Tamralipta

(present-day Tamluk), a city in India, in what is now West Bengal State; situated on the western boundary of the Ganges River delta. Until the tenth or 11th century, it was a major commercial port.

Tamralipta evidently originated in the fifth or fourth century B.C. In antiquity and early medieval times, its location in the Ganges River valley made the city a natural outlet to the sea for the richest and most populous area of India. Tamralipta handled cargo for trade with Southeast Asian countries, southern India, and Ceylon. The growth of the Ganges delta deprived Tamralipta of its advantage as a convenient harbor, and the city declined. Tamralipta was also a center of Buddhism.