The Senas of Bengal

Who rules

Name

Lakshmanasena

Title

Maharajadhiraja Lakshmanasena (Lakshmana Sena), Gaudeshvara

Since

about 1178 or 1179 (Banglapedia c. 1178; English Wikipedia Sena dynasty 1179; both end his reign in 1206)

Born

not known; Minhaj calls him an octogenarian and says he came to the throne at a very old age

Family

Sena dynasty (Brahma-Kshatriya of Karnata origin, Deopara prashasti); son of Ballalasena (c. 1160-1178), grandson of Vijayasena; sons Visvarupasena and Kesavasena (kings after 1206)

Confidence

medium

Reign dates from the plates and the Saduktikarnamrita (colophon Saka 1127, year 27: about 1205); the age from Minhaj (c. 1260) as repeated by Majumdar. Saka year + 78 = CE for Chaitra to December; Saka 1127 begins in March 1205.

Overlord

None. The Sena kings call themselves Gaudeshvara (lord of Gauda) and claim victories over Gauda, Kamarupa, Kalinga and Kashi.

What the realm holds

• Radha (the country west of the Bhagirathi: Vardhamana, Saptagram, Tamralipti, the western Rarh edge) in the bhukti of Vardhamana
• Nadia (Navadvipa) on the Bhagirathi, the Ganges-bank residence
• Varendra (the Barind between the Ganges, the Karatoya and the Mahananda): Lakshmanavati/Gauda, Devikot (Kotivarsha), Pundranagara (Mahasthan), the great tanks and the Brahman villages (bhukti of Paundravardhana)
• Vanga (the eastern delta: Vikramapura, the Sonargaon country, Bhowal, Bakla/Chandradvipa) with the royal camp at Vikramapura
• Khadi and the tidal delta (the Sundarbans edge), a land-grant district in the plates
• The Teliagarhi gap and the Rajmahal edge as the western door
• Claims, not holdings: Anga (Champa, Munger), Magadha and Gaya (the Lakshmana Sena era is used in Bihar for centuries afterwards), Kamarupa, Kalinga, Kashi and Prayaga (victory pillars claimed in the plates; Majumdar and Banglapedia doubt they mark real conquests)

How it was acquired

Samantasena, a Karnata soldier-Brahman, settled on the Ganges and served the Palas in Radha; Vijayasena (c. 1098-1160 on Banglapedia, 1096-1159 on Wikipedia) took Radha and Vanga from the Varmans and North Bengal from Madanapala; Ballalasena took Gauda; Lakshmanasena inherited at an advanced age and was the first Sena to style himself Gaudeshvara.

Allies and rivals

No ally is attested. Neighbours: the Karnatas of Mithila (Lakshmanasena's rise cost them ground, perhaps part of Purnia: English Wikipedia on the Karnatas); the Pithipatis and the Pala remnants at Gaya; the Khayaravala at Rohtas; Kamarupa across the Karatoya; the Eastern Gangas on the Subarnarekha; the independent line at Pattikera; and, since 1194, the Ghurids, whose captain Bakhtiyar Khalji is the only enemy that matters. The Gahadavalas, once the rival at Kashi, were broken by Mu'izz al-Din in 1194.

The realm that morning

On the morning of 1 January 1200 no Turkish force has set foot in Bengal. Lakshmanasena is alive, very old, and his court is at its literary height (the Gitagovinda, the Pavanaduta, the Aryasaptashati, the Brahmanasarvasva of his chief judge). The three seats are quiet. The west door, the Teliagarhi gap and the Ganges road below Vikramashila, is held by nobody who can be named. Bakhtiyar Khalji is a holder of two small assignments in the Mirzapur country; on Sarkar's reading (English Wikipedia) he is by 1200 already consolidating his hold on Bihar, on the later reading he has not yet struck.

Nothing Hindu has yet been lost east of the Ganges, and the court has no idea that the Ghurid line which stopped at Kannauj will arrive by a back road.

Wealth

Three rice crops on made ground (aman, aus, boro); cotton cloth from the eastern looms; sugar and silk of Varendra; salt from the coastal pans; boats and shipbuilding; the cowrie shell as small change (shipped from the Maldives) and a silver purana of 32 ratis for large payments (English Wikipedia: a silver purana is exchanged for about 1,260 to 1,280 cowries, two traditional counts); land grants to Brahmans and temples as the main use of revenue.

Military

A river fleet, war elephants from the eastern forests (Sylhet, Tripura, Garo foot), foot levies from Radha and Vanga, and the retinues of samantas. Horse is imported and weak. The Senas fought Palas, Kamarupa and Kalinga in the 1100s; no field army has met Turkish horse. Nothing is defended by masonry; the defence is rivers, tides and the bridgeless country west of the Bhagirathi.

Threats

• Turkish cavalry out of Bhagwat and Bhiuli by the Ganges road, reaching Nadia in the next three to six years
• The king's age and the question of the succession between his sons
• Separatist lords in the east (the Pattikera line, the Sundarbans lords)
• The Karnatas and the Pithipatis pressing on the western edge
• Flood and river change: the Bhagirathi and Padma move within a lifetime

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.

