THE PALAS OF BENGAL. 99 



V alavalabhl-bhnj anga . 



Valavalabhi is mentioned as the name of a country in the Ramacarita of Sandhya- 

 karanandi. Vikramaraja of Devagrama in Valavalabhi had fought with Ramapala, 

 in the war, in Varendra. 1 Mahamahopadhyaya Haraprasad Sastri had identified 

 Valavalabhi with Bagdi. He translates the passage of the commentary as follows : — 



" Vikramaraja, the Raja of Devagrama and the surrounding country, washed by 

 the waves of the rivers of Vala-Valabhi or Bagdi, 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 Valavalabhi 

 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 Yadava Vajravarman, and we can only assume that they belong to co-lateral 

 branches of the same family. 



The invasion of the great southern conqueror Rajendra Cola I seems to have left 

 some permanent marks in Bengal. We learn from the Sitahati grant of Vallalasena, 

 that the ancestors of Samantasena, the grandfather of Vijayasena, lived in the 

 country of Radha.* All Sena inscriptions agree in stating that the Sena kings were 

 descended from a family of Karnata Ksatriyas, i.e. from a family which originally 

 came from the Kanarese-speaking districts of Southern India. Though the Calukya 

 King, Vikramaditya VI of Kalyana, is said to have invaded Bengal during the 

 lifetime of his father Somesvara I, 3 it cannot be said that the Calukya Kings effected 

 any permanent conquest in Eastern India. But, on the other hand, Vilhanadeva's 

 remarks should be taken with great reservation, as none of the records of the Cedis 

 of Tripuri or Ratnapura mention any Calukya invasion of Northern India in the 

 middle of the nth century a.d. On the other hand, Rajendra Cola I defeated the 

 Calukya King, Jayasimha II, at Muyahgi or Musahgi, and though Calukyan poets 

 state that the Calukyas defeated the Colas, the definite terms of the Melpadi inscrip- 

 tion leave no doubt about the fact that the defeat of the Calukya Kings was decisive, 

 and Rajendra Cola I obtained a large amount of treasure from him. + Some obscure 

 Karnata Chief seems to have followed Rajendra Cola I and settled in Western 

 Bengal after the defeat of his Chief on the banks of the Ganges. From him was 

 descended Samantasena, 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 praSasti of his grandson, Vijayasena, it is 

 stated that he, Samantasena, defeated his enemies after being surrounded by them. 6 



1 Mem. A.S.B., Vol. Ill, p. 36, Comm. on V, p. 5. 



5 Vangiya Sahitya Parisad-Patrika, Vol. XVII, Pt. IV, p. 235, v. 3. 



3 Vikramankadeva Caritam. (Ed. Biihler, III. 74). 



♦ South Indian Inscriptions, Vol. Ill, No. 18, p. 27. 5 Epi. Ind., Vol. II, p. 124. 



