Early Bengal Divisions : India

 

The Bengali speaking people stretches from the Himalayas in north to the Bay of Bengal in the south. The geo-political boundaries of Bengal changed from time to time. In fact there was no ‘Bengal’ in the ancient time. The region what today known as Bengal was divided into several units and sub-units. Among these Gauda, Vanga, Samatata, Pundra, Rarhetc were very important. Other than these there were many minor divisions like Harikela, Chandradwipa, Barendra, Suvarnavithi, Vardhamana-bhukti, Kankagrama- bhukti etc. Since the ancient period Tamralipta got importance as a port-city. It played a very important role in the maritime trade during the ancient and early medieval periods. Thus a picture of a prosperous territory can clearly be assumed from the various archaeological and literary references on the ancient Bengal.

It is indeed a difficult task to define the geographical territory of ancient Bengal as there was no ‘Bengal’ up to 11th century CE. But for easy convenience it would be better to take the territory of undivided British province of Bengal as our area of discussion. Prof. H. C. Raychaudhuri described the area of Bengal province in the British India as the territory stretches from the Himalayas in the north to the Bay of Bengal in the south, and from the Brahmaputra in the east to the lower reaches of the Suvarnarekha in the west. The early Bengal as an entity of historical geographical study in the pre-11th century CE era consist of many units and sub-units of which five were more prominent. These five units are Pundravardhana, Radha, Vanga, Gauda and Samatata. There were many other units, co-units and sub units also.

There is no mention of any of the units or sub-units of the ancient land of Bengal in any Vedic hymns. The earliest mention of the name Vanga can be found in Aitareya Aranyaka. The expression ‘Vangavagadhah’ indicates the peoples of Vanga and Magadha who according to the Aitareya Aranyaka were guilty of transgression. Aitareya Brahmana also mentions Pundras as the peoples who lived beyond the frontiers of Aryandom and were classed as Dasyus. First clear mentions of Vanga occur in the ancient Epics and the Dharmasutras. Most of the old Dharmasutras like Bodhayana, also considered Vanga as the region inhabited by the peoples who belonged to inferior culture which lay outside the pale of Vedic culture. A changed view can be traced in the Epics. Mahabharata shows a clear picture of eastward Aryan migration process. Here Bhima, the second eldest brother of the Pandavas, undertakes a decisive campaign in the land of the present-day Bengal. In Ramayana, the peoples of Vanga are no longer shunned as impure barbarians. Rather they entered into intimate political relations with high-born aristocrats of Ayodhya. In Jain and early Buddhist texts regular mentions of Vanga and Pundra can be found. Later historical texts like the Greek records, Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Milinda Panha and others contain scattered references of Bengal region. From the 4th century CE onwards some epigraphic records also found which enable us to trace more clearly the politico-geographical divisions and administrative units of Bengal.

As I have mentioned earlier that although there were many politico-geographical units and sub-units in the region we generally regard as Bengal, but the most prominent of them were five units. These are Pundravardhana, Radha, Vanga, Gauda and Samatata. A brief description of these units and other smaller units are given below.

Pundravardhana :

