sentences:  The capital city of Shashanka, the great king of Gauḍa region (comprising most of Bengal) in the seventh century AD and perhaps that of Mahipala, one of the later Pala kings of Bengal, were in this district.The earliest evidences of the history of the district date back to the pre-historic days, perhaps as early as circa 1500 BCE.The district got its present name in the early eighteenth century and its present shape in the later half of the eighteenth century.