Votive Inscriptions on the Sculptures of Early Medieval Samatata-Harikela, Bengal
Explorations in Socio-religious History
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.v4i1.27Keywords:
patterns of social patronage to Buddhism and Brahmanism, Samataṭa-Harikela, socio-economic and religious dynamics of pre-Islamic Bengal, votive inscriptionsAbstract
In this paper, I attempt to look into the patterns of social patronage to Buddhism and Brahmanism in the Samatata-Harikela subregion of early medieval Bengal through the prism of votive inscriptions on sculptures. I have also looked into some of the social and religious processes that were in operation in this part of early medieval Bengal. I have argued that despite being part of the cultural and socio-economic matrix of early medieval Bihar and Bengal, Samatata-Harikela had some peculiarities of its own. That, however, does not justify treating this entire area as a ‘frontier’. This paper questions those historiographical models which explain the Islamization of this area in terms of Islam being the ‘harbinger of rice revolution’ in the same during the medieval period.
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