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, 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. Alexander the Great advanced as far as the Indus Valley, in present-day Pakistan, but never reached present-day India. Some historians contend that Gangaridai was a face-saving invention by the Greek chroniclers following Alexander’s defeat by the King Porus of Punjab at the Battle of Hydaspes (326 BCE. No conclusive evidence establishes Gangaridai as a historical kingdom. The Ganges, Meghna 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 area's early history featured a succession of Indian empires, internal squabbling, and a tussle between Hinduism and Buddhism for dominance. Ancient Bengal was the site of several major Janapadas (kingdoms), while the earliest cities date back to the Vedic period. A thalassocracy and an entrepôt of the historic Silk Road, ancient Bengal had strong trade links with Persia, Arabia and the Mediterranean that focused on its lucrative cotton muslin textiles. The region was a part of several ancient pan-Indian empires, including the Mauryans and Guptas. It was also a bastion of regional kingdoms. The citadel of Gauda served as capital of the Gauda Kingdom, the Buddhist Pala Empire (eighth to 11th century), the Hindu Sena Empire (11th–12th century) and the Hindu Deva Empire (12th-13th century). This era saw the development of Bengali language, script, literature, music, art and architecture.
The Muslim conquest of the Indian subcontinent absorbed Bengal into the medieval Islamic and Persianate worlds. Between the 1204 and 1352, Bengal was a province of the Delhi Sultanate. This era saw the introduction of the taka as monetary currency, which has endured into the modern era. An independent Bengal Sultanate was formed in 1346 and ruled the region for two centuries, during which Islam was the state religion. The ruling elite also turned Bengal into the easternmost haven of Indo-Persian culture. The Sultans exerted influence in the Arakan region of Southeast Asia, where Buddhist kings copied the sultanate's governance, currency and fashion. A relationship with Ming China flourished under the sultanate.
The Bengal Sultanate was notable for its Hindu aristocracy, including the rise of Raja Ganesha and his son Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah as usurpers. Hindus served in the royal administration as prime ministers and poets. Under the patronage of Sultans like Alauddin Hussain Shah, Bengali literature began replacing the strong influence of Sanskrit in the region. Hindu principalities included the Kingdom of Mallabhum, Kingdom of Bhurshut and Kingdom of Tripura; and the realm of powerful Hindu Rajas such as Pratapaditya, Kedar Ray and Raja Sitaram Ray.
Following the decline of the sultanate, Bengal came under the suzerainty of the Mughal Empire, as its wealthiest province. Under the Mughals, Bengal Subah rose to global prominence in industries such as textile manufacturing and shipbuilding, its economy in the 18th century exceeding in size any of Europe's empires. This growth of manufacturing has been seen as a form of proto-industrialization, similar to that in western Europe prior to the Industrial Revolution. Bengal's capital Dhaka is said to have contained over a million people.
The gradual decline of the Mughal Empire led to quasi-independent states under the Nawabs of Bengal, subsequent to the Maratha invasions of Bengal, and finally the conquest by the British East India Company.
The East India Company took control of the region from the late 18th century. The company consolidated their hold on the region following the battles of Battle of Plassey in 1757 and Battle of Buxar in 1764 and by 1793 took complete control of the region. Capital amassed from Bengal by the East India Company was invested in various industries such as textile manufacturing in Great Britain during the initial stages of the Industrial Revolution. Company policies in Bengal also led to the deindustrialization of the Bengali textile industry during Company rule. Kolkata (or Calcutta) served for many years as the capital of British controlled territories in India. The early and prolonged exposure to the British colonial administration resulted in the expansion of Western-style education, culminating in development of science, institutional education, and social reforms in the region, including what became known as the Bengali Renaissance. A hotbed of the Indian independence movement through the early 20th century, Bengal was partitioned during India's independence in 1947 along religious lines into two separate entities: West Bengal—a state of India—and East Bengal—a part of the newly created Dominion of Pakistan that later became the independent nation of Bangladesh in 1971.
Etymology
The exact origin of the word Bangla is unknown, though it is believed to be derived from the Dravidian-speaking tribe Bang/Banga that settled in the area around the year 1000 BCE. Other accounts speculate that the name is derived from Venga (Bôngo), which came from the Austroasiatic word "Bonga" meaning the Sun-god. According to the Mahabharata, the Puranas and the Harivamsha, Vanga was one of the adopted sons of King Vali who founded the Vanga Kingdom. The earliest reference to "Vangala" (Bangala) has been traced in the Nesari plates (805 CE) of Rashtrakuta Govinda III which speak of Dharmapala as the king of "Vangala". The records of Rajendra Chola I of the Chola dynasty, who invaded Bengal in the 11th century, use the term Vangaladesa.
