Grains of Gold: Tales of a Cosmopolitan Traveler (Buddhism and Modernity) by Chopel Gendun

Author:Chopel, Gendun [Chopel, Gendun]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2014-01-17T00:00:00+00:00

12

The Pāla Dynasty

At the same time as this [Lohara] dynasty and when it had been more than one thousand two hundred years since the Buddha’s passing, the Pāla kings ruled in Bengal. This dynasty lasted for a very long time. They made their chief capital at Sahora or Zahor. Regarding what are said to be the ruins of that city, there is one on the banks of the Brahmāputra in Bengal and another on the southern bank of the Ganges near Bihar. At both of these there are ruins of palaces, and so on. The first [king] of the Pāla dynasty was Gopāla. After the death of the king of Gauḍa, the Bengalis came under the sway of Matsya and were miserable. The people of the country gathered and appointed Gopāla as their king. He restored the damaged kingdom and ruled the land well. Regarding the statement that Gopāla built Vikramaśīla [monastery], I have not heard anything other than what is familiar to us; and I do not see any difficulty [with this statement], such as an inconsistency in the chronology. However, because about three Gopālas appeared during this dynasty, one should investigate to determine which one it was [who built the monastery]. His son was the great king Dharmapāla and he ruled from the city of Pāṭaliputra. He defeated such [rulers] as Indrāyudha, king of Kanauj, and brought it under his dominion, and appointed a new king in his place. He remained the archenemy of Rāṣṭrakūṭa, Nāgabhaṭa, and the like. He was known to have controlled the entire land from the edge of the snow mountains to Gokarṇa [in Karnataka] in the south.

He held the three jewels to be supreme and protected both non-Buddhists and Buddhists without being partisan. During the period of Dharmapāla, due to such things as our country flourishing, even we [Tibetans] became quite familiar [with this king]. In fact, when the name of [any other] Indian king appeared, he was referred to as Dharmapāla, and some even wrote that the son of such and such [a king] came to Tibet, and so on. Regarding his descendants, even the fifth Dalai Lama considered himself to belong to this lineage.1 However, I do not know if the family line of Śāntarakṣita and Atiśa are the same as this [Sahor lineage] or not.

Within the Pāla dynasty, this king [Dharmapāla] is as famous as the sun and moon, and among the Buddhist kings of the later period, none is greater than he. The kings of the lands of Matsya, Kuru, Yadu, Avanti, Gandhāra, and so forth were known to accept his authority. In the one thousand three hundred twenty-sixth year after the passing [of the Buddha or 782 CE; he reigned from 770 to 810 CE] he was alive and ruling his kingdom. This can be correlated with the statement in the Red Annals that Ogyenpa (1229–1309) saw on the stone pillar at the Yarlung tombs, [which states] that, at the time of Tibetan emperor Sena Lekzin, Dharmapāla was in India.

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