Pala Empire

Bangladesh, 750 CE–1174. Draft, not yet reviewed

The Pala stronghold was located in Bengal and Bihar. The empire was founded with the election of Gopāla by the chiefs of Gauda in the late 8th century CE. At its zenith under emperors Dharmapala and Devapala in the early ninth century, the Pala Empire was the dominant power in northern India. In the 12th century the Hindu Senas rose as a sovereign power and the Palas were expelled from Bengal, marking the end of the last major Buddhist imperial power in the subcontinent.

Seat of power: Pataliputra

No rulers documented for this era yet.

Culture

• The Pālas were astute diplomats and military conquerors.
• The Pala period is considered one of the golden eras of Bengali history.
• Palas built grand Buddhist temples and monasteries (Viharas), including the Somapura Mahavihara and Odantapuri, and patronised the great universities of Nalanda and Vikramashila.
• Islam first arrived in Bengal during this period as a result of flourishing mercantile and intellectual contacts with West Asia.

Picture

Somapura Mahavihara is a major Buddhist monastery in Paharpur, designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.

Image: Abdulmominbd, CC BY-SA 4.0, file

Sources

• Pala Empire (Wikipedia)
• Pala Empire (Wikidata)
• About the picture (Wikipedia)

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.