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• 
  Afghanistan
  Afghanistan ⁱ/æfˈɡænɨstæn/ (Persian/Pashto: افغانستان, Afġānistān), officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming part of South Asia, Central Asia, and Greater Middle East, it is also considered to be part of a broader West Asia. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of 647,500 km² (250,001 sq mi), making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and the east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the north, and China in the far northeast.
  Afghanistan has been an ancient focal point of the Silk Road and human migration. Archaeologists have found evidence of human habitation from as far back as 50,000 BC. Urban civilization may have begun in the area as early as 3,000 to 2,000 BC. Sitting at an important geostrategic location that connects the Middle East with Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, the land has been home to various peoples through the ages and witnessed many military campaigns, notably by Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, and in modern era Western forces. The land also served as a source from which the Greco-Bactrians, Kushans, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Timurids, Mughals and many others have risen to form major empires.
  
  wn.com/Afghanistan
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  Agra
  Agra (ⁱ/ˈɑːɡrə/; Hindi: आगरा, Urdu: آ گرہ), the erstwhile capital of Hindustan, is a city on the banks of the river Yamuna in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India, 363 kilometres (226 mi) west of state capital, Lucknow and 200 kilometres (124 mi) south of the national capital New Delhi. With a population of 1,686,976 (2010 est.), it is one of the most populous cities in Uttar Pradesh and the 19th most populous in India. Because 80 percent of the city's sewage flows into Yamuna River, it is 20th most polluted city in India. Agra can also refer to the administrative district that has its headquarters in Agra city.
  The city finds mention in the epic Mahābhārata where it was called Agrevaṇa, or 'the border of the forest'. Legend ascribes the founding of the city to Rājā Badal Singh, a Sikarwar Rajput king (circa 1475), whose fort, Badalgarh, stood on or near the site of the present Fort. However, the 11th century Persian poet Mas'ūd Sa'd Salmān writes of a desperate assault on the fortress of Agra, then held by the Shāhī King Jayapala, by Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni. Sultan Sikandar Lodī was the first to move his capital from Delhi to Agra in the year 1506; he died in 1517 and his son Ibrāhīm Lodī remained in power there for nine more years, finally being defeated at the Battle of Panipat in 1526. It achieved fame as the capital of the Mughal emperors from 1526 to 1658 and remains a major tourist destination because of its many splendid Mughal-era buildings, most notably the Tāj Mahal, Agra Fort and Fatehpūr Sikrī, all three of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
  
  wn.com/Agra
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  Asansol
  Asansol is a coal mining and industrial metropolis and one of the busiest commercial centres in India. It is the second largest city and urban agglomeration in West Bengal after Kolkata and the 19th largest urban agglomeration in India. Asansol is located in the Burdwan District of India. It has a large workforce, moderately high per capita income, educational establishments, good transport connections, several housing complexes, and land suitable for industry, institutions, transport and commerce. Its hinterland is Bankura and Purulia districts and North Bengal, linked to parts of Orissa and Jharkhand states. According to a report released by International Institute for Environment and Development, a UK-based policy research non-governmental body, Asansol is among the 11 Indian cities in the list of 100 fastest growing cities in the world with a rank of 42. The name Asansol is derived from two different names, Asan tree (a species of tree found on the banks of river Damodar) and Sol-Bhumi/Sol-land (the land rich in minerals).
  
  wn.com/Asansol
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  Assam
  Assam /əˈsæm/ (Assamese: অসম) also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province (British India), is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country^{[citation needed]}. Assam was one of the original provinces of the British ruled Indian sub-continent and among the original provinces of present day India, having a legislature that dates back to 1937. However, present day Assam has undergone numerous territory alignment changes, with its state map being altered more than any other province's. Known for exquisite natural resources, geography and its important role in India's freedom struggle; Assam has its capital as Dispur, an especialized city circuit region located on the outskirts of its largest metropolis, Guwahati.
  Assam is particularly famous for its natural beauty. The landscape includes tea gardens, the river Brahmaputra, and many historical monuments and temples. Swami Vivekananda once said that, "next only to Kashmir, Assam is the most beautiful place in India" A state with an abundance of forest, Assam also has five national parks, around half a dozen other wildlife sanctuaries, and is home to two-thirds of the population of the unique one-horned rhino. When it comes to wildlife, Assam too has successfully conserved the one-horned Indian rhinoceros from near extinction, along with the tiger and numerous species of birds, and it provides one of the last wild habitats for the Asian elephant. It is becoming an increasingly popular destination for wildlife tourism, and Kaziranga and Manas are both World Heritage Sites.
  
  wn.com/Assam
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  Bangladesh
  Coordinates: 23°N 90°E / 23°N 90°E / 23; 90
  Bangladesh (ⁱ/ˈbɑːŋɡlədɛʃ/ or ⁱ/bæŋɡləˈdɛʃ/ (Anglicized pronunciation); Bengali: বাংলাদেশ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh (Bengali: গণপ্রজাতন্ত্রী বাংলাদেশ Gônoprojatontri Bangladesh) is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India and Burma and by the Bay of Bengal to the south. The capital (and largest city) is Dhaka, located in central Bangladesh. The official state language is Bengali. The name Bangladesh means "Land of Bengal" or "Country of Bengal" the in the Bengali language, from Bangla "Bengal" and desh holding a dual meaning of "land" and "country" as English "country," German land, French pays, etc.
  The borders of present-day Bangladesh were established with the partition of Bengal during the reign and demise of the British India. Its map was chartered by Sir Cyril Radcliffe during the creation of Pakistan and India in 1947, when the region became East Pakistan, part of the newly formed nation of Pakistan. Due to political exclusion and economic exploitation by the politically dominant West Pakistan, popular agitation grew against West Pakistan and led to the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, after the Bangladeshi Declaration of Independence on 26 March 1971. With the intervention of the Indian Army, the war came to an end on 16 December 1971 with the surrender of the Pakistan Army at Ramna Race Course.
  
