14 Asntosli Gnpta — Bnim awl Antiquities of Bdmpdt. [No. 1, 



authority in matters antiquarian and supported by others. It is based 

 on some epithets of the Sen kings found in the inscriptions discovered 

 in Rajshahi, Dinajpur and Baqarganj, and also in the Sanskrit work 

 Danasdgara of which Balliil Sen himself is the reputed author. These 

 I will consider in the two following paragraphs. 



Tradition must give place to reliable material evidence if the 

 one is really inconsistent with the other ; but before discarding a uni- 

 versal belief, the evidence should be most carefully interpreted. The 

 evidence on which the theory of the Sen Rajas being Kshatriyas is 

 based is the following. In the inscriptions, found in the districts of 

 Dinajpur, Rajshiihi and Baqarganj, the Sen Rajas are described as 

 descendants of the lunar race, and as only the Kshatriyas have a 

 right to trace their descent from that race, it is held that the Senas 

 must be Kshatriyas. In the inscription discovered by Mr. Metcalfe in 

 Rajshahi, Samauta Sen is described as a Brahma- Kshatriya. Tho 

 original Sanskrit is 9 sr^fWUmarfa jJ^fsrCT^W ^Wfl^: I Dr. 

 Mitra's rendering of sJ^f^nUT ^ftrfl^Ifl is ' a garland for the 

 head of the noblest Kshatriyas.' According to him, the word sfU 

 therefore here means ' noble ' or 1 exalted.' With due deference to 

 so great an authority, I am of opinion that this meaning is not the cor- 

 rect one here. We have various Sanskrit words compounded with 

 ST^ such as W^rere, sfwl?^ W^ft. W^^l, and so forth, 



and in in all of these the word ^tjf retains its original radical meaning 

 of Brahma or Brahmana. I therefore see no reason why it should 

 not have the same or a similar meaning in the present instance. Dr. 

 Mitra has not assigned any reason why he takes snp to mean ' noble,' 

 which is certainly not the commonly accepted meaning of the term, and 

 cannot be found in the ordinary Sankrit dictionaries. At any rate this 

 meaning would be a far-fetched one. The word ST^r^ occurs in the 

 Tajur Veda, and is explained by the annotator as meaning srqMIK- 

 or ' knowledge of the Brahmanas or the Vedas and heroism 

 of the Kshatriyas.' It is therefore not a caste epithet, and following 

 the analogy, we can take ST^|-«!faV to mean 'a person who has the 

 knowledge of the Brahmanas or the Vedas and the heroism of the 

 Kshatriyas,' that is, one who combines both these qualifications ; and 

 the clause in question may mean 1 a garland for the head of those who 

 have the wisdom of tho Brahmanas and the heroism of the Kshatriyas,' 

 without any reference to race or caste. Tho word W^fJ^T^ also occurs 

 in Adhyaya 21, part IV, of the Vishnu Purina, and is explained by the 

 annotator S'ridhara Swamin to mean ' that race from which Brahmanas 

 and Kshatriyas sprung '. The meaning seems to be obscure. The word 

 probably means a mixed race of Brahmanas and Kshatriyas — a race 



