4 E, V. Westmacott — A Copperplate grant by Lahshnan Sen. [No. 1, 



the Bengal traditions say, the son of Adisur, or of the wife of Adisur, who 

 brought Kanauj Brahmans into Bengal. It is true that Abul-Fazl places 

 a dynasty of which Adisur was the first, and then all the Pal kings, be- 

 tween Adisur and the Sens, but as I have already said, I care little for 

 Abul-Fazl's authority, and until I found that these plates failed to support 

 it, I have been inclined to believe the Bengal tradition. The Chakravarti 

 family, whose ancestor is said to have been one of the Brahmans invited by 

 Adisur, date his migration into Bengal, from family records, in the end 

 of the tenth century of the Christian era, which would bring Adisur after 

 the Pals, and, in a paper on the Pal kings, I have already said that it 

 appeared very probable that it should be upon the fall of the Pal Bud- 

 dhist dynasty, that Adisur should restore Brahmans from the west, and 

 that his successor, Ballal Sen, f should continue the work by thoroughly 

 revising the caste system, as he is, by a very general tradition, said to have 

 done. I can only say that I get nothing to support this theory from the 

 Sen plates. 



Passing on to Ballal Sen, the expressions used are again disappointing- 

 ly vague. He too is spoken of as a conqueror, and one who walked in the 

 way of the Veda, but there is no allusion to his traditional labours in the 

 organisation of caste, which have rendered him famous. Lakshman Sen, 

 his son, who makes the grant, is said to have lived at B i k r a m p u r, which 

 I do not hesitate to identify with the old Bikrampur near Dhaka. The Pan- 

 dit employed by Mr. Prinsep has misunderstood the phrase giving the 

 residence of Keshab Sen,* and I cannot from the lithograph read the name 

 of the place. In the Monghyr grant the name is clear, Mudgo-giri samd- 

 bdshita srimajjayasJcandabardt ; in the Amgachhi grant the word before 

 samdbdsMta srimajjayaskandabardt is illegible. In my plate, Bikrampur is 

 quite clear ; in the Keshab Sen plate I cannot read it, but the Pandit 

 reads it Jambugrdma parisar, which represents no known place. 



When the Muhammadans entered Bengal, A. D. 1203, they found the 

 Sen King reigning at Nadia, but for some generations their descendants 

 retained some power in the neighbourhood of Bikrampur and Sunargaon, 

 and the indications of rebellious zamindars, against whom the Muhammadan 

 rulers of Bengal from time to time led then- forces into Eastern Bengal, 

 probably refer to them. 



The King is called paramesliwara par amah aislmaba parama bJiattaraka. 

 The second of these phrases shows him to have been a worshipper of Vish- 

 nu, and in the Monghyr plate is replaced by parama saugata, Deb Pal 

 being a Buddhist. In the Amgachhi plate the epithet corresponding to 

 this is unfortunately illegible. The Keshab Sen plate has apparently para- 

 masaur. 



* Page 50, Vol. vii, Journal, As. Soc. Bengal. 



