{{Short description|King of Sena dynasty from 1160 to 1178}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}} {{Infobox royalty | name = Ballal Sen <br> বল্লাল সেন | predecessor = Vijaya Sena | successor = Lakshmana Sena | dynasty = Sena | father = Vijaya Sena | mother = | spouse = Ramadevi | issue = Lakshmana Sena, Roopsundari & Kamaladevi | reign = 1160 – 1178 | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = | burial_date = | burial_place = | religion = }} {{Sena dynasty}}
'''Ballāla Sena''' or '''Ballal Sen''' ({{langx|bn|বল্লাল সেন}}; reign: 1160–1178), also known as Ballal Sen in vernacular literature, was the second ruler of the Sena dynasty of Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent.<ref name=bpedia>{{cite book |last=Misra |first=Chitta Ranjan |year=2012 |chapter=Vallalasena |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Vallalasena |editor1-last=Islam |editor1-first=Sirajul |editor1-link=Sirajul Islam |editor2-last=Jamal |editor2-first=Ahmed A. |title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |edition=Second |publisher=Asiatic Society of Bangladesh}}</ref> He was the son and successor of Vijaya Sena, and ended the Pala Empire by defeating Govinda Pala.<ref name="sen">{{Cite book |last=Sen |first=Sailendra Nath |year=2013 |title=A Textbook of Medieval Indian History |publisher=Primus Books |pages=35–36 |isbn=978-93-80607-34-4}}</ref>
Ballala Sena married Ramadevi, a princess of the Western Chalukya Empire (who ruled from what is the modern Indian state of Karnataka) which indicates that the Sena rulers maintained close social contact with South India.<ref>Land of Two Rivers: A History of Bengal from the Mahabharata to Mujib by Nitish K. Sengupta p.51</ref>
He is the best-known Sena ruler and consolidated the kingdom. He might have completed the conquest of Northern Bengal and also conquered Magadha and Mithila. According to a tradition in Bengal recorded in the Ballala-charita, Ballala Sena's Empire consisted of 5 provinces,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dhar |first=Dinonath Tr. |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.23055/page/n27/mode/2up |title=বল্লাল চরিতের বঙ্গানুবাদ |trans-title=Ballal Chariter Banganubad |date=1904 |publisher=Hare Press, Calcutta |language=bn}}</ref> #Vanga (Eastern Bengal) #Varendra (North Bengal) #Rarh #Mithila & #Bagari (South Bengal) Some sources exaggeratedly claim that Ballal Sen had proceeded to Delhi, and was proclaimed emperor of Hindoostan.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ILRAAQAAIAAJ&q=Ballal+sen+delhi&pg=PA41 |title=Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China and Australasia |date=1835 |publisher=Wm. H. Allen & Company |language=en}}</ref> But neither the two inscriptions that survive from this region, nor the two great literary works, which were attributed to him, viz., Dan Sagar and Adbhut Sagar, allude to his military victories. On the other hand, these refer to his scholastic activities and social reforms. Ballala Sena is associated with the revival of orthodox Hindu practices in Bengal, in particular with the establishment of the reactionary tradition of Kulinism among Brahmins and Kayasthas. The Brahmins were classified into Kulin, Śrotriya, Vamsaja and Saptasati; the Kayasthas were classified into Kulin and Maulik, but there is no historical authenticity. His marriage to Ramadevi, the Chalukya princess also indicates that the Sens maintained the kingdom inherited from his father, which included the present day Bangladesh, the whole of West Bengal and Mithila, i.e., portions of North Bihar. According to a cryptic passage in Adbhuta Sagara, Ballala Sena, along with his queen, retired in his old age to the confluence of the Ganges and the Yamuna leaving his son, Lakshmana Sena, with the task of both maintaining his kingdom and completing his literary work.
According to a Sena epigraph, Ballala was an author. He wrote ''Danasagara'' in 1168.<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/23496866?seq=21#metadata_info_tab_contents Phyllis Granoff, My Rituals and My Gods: Ritual Exclusiveness in Medieval India, ''Journal of Indian Philosophy'', Vol. 29, No. 1/2, Special issue: Ingalls Festschrift (April 2001), pp. 109-134]</ref> And in 1169, he started but did not finish writing ''Adbhutasagara''.<ref name=bpedia/> In ''Adbhutasagara'', it was mentioned that Ballala Sena conquered Mithila while Vijaya Sena was still alive.<ref name=bsen>{{cite book |last=Chowdhury |first=AM |year=2012 |chapter=Sena Dynasty |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Sena_Dynasty |editor1-last=Islam |editor1-first=Sirajul |editor1-link=Sirajul Islam |editor2-last=Jamal |editor2-first=Ahmed A. |title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |edition=Second |publisher=Asiatic Society of Bangladesh}}</ref> Besides he introduced the practice of ''Kulinism''.<ref name=bpedia/>
==See also== * List of rulers of Bengal * History of Bengal
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sena, Ballala}} Category:Sena kings Category:1179 deaths