Urban Centres of Early Historic Bengal: Some Definitional Issues

Defining sites as urban centre has been a problematic issue for early historic Bengal. There are very few textual references for this region. No large-scale excavation has been done that reveals spatial layout of the habitation to understand activities within the site. Even a proper report is scarce. Monumental architecture is unavailable except for a few remnant walls around the site. Artefacts are the sole evidence to decide the urbanity of a site. The agrarian component of the site and its neighbouring sites must be measured with the same yardstick. The early historic period certainly saw a shift in the subsistence economy for the major sites. New sites with no early farming past also emerged. These sites had a distinct role to play in their particular ecological zones. All these sites drew on the great network provided by the many small and large rivers with access to the sea.