Bengal (Region)
Subject
Subject Source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
Scope Note: Bengal is an area roughly encompassing West Bengal in India and all of Bangladesh. It was an ancient Hindu region, into which was introduced Buddhism in the 3rd century. The northeastern part was the nucleus of the Maurya and Gupta empires. The Afghans conquered it ca. 1199. It was ruled by an independent dynasty from the 14th to the 16th century.