History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c34.s6.42

v3.c34.s6.42

The matter is not left to mere inference from the lunar vaṃśa mentioned of these Senas, but is settled by the express word Kshatriya used in the Mādharinagar grant of Lakṣmaṇasena published in Proceedings Bengal R. A. S. Vol. V. p. 467 where the birth of Sāmantasena is stated to be in the Karṇātakshatriya family of Virasena. Whether Virasena the founder of the family was a Dākṣiṇātya or Karṇāṭa is not of much moment. Dākṣiṇātya, the word used in the earlier Vijayasena record of Deopārā, means usually a Maratha-country Brahmin or Kshatriya. But the distinction between a Maratha and a Karṇāṭa Kshatriya is illusory. And in those days even the distinction between a northern and southern Kshatriya had not become acute as intermarriages continued to take place between these Kshatriyas. And when these Kshatriyas went to Bengal, they became for all practical purposes Bengali; for they not only married with northern Kshatriyas but their servants and officers were entirely drawn from Bengal. A Karṇāṭaka or Maratha Kshatriya founding a kingdom in Bengal in those days was vastly different from a Maratha chief like Scindia in modern days founding a kingdom in northern India which is principally governed by men from the Deccan with which their marriage relations still continue. The Sena kings, therefore, were completely Bengalis though they preserved the memory of their having come from the Deccan. Curiously enough, two noted northern Kshatriya families preserve the tradition of their having come from the Deccan-Karnāṭaka especially from Kalyāṇa. This is, however, of no moment as Kshatriyas then all over India were one and we may conclude by reiterating that the Sena kings of Lakhnauti were Rajputs and Kshatriyas* by caste and not of the modern Brahmakshatra nor of the Vaidya caste. The word Brahmakshatra applied to them indicates their orthodoxy. Indeed Sir Vincent Smith himself states that "his (Lakshmaṇasena's) family, we are told, was respected by all the chiefs of Hindustan and he was considered to hold the rank of hereditary Khalif or spiritual head of the country."