Between two dynasties
The Varmans took Vikramapura, in ancient India (modern-day Bangladesh), from the Candras in the eleventh century, claiming descent from a Yādava line of Siṃhapura in Kalinga. Their copper plates record grants to brahmins, and unlike the Candras before them their patronage was predominantly Vaiṣṇava and Śaiva rather than Buddhist.
The Bhojavarman grant, issued from Vikramapura, is the fullest of their records and gives the dynastic genealogy.
The wider change
The Varman period belongs to a broader shift in eastern India. Bengal had been the last major stronghold of institutional Buddhism in the subcontinent, sustained by Pāla and Candra patronage; from the eleventh century onward royal endowment moves decisively toward Brahmanical temples and brahmin settlements, and this continues under the Senas.
The Varmans were absorbed by the Senas around the middle of the twelfth century, and Vikramapura became a Sena capital.
Further reading
- Coedes, George. The Indianized States of Southeast Asia. University of Hawaii Press, 1968
- Dimock, Edward C. The Place of the Hidden Moon. University of Chicago Press, 1966
- Hawley, John Stratton. A Storm of Songs: India and the Idea of the Bhakti Movement. Harvard University Press, 2015
- Samuel, Geoffrey. The Origins of Yoga and Tantra. Cambridge University Press, 2008
- Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade. University of Hawaii Press, 2003
See also
This entry was last revised on 1 August 2026.