One account claims that Medinipur was named after a local deity "Medinimata" (literally "mother of the world", a Shakti incarnation).

According to Sri Hari Sadhan Das, the district got its name from "Medinikar", the founder of the city in 1238, who was the son of "Prankara", the feudal king of "Gondichadesh".

The north boundary of Jaleswar was Tamluk and south was Soro and Dhalbhumgarh in the west to the Bay of Bengal in the east.

Bahadur Khan was the ruler of Jaleswar Sarkar or Hijli (including Midnapore) during the time of Shah Jehan.

On 20 June 1757, he was betrayed by Mir Jafar to the East India Company under the command of Lord Robert Clive at Plassey.

The district of Midnapore which included Dhalbhum or Ghatshila, now in Singhbhum, Jharkhand was annexed in 1760 along with Burdwan and Chittagong both handed over to the East India Company by Mir Qasim.

The Raj rulers in Rajasthan would pay homage to Jagannath but carves out their own territories under the supremacy of the Hindu empires of Odisha.