High Middle Ages · South Asia · Politics

1064

Pala Dynasty Weakens in Bengal

1064

The Pala dynasty, which had ruled Bengal and Bihar for three centuries as patrons of Buddhism and the great university at Nalanda, entered a period of accelerating decline. Territorial losses to the Sena dynasty and internal feuding eroded Pala authority across the Gangetic plain. The dynasty's fall would mark the end of institutional Buddhism in the Indian subcontinent - the monasteries and universities it had sustained would not survive long without royal patronage.