Page:The Pālas of Bengal.djvu/64

94 evaṁ vādī mahāśramaṇaḥ। Śrī-mad = Rājagṛha vinirggateḥ Etrahāgrāmāvasthitaḥ॥ Paramopāsaka paramamahājān (ānuy) āyinaḥ॥ Vaṇika Sādhu. (2) Saharaṇasya Sādhu Bhādulvasutasya yadatra puṇyaḥ॥ Tad-bhavatv-ācaryopādhyāya-mātā-pita purvvaṅgama(ṁ) kṛtvā sakala (satva) rāser-ajñāna phalavāptaya iti। Paramabhaṭṭāraka Parameśvara Paramasau (?) (3) ......... ta। Mahārājādhirāja Śrī-mad = Rāmapāladevapāda pravarddhamāna-kalyāṇa-vijayarājye samvat 42 Āṣāḍha dine 30.

The date is given in the decimal notation so that there remains no doubt about its reading. The first numeral is certainly 4 and not 1. We find it in a contemporary inscription—the Bodh-Gaya inscription of the 74th year of the Lakṣmaṇasena era. The donor, Sādhu Saharaṇa, was most probably Vaiṣya by caste and a merchant by profession. Nothing was known about Rāmapāla and his times twenty years ago. When Mr. Venis was editing the Kamauli grant of Vaidyadeva, he was faced with great difficulties for want of materials. The date of Vaidyaveva's grant was fixed by him on conjecture. Recent discoveries have proved beyond doubt, that the grant must be placed half a century earlier. Rāmapāla's date was fixed and the events of his reign made known by the discovery of the Rāmacarita of Sandhyākaranandi. Nothing has been stated about, and the place of discovery of, this unique manuscript, by the discoverer himself, in the introduction to his edition of the Rāmacarita, but I have since its publication learnt on enquiry from him that the manuscript was purchased in Nepal in 1897. The manuscript itself consists of two different parts:—(1) The text, which is complete, and (2) the commentary, which is incomplete but older than the text. It runs up to the thirty-fifth verse of the second chapter of the text. The text of the work is written in Bengali characters of the 12th or 13th centuries on strips of palmleaf. It is, Mahāmahopādhyāya Hara Prasāda Śāstrī observes, written in imitation of the Rāghava-Pāṇḍavīya, in double entendre. The difficulty of understanding such a work is apparent, and had it been discovered without its commentary, it would have been of no use to historians or antiquarians. The principal value of the discovery lies in the commentary. The commentary is a mine of historical information, and supplies the details of the events of Rāmapāla's reign. The style of the composition of the commentary is highly ornamental prose, which makes it very difficult for one to get at the truth. The text does not end after the death of Rāmapāla but continues to describe the events of the reigns of his successors, Kumārapāla, Gopāla III, and Madanapāla. If the second part of the commentary is ever recovered, then an abundance of detail will be available, about the events of the time of the three princes mentioned above. There is very little doubt about the fact, that the author of the poem was obliged to write the commentary on it himself. The masses of details which are called up by the use of single works, would have