The Deopara Prashasti is a stone inscription (''

prashasti ''Prashasti'' (IAST: Praśasti, Sanskrit for "praise") is an Indian genre of inscriptions composed by poets in praise of their rulers. Most date from the 6th century CE onwards. Written in the form of poetry or ornate prose, the ''prashastis'' s ...

'') eulogizing the Sena kings of

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

. It was composed by Umapati Dhara, a minister in the court of

Lakshmana Sena Lakshmana Sena (reign: 1178–1206), also called Lakshman Sen in modern indian languages, was the ruler from the Sena dynasty of the Bengal region on the Indian subcontinent. His rule lasted for 28 years; and extended to much of the eastern re ...

(c. 1178–1206), who was also one of several court poets. The inscription particularly praises Lakshmana Sena's grandfather

Vijaya Sena Vijaya Sena (Bengali: বিজয় সেন), also known as Vijay Sen in vernacular literature, was the son of Hemanta Sena, and succeeded him as a Sena dynasty ruler of Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent. This dynasty ruled for more ...

(c. 1095–1158). The

alphabet An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syll ...

is a precursor of the modern

Bengali alphabet The Bengali script or Bangla alphabet ( bn, বাংলা বর্ণমালা, ''Bangla bôrṇômala'') is the alphabet used to write the Bengali language based on the Bengali-Assamese script, and has historically been used to w ...

, with 22 letters approximating the modern forms. available in Wikimedia Commons The stone tablet was found in 1865 near the village of Deopara, now in

Godagari Upazila Godagari ( bn, গোদাগাড়ী) is an Upazila of Rajshahi District in the Division of Rajshahi, Bangladesh. This is the place where Mahananda river fall to Padma or Ganges. Geography Godagari is located at . It has 40011 households an ...

Rajshahi District Rajshahi District ( bn, রাজশাহী জেলা) is a district in mid-western Bangladesh. It is a part of the Rajshahi Division. The metropolitan city of Rajshahi is in Rajshahi District. Geography Rajshahi district is bounded by Naoga ...

of modern-day Bangladesh. This inscription described that Sena king Bijay Sen is the real founder of the Sena Empire.

References

Sena dynasty {{Bangladesh-stub