Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c14.22

c14.22

King Lakṣmaṇasena ruled from his headquarters at Vikramapura in the Dacca District in Vaṅga at least up to 1205-06 A.D. when Śrīdharadāsa compiled his *Saduktikarṇāmṛta*. King Viśvarūpasena, son and successor of Lakṣmaṇasena, ruled after his father at least for fourteen years as known from the Madanpāḍā plate.⁴ The *Tabaqāt-i-Nāṣirī* speaks of Sena rule in Bang as late at least as 1242-45 A. D. when Minhājuddīn was staying at Lakhnautī. But about this time the erstwhile feudatories of the Senas in the Samataṭa or Tippera-Noakhali region asserted their independence. A king named Harikāladeva Raṇavaṅkamalla was ruling over the kingdom of Paṭṭikerā in the Tippera Distrrict in 1221 A.D. while another king named Dāmodara is known to have established his suzerainty in the Tippera-Noakhali-Chittagong region and to have been ruling from 1231 A.D. at least up to 1243 A.D. Dāmodara belonged to the Deva family and was preceded on the throne by his father Vāsudeva, grandfather Madhusūdana and great-grandfather Puruṣottama. It seems that the earlier members of this family acknowledged the supremacy of the Senas of Vikramapura. Some of Dāmodara’s epithets as found in his inscriptions are clearly imitated from those of the Later Senas, used in the copper-plate grants of king Viśvarūpasena. This shows that even if the Senas were continuing their precarious existence at Vikramapura as late as the fifth decade of the thirteenth century (as indicated by the *Tabaqāt-i-Nāṣirī*), they were no better than subordinate allies of the Deva king. Dāmodara’s son, Daśaratha, issued his charters from Vikramapura which had been previously the capital of the Senas in Vaṅga. This points to the complete overthrow of the Senas. Daśaratha’s title *Arirāja-danuja-mādhava* suggests that he is identical with Danuj Rāi, Rājā of Soṇārgāon (near Vikramapura) close to Dacca, who, according to Ziāuddīn Baranī, entered into an agreement with Sulṭān Ghiyāṣuddin Balban of Delhi about 1281 A.D. that he should guard against the escape of the rebellious Sulṭān Mughisuddin Tughril Khān of Lakhnautī by water.¹ Thus the Devas of Samataṭa were the successors of the Senas at Vikramapura in Vaṅga.