Antiquity of Bangladesh

The region was known to the ancient Greek and Roman world as Gangaridai (Nation of Ganges), and is seen here in Ptolemy's map. a UNESCO World Heritage Site in northern Bangladesh Emperor Akbar celebrating Mughal victory in Bengal. The Sixty Dome Mosque, part of the medieval Mosque City of Bagerhat, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Remnants of civilization in the greater Bengal region date back four thousand years to when the region was settled by ancient Dravidian, Indo-Aryan, Tibeto-Burman and Austroasiatic peoples.
The exact origin of the word "Bangla" or "Bengal" is unclear, though it is believed to be derived from Bang/Vanga, the Dravidian-speaking tribe that settled in the area around the year 1000 BCE. The region was known to the ancient Greek and Roman world as Gangaridai, or "Nation of Ganges". The early history of Bengal featured the rise of numerous city states, or janapadas, including Vanga, Samatata and Pundravardhana. The Mauryan Empire led by Ashoka conquered Bengal in the second century BC, and the region was absorbed into the rule of successive Magadhan dynasties for several centuries. Following the collapse of the Magadhan empire, a local ruler named Shashanka rose to power and founded an impresseive but short-lived kingdom. After a period of anarchy, the Bengali Buddhist Pala dynasty ruled the region for four hundred years, followed by the Hindu Sena Dynasty.

Islam was introduced to the Bengal region in the 8th century by Arab Muslim traders and Sufi missionaries, and the subsequent Muslim conquest of Bengal in the 12th century helped spread Islam throughout the region.[16] Bakhtiar Khilji, a Turkic general, defeated Lakshman Sen of the Sena dynasty and conquered large parts of Bengal in the year 1204. The region was ruled by the Sultanate of Bengal and the Baro-Bhuiyan confederacy for the next few hundred years. By the 16th century, the Mughal Empire controlled Bengal, and Dhaka became an important provincial centre of Mughal administration. Medieval European geographers located paradise at the mouth of the Ganges, and although this was overhopeful, Bengal was probably the wealthiest part of the subcontinent until the 16th century. From 1517 onwards, Portuguese traders from Goa were traversing the sea route to Bengal. Only in 1537 were they allowed to settle and open customs houses at Chittagong. In 1577, the Mughal emperor Akbar permitted the Portuguese to build permanent settlements and churches in Bengal.[17] The influence of European traders grew until the British East India Company gained control of Bengal following the Battle of Plassey in 1757.[18] The bloody rebellion of 1857—known as the Sepoy Mutiny—resulted in a transfer of authority to the crown with a British viceroy running the administration.[19] During colonial rule, famine racked South Asia many times, including the war-induced Great Bengal famine of 1943 that claimed 3 million lives.