Gaya: the pilgrim town on the Phalgu

Who holds it

Name

Palapala

Title

Palapala (reconstructed) or a successor

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

low

English Wikipedia (Pala Empire; Govindapala); board.

Lord in 1200

Palapala of the Pala line, reconstructed.

What the town holds

• The Vishnupad shrine, the Phalgu ghats and the priests' quarter
• The Pragbodhi caves at Dungeshwari (board)

How things stand that morning

A pilgrim town with a reconstructed Pala-line king, no army named, and the Ghurid captain several hundred kilometres west.

Wealth

Pilgrim fees (the town lives on the dead), the Phalgu crossing, grants.

Military

A retinue only; no numbers.

Threats

• Raiding from Bhagwat and Bhiuli (dates disputed, 1197 to 1206)

Council

No town council is recorded; royal officers and the guilds of merchants and craftsmen are the usual bodies of a town of this age (general knowledge).

Communities

Brahman priests, pilgrims from all India, a Buddhist visitor stream going south, weavers and stone carvers.

Fairs and markets

Pilgrim seasons are fixed by the lunar calendar; no dates are in the sources opened.

Walls and castle

No walls are named in any source we opened.

Trade and crafts

Pilgrim trade, stone carving, brass and cloth (general knowledge).

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. Working reading for play: after 1 January 1200, between 1200 and 1203, so not yet done when the game opens (the campaign sets the year). Readings: 1197 to 1206 (central readings 1199-1200 and 1203)Bakhtiyar's raids on south Bihar pass near Gaya; the pilgrim town is not named in the account.Depends on: The raid goes south. Stopped by: Aibak recalls him.

Places of note

• Gaya: Pilgrim town.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry gaya-phalgu-crossing is "contested". We write the king as reconstructed.

Evidence: Reconstructed Pala lists; the town itself is well attested as a pilgrimage but not in 1200 sources we read.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

Primary sources for Magadha and Anga

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Nasirean Generations (a general history of the Muslim dynasties), Minhaj-i Siraj Juzjani (completed 1260 at Delhi). The fullest narrative of the Ghurid conquest of northern India. Read online
• The Nasirid Generations: a General History of the Muslim Dynasties, Minhaj-i Siraj Juzjani (1259 to 1260, at Delhi). The Ghurid court's own history, by a man born in 1193 whose family served the sultans of Ghur and Ghazna. Read online
• Inscriptions of Bengal, vol. 3, Various (the Sena kings' chanceries), edited by N. G. Majumdar (copper plates of the 10th to early 13th centuries; edited 1929). The one-volume edition of the Sena copper plates, the main documentary evidence for Bengal around 1200. Read online
• Epigraphia Indica: inscriptions of the Chandelas, Paramaras, Gahadavalas, Chaulukyas, Senas and Eastern Gangas, Various (edited for the Archaeological Survey of India by J. Burgess, E. Hultzsch, F. Kielhorn, Sten Konow, F. W. Thomas and successors) (inscriptions of the 1180s to 1210s; the series ran from 1892). The main record series for the Hindu kingdoms of northern India around 1200. Read online
• The History of India as Told by its Own Historians: the Muhammadan Period, vol. 2, Various (Ibn al-Athir, Hasan Nizami, Awfi, Juzjani and others), edited by H. M. Elliot and John Dowson (the sources date from the 1190s to the 14th century; the collection was published in 1869). A one-volume anthology of the Arabic and Persian accounts of the Ghurid conquest. Read online