History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c35.s19.2

v3.c35.s19.2

The ruling family of Mandi and Suket is a Chandravanśi Rajput family with Atri as its gotra. Their names end always in the suffix sena. This has given rise, as usual, to the wrong tradition that they came from Bengal where Lakshmanasena of Lakhnauti was their last great king (1169-1198). This tradition accepted by Sir L. Griffin in his book "the Rajas of the Panjab" was, however, disbelieved by Cunningham who placed the founding of the Suket family nearly five hundred years before 1200 A. D. and Hutchinson and Vogel accept his view in their article on several grounds. Further confirmation of this view may also be found in the fact that the epigraphic records of the Sena kings of Bengal clearly state that they were Kshatriyas come from Karṇāṭaka; while the Suket-Mandi tradition is that their ancestors first ruled in Indraprastha and from there they went to Bengal and founded Lakhnauti. Local traditions founded on names are often unhistorical and have to be given up and in the same way as we gave up the tradition about Pathānias having driven Pathans from Pathankot, we have here to give up the tradition that the Mandi-Suket Rājas with names ending in Sena came from Lakhnauti in Bengal after the fall of Lakshmaṇasena in 1198 A. D.