Later Vedic texts and the Epics contain some scattered mentions of the Pundras and most of these texts describe them as the inhabitants of Pundravardhana – a land situated at the east of Monghyr. However these texts could not provide us any clear picture of this region. The Mahasthangarh Fragmentary stone inscription may be regarded for providing the earliest clear reference to Pundravardhana as a political division during the Mauryan period. On the basis of epigraphic records and other texts the territory of the Pundras can be placed in north Bengal. Most of the scholars suggest Mahasthangarh as its capital. The political history of Pundravardhana is also not clear to us. Since Mahasthangarh inscription of the Mauryas mention about Pundanagala, which is the Prakritized form of Pundranagara of the Sanskrit records, therefore it confirms the identification of Pundranagara with Mahasthangarh and indicates that the Pundra region formed an administrative division within the Mauryanempire. Further epigraphical references begin to occur from the Gupta period onwards. The expansion of Magadhanempire during the Gupta periodwitnessed some changes in the territorial organization of the areas subsumed under the empire. The region corresponding to Bengal could not escape the changes brought about by the expanding influence of the imperial Guptas. The contents of the MehrauliPiller inscription of Chandragupta I, the Allahabad Piller inscription of Samudragupta have been interpretedby scholars to suggest that this region was part of Gupta empire. The Damodarpur copper plate of Kumaragupta I, dated c. 448 CE, refers to the bhukti or province of Pundravardhana which was important enough to have a governor appointed by the Emperor himself. The Paharpur copper plate of Kumaragupta I also refers to Pundravardhana and its city-council, which is dated c. 479 CE. Budhagupta’s second Damodarpur copper plate also refers to Jayadatta, the viceroy of the province of Pundravardhana. Another Gupta inscription dated about 543 CE refers the provincial governors of Pundravardhana as Devabhattaraka which means the son and the favourite of the Emperor. In some Gupta inscriptions traces of many visaya can also be found within the bhukti of Pundravardhana. In the Pala-Sena inscriptions Pundravardhanabhukti includes a large number of administrative units and sub-units. Many of these administrative units yet not been clearly identified. But there is no doubt that the bhukti was a much larger province during the Gupta period as well as the Pala-Senaera.Although there is no clear evidence of the extention of the bhukti but it seems that virtually the whole of modern Bangladesh fell within the ancient Pundravardhanabhukti, apperently from the Pala-Senaperiod onwards, if not earlier. In the inscriptions of Bengal the name Pundravardhana was changed into Paundravardhana in the early part of the 12th century, when it occurs first in the Manahali inscription of Madan Pal and remained in use till the end of the Sena rule. The Rajatarangini of Kalhana mentions Pundravardhana as the capital of Gauda which is also proved by a reference in Purushottam’slexicon dated about 11th century CE. By the 3rd quarter of the 12th century CE, the city of Pundranagara lost its importance as the ruling Sena kings shifted their capital to Gauda. Towards the end of the 13th century CE or the beginning of the 14th century CE Pundravardhana region was occupied by the Muslim invaders.

Rarh :

One of the most important division of ancient Bengal region was Rarh. Broadly it was divided into two parts viz. DakshinRarh or south Rarh and Uttar Rarh or north Rarh. By the end of the 6th century CE this region was divided into several smaller regions like Kankagram-bhukti, Vardhamana-bhukti, Danda-bhukti etc. By around 9th century CE previously mentioned south and north divisions replaces apparently the older segmentation of the area into Vajjabhumi and Subbhabhumi. The southern part of Rarh-bhumi included present day Howrah, Hooghly, Burdwan districts. The northern part included presentdayMurshidabad and Dinajpur districts. The Chola inscriptions refer UttaraRarh region as Uttiralabam. Belava and Naihati grants also mentioned UttaraRarh and these records include it within the Vardhaman-bhukti. During the reign of Laxmanasena it formed part of the Kanakagram-bhukti. Danda-bhukti was an ancient and medieval territory spread apporximately what are now Bankura, Hooghly, Paschim Midnapore and Purva Midnapore districts. This fell within the territory of Dakshin Rarh. Usually the river Ajay regarded as the border line between north and south Rarh. Some scholars prefer taking the river Khari as the border line between the two parts. The Jain records mentioned Kotivarsha as a city in northern Rarh. Scholars have identified this place with Bangarh of Dinajpur district. This clearly indicates the northern limit of the division. According to the twin Midnapore copper plates of SasankaDandabhukti of southern Rarh was an independent fudatory state Maharaja Somdatta and Mahapratihara Shubhakirti were its fudatory rulers under Sasanka. Although Digvijaya- Prakasha restricts the area of dakshin Rarh within the territory lying north of the river Damodar but epigraphical references clearly show that the southern boundary may have reached the river Rupnarayana and the western boundary may have extended beyond the river Damodar and stretched uptoArambagh subdivision. During the reign of Lakshmanasena northern Rarh was attached to the Kankagram- bhukti. It is still not very clear that from which region the bhukti derives its name. Some scholars suggested Kankajol near Rajmahal as the original land of the ancient Kankagram. Some scholars recognise it as the Kogram village near Bharatpur in the district of Murshidabad. Some scholars also suggest that the bhukti of Kankagram represents the old kingdom of Gauda – Karnasubarna mentioned by Varahamihir, Banabhatta and Huen Tsang. Kankagram-bhukti was further divided into many administrative sub-units called vithi. During the Pala Sena era the Rarh region mostly included within the territory of Vardhamana-bhukti. The Pala Sena records mentioned the main sub-division of the Vardhamana-bhukti as – Danda-bhuktiMandal, PashchimKhatika, DakshinRarh and UttaraRarhMandal. Thus the territory of Rarh region changed from time to time. By the end of the 13th century some of these regions also came under the pale of the Muslim rule.

