Nadia (Nabadwip): the king's Ganges-bank residence

Who holds it

Name

not named

Title

Royal governor and residence-warden of Nadia

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

low

English Wikipedia (Bakhtiyar, Nabadwip); Minhaj by report.

Lord in 1200

Lakshmanasena.

What the town holds

• The palace and gardens
• The Brahman quarter and the temples
• The river ghats and ferries

How things stand that morning

A quiet royal town; no sign of the Turks. The old king may be here in winter, or at Vikramapura.

Wealth

Ganges tolls, the grants of the court, cloth and fish.

Military

Palace guard and river craft; no numbers.

Threats

• Bakhtiyar's sudden ride (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, scholars, poets, merchants, boatmen (general knowledge).

Fairs and markets

None recorded.

Militia

None recorded.

Walls and castle

No walls are named in any source we opened; Minhaj's story assumes an open town.

Trade and crafts

River market on the Bhagirathi; cloth and grain.

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.

1. 1202 to 1205Bakhtiyar's small party takes Nadia by surprise; the king flees east (Minhaj; the number eighteen is the story's).Depends on: The old king is at Nadia and unwarned. Stopped by: A guard on the western roads.

Places of note

• Nadia: Ganges-bank residence.

Where the sources disagree

• The brief speaks of the "Brahmin colleges of Nadia". The famous Nyaya college of Nabadwip belongs to about 1500; in 1200 Nadia has Brahman learning and poets, not that school.
• The campaign board entry nadia-nabadwip says the king is "about twenty-two years into his reign". Agreed.

Evidence: A later narrative and two modern encyclopaedia pages.

"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