Deva dynasty

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. Four rulers of this dynasty are known from the inscriptions: Shantideva, Viradeva, Anandadeva and Bhavadeva.

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. 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.