Wari-Bateshwar ruins in the context of "Dhaka Division"

Sonargaon or Șonargă (Bengali: সোনারগাঁও; Bengali pronunciation: [ˈʃonaɾɡãʋ]; lit. Golden Hamlet) is a historic city in central Bangladesh. It corresponds to the modern day subdistrict Sonargaon Upazila of Narayanganj District in Dhaka Division.

Sonargaon is one of the old capitals of the historic region of Bengal and was an administrative center of eastern Bengal. It was also a river port. Its hinterland was the center of the muslin trade in Bengal, with a large population of weavers and artisans. According to ancient Greek and Roman accounts, an emporium was located in this hinterland, which archaeologists have now identified with the Wari-Bateshwar ruins of the Gangaridai Empire. The area was a base for the Vanga, Gangaridai, Samatata, Sena, and Deva dynasties.

Gangaridai (Greek: Γαγγαρίδαι, Latin: Gangaridae) is a term used by the ancient Greco-Roman writers (1st century BCE–2nd century AD) to describe the people or a geographical region of the ancient Indian subcontinent. Some of these writers state that Alexander the Great withdrew from the Indian subcontinent because of the strong war elephant force of the Gangaridai.

A number of modern scholars locate Gangaridai in the Ganges Delta of the Bengal region, although alternative theories also exist. Gange or Ganges, the capital of the Gangaridai (according to Ptolemy), has been identified with several sites in the region, including Chandraketugarh and Wari-Bateshwar.

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.