— 

1865.] On the Sena Rajds of Bengal. 141 
obseure origin have their veins filled with the blue blood of genera- 
tions of kings by the opportune help of popular genealogists, and 
we feel strongly tempted to believe that the pedigree of the so- 
called Ballala’s descendants is no better. The Kulapamjikd of Kula- 
charya Thakura describes Adis’tira as the “ sun of the Kshatriya race.” 
(Kshatriya vansa haisa) ; the Bakerganj and the Rajshahi inscrip- 
tions agree in calling the Senas, the descendants of the moon or 
Kshatriyas of the lunar race (Somavansa) ; the latter describes SAmanta 
Sena as “a garland for the head of the race of noble Kshatriyas’— 
brahma kshatriydném kulos'iro ddma ; and their testimony cannot 
be rejected in favour of modern tradition. Nor is it difficult to 
account for the mistake which has given rise to that tradition. There 
lived in former days in the North-West a race of Kshatriyas of the name 
of Ambastha. The Vishnu Purdna alludes to them when enumerating 
the several races of the North-West Provinces, (#31 <THTGYIATST: FT- 
<faatzaeaat: ) and Panini quotes Ambastha as an example of the 
same word meaning a Kshatriya race and a country where they live 
(Pépini IV, 1,171.) The Mahabharata uses the word both as the 
name of a race of Kshatriyas, and that of a Kshatriya king, and the 
Medini, the Viswaprakas’a and the Sabdaratnakara explain it as the 
name of a country.* It is very likely that the Senas belonged to this 
section of the military class, and in Bengal, in later days, was confounded 
with the Ambasthas of Manu who were a mixed tribe of Brahmans and 
Vaisyas, and therefore taken to be of the medical caste. Such con- 
founding of names and their meanings has been so common in India, 
that one need not be at all surprised at finding the Senas degraded from 
a military to a mixed caste, from a misapprehension of the meaning of 
their name. Abul Fazel in the A’yin Akbary and Pere Tieffenthaler 
make the Senasto belong to the Kdyastha caste, and this may beexplain- 
ed by the fact that the Kayasthas in the North-West are even to this day 
called by the name of Ambasthas. If this be not accepted, tradition shall 
have to be opposed to authentic inscription. James Prinsep noticed in 
the Bakerganj plate the title of S’ankara Gaudes'wara which, written as 
the word s’ankara is with a palatal s, can only mean “ the excellent lord 
of Gauda,” unless wRT ‘ excellent’’ be taken as a euphuism of sankara, a 
mixed race. There is a temple at Kashmir known by the name of San- 
* Goldstiicker’s Sanskrit Dictionary, voce Ambastha, 
