Magadha and Anga

Who rules

Title

No king of the whole country: local lords (Pala-line king at Gaya, Pithipatis of Bodh Gaya, Khayaravala at Rohtas)

Since

not applicable

Family

Palapala (reconstructed 1165-1199 on Sircar, 1165-1200 on Ganguly; Chowdhury rejects him as a true Pala) is the last named Pala-line king at Gaya; the Pithipati line of Bodh Gaya is named from Buddhasena (Dharmasvamin, 1234-36) and Jayasena (13th-century image inscription).

Confidence

low

English Wikipedia, Pala Empire (the table of Majumdar, Chowdhury, Sinha, Sircar and Ganguly), Nalanda, Mahabodhi Temple, Khayaravala dynasty. No source reachable names a Magadha ruler for 1 January 1200.

Overlord

None. Claimed by the Senas (their era is used in Bihar) and, until 1194, by the Gahadavalas of Kashi.

What the realm holds

• Gaya (the Vishnupad pilgrimage and the Phalgu crossing) and Bodh Gaya (the Mahabodhi and the Vajrasana)
• Rajagriha (Rajgir), Nalanda and Bihar (Odantapuri) in the Nalanda country
• Telhara, Kurkihar, Ghosrawan, Giriyak, Phullahari and the Jethian valley monastic sites
• Anga: Champa (Bhagalpur), Vikramashila (Antichak), Munger, Lakhisarai (Krimila), Sultanganj, Colgong
• The Rohtas uplands and Japila (Khayaravala lands) in the south-west
• The Son crossing and the forest belt of south Bihar towards the plateau

How it was acquired

The Palas lost Gaya and Magadha piece by piece after Madanapala (reigned c. 1143-1162 on Sircar); Govindapala and Palapala are the last names in Gaya inscriptions. The Pithipatis descend from Vallabharaja, a Magadha adventurer who took Bodh Gaya, turned Buddhist as Devaraksita and married a daughter of the Pala Mahanapala (English Wikipedia, Pala Empire).

Allies and rivals

The Senas (claimant from the east, whose king styles himself lord of Gauda and holds the Lakshmana Sena era in Bihar), the Gahadavalas (broken at Chandawar in 1194, with the Khayaravala left to shift for themselves), the Karnatas of Mithila across the Ganges, and the Ghurid captain at Bhagwat and Bhiuli. Burmese, Sinhalese, Tibetan, Chinese and Kashmiri monks and envoys use the road to Bodh Gaya and keep the Pithipatis in funds.

The realm that morning

No Ghurid garrison stands in Magadha on the morning of 1 January 1200; the monasteries of Nalanda, Odantapuri, Vikramashila and Jagaddala are all standing. The date of Bakhtiyar's storming of the fortress of Bihar is the central question: about 1199 to 1200 on the careful modern reading (Sarkar, History of Bengal II: by 1200 he is consolidating his hold on Bihar), 1203 on others, and Scharfe puts the whole conquest of Bihar and the damage to Nalanda, Vikramashila and Odantapuri "between A.D. 1197 and 1206".

Play it as: Odantapuri has either just been taken, is about to be, or is a few years off. Nalanda's fate is a separate question; the ash layer on the top level of its buildings is found, but the Minhaj passage is now read as being about Odantapuri.

Wealth

Endowed villages, tanks, mango groves and ferry dues held by the monasteries by copper plate; the pilgrim trade of Gaya (shraddha rites at the Phalgu) and Bodh Gaya; rice of the Magadha plain and the Son crossing; iron and mica of the plateau edge; the bronze foundries of Kurkihar and Nalanda; foreign gifts at the Mahabodhi.

Military

No standing army can be named. The Pithipatis and the Khayaravala keep retinues; the fortified viharas (Odantapuri above all) are walled and gated, and a raider takes them for forts. Ghurid horse is the new fact. No numbers.

Threats

• Bakhtiyar Khalji's raiding of Munir (Maner) and Bihar
• A Ghurid garrison in south Bihar
• Sena or Karnata pressure from the east and north
• The end of Pala-era endowments with no king to renew them

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.

In 1200

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: 1199 to 1200 (careful modern reading); 1203 (others); Scharfe: between 1197 and 1206. Minhaj gives no year.Bakhtiyar Khalji, with a small band of horsemen, storms the walled vihara called by Minhaj the fortress of Bihar (usually Odantapuri at Bihar Sharif; a minority read the passage as Nalanda). Minhaj says the occupants were shaven-headed Brahmans, all slain, and that the booty turned out to be books with no one left who could read them. Dharmasvamin (1234-36) says the site then became a Turkish military headquarters.Depends on: Bakhtiyar holds his iqta and his men; no relief comes from Gaya, Mithila or Bengal. Stopped by: The Pithipati or Pala-line forces beat the raid off; Aibak recalls him; a monastery closes its gates.
2. after the fall of Bihar, 1200 to 1204Nalanda, Vikramashila and the other houses lose students and patrons; the Kashmiri scholar Shakyashribhadra leaves Magadha for Nepal and Tibet in 1204 (Jagaddala page on Wikipedia, citing Dutt 1962), and the dispersal continues to 1207.Depends on: Bihar is held by the Turks; the viharas are not defended. Stopped by: A Pithipati or Sena guard keeps the road open.

Later, on the likely course

1. 1234 to 1236The Tibetan Dharmasvamin finds Nalanda largely damaged and deserted, with an aged teacher Rahula Sribhadra (about 90) and about seventy monks, and the Pithipati king Buddhasena at Bodh Gaya.Depends on: The slow decline outlives the raid. Stopped by: Not applicable (later fixed fact).

Places of note

• Gaya: Vishnupad pilgrimage centre.
• Bodh Gaya: The Mahabodhi; the Pithipati seat.
• Bihar Sharif (Odantapuri): The fortress of Bihar of Minhaj.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry nalanda-mahavihara, odantapuri-bihar-sharif, vikramashila-antichak: marked "contested" for the date of the raid. Agreed; we give all three readings.
• The assignment mentions "Pratihara-like Magadha lords". We found no Pratihara family in Magadha in 1200; the lords we can source are the Pithipatis, the Palapala line and the Khayaravala.
• English Wikipedia (Vikramashila, Odantapuri) both give "around 1193" for Bakhtiyar's activity, which is the older dating; the campaign board and the brief prefer 1199 to 1200 or 1203.
• The campaign board entry bodhgaya-burmese-works: Burmese repairs at Bodh Gaya under Kyansittha are attested (English Wikipedia); the large Burmese works of the 13th century are later.

Evidence: Inscriptions are few and the Palapala line rests on a reconstruction; the Ghurid side is Minhaj, written about sixty years later; the Tibetan sources are later still.

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

On the map: Drawn as one block for lack of a named lord; the real pattern is a mosaic of monastic estates and small lordships. The part for Anga overlaps the Sena claim drawn in Senas of Bengal.

Primary sources for this realm

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