The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c32.33

c32.33

Mr. Bhandarkar is perfectly right. Consequently, the ancestor of the Sena kings must have been a Brahman from the Deccan, probably employed in the natural office of a Brahman as a minister. When he passed from ministerial to ruling functions, he became a Brahmakshatrī, his descendants being accepted as full Kshatriyas, capable of intermarriage with other ruling families reckoned as Kshatriyas. Most likely Sāmantasena had been in the service of the king of Kalinga or Orissa. The establishment of Sāmantadeva as a semi-independent chief in northern Orissa may have occurred somewhere about the middle of the eleventh century. Possibly he may not have been a ruling chief. His son, Hemantasena, may have been the first to act as Rāja.