The most prominent Bengal kingdom then was Gangaridai, located in the Bengal delta- mostly today’s Bangladesh. The supposition is that there was a golden age of Bengal seafaring, a significant part of it remaining unknown or unexplored. Hence, studying and analyzing maritime history, heritage, and legacy is essential to understanding the nature and orientation of Bangladesh’s maritime culture. The maritime history of Bangladesh, as such, has not sufficiently been owned by any government and thus was not well documented. A magnificent historical description is required to make the citizens conscious of their glorious maritime past as a premium to inspire the government to increase policy and budgetary support for maritime development. It is also imperative to explain what kind of navy the nation needs and how it should be used to secure national maritime interests beyond the BoB. Besides, history and heritage also profoundly impact defining, determining, and devising maritime policy formulation, naval doctrine development, understanding the nuances of maritime diplomacy, and making effective maritime strategy.

Bangladesh, the “Eastern Country” in the Mahabharata, “Subah Bangala” of the Mughal, and “Bengal” of British India, historically changed its geography due to a change of rulers to become a young sovereign maritime nation in 1971. The country has a rich legacy of contributing to national interests through maritime trade. Maritime scholars opine that during the reign of the Bengal Sultanate, even before the arrival of the Portuguese, Bengal trade significantly, striding across East Asia to the African coast. Ancient Bengal, today’s Bangladesh, is situated at the apex of the BoB in the confluence of the two major rivers of South Asia, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra. Bengal connected the South Asian interior and acted as a bridge with areas such as Assam, Tripura, and North-East India to the world. It was considered then and no less even now as a maritime connectivity hub, for it supplies essential goods and commodities to these landlocked regions. The Europeans, mainly the British, rightly referred to Bengal, today’s Bangladesh, as the wealthiest geographic area that made valuable contributions to the flourishing British maritime trade. Trade on the Brahmaputra River existed from the 4th Century (i.e., Kamrupa Kingdom) on the sizeable riverine port of Pragjyotishpura (present-day Guwahati) and Wari-Bateshwar, present-day Narsingdhi!

A two-thousand-five hundred-year-old fort-city has been discovered at Wari-Bateshwar. Wari-Bateshwar was called a fort-city, city, or urban center. Forts have been termed as cities in the Arthashastra by Kautilya [Chanakya; (375–283 BCE), an ancient Indian polymath who was active as a teacher, author, strategist, philosopher, economist, jurist, and politician]. Due to the active presence of the old Brahmaputra River, it is very likely that Wari-Bateshwar was a vibrant river port and a trade center connecting the seaports to the interior. Dilip Kumar Chakraborty, a professor of South Asian Archaeology at Cambridge University mentions that Wari-Bateshwar might be the Souanagoura, a trading center that Ptolemy, a 2nd-century geographer, mentioned. Based on the artifacts discovered, scholars also agree that Wari-Bateshwar was Souanagoura. Banglapedia records that in Wari-Bateshwar, two types of silver punch-marked coins have been discovered. One coin type is Janapada (state/kingdom) or pre-Mauryan silver punch-marked coins. The Janapada coins circulated in the subcontinent from 600 BC to 400 BC. The discovery of Janapada coins places Wari-Bateshwar back to the Sodosha Maha Janapada (great kingdom) (ca. 600-400 BC) kingdom of the Indian subcontinent. The discovery of prehistoric tools indicates the prehistoric settlement in Wari-Bateshwar which is yet to be explored.

During the 4th century BC, Chinese, Turkish, Yemeni, and Arab merchants traded with this part of the world through the Chittagong Port. During the ninth century, Yemeni and Arab traders started using the port as their base port. In 1887, the British-Indian government developed the Port Commissioners Act. On 25 April 1888, the port of Chittagong started formal operation. On 1 April 1928, the British-Indian government declared Chittagong Port the Major Port. The ethnographic account of Bangladesh, for example, Chittagongis the central part, its maritime practices highlight the Bengal Delta’s exceptional varieties of river craft and sea-going vessels.The boats found mainly in the Chittagong area are designed for rough weather—for waves and strong winds—and are even rigged to sail windward. These boats historically sailed along the eastern coast of the BoB. Some even reached as far as former Burma. These boats also crossed the bay to western seaboard ports such as Barisal, Khulna, and Patuakhali. However, the frequently used water routes crossing the bay were between Chittagong in the south and Dhaka, Narayanganj, and Chandpur in the north. Researchers posit that a multidisciplinary investigation of the legacy, history, and heritages regarding the patterns of shipbuilding and trade revolving around the Chittagong port remains almost absent, for they are passed over outside the confines of folk specialists and local historians.

As the constructive criticism goes, while the small quantity of literature on maritime history, heritage, and strategy of Bangladesh has many strengths, it also has some critical limitations. There is generally a void felt, an inadequacy visible in the detailed research works on maritime Bangladesh's legacy, heritage, history, and strategy, save for a few articles and books written by some foreign friends, native scholars, and maritime enthusiasts. However, most of these educational endeavors remained outside the reach of general readers as they were not written in the native language and were confined to the academic environment or the armed forces educational institutions.

Foremost among the native writers on maritime strategy and Maritime Bangladesh is Md. Khurshid Alam, former Rear Admiral of Bangladesh Navy and Secretary of Maritime Affairs Unit, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His first book on Maritime strategy that attracted readers was Bangladesh's Maritime Challenges in the 21st Century published in 2004. In his last (2021) book, “The Boundless Sea, Maritime Developments and their Impact on Bangladesh,” he painted a meticulous “Maritime Heritage” sketch. Hischronicle connected the morphological (geological, biological, and physical) origin of the formation of the Bengal Delta from the Himalayas and the historical change of hands of different dynasties in this part of the world. His depiction of the heritage revolved around the interaction of natural ports of call, monsoons, and the spread of Islam through the Arab traders.

Willem van Schendel, a Professor of Modern Asian History at the University of Amsterdam, also reveals the Bengal Delta’s-Bangladesh’s history in his “A History of Bangladesh.” His research findings, the first edition in 2009 and the second in 2020, offer a fascinating account of life in Bangladesh over the last two millennia.The story begins with the delta's early geological history, the coming into existence of the frontier theory decisively shaping today’s Bangladesh society. The narrative also portrays Colonialism, the East India Company, partition, war with Pakistan, floods, famine, a geographic history of the region, and a linear account of contemporary Bangladeshi tribulations.

In the Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204-1760, (1996), Richard Maxwell Eaton, an American historian currently working as a professor of history at the University of Arizona,used archaeological evidence, historical narratives, and Mughal administrative documents to trace the long intermingling between Islamic and Indic civilizations. In historical times, writes Eaton, the rivers have been natural arteries of communication and transportation. They have defined Bengal’s physical and ancient cultural sub-regions—Varendra, the Bhagirathi-Hooghly basin, Vanga, Samatata, and Harikela. He explores these moving frontiers, focusing primarily on agrarian growth and religious change from 1204 to 1760, when Persian Turks from North India annexed the former Hindu states of the Bengal Delta, to the rise of the British East India Company to political dominance.

Writer: Commodore Syed Misbah Uddin Ahmad, (C), NUP, ndc, afwc, psc, BN (retd), Director General, Bangladesh Institute of Maritime Research and Development (BIMRAD). Email: misbah28686@gmail.com