The old Gauda country's city on the Mahananda by the abandoned bed of the Ganges, named Lakshmanavati for the king and Lakhnauti by the Turks.
Banglapedia says Lakshmanasena built or named it and took the title Gaudeshvara; English Wikipedia says Bakhtiyar Khalji took "Gauda (ancient Lakhnauti), the capital and the principal city of Bengal" and made it his seat. On 1 January 1200 it is a Hindu court city of Varendra in Sena hands, with the Mahananda and Ganges roads to the west and the sugar and silk country about it.
Who holds it
- Name
- not named
- Title
- Royal governor of Gauda for Lakshmanasena
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Banglapedia (Laksmanasena, Sena Dynasty) and English Wikipedia (Bakhtiyar). No governor is named in any source.
Lord in 1200
Lakshmanasena, through a governor.
What the town holds
- The city and its tanks and temples
- Tolls on the Mahananda crossing and the Karatoya ferries
How things stand that morning
A Sena city with a royal governor; no Turk is nearer than Bihar. Whether the old king winters here or at Nadia or Vikramapura is not pinned.
Wealth
The sugar and silk of the Gauda country, the Ganges tolls, and the land grants of the court.
Military
A royal garrison and river craft; no numbers.
Threats
- Bakhtiyar Khalji after 1202 to 1205
Council
No town council is recorded; royal officers and the guilds of merchants and craftsmen are the usual bodies of a town of this age (general knowledge).
Communities
Brahmans, Kayasthas (scribes), Vaidyas (physicians), Buddhist monks and laity, merchants and craftsmen (general knowledge); Muslims only as visiting traders.
Fairs and markets
None recorded.
Militia
None recorded.
Walls and castle
No masonry fortress is named in the Sena plates; the earthen ramparts and moat of Gaur known from the Muslim centuries may or may not be earlier (not checked).
Trade and crafts
Silk, sugar, cloth, river trade between the Ganges and the delta (board).
What the year holds
What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.
- 1202 to 1205After the raid on Nadia Bakhtiyar takes Lakhnauti and makes it his seat (Sarkar: before 599 AH, about 1202 to 1203; others 1204 or 1205).Depends on: The old king does not hold the north. Stopped by: A guard on the western roads.
- 1206Bakhtiyar leaves Devkot for Tibet; his death follows.Depends on: He holds Lakhnauti. Stopped by: Not applicable.
Places of note
- Lakhnauti: Ruins of Gaur.
Where the sources disagree
- The campaign board entry lakhnauti-gauda "secure" for the Senas. Agreed.
Evidence: Banglapedia and the Persian tradition; no excavation report read.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
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.