608 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [December, 1910. 



the 10th century of the Christian era. The Tirumalaya stone 

 inscription also mentions that Rajendra Chola (I) defeated Rana- 

 sura, king of Dakshina Rada, and Mahipala, king of Magadha 

 and Uttara-Rada. This event must have taken place shortly 

 after he ascended the throne of the Chola kingdom in 1012 A.D. 

 It confirms also that Dakshina-Rada was an independent country 

 during the first quarter of the 11th century. We also hear 

 of the names of the kings of Bengal while the kings of the Sura 

 dynasty reigned over Dakshina-Rada, as for instance, the 

 Tirumalaya inscription records the name of Govinda-chandra 

 as king of Banga while Rana-sura reigned in the latter country. 

 The Prabodhachandrodaya-nataka, which was written by 

 Krishna Misra in the second half of the 11th century A.D., 

 mentions that " Rada " was in the kingdom of Gaura, and in 

 Rada there was a town bv the name of Bhurisreshthika. 1 The 

 special mention of this place in the country of Rada as the 

 birth-place of " Pride " indicates that it was the princpal town, 

 and in all probability it was the capital of the Sura kings from 

 the time of Avani-sura at least, if not earlier, when the king- 

 dom was confined only to Dakshina or Southern Rada by the 

 invasion and conquest of Deva-pala in the latter half of the 

 9th century. It appears further from the same play that Dak- 

 shina-Rada had already acquired a celebrity in the 11th cen- 

 tury, denoting thereby that the country had been divided into 

 Dakshina (Southern) and Uttara (Northern ) Rada long before 

 the work was composed.* The river Ajaya formed the boun- 

 dary between these two divisions. The town of Bhurisresh- 

 thika, which is a pleonastic form of Bhurisreshtha, is the modern 

 village of Bhurset or Bhursut in the Aramb^gh subdivision of 

 the district of Hughli. Though now an insignificant village, yet 

 its importance at some period of its history can at once be 

 inferred from the fact of its conferring a name to an entire 

 Pargana, which is still called Pargana Bhursut and is situated 

 partly in the district of Hughli and partly in the district of 

 Burdwan. 



There is much difference of opinion as to the precise date 

 when Ballala-sena ascended the throne of Gaura, but there 

 can be no doubt that he was reigning in Bengal during the first 

 half of the 12th century of the Christian era. He constituted 

 R&da into a province of the kingdom of Bengal, 3 and it 



1 Prabodhachandrodaya-nataka, Act ii, p. 28 — 



* Ibid.. Act ii, pp. 25, 29. 



Rada as a country : l ^T^I 



S Gopdla Bhatta'sBallala-charitam, v. 7, published by Harischandra 



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