History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c34.s6.48

v3.c34.s6.48

The name of the last king we take from Aīn-i-Akbarī which gives the traditional catalogue of Sena kings as it was accepted in the days of Akbar (1556-1605) i. e, about three hundred years after the last king. It gives the years of the rule of each king and to Suddhasena it assigns 18 years and to Lakshmaṇiyā the last three years. Now the Tabakat was written about 1250 A. D. i. e. some years after the death of this second Lakshmaṇasena. It is, therefore, possible that there were two Lakshmaṇasenas and in the oral exaggerated account which the author of the Tabakat heard from two illiterate Afghan soldiers in the army of Mahammad Bakhtyar, the two Lakshmaṇasenas were jumbled. The existence of two Lakshmaṇasenas has been questioned and we incline to the belief that there was only one king of that name; especially as Pandit Gaurishanker does not give this name but gives the name Danujamādhava. But if we believe that there was another Lakshmaṇasena, a great-grandson of the first and that he started the era known as Lakshmaṇasena era, many of the difficulties which otherwise appear are removed. Of course we must grant that he started the era not from his own coronation but from the establishment of the Sena power by Vijayasena as taken by Sir Vincent Smith. This is not a new suggestion and it solves, according to our view, many problems connected with the disputed chronology of Sena kings. The era was started by the last king or by Danuja-Mādhava and named after the greatest king of the Sena line.