In the early 1026 A.D a
king of Sena sect, by name SaamanthaSena overthrown in Bengal and
established a principality in Western Bengal.
After him came HemanthaSena. VijayaSena, son of
HemanthaSena, founded the sovereignty by vanquishing kings of Gaudas, Paalas
and the neighbouring princes of North Bihar, Assam and Oriss. He has laid the foundation of a city VijayaPuram
in Western Bengal and a city VikaramaPuram in Eastern Bengal.
The son and
successor of VijayaSena was BallaalaSena, a name famous in Bengali
legend as the reputed founder of Kulinism, a system of nobility. He was also credited with the authorship of
two notable Sanskrit works, the DaanaSaagarah and the AdbhutaSaagarah.
King LakshmanaSena,
son of BallaataSena ruled the Bengal dynasty in 1169 A.D. On coming to the throne, LakshmanaSena
distinguished himself as a conqueror and a patron of learning. Among the six renowned poets who graced his
court namely Umapatidhara, Jayadeva, Sarana, Govardhana, Sruthidhara,
and Dhoyi. The most eminent were Jayadeva,
the author of GitaGovindam and Dhoyi, the author of the PavanaDutam.
Jayadeva was the
author of lyric GitaGovindam in twelve cantos.
Gitagovindam also known as Ashtapadi forms a blend of lyrical and
musical elements. Though there are 3 characters namely Krishna, Radha and a
friend of Radha. There is no dialogue in the poem. We have only monologues in
the poem addressed by one of the characters to a silent listener. Each canto
begins and ends with some stanzas in the usual classical metre and the
portions, which are in the form of songs set to prescribed tunes, are
introduced between them. These songs are generally composed of 8 musical lines
and each song is known as Ashtapadi. The book on the whole consists of 12 chapters
or 24 Ashtapadis. The work describes the love of Krishna and Radha and depicts
its various stages like the yearning, expectancy, disappointment, estrangement
and reconciliation ending in ultimate joy of their union. The book has always
been popular on account of the blending of literary, devotional, musical and
mystic elements in it. The book has been commented on by many scholars in our
country and translated into English by Edwin Arnold. Like Kalidasa’s ‘maoGadUtma\’ (Meghadhootam) among the
erotic lyrics, the ‘gaItgaaoivandma\’ has
given rise to number of such compositions. Many poets of the later ages wrote
on the same model.
Dhoyi was another eminent poet
in the court of the king LakshmanaSena.
He wrote Pavanadutam describing the love message sent to king
LakshmanaSena by a Gandharva maiden Kuvalayavati. It contains 104 stanzas. It describes a city called Yayatinagari on
the bank of the river Mahanadi. It
contains an interesting description of the Sena capital.
Rai-Lakhmaniya usally mentioned and identified
with LakshmanaSena in the history that he had to flee from Nadia possibly to
Eastern Bengal, to a place near Dacca
where the Sena power survived for more than a half century, before the
advancing arms of Malik Ikhtiyar-ud-din Muhammad Khaliji towards the
close of the 12th or early in
the 13th century. Like his father Ballaala Sena, LakshmanaSena was
also known for his lavish generosity.
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