When was this new township or Pattana or Patna born ?

We know from the Maner inscription of 1126 A.D. tha Gahadvala King Govindachandra of Kanauj ,granted a village NAMED Padali in Maniari-Pattala-Maner is hardly 20 miles (31 kms) from old Patna City area to a Brahmin named Gunesvarasvamin alongwith another village named Gunave, a name which obviously links itself with the name of Brahmin.Padali,it may be presumed safely, is the same as the ancient village Patali from which the name Patliputra was derived. But what is more interesting is the name Gunave of another village and Gunesvaraswamin of the Brahmin who guarantee of both the villages (i.e. Gunave & Padali). Now close to the north of Bulandibagh is a pond or lake called Gunasar, which is surrounded by ruins on all its side, mostly Buddhistic, belonging to the ancient city of Patliputra. There is, therefore, reason to believe that in the time of the Gahadvalas of Kanauj, who then held the country, there were two, if not more, small villages standing on the ruins of the ancient city viz. Gunave and Padali. This Gunesvara svamin may have been a personage of some importance since the name of the pond or lake seems to have been derived after him. Thus until the 12th century we do not hear of Pattana or Patna. The foundation of Patna can be traced to near about 1266 A.D. this date seems probable from a few facts of circumstantial evidence. That the toen is clearl of Hindu origin traceable to a date beforeits occupation by the Mohammedans,latest in the 15th century,is indicated by the inscription at the mosque of Allauddin Shah of Bengal of 1509010 A.D. or 1499 A.D. That it was founded after 1197 when Bakhtiar Khan Khilji invaded Bihar appears clear because the Muslim chronocles of Bakhtiyar’s conquests make no reference to Patana or Padali ; and had there been a fort having such dimensions and occupying a strategic aituqtion on the river, as Patna has, the invader could hardly be expected to by to bypass it in his conquest. There is,therefore,sufficient reasobn to believe that the town of Patna was founded at sometime betweenthec13th and the 15th centuries A.D.,if not actually in 1266 A.D.

The District Gazetteer would, however ascribe the foundation of Patna to SherShah in 1541 A.D. Tarikh-I- Dandi is the bases of this conclusion.