The Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Mediaeval India c5.s10.4

c5.s10.4

Lakshmaṇâvatī—1. Lakhnauti is the corruption of Lakshmaṇâvatī. It was another name for Gauḍa (town), the ruins of which lie near Mâldâ. It was the capital of the country of Gauḍa (Tawney Merutuṅga's Prabandhachintāmaṇi, p 181) It stood on the left bank of the Ganges It was the capital of Bengal in 730 A C (Rennell's Memoir of a Map of Hindoostan p 55), which date, however, does not appear to be correct Lakshmaṇa Sena, the son and successor of Ballāla Sena and grandson of Vijaya Sena, and great grandson of Hemanta Sena the son of Sāmanta Sena (Deopara inscription, Ep Ind, I, 3), is said to have greatly embellished the city of Gauḍa with temples and other public buildings, and called it after his own name Lakshmaṇāvatī (Martin's East Ind, III, p 68) He was a great patron of Sanskrit literature Jaya Deva of Kenduli,—the author of the celebrated lyric Gīta Govinda (Bhavishya P, Pratisarga pt IV, ch IX) Umāpatidhara the commentator of the Kalapa grammar and minister of Lakshmaṇa Sena (Prabandha chintāmaṇi p 181), Govarddhana Āchārya, the spiritual guide of Lakshmaṇa Sena and author of the Ārya-saptaśatī Sarana and Dhoȳ̄ (who is called Kavi-kshamāpati-śrutidhara by Jaya Deva in his Gīta Govinda) the author of the Pavana dūta were called the Pañcharatna or five gems of Lakshmaṇa Sena's court in imitation of the Nava-ratna or nine gems of Vikramāditya (Ind Ant, vol XIV, p 183 n) Halāyudha the author of a dictionary and the spiritual adviser of the monarch, and Srīdharadāsa the author of the Sadukti Karṇāmṛta also flourished in his court Lakshmaṇa Sena founded the Lakshmaṇa Saṃvat (era) in 1108 A D (Dr R L Mitra's Buddha Gaya, p 201) but according to Dr Bühler in 1119 A D (Deopara Inscription of Vijayasena in Ep Ind vol I p 307) Hunter considers that the name of Gauḍa was more applicable to the kingdom than to the city (Hunter's Statistical Account of Bengal, vol VII, p 51 Bhavishya P, Pratisarga P, pt II ch 11) For the destruction of Gauḍa and the transfer of Muhammadan capital to Rājmahal in 1592 (see Bradley Birt's Story of an Indian Upland ch 2) 2 Lucknow in Oudh It is said to have been founded by Lakshmaṇa, brother of Rāmachandra king of Oudh It was repaired by Vikramāditya, king of Ujjayinī The town was first made the seat of government by Asaf ud daulah in 1775 (Conder's Modern Traveller, vol IX p 296) See Lucknow in Pt II of this work