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256
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXX
The characters are Proto-Bengali of the 11th century A.D. The most notable letter from the point of view of palæography is r which still retains its hooked form and is not yet & complete triangle. In the plate of Samalavarman, edited below, as well as in the Belāva plate of Bhojavarman, r is a complete and well-formed triangle. The language is Sanskrit.
The history of the Varman kings of Vanga was for the first time placed on a sure footing by the discovery and publication of the Belāva plate of Bhõjavarman, although Harivarmadēva was known to scholars from the Bhubaneswar inscription of his minister, Bhatta Bhavadēva. The family traced its descent from the Moon and belonged to the Yadava clan, which had made Simhapura its home. This city has been variously located; but none of the suggestions can be regarded as conclusive in the absence of any definite pointer. Nevertheless its identification with Simhapura in Kalinga may be accepted for all practical purposes.
When the armies of Rājēndra Chūļa led an expedition against Bengal about 1023-24 A.D., they found on the throne of East Bengal (Vangala) a king called Govindachandra apparently belonging to the Chandra dynasty of Vikramapura. This is corroborated by a statement in the life of Dipankara-Srijñāna-Atisa, compiled by the late Mr. Sarat Chandra Dās from Tibetan sources. According to this work, Dipankara was a contemporary of the king Bhū-indra-chandra of Bangāla. The adult life of Dipaikara, as gathered from this source, seems to have fallen between 1000 and 1022 A.D.; and it may be assumed that Bhū-indra-chandra was the ruler of Bangāla during this period. The Tibetans seem to have rendered the name Govindachandra &s Go-indra-chandra, and substituting bhi for its equivalent go, we get the modified Tibetan appellation Bhu-indrachandra.
Hence the reign of Govindachandra in Vangāla is to be referred to the first quarter of the 11th century A.D. But, in the next quarter, we find the Varmans established in the same kingdom and issuing copper-plate grants from the same capital, as is evidenced by the Beläva plate and by the two copper-plates edited below. Thus the Chandras appear to have been supplanted in Vanga by the Varmans not long after the Chöļa raids in 1023-24 A.D. .
As indicated above, we learn from the Belāva plate that the Yadavas of the lunar race settled at Simhapura and that the Varman family of Yadava lineage rose to prominence during the time of Jātavarman who is credited with many achievements. He is said to have frustrated the might of Govardhana who appears to be the same as Govardhana of Kausāmbi, mentioned in the Rāmacharita as an ally of Ramapala. Kaušāmbi, was the tract east of the Bhāgirathi and south of modern Calentta. The Varman kingdom thus spread up to the Bhāgirathi on the west, while on its east was the Meghna. Jātavarman became & paramount sovereign. Jāta's son was Samala, born of Virasri. Sämala married Trailokyasundari alias Malavyadēvi who was the daughter of Jagaddēva, son of Paramira Udayāditya, king of Mälwă and rival of Kalachuri Karna. Samala's son was Bhöja, in whose 5th regnal year the Beläva grant was issued. From verse 14 of this grant it would appear that the king was probably a minor at the time, and that an invasion from an enemy was apprehended. It may be noted here that Harivarman does not find mention in this record, though he is clearly hinted at in the statement that Virasri and Hari many times manifested themselves in person in this dynasty (verse 3).
Harivarman is known to have enjoyed a fairly long reign. Two dated manuscripts of the reign of this king are known. One of them, at present preserved in the V. R. Museum of
Above, Vol. VI, pp. 198 ff. - Ibid., Vol. XII, p. 4. • Ibid., Vol. XXVII, p. 24.
Journ. P. T. Soc., Vol. I, p. 7 n. JRAS, 1935, pp. 82-83. [The identification is not beyond doubt.-Ed.j •R. D. Banerji, The Palas of Bengal (Mom. A. S. B., Vol. V, No. 3), Plate XXXVI
