Jessore

Jessore was a territorial name in the riverine southwest of Bengal before it became the name of a later district and its administrative headquarters. The late sixteenth-century domain of Pratapaditya extended through country now divided between Bangladesh and West Bengal. Ishwaripur and Dhumghat belong to accounts of his capitals and fortified positions.

Pratapaditya initially offered submission to Islam Khan, the Mughal governor who arrived in Bengal in 1608. Submission did not end the contest: his failure to provide the promised military assistance brought an imperial army and fleet against Jessore. Their campaign overcame his forces and incorporated his territory into Mughal authority in the early seventeenth century. Boats, waterways and fortified river approaches were therefore central to this change of rule.