History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c7.22

v1.c7.22

We now come to the three kingdoms into which Bengal proper was then divided, namely, Karṇasuvarṇa (Murshidabad), Samaṭaṭa (Eastern Bengal) and Tāmralipti (Midnapur). These were prosperous countries even in Hiuen Tsang’s time. The king in Karṇasuvarṇa before Hiuen Tsang visited it was Śaśāṅka or Narendragupta already mentioned as the man who treacherously murdered Rājyavardhana and was a persecutor of Buddhism. Probably he was pardoned by Harsha, as he is shown by a Ganjam inscription to be alive and reigning in 619 A. D. But after his death his kingdom seems to have been given to the Kumārarāja of Assam. For an undated inscription of Bhāskaravarmā, published in the Dacca Review 1913 (noted by V. Smith), was issued from Karṇasuvarṇa. Hiuen Tsang does not mention the king ruling in Karṇasuvarṇa when he visited it; but the above surmise is supportable also from the statement of Bāṇa, that Harsha anointed Kumārarāja a king (अत्र देवेन अभिषिक्तः कुमारः H. C., p. 139). In Samaṭaṭa or Eastern Bengal a Brahmin family ruled to which belonged a great Buddhist saint visited by Hiuen Tsang. No particulars of the king at Tāmralipti are mentioned. All these kingdoms were, of course, subordinate to Harsha. It is to be noticed that Hiuen Tsang does not asssign the name of Gauda to any of these kingdoms, though the king of Karṇasuvarṇa, Śaśāṅka, is described by Bāṇa as the king of Gauda. Gauda is a noted name in Sanskrit literature for the learned men of Gauda have always maintained a peculiar style and school of thought of their own. Probably the name Gauda applied to all these three kingdoms, as also the name Vanga which is still more ancient and which is not noted by Hiuen Tsang.