Vanga:

The earliest reference of Vanga is found in Aitareya Aranyaka, where it is mentioned as the land of the non Aryans. Ancient Epics and the Dharmasutras mention several times the name of Vanga. According to Bodhayana Dharmasutra Vanga situated at the outside of the pale of Vedic Aryan culture. But some incidences mentioned in the Epic Ramayana show a tendency towards the incorporation of the Vanga people within the Aryan culture. Apart from literary sources it is mentioned in the Mehrauli inscription of king Chandra, records of the Chalukyas of Vatapi, Kamayuli copper plate grant of Vaitya Deva, and various grant records of the Pala kings and Sena kings are important inscriptional sources. It is indeed a difficult task to seperate references of Vanga as ethnic name and a geographical sub-division of a particular land. One should keep it in mind that the land of Vanga of the ancient records is not synonimous to the geographical territory of present day Bengal. Kalidasa in the Digvijaya section of the Raghuvamsham places the region amidst the strain of river Ganges. The western boundary of Vanga probably extended beyond the hooghly to the river Kamsabati or Kansai (Kapisa) in the district of Midnapore. Some scholars suggested that during the Pala-Sena era the territory of Vanga sub-division was curtailed and formed a new sub-division called Vardhamana-bhukti. There is a confusion among the scholars regarding the existence of Tamralipti within the territory of Vanga. According to Prajnapana, a Jain Upanga, Tamralipti was a port-city of Vanga. But probably during the Pala-Sena era it could not have extended as far as Tamralipti as the region beyond the river Bhagirathi now formed part of Vardhaman-bhukti. Kamayuli copper plate grant mention ‘Anuttaravang’. Scholars interpret it as south Vanga which means there by a division of Vanga into two parts – north and south. According to H. C. Raychaudhuri, ‘the two divisions of VangaimplidingVaidya Deva’s grant may have corresponded roughly to the two bhagas of the some territories mention in the latter Sena inscription namely the Vikramapura-bhag and Navya’. In some inscriptional records another term also found – the term Vangala. Vanga and Vangala are obviously related with each other. According to the Tirumala rock inscription of RajendraCholaBangladesha was located immidiately after Takkanaladam which means southern Rarh. Using this reference R. C. Majumdar concluded that there is no doubt that Bangladesh refers to southern Bengal. Some scholars argued that Vanga and Vangala denoted are two seperate tracts of land. For them Vangala was probably identical with Chandradwip which often identified with Barishal. It may be included some parts of present day Noakhali and Khulna region. According to A. K. M. Yakub Ali, ‘like other Janapadas, the territorial jurisdiction of Vanga, with the change of political power, extended at times beyond its boundaries, or contracted within its limits. As such, it is hardly possible to determine its exact boundaries. But the sources at our disposal enable us to hypothesize that at least in the 12th century AD, Vanga.... generally corresponded to the eastern and southern Bengal, lying on the eastern side of the river Bhagirathi, and comprising mainly, as it appears, of modern Chittagong and Dacca divisions’. Thus the geographical definition of Vanga changed from time to time. Earlier it has more extended territory but gradually it lost some of its regions due to the emergence of more smaller administrative sub-units. By 13th century the Muslim rulers conquered this region established their hegemony.

Gauda :