The term Bangalah is one of the precursors to the modern terms Bengal and Bangla."But the most important development of this period was that the country for the first time received a name, ie Bangalah." Banglapedia: Islam, Bengal Bangalah was the most widely used term for Bengal during the medieval and early modern periods. The Sultan of Bengal was styled as the Shah of Bangalah. The Mughal province of Bengal was termed Subah-i-Bangalah. An interesting theory of the origin of the name is provided by Abu'l-Fazl in his Ain-i-Akbari. According to him, "[T]he original name of Bengal was Bung, and the suffix "al" came to be added to it from the fact that the ancient rajahs of this land raised mounds of earth 10 feet high and 20 in breadth in lowlands at the foot of the hills which were called "al". From this suffix added to the Bung, the name Bengal arose and gained currency".Land of Two Rivers, Nitish Sengupta
Prehistory
Stone Age tools found in the region indicate human habitation for over 20,000 years. Remnants of Copper Age settlements, including pit dwellings, date back 4,000 years. Bengal was settled by Austroasiatics, Dravidians, Tibeto-Burmans, and Indo-Aryans in consecutive waves of migration. Archaeological evidence confirms that by the second millennium BCE, the Bengal delta was inhabited by rice-cultivating communities, with people living in systemically-aligned housing and producing pottery. Rivers such as the Ganges and Brahmaputra were used for transport while maritime trade flourished in the Bay of Bengal.
Iron Age The Iron Age saw the development of coinage, metal weapons, agriculture and irrigation. Large urban settlements formed in the middle of the first millennium BCE, when the Northern Black Polished Ware culture dominated the northern part of Indian subcontinent. Alexander Cunningham, the founder of the Archaeological Survey of India, identified the archaeological site of Mahasthangarh as the capital of the Pundra Kingdom mentioned in the Rigveda.
Early literary and geographic accounts The ancient Bengal region features prominently in legendary history of India, Sri Lanka, Siam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Burma, Nepal, Tibet, China and Malaya. According to the Indian epic Mahabharata, the Vanga Kingdom was located in Bengal. Vanga was described as a thalassocracy with colonies in Southeast Asia. According to Sri Lankan history, the first king of Sri Lanka was Prince Vijaya who led a fleet from India to conquer the island of Lanka. Prince Vijaya's ancestral home was Bengal.
In the Greco-Roman world, accounts of the Gangaridai Kingdom are considered by historians to have referred to Bengal. At the time of Alexander the Great's invasion of India, the collective might of the Gangaridai/Nanda Empire deterred the Greek army. The Gangaridai army was stated to have a war elephant cavalry of 6000 elephants. The archaeological sites of Wari-Bateshwar and Chandraketugarh are linked to the Gangaridai kingdom. In Ptolemy's world map, the emporium of Sounagoura (Sonargaon) was located in Bengal. Roman geographers also noted the existence of a large natural harbour in southeastern Bengal, corresponding to the present-day Chittagong region.
Bengal in Vedic period
Ancient Bengal was often divided between various kingdoms in Vedic Period. At times, the region was unified into a single realm; while it was also ruled by pan-Indian empires.
Ancient geopolitical divisions
The following table lists the geopolitical divisions of ancient Bengal. The table includes a list of corresponding modern regions, which formed the core areas of the geopolitical units. The territories of the geopolitical divisions expanded and receded through the centuries. Ancient region Modern region Pundravardhana Rajshahi Division and Rangpur Division in Bangladesh; Malda division of West Bengal in India Vanga Dhaka Division and Barisal Division in Bangladesh Tirabhukti Mithila area of India and Nepal Suhma Burdwan division, Medinipur division and Presidency division of West Bengal in India Radha Location unclear; probable location in southern West Bengal and parts of Jharkhand of India Samatata Dhaka Division, Barisal Division and Chittagong Division in Bangladesh Harikela Sylhet Division, Chittagong Division, Dhaka Division and Barisal Division in Bangladesh Pragjyotisha Karimganj district of Barak Valley region of Assam in India; Sylhet Division and Dhaka Division in Bangladesh
Bengal under Magadha empires
Nanda Empire (c. 345 – 322 BCE)
The Nanda empire under Mahapadma Nanda extended to its peak. Mahapadma Nanda started imperial conquest of Bharatvarsh. He invaded and defeated local kingdoms of Bengal. The Nanda empire appears to have stretched from present-day Punjab in the west to Odisha and Bengal in the east. According to the Jain tradition, the Nanda minister subjugated the entire country up to the coastal areas.
Mauryan Empire (c. 322 – 185 BCE)