Shashanka

Shashanka
Gauda king
Reign	590 CE - 625 CE
Predecessor	Mahasenagupta

King Shashanka created the first separate political entity in a unified Bengal, called the Gauda Kingdom and is a major figure in Bengali history. He reigned in 7th century AD, and some historians place his rule approximately between 590 AD and 625 AD. He is the contemporary of Harsha and of Bhaskar Varman of Kamarupa. His capital was at Karnasubarna, in present-day Murshidabad in West Bengal. The development of the Bengali calendar is often attributed to Shashanka because the starting date falls within his reign.

There are several major contemporary sources of information on his life, including copperplates from his vassal Madhavavarma (king of Ganjam), copperplates of his rivals Harsha and Bhaskaravarman, the accounts of Banabhatta, who was a bard in the court of Harsha, and of the Chinese monk Xuanzang, and also coins minted in Shashanka's reign.

While Shashanka was known and referred to as the Lord of Gauda, his kingdom included more than just that region. By the end of his reign, his domain stretched from Vanga to Bhuvanesha while in the east, his kingdom bordered Kamarupa. Prior to Shashanka, Bengal was divided into three regions, Banga, Samatata and Gauda and was ruled by a feeble ruler belonging to the Later Gupta dynasty, Mahasenagupta. Shashanka was one of his chieftains who rose to power taking the advantage of the weak ruler. After the death of Mahasenagupta, Shashanka drove the later Guptas and other prominent nobles out of the region and established his own kingdom with a capital at Karnasubarna.

A 12th century text states that Shashanka destroyed the Buddhist stupas of Bengal and was an oppressor of Buddhism.Ramesh Chandra Majumdar states that this account is doubtful because it was written centuries after the alleged persecution, and that it is "unsafe to accept the statements recorded in this book as historical". Radhagovinda Basak states that there is no reason to believe that that this 12th century Buddhist author had cherished any ill feeling about Shashanka, and he may have had reasons to describe the events as they occurred in the 7th century.

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