The emergence of Gauda kingdom marked an important benchmark in the history of Bengal. But the region has a much early history. Panini in his grammer book Ashtadhyayi refers Gaudapura. Kautilya also mentioned the rich products of Gaudadesa in his Arthashastra. This was known to Vatsayana, the author of the Kamasutra; Kalidasa and many others. According to Varahamihir Gauda was different from the other parts of Bengal. Bhabisya-Purana mentions Gauda as a region located between the north of Burdwan and south of the river Padma. Varahamihir in his Vrihatsamhita distinguish Gaudaka from particularly Pundra or Pundravardhana-bhukti, Tamraliptika or Tamralipti, Vanga Samatata, and Vardhamana-bhukti. Gauda as a kingdom emerged during the decaying phase of the Guptas. Sasanka was the most prominent ruler under whose reign Gauda reached in its zenith. It is generally believed that Sasanka has established his capital city at Karnasuvarna located near Rangamati, around 12 miles south of present day Murshidabad. Most of the 7th century CE-writers describe the kingdom of Gauda-Karnasuvarna. But AnarghaRaghava, a late 8th century Kavya written by Murari mentions Champa as the capital city of Gauda instead of Karnasuvarna. Some scholars argued that Champa is probably identical with Champa-nagari which stood on the left bank of the river Damodar near the city of present day Burdwan. During the rule of the Pala kings Gauda came under the pale of the Pala empire. At first the Pala rulers commonly obtain the title of Vangapati. But the later Pratihara and Rashtrakuta records refer the Pala kings as the Gaudeswara. Probably from the later regnal days of Dharmapala the title Gaudeswara became the official style of the reigning emperors. Even earlier Gauda and Vanga are sometimes mentioned side by side but political union under the same sovereign ruler styled both Vangapati and Gaudeswara was first making them interchangeable terms. Around the 12th century CE the Gaudarashtra is said to have included Rarh and Vurishreshthika (probably Vurshut on the banks of Damodar in the Hooghly-Howrah districts). The Jain records of the 13th and 14th centuries mention that Gauda included Lakshmanavati in the present Malda district. Sometimes the term Gauda used in a very extended sense. For example the expression Pancha-Gauda is taken to embrace besides Gauda proper the coutries known as Sarasvata (Eastern Punjab, Kanyakubja, Gangetic Doab), Mithila (north Bihar) and Utkal (northern Odissa). During the early Muslim rule Gauda became synonimous to Lakshmanavati of Malda district. Gradually it lost its importance and incorporated within the territory of Subeh-Bengala.

Samatata:

Samatata region is often identified with present day Tripura-Noakhali region. But this location is also not beyond doubt. The punch-marked coins and other archaeological evidences like Wari-Bateshwar ruins indicate that Samatata was a province of the Mauryan empire. The Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudragupta and other later records of the imperial Gupta rulers describe Samatata as a tributary state. The Vrihatsamhita of Varahamihir distinguishes Samatata from Vanga. Famous archaeologist Dilip Kumar Chakravarti considers Wari-Bateshwar to be a part of the trans-Meghna region. In his words, ‘it appears that Wari-Bateshwar belongs to the Samatata tract. Till now this is the only early historic site reported from this tract, but the very fact that it existed as early as the mid-5th century BCE in this part of Bangladesh shows the geographical unit of Samatata, although inscriptional record documented it in the 4th century CE, has a much earlier antiquity which touches the Mahajanapadas period. Secondly, on the basis of the fact that Wari-Bateshwar is a fortified settlement, we argue that in addition to its character as a manufacturing and trading centre, it was also an administrative centre and most likely to be the ancient capital of the Samatata region’. It is generally believed that during the declining phase of the Mauryanempire the eastern part of Bengal became the flourishing state of Samatata. But any satisfactory information regarding any rulers of this state has yet not been obtained. After the decline of the imperial Guptas two independent dynasties flourished in this region. These are Khadga dynasty and Chandra dynasty. The Khadga rulers were originally from Vanga region. According to the Chinese record Khadga rulers established their capital at Karmantavasaka. This city is generally identified with Badkanta near Kumilla and Tripura. The most important ruler of this dynasty was Rajabhata. The Chandra rulers were ruled over Samatata, Vanga and Arakan region. They were the followers of Buddhism. As a result of this Samatata region became a flourishing centre of Buddhism during their rule. Maynamati was another important religious and administrative centre of the Chandra rulers. Samatata continued to play an important role in the local history of Bengal until the Muslim conquest of Bengal in the 13th century.

Minor Sub-divisions:

Apart from the above mentioned five divisions of the territory of Bengal there are many other minor sub-divisions existed in different times. Mention may be made of Harikela, Chandradwipa, Tamralipta, Suvarnavithi etc. Harikela is often mentioned as a country in some 7th century literature. Chinese traveller I-Tsing mentioned it as the eastern most limit of east India. Karpuramanjari and Arya Manjusri Mulakalpa mention Harikela as a distinct entity. According to Prof. Dilip Kumar Chakravarti Harikela is probably synonymous with the Chittagong area including Sylhet. It was dissociated from Vanga throughout the ages.