It was named after Haji Mustafa Madani, a 17th-century Bengali Muslim scholar who was gifted tax-free land in the present area in addition to an estate there which included a mosque.

[2] One account claims that Medinipur was named after a local deity “Medinimata” (literally “mother of the world”, a Shakti incarnation).

[3] A number of prehistoric sites of great interest are being excavated throughout the West Midnapore district in collaboration by Calcutta University and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

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

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.

Three British District Magistrates were assassinated in succession by the revolutionaries Bimal Dasgupta, Jyothi Jibon Ghosh, Pradyot Kumar Bhattacharya, Prabhakangsu Pal, Mrigan Dutta, Anath Bandhu Panja, Ramkrishna Roy, Braja Kishor Chakraborty, Nirmal Jibon Ghosh.

Raja Narendra Lal Khan, ruler of Narajole, who donated his palace for Midnapore's first college for women, had been implicated, (although it turned out to be false) for planting a bomb.

Noted freedom fighter and Bengal Province Congress Committee President Birendranath Sasmal practised at the Midnapore High Court.

Rishi Rajnarayan Basu, one-time tutor of Rabindranath Tagore, Asia's first Nobel Prize winner, was headmaster of the Zila School in 1850.

Hordes of marauding elephants attacking human habitation in villages in Midnapore district have come as close to the town as Gurguripal, 6 km away.

Midnapore railway station is connected not only to larger cities in the region, but also to smaller towns and villages in the district.

A long-awaited flyover connecting Rangamati over the railway gate minimised the traffic congestion at rush hours.

To compound the problems faced by inhabitants there are a limited number of bridges crossing the Kasai River affording entry from Howrah and Kolkata (NH6).

Nevertheless, the ongoing construction of the new interstate highway system which passes by Midnapore has reduced the time it takes for inhabitants to reach Kolkata.

The population of the city in 2022 is estimated to have crossed 190,000 [13] due to high urbanisation and modernisation in recent times, which has caused a lot of immigration from all over the district.

Coaching centres that assist students enrolled in the regular and correspondence courses of Vidyasagar University[17] are also common.

Poorer segments of this semi-rural society are involved in transportation, basic agriculture, small shops and manual labour for construction work.

For a long period of 32 years, it was under the control of the Left Front, in 2009 Trinamool Congress won the municipality by a margin of 2 wards.

Hundreds of small temples dating back into antiquity are located here but many are in a state of disrepair due in part to lack of any sort of preservation, succumbing to the waters of the Kasai River, and theft of bricks by locals.

The Jagannath Temple at Nutan Bazar was built in 1851, possibly at the request of a descendant of the Ganga dynasty of Odisha.

According to local legend, the water of the well at Fakir Kua majar has mysterious healing powers, although the veracity of this claim is debatable.

Rishi Rajnarayan Basu, one of the luminaries in the Brahmo Samaj movement, worked as the head master of the Zilla School.

The bank of Kangsabati River (also variously known as Kasai and Cossye) is great for sightseeing and fishing and a common destination for picnics during the Christmas and New Year's breaks.

The church is opened to all on this occasion and people from all communities gather in the prayer hall to view the murals narrating the life of Jesus.

In sports, the most notable achievement of a native was by Susmita Singha Roy, participating at the Olympics in Beijing in 2008 as a long jumper.

[citation needed] The 10,000-capacity Sri Aurobindo Stadium hosts a number of sports events, including football tournaments of junior National level.

Every year on 23 January, on the birthday of Indian freedom fighter, Subhas Chandra Bose there is a 10-mile running competition in commemoration.

[citation needed] The town is also home to Biplabi Sabyasachi[20] a well-known Bengali daily newspaper that provides important news and information for both the local community and a wider audience.