The old Gauda, the Malda country west of the Mahananda, whose name Sanskrit speech has stretched to all Bengal and which the Sena kings carry in their title (Gaudeshvara).
It holds Lakshmanavati (Lakhnauti), the Sena northern capital, and the Brahman settlement villages the plates grant (board). The Ganges here has left an old bed; the sugar and silk of the Gauda country come from it.
Who holds it
- Name
- not named
- Title
- Sena governor of Gauda
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Banglapedia (Laksmanasena, Sena Dynasty).
Overlord
Lakshmanasena.
What it holds
- Lakhnauti and the Mahananda crossing
- Brahman settlement villages (board)
How things stand that morning
Held by the Senas; no Turk within sight.
Wealth
Sugar, silk and Ganges tolls.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: The Sena plates and Banglapedia; local detail from the campaign board.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: A rough outline from rivers and ridges; the real order was villages, estates and chiefs.
Primary sources for Senas of Bengal
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- The Nasirean Generations (a general history of the Muslim dynasties), Minhaj-i Siraj Juzjani (completed 1260 at Delhi). The fullest narrative of the Ghurid conquest of northern India. Read online
- The Nasirid Generations: a General History of the Muslim Dynasties, Minhaj-i Siraj Juzjani (1259 to 1260, at Delhi). The Ghurid court's own history, by a man born in 1193 whose family served the sultans of Ghur and Ghazna. Read online
- Inscriptions of Bengal, vol. 3, Various (the Sena kings' chanceries), edited by N. G. Majumdar (copper plates of the 10th to early 13th centuries; edited 1929). The one-volume edition of the Sena copper plates, the main documentary evidence for Bengal around 1200. Read online
- Epigraphia Indica: inscriptions of the Chandelas, Paramaras, Gahadavalas, Chaulukyas, Senas and Eastern Gangas, Various (edited for the Archaeological Survey of India by J. Burgess, E. Hultzsch, F. Kielhorn, Sten Konow, F. W. Thomas and successors) (inscriptions of the 1180s to 1210s; the series ran from 1892). The main record series for the Hindu kingdoms of northern India around 1200. Read online
- The Song of Govinda, Jayadeva (late 12th century, by tradition at the court of Lakshmanasena of Bengal). A literary witness, not a chronicle. Read online
- The History of India as Told by its Own Historians: the Muhammadan Period, vol. 2, Various (Ibn al-Athir, Hasan Nizami, Awfi, Juzjani and others), edited by H. M. Elliot and John Dowson (the sources date from the 1190s to the 14th century; the collection was published in 1869). A one-volume anthology of the Arabic and Persian accounts of the Ghurid conquest. Read online
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.