1838.] Kesava Sena Plate from Bdkerganj. 41 



Govinda Ra'ma, the Society's pandit was entrusted with the transcrip- 

 tion of the contents ; and his work was revised, where difficulties occurred, 

 by Kamala'ka'nta : while the English version was made under their 

 explanation by young Sa'rod'aprasa'da. 



The purport of the whole is, a grant in perpetuity to a brahman named 

 Iswara deva sarma, of the Vatsa tribe, of the villages of Bdgdle 

 Bettogdta and Udyamuna situated between four equally unknown places 

 in Banga, or Bengal: unless Garhaghataka be Ghoraghdta in the 

 Dindjpur, or Vikramapur the place of that name in the Dacca, district. 

 The mention of tanks of fresh water, with houses built on the raised 

 banks for protection against inundation, — of the neighbouring jangal in 

 the west, and of the saline soils, is in favor of the locality being in the 

 Bdkerganj district itself, on the edge of the Sundarbans where sea salt 

 is still manufactured. Probably the Chanda Bhanda tribe made over as 

 property along with the soil may have been the poor class named from 

 this tract (quasi Sandabanda as indeed it is generally pronounced) 

 employed in the salt works, and like the modern Molangis, only a step 

 or two removed from slavery. 



Regarding the Vaidya dynasty of Bengal (so called from its founder 

 being of the medical caste) there is the same uncertainty as in almost all 

 other portions of Indian history. Some make Adisur the progenitor, he 

 who is stated to have applied to the reigning king of Canouj, Kanyakubja, 

 for a supply of brahmans for the Bengal provinces ; but the catalogues 

 recorded on good authority in the Ayin Akberi place the whole of the 

 Bhupdla dynasty, extending to 698 years, betwen Adisur and Sukh 

 Sena the father of Balla ; la Sena who built the fort of Gaur. No men- 

 tion of either of these parties is made in the present inscription, but on the 

 contrary the father of B A lla'l a Sena is distinctly stated to be Vija ya Sena; 

 and as this is I believe the first copperplate record of a grant by the family, 

 we should give it the preference to books or traditions, on a point of 

 history so near its own time : for Kesava Sena is but the fourth in des- 

 cent from Vijaya, on the plate ; or the fifth, if we take Abul Fazl's list. 

 Ayin Akberi list. Inscription. 



1063 Sookhsein, reigned 3 yrs. Vijaya Sena. 



1066 Billalsein, 50 Balla'la Sena. 



1116 Lukhensein, 7 Lakshmana Sena. 



1123 Madhowsein, 10 



1133 Kysoosein, 15 Kesava Sena. 



1151 Sudpasein, IS considered the last by the Bengalis. 



1154 Nowjeh, or 3 



1200 (Lakshmaniyeh) thelast. 



ference between it and the Devanagari is so slight that gradually they would 

 have become amalgamated ; at any rate the reader would with facility have perused 

 both, instead of deeming them, as now, distinct characters. 

 G 



