history of Bengal.

About history of Bengal

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.