Deva dynasty

Deva dynasty
← CE 1200s–CE 1300s →
Capital	Bikrampur
Language(s)	Sanskrit Bengali
Religion	Hinduism
Government	Monarchy
Historical era	Medieval India
- Established	CE 1200s
- Disestablished	CE 1300s

Part of a series on the
History of Bengal
Ancient Bengal
Vedic Period
Ancient Bengali States Gangaridai Kingdom, Vanga Kingdom, Pundra Kingdom, Suhma Kingdom, Anga Kingdom, Harikela Kingdom
Mauryan Period
Classical Bengal
The Classical Age
Shashanka
Age of Empires Pala Empire, Sena Empire
Medieval Bengal
Arrival of Islam Sultanate of Bengal, Deva Kingdom Bakhtiyar Khilji, Raja Ganesha
Mughal Period Pratap Aditya, Raja Sitaram Ray Nawab of Bengal, Baro-Bhuyans
Modern Bengal
Company Raj Zamindari system, Bengal famine of 1770
British Indian Empire Bengal Renaissance Brahmo Samaj Swami Vivekananda, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Rabindranath Tagore, Subhash Chandra Bose
Post-Colonial 1947 Partition of Bengal, Bangladesh Liberation War Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Jyoti Basu
See Also
Bangladesh, West Bengal

Deva Dynasty (c.12th-13th century) was a Hindu dynasty of early medieval Bengal, ruled over eastern Bengal after the Sena dynasty. The capital of this dynasty was Bikrampur in present-day Munshiganj District of Bangladesh. The end of this dynasty is not yet known.

This Hindu Vaishnava dynasty is different from an earlier Buddhist Deva dynasty (c. 8th-9th century) of Samatata, whose capital was Devaparvata. This earlier dynasty is now known in greater details from the Mainamati excavations. Though a number of their inscriptions, coins and sealings were known earlier, the extent of their rule was actually revealed through the extraordinarily rich archaeological remains recovered from the undisturbed early levels of Mainamati. Four rulers of this dynasty are known from the inscriptions: Shantideva, Viradeva, Anandadeva and Bhavadeva.^[1]

Rulers

The major sources of the history of this dynasty are the three copperplate inscriptions of Damodaradeva issued in the Saka era 1156, 1158 and 1165, which were his 4th, 6th and 13th regnal years. The first three rulers are known from the Chittagong copperplate inscription of Damodaradeva dated Saka era 1165. The first ruler of this dynasty was Purushottamadeva, who rose from the position of a village-chief (gramani). His son Madhumathana or Madhusudanadeva was the first independent ruler of this dynasty, who assumed the title of Nripati. He was succeeded by his son Vasudeva and Vasudeva was succeeded by his son Damodaradeva. Damodaradeva (reigned 1231–1243) was the most powerful ruler of this dynasty. He took the title of Ariraja-Chanura-Madhava-Sakala-Bhupati-Chakravarti. The inscriptional evidences show that his kingdom was extended up to the present-day Comilla-Noakhali-Chittagong region. A later ruler of this dynasty Ariraja-Danuja-Madhava Dasharathadeva extended his kingdom up to Bikrampur and made it his capital.^[2] He issued an inscription from here. Yahya bin Ahmad in his Tarikh-i-Mubarak Shahi mentioned that he (referred as Danuj Rai of Sonargaon by Yahya) made an alliance with Ghiyas-ud-Din Balban in 1281.^[3]

Preceded by Sena dynasty

Bengal dynasty

Succeeded by Mamluk dynasty

See also

• Pala Empire
• History of Bengal
• History of India

References

1. ^ Banglapedia article on Deva dynasty
2. ^ Roy, Niharranjan (1993). Bangalir Itihas: Adiparba Calcutta: Dey's Publishing, ISBN 81-7079-270-3, pp.408-9
3. ^ Majumdar, R.C. (ed.) (2006). The Delhi Sultanate, Mumbai: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, p.622