History of Bengal Senas 01

SENA DYNASTY (1070 - 1230 AD) OF BENGAL

India and Bengal in middle age (Click map for large view)

Main Sena rulers

* Hemanta Sen (1070 - 1096 AD)
* Vijay Sen (1096 - 1159 AD)
* Ballal Sen (1159 - 1179 AD)
* Lakshman Sen (1179 - 1206 AD)
* Vishwarup Sen (1206 - 1225 AD)
* Keshab Sen (1225 - 1230 AD)

A copperplate was found in the Adilpur or Edilpur pargana of Faridpur District in 1838 A.D. and to have been acquired by the Asiatic Society of Bengal, but now it is missing from collection.

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[Source: Wikipedia] An account of the plate was published in the Dacca Review and Epigraphic Indica. The copperplate inscription written Sanskrit and in Ganda character dated 3rd jyaistha of 1136 samval which represents 1079 A.D. The Asiatic Society’s proceeding for January 1838, an account of the copperplate describes that 3 villages were given to a Brahman in the 3rd year of Kaesava Sana. These three villages cannot be identified now, and thought it is impossible enough that they have been long ago washed away by Meghna, which flows past Edilpur paragana. The grant was given with the landlord rights, receives the power of punishing the chandrabhandas or Sundarbans, a race that lived in the forest.[3] It records the grant of the land in the village of Leliya in the Kumaratalaka mandala situated in shatata-padamavati-visaya. The copperplate of Kaesava Sana tells that the king Vallal Sena carried away the goddesses of fortune for the enemies on palanquins (Shivaka) supported by staff made of elephant tusk. It also claims that his father Lakhman Sena (1179-1205) erects pillars of victory and sacrificial posts at Benaras and Allahbad and Adon Coast of South Sea. The plate also describes the villages with smooth fields growing excellent paddy also noticed about the dancing and music in the ancient Bengal and ladies of that period used to adorn their bodies with blooming flowers. The Edilpur copperplate of Kaesava Sena records that the king made a grant in favor of Nitipathaka Isvaradeva Sarman for the inscae of the subha-varsha.

[Source A. M. Chowdhury] Towards the close of 11th century AD Bengal saw the emergence of another dynasty – the Senas, who possibly found the opportunity of gaining a position for themselves in western Bengal when the Pala empire was shaken by the revolt of the Samantacakra during the reign if Mahipala II (See Supra, pp. 103 ff). But it was not till the reign of Madanapala that they could assume an independent position, and thereafter they gradually supplanted the Varmans in south-eastern and western Bengal and pushed out the Palas from northern and western Bengal to southern Bihar, where they maintained a tottering existence till their end in the second half of the 12th century AD. It was the Senas who could claim the paramountcy of the whole of Bengal for the first time in its history.

The Senas were of external origin, they belonged to Karnata in south India, the Kanarese speaking region in modern Mysore and Andhra Pradesh of India. The extant Sena records and literary evidence leave no doubt about this point. The Deopara prasasti of the time of Vijayasena traces the genealogy of the Sena rulers of Bengal from the lunar race in which was born Virasena, the Southern ruler (Daksinatya-ksonindra), and in that Sena family (senanvaye) was born Samantadena, whose descendants rules of Bengal (Verses 3-5 : IB-III, pp. 46 and 50-51; EI, Vol. I, pp. 307 ff.). The Madhainagar and the Bhowal plates of Laksmanasena claim that Samantasena, who was born in the family of Virasena, was the head-harland of the Karnata-ksatriyas (Verses 3-4, IB-III, pp. 110 & 113; EI, vol. XXVI, pp. 5 & 10.).

Details comming soon, thanks for patience.