Page:The Pālas of Bengal.djvu/26

56 most probably a general. Kedāramiśra continued as minister under Śūrapāla I or Vigrahapāla I, and his son Guravamiśra was the minister of Nārāyaṇpāla. The second verse in the Badal pillar inscription about the campaigns of Devapāla runs as follows:—

Utkīlit-otkala-kulaṁ hṛta-hūṇa-garvvaṁ kharvvīkṛta-draviḍa-gurjjaranātha-darppaṁ, Bhū-pīṭham = abdhi-raśan = āhharaṇamvubhoja Gauḍeśvaraś = ciram = upāsya dhiyaṁ yadīyāṁ — verse 13.

"Attending to his (Kedāramiśra's) wise counsel the lord of Gauḍa long ruled the sea-girt earth, having eradicated the race of the Utkalas, humbled the pride of the Hūṇas, and scattered the conceit of the rulers of Draviḍa and Gurjjara."

The invasion of Utkala is a new point, but the fight with the Hūṇas perhaps is the same as that with the Kambojas referred to in the Monghyr grant. We know from an independent source that there was a war with the Drāviḍas, i.e. the Rāṣṭrakūṭas. In the Nilgund inscription Amoghavarṣa I, it is stated that he was "worshipped by the lords of Vaṅga, Aṅga, Magadha, Mālava and Veṅgi":—

Ari-nṛpati-makuṭa-ghaṭṭita-caranas = sakala-bhuvana-vandita-śauryyaḥ, Vaṁg-āṁga-Magadha-Mālava-Veṁgīśair = arccito = tiśayadhavalaḥ. 7-8.

Amoghavarṣa I seems to have been the contemporary of Devapāla as we know that his father Govinda III was of Dharmmapāla. The first three names: Vaṅga, Aṅga and Magadha, must refer to one and the same kingdom as we know from inscriptions that Vaṅga, Aṅga and Magadha were under Devapāla, viz. the Monghyr grant and the Ghosrawan inscription. The Rāṣṭrakūṭa invasion was most probably over within a very short time, like those under the predecessors of Amoghavarṣa I, and at its close, in spite of the reverses, Devapāla was left master of Northern India. The war with the Gurjaras was either followed by the invasion of Amoghavarṣa I, or itself followed that. In either case it is quite clear that the Gurjara king Rāmabhadra suffered this reverse at the hands of this king of Bengal, for neither in the Gurjara copper-plate grants nor in their stone inscriptions are any victories assigned to him.

During the reign of Devapāla, a Brāhmaṇa named Vīradeva, an inhabitant of Nagarahāra, came on a pilgrimage to the Mahābodhi and paid a visit to the Yaśovarmmapura Vihāra. During his stay in Magadha, Devapāla heard of him and he was made the principal abbot of Nālandā. The Monghyr grant was issued to record the grant of a village named Meṣika, in the Krimilā Viṣaya, and the Śrī-nagara bhūkti, to a brāhmaṇa named Vihekarāta, of the Aupamanyava gotra and the Āśvalāyana Śākhā, in the 33rd year of the king. The dūtaka of the grant was the king's son Rājyapāla. There is a vast mass of MSS. literature