Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/83

II.] It appears from them that the Emperor of Gauḍa, styled 'পঞ্চগৌড়েশ্বর' King of the five Gauḍas, or 'lord of the five Indies,' as Beal has translated it, was the actual sovereign-head of Bengal, Orissa and Kāmrupa. The kings of Cooch Behār, Assam, Bārendra Deça, Shollipur, Kainjhorā, Simulyā, Maina-gaḍa, Doluipur and other places, were all his vassals, and assembled under his banner at his summons. The royal seat of the kings of Gauḍa, was at Ramāti, which is an abbreviation of the Ramāvātī mentioned in the copper-plate inscription of Madan Pāl. This was either an earlier name, or part of the city of Gauḍa. We also find, in the feudal organisation of the Empire, that Domas and Chandālas formed the main personal army of the emperors and their devotion to the King furnishes the poets with many extraordinary examples of courage and heroism.

We have read of the Bāra-bhuñās or twelve 'lords of the land' of Bengal, who wielded great power in the country during Mahammadan times. But the custom of having twelve sub-lords attached to a paramount court, did not originate in India during the Mahammadan period. It is one of the oldest institutions of the Aryans. In the codes of Manu and Çukrāchāryya, we find references to Dwādaça Mandaleçvara, which show that a great empire used to be divided into twelve subdivisions, or provinces each under its own chief, who was bound to serve the emperor, to attend his court and to acknowledge him as his feudal overlord. The Dodecapalis of the Greeks corresponds to this institution. During the reign of Darius,