History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c38.s3.6

v3.c38.s3.6

But even if it be conceded that the account given by the Tabakat represents facts, these are not as dishonourable as is usually supposed. In the first place it must be noted that Nadia was not the chief capital of the Senas. It was a Brahmin settlement newly made, which was almost a Brahmin vihāra, in an island of the Ganges and Lakshamaṇasena only occasionally resided there. The guards at the palace must have been few and the army in the city only nominal. Secondly, a sudden raid on such a place is not impracticable.* Indeed such raids are recorded in history. Allauddin made such a sudden and wily raid on Devagiri in the Deccan a hundred years after this event. Nay only five years after this event, Shihabuddin Ghori the conqueror of Hindustan was surprised in his tent pitched on the eastern bank of the Indus by a few Gakkhars who eluding guards reached the place through water and murdered Shihabuddin. Thirdly, to escape from such an attack and start fresh resistance from a new capital was not at all dishonourable but on the contrary proper and creditable. This was what Rājyapāla of Kanauj or Bhīma of Gujarat did against Mahmud or Rajaram did in Maratha history against Aurangjeb and this is what even modern governments do. They give up the capital attacked and making another town the capital, carry on resistance from there. This is exactly what Lakshmaṇasena and his descendants appear to have done. They established themselves at Vikrampur which was an important town to the east of Nadia (a grant issued from Vikrampur by Lakshmaṇasena has been found) and ruled for nearly a century more in Eastern Bengal, continuing their resistance to the Mahomedans, as in Gujarat or in Bundelkhand. The Tabakat-i-Nasiri records that when Nasiruddin marched on Lakhnauti, the Khilji had marched his forces from Lakhnauti "with the intention of entering the territory of Bang," i. e. against the Sena king (Raverty p. 629). Why such resistance eventually failed to re-establish Hindu power not only in Bengal but in the other parts of Northern India also, is the real question and the cause of this failure we will discuss at length later on.