela¬ 
tions with the great king of Kannauj on the west, sometimes even 
with the kings of K^mir still further west, and with the king of 
Paundravardhana on the east. Harsavardhana, or f iladitya, of Kan¬ 
nauj, the contemporary of Hiuen Tsiang, is said to have invaded Gauda, 
and some of the kings of Ka^mir also are recorded to have done 
the same thing and to have carried ofi a number of their people into 
Ka^mir as captives. Then in the history of Ka^mlr we read of 
an interesting event. In the middle of the 8th century, a king of 
Ka^nrir, Jayaditya or Jayaplda, visited Paundravardhana incognito. 
The king of Paundravardhana, Jayanta, however, came to know who 
he was, and secured his friendship by giving him his daughter in 
marriage. With the assistance of his powerful son-in-law, king Jayanta, 
it is said, conquered the kings of the five Gaudas. 
It is conjectured by some writers that this Jayanta was no other 
than the Ad^ura of our traditions. If there be any truth in the ac- 
1 [It hjas hitherto been considered as corresponding to central and southern 
Gujarat, see Indian Antiquary, Yol. XXII (1893), p. 183. Ed.] 
2 To the east of the ramparts of the old city is an extensive swamp locally 
known as Bhatiar Bil. The village of Khalimpur, where the copper-plate under 
notice was discovered, is on the eastern edge of this swamp. 
