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The history of Bengal is intertwined with the history of the broader Indian subcontinent and the surrounding regions of South Asia and Southeast Asia. It includes modern-day Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam's Karimganj district, located in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent, at the apex of the Bay of Bengal and dominated by the fertile Ganges delta. The region was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans as Gangaridai, a powerful kingdom whose war elephant forces led the withdrawal of Alexander the Great from India. Some historians have identified Gangaridai with other parts of India. The Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers act as a geographic marker of the region, but also connects the region to the broader Indian subcontinent. Bengal, at times, has played an important role in the history of the Indian subcontinent.
The Khadga dynasty was a Buddhist dynasty which ruled the areas of Vanga and Samatata in Bengal from 660 CE to 750 CE. Chronologically, the dynasty emerged as a powerful kingdom between the fall of Gauda Kingdom and the rise of the Pala Empire. Their ascendancy may have been immediately preceded by the overthrow of a previously ruling Bhadra dynasty. While they did not assume imperial titles, the Khadgas retained sovereignty over the ancient kingdom of Vanga and later conquered Samatata. It was succeeded by the Deva dynasty.
Bikrampur was a historic region and a sub-division of Dhaka within the Bengal Presidency during the period of British India. Located along the banks of the Padma River, it was a significant cultural and political centre in Bengal. Today, the region is part of the Munshiganj District in Bangladesh.
Bastar state was a princely state in India during the British Raj. It was founded in the early 13th century by Annamaraja, a brother of the last ruler of the Kakatiya dynasty, Prataparudra II.
Samataṭa was an ancient geopolitical division of Bengal in the eastern Indian subcontinent. The Greco-Roman account of Sounagoura is linked to the kingdom of Samatata. Its territory corresponded to much of present-day eastern Bangladesh and parts of the Rakhine State of Myanmar. The area covers the trans-Meghna part of the Bengal delta. It was a center of Buddhist civilisation before the resurgence of Hinduism, and Muslim conquest in the region.
Sulaiman Khan Karrani was an Afghan Sultan of Bengal. He ascended to the throne after the death of his brother Taj Khan Karrani. According to the Riyaz-us-Salatin, he shifted the seat of government from Gaur to Tanda.
Malik Ikhtiyār ad-Dīn Yūzbak, also known as Mughith ad-Din Abu al-Muzaffar, was the appointed as the Delhi Sultanate's Governor of Bengal from 1251 CE to 1255 CE. He became an independent Sultan of North Bengal from 1255 CE to 1257 CE.
Ruknuddīn Bārbak Shāh was the son and successor of Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah. Initially appointed as the governor of Satgaon during the reign of his father, Barbak ascended the throne of the Bengal Sultanate in 1459. He was the first ruler to give prominent roles in the Sultanate's administration to the Abyssinian community. Historian Aniruddha Ray credits Barbak Shah as the pioneer of urbanisation in Bengal.
Harikela was an ancient kingdom located in the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent. Originally, it was an independent township of ancient eastern Bengal, which had a continuous existence of about 500 years. The state of Harikal consisted of present-day Sylhet and Chittagong divisions of Bangladesh, as well as parts of the Tripura state of India.
Deva Dynasty was a Bengali Hindu Kayastha dynasty which originated in the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent; the dynasty ruled over eastern Bengal after the Sena dynasty. The capital of the dynasty was Bikrampur in present-day Munshiganj District of Bangladesh.
Chandradwip or Chandradvipa is a small region in Barisal District, Bangladesh. It was the ancient and medieval name of Barishal.
The Gauḍa kingdom was a kingdom during the Classical era in the Indian subcontinent, which originated in the Gauda region of Bengal in 4th century CE or possibly earlier.
