Pala dynasty (lived 8th–13th centuries)

Northeastern Indian hereditary rulers, influential between the 8th and 13th centuries. Based in the agriculturally rich region of Bihar and Bengal, the dynasty was founded by Gopala, who had been elected king, and reached its peak under his son Dharmapala (reigned c. 770–810).

The Palas, who patronized Buddhism at a time when it was in decline in the rest of India, maintained close trading relations with the countries of Southeast Asia to which many Buddhist monks later fled after the dynasty's fall, 1196.