24 Parganas (Pron: pɔrɡɔnɔs; abbr. 24 PGS), or sometimes Twenty Four Parganas, is a former district in the Indian state of West Bengal, headquartered in Alipore. On 1 March 1986, the district was bifurcated into two separate districts namely North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas. It was the largest district of West Bengal by area and population at the time of bifurcation.
Samataṭa (Brahmi script: 
sa-ma-ta-ṭa) was an ancient geopolitical division of Bengal in the eastern Indian subcontinent. The Greco-Roman account of Sounagoura is linked to the kingdom of Samatata. Its territory corresponded to much of present-day eastern and southern Bangladesh (particularly Dhaka division, Barisal division, Sylhet Division, Khulna Division and Chittagong Division) and the undivided 24 Parganas district in southern West Bengal. The area covers the trans-Meghna part of the Bengal delta. It was a center of Buddhist civilisation before the resurgence of Hinduism, and Muslim conquest in the region.
Archaeological evidence in the Wari-Bateshwar ruins, particularly punch-marked coins, indicate that Vanga-Samataṭa region was probably a province of the Mauryan Empire. The region attained a distinct Buddhist identity following the collapse of Mauryan rule. The Allahabad pillar inscriptions of the Indian emperor Samudragupta is the earliest reference of Samataṭa in which it is described as a tributary state.