New Facts about the Senas
Summary
The article re‑examines the early history of the Sena dynasty of Bengal using inscriptions. Early members of the lunar‑lineage Senas were minor rājaputras in the Karnata region of south India. The Deopāra inscription records the genealogy of Virasena, his descendant Sāmantasena and his son Hemantasena, showing that they were feudatories of Karṇāṭa kings and later settled on the banks of the Ganges. Sāmantasena, described as an ornament of the Brahma‑Kṣatriya lineage, moved to south‑west Bengal and carved out a small principality. Hemantasena remained a feudatory, but his son Vijayasena threw off Pāla overlordship and became the first independent imperial ruler. Vijayasena’s Barrackpur copper‑plate records a land grant and the Deopāra inscription describes him as a ruler who extirpated Pāla power and built a temple in north Bengal. The article notes conflicting accounts of when the Senas settled in Rāḍha, suggesting later inscriptions confused the chronology. It points out that names like Ballāla were common among the Hoysalas and Senas, implying cultural links between the Karnata and Bengal dynasties. The marriage of Vijayasena to a princess of the Śūra family of Rāḍha consolidated his position. He fought Nanya, Vira, Raghava and Vardhana, defeating the kings of Gauḍa, Kāmarūpa and Kaliṅga, and sent a fleet down the Ganges in an attempt to conquer western regions. Debate over his accession year (32, 62 or 6 in the Barrackpur plate) illustrates the difficulty of reading ancient numerals. Later titles such as Gaudeśvara (lord of Gauḍa) applied to Vijayasena and Ballālasena may have been assigned retrospectively. The article concludes that the Senas’ migration to Bengal was linked to wider 11th‑century Karnata settlements and that their rise from local chiefs to rulers of all Bengal occurred under Vijayasena in the 11th–12th centuries.
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Conclusion
Using inscriptions, the article reconstructs the Sena family’s journey from minor chiefs in the Karṇāṭa region to independent rulers of Bengal. Sāmantasena’s move to south‑west Bengal and Vijayasena’s campaigns against Pāla and neighbouring powers were pivotal. Despite contradictions in later records, the evidence suggests that by the mid‑12th century the Senas had unified much of Bengal, laying the foundation for a dynasty that combined Karnata traditions with regional Bengal influences.