The most comprehensive and well presented YouTube video on the History of Bengal.
@Nilgiri @Ryder @Gary @TR_123456 @Jackdaws I highly recommend you to watch it. (At least first 25 minutes)
Some key points.
today's geography of Bangladesh.
-World largest river delta. Hence also the world most arable land. (percentage wise) second and third is Denmark and Ukraine respectively.
-World largest mangrove forest,
'Sunder-ban' ( means, beautiful forest)
-Longest natural sea beach. (Cox-bazar)
History of region.
Birthplace of multiple civilisations. Notably-
1.
Pala empire. (750-1161 CE, Golden age of Buddhism.) One of the most advanced and rich civilisations. They built some of the World first universities.
en.wikipedia.org
Notably-
Nalanda university, founded in 5th century (location- current day India)
And the biggest one. The
Somapura university, founded in 8th century (current day Bangladesh)
2.
Bengal Sultanate.
Notable city- Gaur city, World's 5th largest at the time.
en.wikipedia.org
Notable architecture- Adina mosque.
3.
Bengal subah (under Mughal rule) 'Golden age of Bengal' also termed 'paradise of nations' by mughal emperor.
Notable cities- Dhaka and Murshidabad.
'The eastern part of Bengal was globally prominent in industries such as textile manufacturing and shipbuilding, and it was a major exporter of silk and cotton textiles, steel, saltpeter, and agricultural and industrial produce in the world.'
simple.wikipedia.org
Most notable industries-
Muslin and Shipbuilding.
'Under Mughal rule, Bengal was a center of the worldwide muslin, silk and pearl trades. During the Mughal era, the most important center of cotton production was Bengal, particularly around its capital city of Dhaka, leading to muslin being called "daka" in distant markets such as Central Asia. Bengal also exported cotton and silk textiles to markets such as Europe, Indonesia and Japan. Bengal produced more than 50% of textiles of Indian subcontinent and around 40% of silks imported by the Dutch from Asia, for example.'
en.wikipedia.org
Due to the riverine geography of Bangladesh, ships have been playing a major role in the trade affairs of the people of this country since the ancient times. According to the accounts of the 14th century
Moroccan traveler
Ibn Batuta, there used to be large fleets of warships docked in various ports of the country. A medieval European traveler Caesar Frederick documented that the port city of
Chittagong and
Sandwip were manufacturing hubs of large ships during the mid 15th century. The volume of shipbuilding swelled extensively during the
Mughal period. During the 17th century, the shipyards of Chittagong and Sandwip used to build warships for the
Sultan of Turkey.
'During the Mughal Empire, the province of Bengal Subah had a large shipbuilding industry. Economic historian Indrajit Ray estimates shipbuilding output of Bengal during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries at 223,250 tons annually, compared with 23,061 tons produced in nineteen colonies in North America from 1769 to 1771. He also assesses ship repairing as very advanced in Bengal.
Bengali shipbuilding was advanced compared to European shipbuilding at the time. An important innovation in shipbuilding was the introduction of a flushed deck design in Bengal rice ships, resulting in hulls that were stronger and less prone to leak than the structurally weak hulls of traditional European ships built with a stepped deck design. The British East India Company later duplicated the flushed deck and hull designs of Bengal rice ships in the 1760s, leading to significant improvements in seaworthiness and navigation for European ships during the Industrial Revolution.'
en.wikipedia.org
Edit- Nalanda University was actually founded by Gupta empire. While Vikramashila and Somapura was founded during Pala period.