"Buddhist sources regard the powerful Pala dynasty, which ruled Bengal and other parts of eastern India for nearly four hundred years, from the mid-eighth to the eleventh century, to be of Shudra origin. The Buddhist text Manjushri-mula-kalpa states that Gopala, the founder of the Pala dynasty (750-1160 ce), was a Shudra. 75 The Pala dynasty monarchs were great patrons of Buddhism, and their copper plate inscriptions begin with an invocation to Buddha."