The last of Kāmarūpa
The Kāmarūpa Pālas took power around 900 CE and ruled from Durjaya near Guwahati. Their charters continue the established pattern — Sanskrit, brahmin grants, Naraka descent — and their kings' names ending in -pāla are the reason for the dynastic label; there is no connection with the Buddhist Pālas of Bengal, who were contemporary but separate.
Their best-documented ruler is Dharmapāla, and the temple remains at Guwahati and Tezpur include work of this period.
The dynasty ended around 1100, and the old kingdom of Kāmarūpa fragmented. Political authority in the valley then passed westward to the Kāmata kingdom and, from the thirteenth century, eastward to the incoming Ahoms — beginning the long division of Assam between a western and an eastern power that lasted until the Ahoms unified it.
Further reading
- Hawley, John Stratton. A Storm of Songs: India and the Idea of the Bhakti Movement. Harvard University Press, 2015
- Nilakanta Sastri, K. A. The Colas. University of Madras, 1955
- Sastri, K. A. Nilakanta. A History of South India. Oxford University Press, 1955
- Basham, A. L. The Wonder That Was India. Sidgwick & Jackson, 1954
- Kulke, Hermann. A History of India. Routledge, 2004
See also
This entry was last revised on 1 August 2026.