The Palas, who ruled for about four hundred years and their kingdom consisted of almost the whole of Bengal and much of Bihar, was also interested to control Kanauj.
The first king of the Pala dynasty was Gopala. He was elected as a king by the nobles after the death of the previous ruler (died without an heir). Therefore, Gopala was the founder of the Pala dynasty.
Dharmapala, son and successor of Gopal, though attempted to make the dynasty more powerful, but during the early phase of his reign, he was defeated by the Rashtrakuta king.
Dharmapala, later, reorganized his power partly by building a strong army and partly by making alliances with the neighboring kingdoms and prepared himself to attack Kanauj.
The Palas could not hold Kanauj for a long. The Pratiharas recovered their strength during the reign of king Bhoja. Bhoja ruled from about A D. 836 to 882 and was the most distinguished king of northern India.
Bhoja recaptured Kanauj for the Pratiharas. But later he was defeated by the powerful Rashtrakuta king, Dhruva.
Sulaiman, an Arab Merchant had written that the 'Juzr' was a powerful king ruling over a rich kingdom.
Many historians believe that ‘Juzr’ probably the Arabic name given to Gujarat and the king mentioned by Sulaiman was probably Bhoja. Bhoja is also remembered for his interest in literature and for his patronage of Vaishnavism.
Some of his coins, introduced by Bhoja have a picture of the varaha (boar) – an incarnation of Vishnu. Further, he also took the title of ‘adivaraha.’
Within a hundred years of time, all three important kingdoms (discussed above) had declined. Later Chalukyas kingdom emerged in the same area where the Rashtrakutas had ruled.
The Pala kingdom was threatened by Chola armies and was later ruled by the Sena dynasty. The Pratihara kingdom had broken into a number of states, some of which were associated with the rise of the Rajputs.
