Vikramapura (Rampal): the royal camp and city of the eastern delta

Who holds it

Name

Lakshmanasena (when present)

Title

Sena royal officers; the king when in residence

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

not known

Confidence

low

Banglapedia (Sena plates); English Wikipedia (Sonargaon).

Lord in 1200

Lakshmanasena.

What the town holds

• The royal camp and its tanks
• The Brahman villages and the ferries over the Dhaleswari and Padma

How things stand that morning

A Sena royal camp-city, possibly the king's winter seat; the tanks and Brahman villages of Vanga are round it.

Wealth

Rice, fish, cloth, river trade, the grants of the court.

Military

Royal guard and river craft; no numbers.

Threats

• The Turks, after the west has fallen (after 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, Buddhists, fisher and boat communities (general knowledge).

Fairs and markets

None recorded.

Militia

None recorded.

Walls and castle

No walls are named in any source we opened.

Trade and crafts

River port of the delta; cloth and rice.

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. 1206 to 1230Visvarupasena and Kesavasena rule the east from Vikramapura (English Wikipedia Sena dynasty: 1206 to 1225 and 1225 to 1230).Depends on: The delta holds. Stopped by: A Turkish crossing of the Padma.
2. middle of the 13th centuryDasharathadeva (Deva line) moves the capital from Bikrampur to Suvarnagrama.Depends on: The Senas have gone. Stopped by: Not applicable.

Places of note

• Vikramapura: Royal camp.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry vikrampura "likely". The campaign board lists the town as a Sena town; the Sena plates use the camp.

Evidence: Plates seen through Banglapedia; later events from English Wikipedia.

"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