Person · Pala emperor · India
Devapāla
Also known as Devapala, Devapāla of Bengal, Devapaladeva
Pala emperor from about 810 to 850 CE and the third of the dynasty, under whom the Pala state reached its maximum territorial extent — from Kamarupa in the east to Kannauj in the west and from the Himalayan foothills to the Vindhyas. He extended the patronage of Nalanda, Vikramashila and the Odantapuri monasteries his predecessors had founded, and the Nalanda copper plate charter of his reign records the Shailendra king Balaputradeva of Sumatra endowing a monastery there — which is the earliest documented southeast Asian royal patronage of an Indian institution. His reign is the Pala state's apex before the slow erosion of the ninth century.
- Date
- 810–850
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Patron dynasty
- Pala
- Tradition
- Standard reference and biographical literature; contemporary chronicles and institutional records as applicable.
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Worth knowing
The Nalanda copper plate preserves the earliest evidence of Indian-Southeast Asian ruler-to-ruler communication: Balaputradeva's envoy arrived at Devapala's court and secured the king's charter for five villages' revenue to maintain a monastery at Nalanda that his father had endowed. The reciprocal relationship — Shailendra building Borobudur and Pala building Somapura at the same scale and in the same decades — is the clearest case of a shared Indic monumental programme across the Bay of Bengal.
About the place
Placed at Nalanda and Vikramashila — the institutions his reign patronised.
Connections (2)
- PatronageNālandā mahāvihāra
Devapala extended Pala royal patronage of Nalanda through his reign (c. 810–850), expanding the monastic university's endowments and adding substantial building programmes. The Nalanda copper plate charter of his reign records the Shailendra king Balaputradeva of Sumatra endowing a monastery at Nalanda — the earliest documented southeast Asian royal patronage of an Indian institution, which Devapala's own charter made possible by granting five villages' revenue to maintain the Sumatran-founded monastery.
- SucceededDharmapāla of Bengal
Devapala succeeded his father Dharmapala about 810 CE as the third Pala ruler, inheriting the Vikramashila and Somapura monastic foundations his father had made and extending the dynasty's reach to its maximum under his reign — from Kamarupa east to Kannauj west, Himalayas north to Vindhyas south. His forty years at the Pala throne are the dynasty's territorial and institutional peak before the slow erosion that began under his nephew Vigrahapala.