Kharara

  The Rise and Fall of the Sena Dynasty of Bengal: A Study in Medieval Indian Statecraft, Religion, and Culture – By Dr. Rahul S. Kharat Introduction Among the regional dynasties that shaped the political and cultural contours of early medieval eastern India, the Sena dynasty of Bengal occupies a place of singular importance. Rising in the last quarter of the eleventh century from the status of a minor feudatory house in the Radha region of western Bengal, the Senas grew within three generations into the paramount power of the lower Gangetic delta, supplanting the venerable Pala empire that had dominated Bengal and Bihar for nearly four centuries. For roughly a hundred and thirty years — from the closing decades of the eleventh century to the early decades of the thirteenth — the Senas presided over a Bengal that was politically unified, administratively reorganised, and culturally resplendent, before collapsing with startling suddenness before the cavalry of Turkish invaders f...