The port town of Satgaon: A case study of its prosperity and decline under the Sultanate of Bengal (13 th to 16 th Century)

Abstract

Over the long term, Tamralipti, Satgaon and then Calcutta succeeded each other as the principal regional port in Bengal. This research note deals with Satgaon, which superseded Tamralipti, primarily due to the silting up and altered course of the Saraswati River, as the region’s trading hub from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century. This significant port town had commercial connections with China, Sumatra, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, the Middle East and East Africa. The study is based on Indo-Persian sources of the period as well as numismatic evidence and the accounts of travellers.