In 1200

1. Working reading for play: after 1 January 1200, between 1200 and 1203, so not yet done when the game opens (the campaign sets the year). Readings: 1199 to 1200 on the careful modern reading (Sarkar, History of Bengal, as quoted on English Wikipedia: "in 1200 he was busy consolidating his hold over that province"); 1203 on othersBakhtiyar Khalji storms the fortified vihara Minhaj calls the fortress of Bihar (Odantapuri) and holds south Bihar; the Sena frontier on the Ganges is now within a few weeks' march of a Turkish garrison.Depends on: Bakhtiyar keeps his iqta and his men; no Pala, Pithipati or Sena force relieves the vihara. Stopped by: A Sena or Pithipati relief force; the Mirzapur holdings are lost; Aibak recalls him.

Later, on the likely course

1. 1202 to 1205 (English Wikipedia Nabadwip says 1202; Sena dynasty 1203-1204; Banglapedia 1204 and 1205). Minhaj, writing about 1260, gives no yearBakhtiyar comes from Bihar to Nadia by the forest roads with a small party (Minhaj, as we remember it, names the Jharkhand jungle; we did not open the text) and takes the town by surprise (the story of the eighteen horsemen is Minhaj's, sixty years after, and is treated as narrative). The king leaves by the back of his palace and withdraws east to Vikramapura (Minhaj: Sankanat, Bang, Kamrud).Depends on: The western door is unguarded; the Sena court stays at Nadia in the dry season; Bakhtiyar finds the road open. Stopped by: A guard at the Teliagarhi gap; the court at Vikramapura in the dry season; floods on the Bhagirathi.
2. before 599 AH (about September 1202 to August 1203) on Sarkar's reading; 1204 or 1205 on othersLakhnauti (Gauda) is taken and becomes the seat of the Ghurid commander; the khutba is read and coin struck in the name of the Ghurid sultan (Minhaj).Depends on: Nadia has fallen and the Sena field force has withdrawn east of the Padma. Stopped by: A Sena counter-attack from Vanga; a Ghurid order to halt.
3. 1205 (Saka 1127, year 27 of Lakshmanasena)Sridharadasa completes the Saduktikarnamrita, naming Lakshmanasena as the reigning king; the Bhowal plate of year 27 grants land near Dhaka. Both show a Sena court still issuing documents in the east.Depends on: Vikramapura is safe behind the Padma and the Meghna. Stopped by: A Turkish crossing of the Padma.
4. 1206Lakshmanasena dies (Banglapedia: "some time in 1206"); his sons Visvarupasena and then Kesavasena keep Vanga from Vikramapura for a generation (English Wikipedia: Visvarupa 1206-1225, Kesava 1225-1230; Minhaj has descendants ruling to 1245 or 1260).Depends on: The old king lives out his years; the delta holds the Turks off. Stopped by: A civil war between the sons.

Places of note

• Nadia (Navadvipa), the Ganges-bank residence: Where Minhaj puts the king when the Turks come; whether Minhaj's Nudiah is modern Nabadwip is argued because the Bhagirathi has moved.
• Lakshmanavati (Gauda, Lakhnauti): Northern capital named for the king; becomes the Muslim capital after 1204.
• Vikramapura (Rampal): Eastern royal camp; the plates of the king and his sons are issued here.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry sena-of-bengal blurb and nadia-nabadwip ("about twenty-two years into his reign"): agreed on the reign start (c. 1178-1179). The campaign board dates the Turkish column at Nadia about 1204; that is later than 1 January 1200 and sits in likely_course with the full range 1202-1205.
• The assignment lists "the Deva line of Samatata and Pattikera, the Khadga heirs and the Chandra heirs" among Sena feudatories. The Devas of Banglapedia's Deva Dynasty are an 8th-century line (Shantideva, Viradeva, Anandadeva, Bhavadeva), the Khadgas are 7th-century and the Chandras 10th and 11th century (Govindachandra the last known). None is attested for 1200. The later Deva line (Ranavankamalla Harikaladeva, plate of 1220; Damodaradeva; Dasarathadeva) is a 13th-century line and independent of the Senas at Pattikera in 1220. See Samatata and Pattikera.
• The assignment says "the Brahmin colleges of Nadia" and "the Vaishnava and Nyaya schools of Nadia". The Navya-Nyaya of Navadvipa is a school of about 1500 (Vasudeva Sarvabhauma, Raghunatha Siromani); in 1200 the Nyaya country is Mithila. Nadia in 1200 is a Sanskrit court town.
• The campaign board entry sonargaon-suvarnagrama: a district, not a city, in 1200. Agreed; the capital of Sonargaon is later.
• Lakshmana Sena era: epoch about 1119 (Kielhorn, 1890). It cannot count from his accession (c. 1178); some read it as his birth, which would make him about 80 in 1200 and would fit Minhaj; that is an inference, not a source.

Evidence: The Sena plates and the Deopara prashasti are firm, but no dated Sena record names a day in 1199 or 1200. The Ghurid side is Minhaj, written sixty years later. The dates of the Turkish conquest differ by up to four years across modern accounts.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: The outline is a rough hull. The Sena writ was a patchwork of land-grant districts and samanta retinues; the Sundarbans, the Mymensingh edge and the Rajmahal edge are held by custom, not by garrison.

Primary sources for this realm

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