Latest / The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History / The Copperplates of Sena Kings: Inscribed Land Grants from Medieval Bengal
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about the Sena dynasty — their rise under Vijayasena, the Kulinism of Ballalasena, the cultural flowering under Lakshmanasena. But one of the most direct sources we have for understanding their rule is something you can actually hold in your hands: copperplate inscriptions. Luna: Copperplates — like, thin sheets of metal with writing on them? Lucas: Exactly. These are rectangular or sometimes curved plates, usually between twenty and thirty centimeters on a side, inscribed with a stylus, then sometimes bound together with a ring. They record land grants — donations of villages or plots of land to Brahmins, to temples, sometimes to officials. And they were legal deeds, not just ceremonial objects. They were meant to be kept by the donee as proof of ownership. Lucas: The Sena kings issued a number of these. The most famous is the Naihati copperplate of Ballalasena, found in the town of Naihati in present-day West Bengal. It records a grant of land to a Brahmin named Ishanadeva, and it gives us a wealth of detail — the date, the king's genealogy, his conquests, the boundaries of the land, the officials who witnessed it. Luna: So it's like a legal document and a history lesson in one. Lucas: Right. And that's why they're so valuable. Unlike chronicles written centuries later, these are contemporary records. They tell us what the king wanted to be remembered for, but also inadvertently reveal the administrative machinery — the subdivisions of the kingdom, the tax rates, the types of land. There's even a plate from Lakshmanasena, the Madhainagar plate, that mentions a temple and a tank he built, which aligns with the tradition of him as a patron of religion. Lucas: The plates are written in Sanskrit, in a script called proto-Bengali or early Nagari. They open with an invocation — typically to Shiva or Vishnu — then give the king's lineage, then the details of the grant. The language is formulaic, but there are glimpses of real life. For example, the Naihati plate lists the boundaries of the donated land by mentioning a banyan tree, a dried-up riverbed, a village named something like 'the village of the potters'. Luna: Huh, so they used landmarks that would have been recognizable to people at the time, but are often lost to us now. Lucas: Exactly. And that makes them puzzles for historians and archaeologists. They try to identify those villages with modern places. Sometimes they succeed — the Naihati plate's 'Uttara' village might be the modern Uttarpara. But often, the landmarks are gone, and we're left guessing. Lucas: Now, these grants were part of a larger system. The king would donate land — usually tax-free — to a Brahmin or a temple. This created a class of privileged landowners, the Brahmadeya or Agrahar villages. It also tied the Brahmins to the state, giving them a stake in the dynasty's survival. Some historians argue this was a way to legitimize Sena rule after they overthrew the Palas. Luna: But weren't the Palas also patrons of Buddhism? So the Senas, by giving land to Brahmins, were shifting the religious center of gravity. Lucas: Exactly that. The Senas were staunchly Hindu, especially in a Shaivite or Vaishnavite mold. Their copperplates often mention the king as 'paramahatta' or 'paramavaishnava' — great devotee of Vishnu. So these grants were both a religious statement and a political one: we are the protectors of the Brahminical order. Lucas: But it wasn't just about religion. The plates also list officials — the pradhan, the mahattara, the gramani — village heads and revenue collectors. They tell us how the kingdom was divided: into bhuktis, vishayas, and mandalas. The Naihati plate mentions the 'Vardhamana bhukti' — the Burdwan division — which still exists today as a district. Luna: So they give us a map of Sena administration. Lucas: Yes. And they also show that the Senas controlled a fairly large territory — from the Ganges delta up into what is now Bihar. But the grants are concentrated in the western part of Bengal, around the capital at Nabadwip and later at Vikrampur. The Sundarbans and the east are mostly absent, which suggests those areas were less settled or under different control. Lucas: Now, there's a question of authenticity. Some copperplates are forgeries — made later to claim legal rights based on ancient grants. The famous 'Vangiya Sahitya Parishad' plate of Lakshmanasena was suspected by some scholars. But the majority are genuine, and they're kept in museums and archives in Kolkata, Dhaka, and London. They're fragile — some have broken apart, others are badly corroded. Luna: How do they even read them if they're corroded? Lucas: Sometimes with great difficulty. Epigraphers — specialists in ancient writing — use techniques like rubbings, photography under different lighting, even X-ray imaging. The script is clear on the better-preserved ones, though. And many have been published with transcriptions and translations. The Asiatic Society in Kolkata has a whole collection. Lucas: And if today was actually useful to you — getting into the nitty-gritty of how we know what we know about the Sena dynasty — the way these conversations stay ad-free is listener support. You can buy us a coffee at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It genuinely helps keep the research going and the episodes coming. No pressure, just if you found value in it. Luna: Yeah, I love these deep dives into primary sources. It makes history feel tangible. Lucas: So back to the plates — one more fascinating detail. The Naihati plate of Ballalasena was actually found by a farmer while plowing his field, sometime in the 19th century. It was probably buried for centuries. And when it was unearthed, it was taken to the local landlord, then eventually to a scholar who recognized its importance. So these objects have their own journeys, from being legal documents to buried relics to museum pieces. Luna: What about the Madhainagar plate of Lakshmanasena? What does it tell us? Lucas: That one was found in the village of Madhainagar, in the present-day Nadia district. It records a grant of land to a Brahmin named Vatudasa, and it mentions that Lakshmanasena built a temple to the god Anantanarayana, a form of Vishnu, and a tank called 'Lakshmanasagara'. This aligns with the tradition that Lakshmanasena was a great builder. The plate also gives his full title — Parameshvara, Paramabhattaraka, Maharajadhiraja — showing he claimed imperial status. Lucas: But there's a poignant detail. The plate is dated in the Sena era, year 27, which would be around 1204 CE. That's just a few years before Bakhtiyar Khilji's invasion. So this grant, celebrating a temple and a tank, was made right on the eve of the dynasty's collapse. The world it described — of Brahmins receiving villages, of kings building temples, of a stable agrarian order — was about to be shattered. Luna: So these copperplates are like a snapshot of a world at its peak, just before it fell. Lucas: Exactly. That's why they're so moving. They give us the Sena dynasty not just as names and dates, but as a functioning state with laws, boundaries, and people. And they remind us that history is often preserved not in grand chronicles, but in the everyday documents of land and law.