Bengali people Facts for Kids

Bengali people of Bangladesh

The Bengali people are the main ethnic group in the region of Bengal (now divided between Bangladesh and the Union of India) in South Asia. They speak Bengali (বাংলা Bangla), a language of the eastern branch of the Indo-Aryan languages.

They are natively concentrated in the nation of Bangladesh and in the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura. Some of the most well established Bengali communities are in the Middle East, Japan, Malaysia, United Kingdom and United States.

Remnants of civilisation in the greater Bengal region date back 4,000 years, when the region was settled by Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman and Austroasiatic peoples. The origin of the word Bangla ~ Bengal is unknown, but it is believed to be derived from the Dravidian-speaking tribe Bang that settled in the area around the year 1000 BC.

After the arrival of Indo-Aryans, the kingdoms around Bengal were first described in the Atharvaveda about 1000 BC. From the 6th century BC, Magadha expanded to include most of the Bihar and Bengal regions. It was one of the four main kingdoms of India at the time of Buddha. Magadha extended over nearly all of South Asia, including parts of Persia and Afghanistan, reaching its greatest extent under the Buddhist emperor Ashoka the Great in the 3rd century BC. One of the earliest foreign references to Bengal is the mention of a land ruled by the king Xandrammes named Gangaridai by the Greeks around 100 BC. The word is speculated to have come from Gangahrd (Land with the Ganges in its heart) in reference to an area in Bengal. Later from the 3rd to the 6th centuries AD, the kingdom of Magadha served as the seat of the Gupta Empire.

Images for kids

The ancient political divisions of the Ganges delta.
Parts of the Charyapada, a collection of ancient Buddhist hymns which mention the Bengalis, in display at the Rajshahi College Library.
Depiction of Gangaridai on a map by 11th-century polymath Ptolemy.
Atiśa is recognised as one of the greatest figures of classical Buddhism, having inspired Buddhist thought from Tibet to Sumatra.
Ghazi Pir is thought to have lived in the Sundarbans some time between the 12th to 13th century.
16th-century Portuguese painting of "Bengalis".
The Bengali artillery at the Battle of Plassey in 1757.
A painting by Shaikh Muhammad Amir of Karraya displaying a syce of Bengal holding two carriage horses.
A Bengali woman in Dhaka clad in fine Bengali muslin, 18th century.
W.C. Bonnerjee, co-founder and first president of Indian National Congress.
Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, the co-founder and inaugural president of the Awami League.
Dean Mahomed is credited for introducing shampoo to the Europeans.
Large numbers of Bengalis have settled and established themselves in Banglatown.
I'tisam-ud-Din was the first educated Bengali and South Asian to have travelled to Europe.
Bengali schoolboys in the port city of Chittagong.
Eid prayers in Dhaka.
Durga Puja in Kolkata.
Harvesting preparation in Bangladesh.
A sculpture of the Nawab of Bengal's Royal Peacock Barge in Murshidabad.
Traditional way of weaving Jamdani.
A Bengali man sporting a simple black sherwani.
Artistes from Purulia district of West Bengal performs Chhau dance
Satyajit Ray, eminent film director who has made Bengali films popular all over the world
Gitanjali intro featuring its author Rabindranath Tagore
The application of mehndi onto one's hand hosts a ceremony of itself during Bengali wedding seasons.
A Bengali groom partaking in a supplication during his wedding.
Biomedical physicist Khondkar Siddique-e-Rabbani developed the focused impedance measurement, a technique for quantifying the electrical resistance in tissues of the human body with improved zone localisation.
Qazi Azizul Haque is recognised for his contributions to the development of modern fingerprint biometrics, a discovery of worldwide importance.
Meghnad Saha, J C Bose, J C Ghosh, Snehamoy Dutt, S N Bose, D M Bose, N R Sen, J N Mukherjee, N C Nag
A sculpture honoring Fazlur Rahman Khan at the Willis Tower
A lathi khela event taking place in Tangail.
A Nouka Baich competition taking place in the monsoon season.
Mohammed Salim, the first South Asian footballer to play for a foreign club. Due to playing in bare feet, he is having them bandaged by Jimmy McMenemy in 1936.
Cricketer Shakib Al Hasan is currently crowned the world's best all-rounder in all formats for ODI cricket, and one of the greatest of all times.

Bengali people facts for kids

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