The main object of the inscription seems to be the recording of the ancestry and the name of the donor as well as the date of the building of the Temple of Gadādhara and several other minor temples of Viṣṇu. As the inscription itself was found in the temple of Narasiṁha which is only few paces behind that of Gadādhara at Gayā it seems certain that the ancient materials which have been profusely used in the modern temple of Gadādhara are the remains of the temple built by Viśvarūpa in the fifteenth year of the reign of Nayapāladeva.
The Kṛṣṇa-Dvārikā temple inscription referred to above also records the erection of temple of Viṣṇu in the fifteenth year of Nayapāla:—
Saptāmvu-rāśi-visarat (ac-ch) ślatha mekhalāya asyā bhūvaḥ kati na bhūmi-bhujo-vabhūvuḥ,
Siddhiṁ na kasyacid=agād=yad=analpa-kalpais=ten=ātra Kīrttanam=akāri Janārdanasya,—verse 17.[1]
The modern temple of Kṛṣṇa-dvārikā is built almost entirely of ancient materials and it is quite possible that these materials are the only remnants of Viśvāditya or Viśvarūpa's temple. The only other existing record of Nayapāla is in the colophon of a manuscript of Pañca-rakṣā in the collection of the Cambridge University:—
Deyadharmosyam=pravara-mahāyāna-yāyinyāḥ Paramopāsikā-Rājñī-Uddākāyā yad=atra puṇyan=tad=bhavatv=ācāry=opādhyāya-matā-pitṛ (pūrvaṅgama)ṅ-kṛtvā sakala-satva-rāśer-anuttara-jñān=āvāptaya iti॥ Paramasaugata-Mahārājādhirāja-Parameśvara Śrī-man=Nayapāladeva-pravarddhamāna-vijayarājye samvat 14 Caitra dine 27 likhit-eyaṁ bhaṭṭārikā iti.[2]
Nothing else is known about Nayapāla and his relations. He was succeeded by his son Vigrahapāla III. Nayapāla's reign most probably did not extend beyond the date of the Kṛṣṇa-dvārikā and Gadādhara temple inscriptions and seems to have come to an end some time between 1045 and 1050 A.D. It is said in a commentary on Cakradatta that Cakrapāṇi Datta was the kitchen superintendent of king Nayapāla.[3]
At the beginning of his reign Vigrahapāla came into conflict with his father's antagonist, the Cedī Emperor Karṇa. Karṇa's power at that time was at its lowest ebb. Vigrahapāla III: his war.He was being constantly defeated by the neighbouring princes. He had a very long reign, his own with that of his son having covered a century. In the height of his power he had overrun the whole of Northern India but in his old age he suffered many reverses. He was defeated by the Candella Kīrttivarman,[4] by Udayāditya of Mālava,[5] by Bhīmadeva I of Anahilvād, who is eulogised by the grammarian Hema-candra for having defeated Karṇa in battle,[6] and by the Western Cālukya Someśvara I, which is recorded by the poet- ↑ J.A.S.B., 1900, pt. I, p. 184.
- ↑ Bendall's Cat. Skt. MSS. in the Univy. Liby., Cambridge, p. 175. No. 1688.
- ↑ Cakrapāṇi, Ed by Śivadāsa Sena, Calcutta, b. s. 1302, p. 407.
- ↑ Epi. Ind., Vol. I, pp. 220, 326, 130, 132.
- ↑ Ibid., Vol. II, p. 192.
- ↑ Bühler—Über das Lebeu des Jaina Mouchs Hema-Chandra, p. 69.
