Pratapaditya
[6][4] During the reign of Pratapaditya, the ruler of Jessore in the early 17th century, the Portuguese played a significant role in the local economy through their trade activities.
Jessore, located in present-day Bangladesh, became a crucial hub for Portuguese merchants due to its strategic position along the trade routes.
His naval fleet, bolstered by Portuguese military assistance and advanced shipbuilding techniques, played a crucial role in safeguarding vital trade routes and asserting dominance over the Bay of Bengal.
The large number of warships ensured that Jessore's maritime interests were well-protected and allowed for effective control of regional waters.
The combination of a powerful navy and a well-trained cavalry under Pratapaditya's command ensured both the security and expansion of Jessore's influence during his reign.
[8] Three contemporary sources remain — letters of Portuguese Jesuit priests collated in Histoire des lndes Orientales by Father Du Jarric; Baharistan-i-Ghaibi, a history of Bengal by Mirza Nathan; and, travelogues of Abdul Latif.
[4] Sources do not mention Shirhari except in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Rajmahal; so, it is difficult to speculate about Shrihari's reign but a non-extant inscription imposes a terminus ante quem of c. 1590 for the end of his rule.
[4] His rule over Jessore coincided with multiple foreign powers — the Portuguese, the Arakanese, and the Mughals — vying for the control of the Bengal delta and entering into fragile alliances with local rulers.
[4] Du Jarric accuses Pratapadiya of having entered into a secret treaty with the Arakans to save his own territory; Aniruddha Ray speculates that pleasing the Mughals, who were on the ascendancy, might have been an additional factor.
[4] The next day, Pratapaditya destroyed Carvalho's fleet, arrested the surviving Portuguese, and confiscated all of their properties; after a summary trial, four were put to death and a ransom of eleven thousand rupees was fixed for the rest.
[4] The initial reluctance from the Portuguese to pay the ransom caused consternation in local Hindus who raided the church suspecting the missionaries of Machiavellian tactics.
[4] Despite strategically sound warfare on Udayaditya's part, the face-off ended in a devastating defeat — he, alongside Jamal Khan, barely escaped to Jessore where the rear-guard was being mounted.
[4] In 1856, Harish Chandra Tarkalankar published The History of Raja Pratapaditya: "The Last King of Sagar lsland", a modernized retelling of Basu's novel.
[4] The first critical evaluation came in 1874 in Westland's Report of the District of Jessore — in the words of Ray, it was an attempt to "cut Pratap's heroism to size".
