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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA against a Gāhaḍavāla king of Kāśī and is credited in the later Sēna records with the planting of pillars of victory at Vārāṇasī and Prayāga (Allahabad) in the dominions of that monarch.[1] Besides these, there is no epigraphic evidence to show that the Sēna had anything to do with any part of Bihār, in the southern half of which the Pālas are known to have continued to rule till the close of the twelfth century.[2] Mihnāj-ud-dīn’s Tabaqāt-i-Nāsirī, while describing Muḥammad Bakhtiyār Khaljī’s conquest of the western half of the dominions of Lakshmaṇasēna, also does not suggest Sēna rule over any part of Bihār. The published inscriptions of the Sēnas do not ascribe any military achievements to Ballālasēna (circa 1158-79 A.C.), son and successor of Vijayasēna, although there are some traditions referring to his relations with Bihār.[3] Thus, according to the Laghubhārata, Ballāla led an expedition against Mithilā (North Bihār). As he is said to have received the news of the birth of his son Lakshmaṇasēna on the way, the expedition has been assigned by scholars to a date earlier than Ballāla’s accession, i.e., to the reign of his father Vijayasēna. The Ballālacharita similarly says that Ballālasēna accompanied his father in an expedition against Mithilā and obtained victory. According to another tradition contained in the same work, Mithilā was one of the five provinces of Ballālasēna’s kingdom, the other four provinces of the list being Rāḍha, Varēndra, Bāgḍī and Vaṅga, all of which have to be located in Bengal. It will be seen that even these traditions have nothing to say about Ballālasēna’s hold over any part of South Bihār.
The late Mr. Nagendranath Vasu quoted the passage : Ballāla-pūjitō bhūtvā Vaṭō=bhūn=Magadhēśvaraḥ and observed[4] “It said in the Uttara-Rāḍhīya Kula-pañjikā that Vaṭēśvaramitra, the sixth descendant of Sudarśanamitra of Uttara-Rāḍha, was honoured by Ballāla and obtained the lordship of Magadha. At Kahalgāon (Colgong), 3 Krōśas from Bhāgalpur, there is a temple of Śiva known as Vaṭēśvaranātha, which even now preserves the memory of Vaṭēśvaramitra.”[5] On the strength of this tradition, Vasu believed that the eastern part of Magadha (South Bihār) was included in the dominions of Ballālasēna, although the suggestion has been ignored by later writers on the history of the Sēnas. There is evidence now to show that the name of the god Vaṭēśvara at Pātharghāṭā near Colgong has nothing to do with a contemporary of Ballālasēna. The Pātharghāṭā (Vaṭēśvara-sthāna) stone inscription, recently published by me,[6] is written in characters of the eighth or ninth century A.D. and speaks of the celebration of an anniversary festival of the god Vaṭēśvara who was thus being worshipped at Pātharghāṭā several centuries before Ballālasēna. Curiously enough, Ballālasēna’s hold over parts of East Bihār is definitely established by the inscription under study. Elsewhere[7] we have discussed the struggle between the Pālas of South Bihār and the Gāhaḍavālas of the U. P. in the twelfth century A.D. The Gāhaḍavāla king Gōvindachandra (circa __________________________________________________
[1] See the Mādhāinagar (N. G. Majumdar, op. cit., p. 111) and Bhowāl (above, Vol. XXVI, p. 6) plates of Lakshmaṇasēna and also the Idilpur, Madanpārā and Sāhitya Parishad plates (Ins. Beng., pp. 122-3, 135, 144). For a
different interpretation of the evidence of the latter records, see IHQ, Vol. XXX, p. 218.
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