Page:The Pālas of Bengal.djvu/69

Rh Vālavalabhī is mentioned as the name of a country in the Rāmacarita of Sandhyākaranandi. Vikramarāja of Devagrāma in Vālavalabhī had fought with Rāmapāla, in the war, in Varendra. Mahāmahopādhyāya Haraprasād Sastri had identified Vālavalabhī with Bāgḍī. He translates the passage of the commentary as follows:—

"Vikramarāja, the Rājā of Devagrāma and the surrounding country, washed by the waves of the rivers of Vāla-valabhī or Bāgḍī, one of the five provinces into which Bengal was divided." The identification stands without any support. From the description given in the commentary on the Ramacarita it appears that Vālavalabhī was pre-eminently a land of rivers, and must be identified either with Eastern or Southern Bengal. The mention of Vikramapura in the copperplate grant of Harivarman does not help us in fixing the chronology of the Varmans. It may be that both dynasties occupied different parts of East Bengal at the same time and may have laid claim to the ownership of the city of Vikramapur. So far we have no positive evidence to prove that Jyotirvarman and Harivarman were descended from the Yādava Vajravarman, and we can only assume that they belong to co-lateral branches of the same family.

The invasion of the great southern conqueror Rājendra Coḷa I seems to have left some permanent marks in Bengal. We learn from the Sītāhāṭī grant of Vallālasena, that the ancestors of Sāmantasena, the grandfather of Vijayasena, lived in the country of Rāḍhā. All Sena inscriptions agree in stating that the Sena kings were descended from a family of Karṇāṭa Kṣatriyas, i.e. from a family which originally came from the Kanarese-speaking districts of Southern India. Though the Cālukya King, Vikramāditya VI of Kalyāna, is said to have invaded Bengal during the lifetime of his father Somesvara I, it cannot be said that the Cālukya Kings effected any permanent conquest in Eastern India. But, on the other hand, Vīlhaṇadeva's remarks should be taken with great reservation, as none of the records of the Cedīs of Tripurī or Ratnapura mention any Cālukya invasion of Northern India in the middle of the 11th century A.D. On the other hand, Rājendra Coḷa I defeated the Cālukya King, Jayasiṁha II, at Muyaṅgi or Musaṅgi, and though Cālukyan poets state that the Cālukyas defeated the Coḷas, the definite terms of the Melpāḍi inscription leave no doubt about the fact that the defeat of the Cālukya Kings was decisive, and Rājendra Coḷa I obtained a large amount of treasure from him. Some obscure Karṇāṭa Chief seems to have followed Rājendra Coḷa I and settled in Western Bengal after the defeat of his Chief on the banks of the Ganges. From him was descended Sāmantasena, who is generally taken to be the founder of the Sena Dynasty. He seems to have succeeded in carving out a small principality for himself in Western Bengal. In the Deopara praśasti of his grandson, Vijayasena, it is stated that he, Sāmantasena, defeated his enemies after being surrounded by them.