Pala period is the most significant phase in the history of Buddhism in India. Enumerate.

Mahavihara network

Dharmapala founded Vikramashila and Somapura at Paharpur (UNESCO site, 1985), which joined Odantapuri and later Jagaddala as monastic universities.

Nalanda sustained

Devapala's Nalanda copper plate records five villages granted for a monastery of the Sailendra king Balaputradeva, showing Nalanda's pan-Asian prestige.

Vajrayana and vernacular

Tantric Buddhism took systematic form here, and the Siddhacharyas' Charyapada songs became the earliest proto-Bengali, Assamese and Odia literature, carrying Buddhist ideas to ordinary listeners.

Pala school of art

Black stone images, the Kurkihar bronzes and illuminated Prajnaparamita manuscripts fixed the iconography of Tara and the Bodhisattvas, later echoed in Nepal, Tibet and Pagan.

Second diffusion in Tibet

Atisha Dipankara of Vikramashila reached Tibet around 1040 CE and inspired the Kadam school, seeding Tibet's later monastic tradition.

Bridge before the fall

After Bakhtiyar Khalji's raids around 1200 CE ruined Nalanda and Vikramashila, the Pala texts and teachers preserved in Nepal and Tibet kept the tradition alive.