The Greater Sylhet region predominantly included the Sylhet Division in Bangladesh, and Karimganj district in Assam, India. The history of the Sylhet region begins with the existence of expanded commercial centres in the area that is now Sylhet City. Historically known as Srihatta and Shilhatta, it was ruled by the Buddhist and Hindu kingdoms of Harikela and Kamarupa before passing to the control of the Chandra, Sena and Deva dynasties in the early medieval period. After the fall of these Buddhist and Hindu principalities, the region became home to many more independent petty kingdoms such as Jaintia, Gour, Laur, and later Taraf, Pratapgarh, Jagannathpur, Chandrapur and Ita. After the Conquest of Sylhet in the 14th century, the region was absorbed into Shamsuddin Firoz Shah's independent principality based in Lakhnauti, Bangladesh. It was then successively ruled by the Muslim sultanates of Delhi and the Bengal Sultanate before collapsing into Muslim petty kingdoms, mostly ruled by Afghan chieftains, after the fall of the Karrani dynasty in 1576. Described as Bengal's Wild East, the Mughals struggled in defeating the chieftains of Sylhet. After the defeat of Khwaja Usman, their most formidable opponent, the area finally came under Mughal rule in 1612. Sylhet emerged as the Mughals' most significant imperial outpost in the east and its importance remained as such throughout the seventeenth century. After the Mughals, the British Empire ruled the region for over 180 years until the independence of Pakistan and India. There was a complete list of the different amils who governed Sylhet which was recorded in the office of the Qanungoh of Sylhet. However, most complete copies have been lost or destroyed. Dates from letters and seal traces show evidence that the amils were constantly changed. In 1947, when a referendum was held, Sylhet decided to join the Pakistani province of East Bengal. However, when the Radcliffe Line was drawn up, Karimganj district of Barak Valley was given to India by the commission after being pleaded by Abdul Matlib Mazumdar's delegation. Throughout the history of Sylhet, raids and invasions were also common from neighbouring kingdoms as well as tribes such as the Khasis and Kukis.
The Gour kingdom was one of the greater of the many petty kingdoms of the medieval Sylhet region. According to legend, it was founded by Gurak, off-shooting from Kamarupa's Jaintia kingdom in 630. Much of its early history is considered legendary or mythological up until Navagirvana who is mentioned in the Bhatera copper-plate inscriptions. The Kings of Gour are described as patrons of Hindu revivalism in what was previously a predominantly Buddhist and animist populated land.
The Bhoi dynasty or the Yaduvamsa dynasty were a medieval Hindu dynasty from the Indian subcontinent, which originated in the region of Odisha that reigned from 1541 to 1560 CE. Govinda Vidyadhara had usurped the throne from the later weaker Suryavamsa Gajapati Empire rulers as the kingdom started weakening but had a short-lived reign as ruling chiefs of Odisha as the ensuing internal rivalries and constant threats of invasions rendered them weak and were eventually overthrown by Mukunda Deva of Chalukya Dynasty in 1560.
The Greater Noakhali district region predominantly includes the districts of Noakhali, Feni and Lakshmipur, although historically included the island of Sandwip in Bay of Bengal. The history of the undivided Noakhali district region begins with the existence of civilisation in the villages of Shilua and Bhulua. Bhulua became a focal point of Bengal during the Buddhist and Hindu kingdoms of Pundra, Harikela and Samatata leading it to become the initial name of the region as a whole. The medieval Kingdom of Bhulua enjoyed autonomy under the Twipra Kingdom and Bengal Sultanate before being conquered by the Mughal Empire. At the beginning of the 17th century, Portuguese pirates led by Sebastian Gonzales took control of the ara but were later defeated by Governor Shaista Khan. Affected by floodwaters, the capital of the region was swiftly moved to a new place known as Noakhali, from which the region presently takes its name. By 1756, the British East India Company had dominated and started to establish several factories in the region. The headquarters was once again moved in 1951, to Maijdee, as a result of Noakhali town vanishing due to fluvial erosion.
The Kingdom of Bhulua was a mediaeval kingdom of Bengal and later a zamindari, covering the present-day Noakhali region of Bangladesh. According to local tradition the establishment of the kingdom dates from the thirteenth century, when Bishwambhar Sur, ninth son of Adi Sur, a Kshatriya of Mithila who passed by the area during a pilgrimage. There are several versions of this tale and questions about the accuracy of the date, but most probably the early Rajas of Bhulua were Kayasthas from Western Bengal. The kingdom fell under Tripura vassalage in the 15th century, and was reduced to a zamindari (fiefdom) after losing to the Mughals. Most of the kingdom's land has been eroded by the Meghna River.
References
- 1 2 3 Muazzam Hussain Khan (2012). "Danauja Rai, Raja". In Sirajul Islam and Ahmed A. Jamal (ed.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
- 1 2 "District-wise history of Bangladesh". Archived from the original on 27 February 2012. Retrieved 2 March 2012.