  wn.com/Bangladesh
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  Barisal
  Barisal City (Bengali: বরিশাল Bariśāl)) is an old port on the Kirtankhola, former Ariel Khan on the northern shore of the Bay of Bengal in southern Bangladesh and it is 142 km (373 km by road) far from capital city Dhaka. It is now the headquarters of both the Barisal Division and the Barisal District. The city consists of 30 wards and 50 mahallas. The area of the town is 19.99 km². Barisal municipality was established in 1957 and was turned into a City Corporation in 2000.
  Barisal City has one police academy.
  n Mughal period because of heavy fighting between them and Hindu chiefs. In course of time, it fell under Bengal Nawabs and British India, later passed to Bangladesh.
  Following the partition of India in 1947, the area of Bangladesh became a province of Pakistan, initially known as East Bengal, and then, from 1955, as East Pakistan. The people of East Pakistan Province declared their independence as the nation of Bangladesh on March 26, 1971, while fighting a savage war against the central Pakistani government. The separation from Pakistan took place, with extensive aid from India, on December 16, 1971 as a result of the third Indo-Pakistan War. Bangladesh was soon recognized by most other nations, although Pakistan withheld diplomatic recognition until 1974 and China did not recognize the nation until 1976. Bangladesh was admitted to the United Nations in 1974.
  
  wn.com/Barisal
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  Battle of Plassey
  Coordinates: 23°48′N 88°15′E / 23.80°N 88.25°E / 23.80; 88.25
  The Battle of Plassey (Bengali: পলাশীর যুদ্ধ, Pôlashir Juddho), 23 June 1757, was a decisive British East India Company victory over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies, establishing Company rule in South Asia which expanded over much of the Indies for the next hundred years. The battle took place at Palashi, Bengal (Plassey is the anglicised version of Palashi), on the river banks of the Bhagirathi River, about 150 km north of Calcutta, near Murshidabad, then capital of undivided Bengal. The belligerents were Siraj-ud-daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal, and the British East India Company.
  The battle was preceded by the attack on British controlled Calcutta by Siraj-ud-daulah and the Black Hole incident. The British sent reinforcements under Colonel Robert Clive and Admiral Charles Watson from Madras to Bengal, and recaptured Calcutta. Clive then seized the initiative to capture the French fort of Chandernagar. Tensions and suspicions between Siraj-ud-daulah and the British culminated in the Battle of Plassey. The battle was waged during the Seven Years' War (1756–63) and, in a mirror of their European rivalry, the French East India Company sent a small contingent to fight against the British. Siraj-ud-Daulah had a numerically superior force and made his stand at Plassey. The British, worried about being outnumbered, formed a conspiracy with Siraj-ud-Daulah's demoted army chief Mir Jafar, along with others such as Yar Lutuf Khan, Jagat Seths (Mahtab Chand and Swarup Chand), Omichund and Rai Durlabh. Mir Jafar, Rai Durlabh and Yar Lutuf Khan thus assembled their troops near the battlefield but made no move to actually join the battle. Siraj-ud-Daulah's army was defeated by roughly 3,000 soldiers of Col. Robert Clive, owing to the flight of Siraj-ud-daulah from the battlefield and the inactivity of the conspirators.
  
  wn.com/Battle_of_Plassey
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  Bay of Bengal
  The Bay of Bengal, the largest bay in the world, forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. Roughly triangular in shape, it is bordered mostly by India and Sri Lanka to the west, Bangladesh to the north, and Burma (Myanmar) and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the east.
  The Bay of Bengal occupies an area of 2,172,000 km². A number of large rivers – the Padma (a distributary of the Ganges), Meghna (a distributary of the Brahmaputra), Jamuna (a branch of the Brahmaputra), Ayeyarwady, Godavari, Mahanadi, Krishna and Kaveri – flow into the Bay of Bengal. Among the important ports are Cuddalore, Ennore, Chennai, Karaikal, Pondicherry, Tuticorin, Kakinada, Machilipatnam, Vishakhapatnam, Gangavaram, Krishnapatnam, Paradip, Kolkata, Mongla, Chittagong and Yangon.
  The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Bay of Bengal as follows:
  On the East. A line running from Cape Negrais (16°03'N) in Burma through the larger islands of the Andaman group, in such a way that all the narrow waters between the islands lie to the Eastward of the line and are excluded from the Bay of Bengal, as far as a point in Little Andaman Island in latitude 10°48'N, longitude 92°24'E and thence along the Southwest limit of the Burma Sea [A line running from Oedjong Raja (5°32′N 95°12′E / 5.533°N 95.2°E / 5.533; 95.2) in Sumatra to Poeloe Bras (Breuëh) and on through the Western Islands of the Nicobar Group to Sandy Point in Little Andaman Island, in such a way that all the narrow waters appertain to the Burma Sea].
  
  wn.com/Bay_of_Bengal
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  Benapole
  Benapole (Bengali: বেনাপোল) is a township in Sharsha Upazila in the Jessore District of Bangladesh. The Petrapole Customs station of India is situated across the border and since 1971 (some sources say 1947), a large number of people have travelled between Bangladesh and India through Benapole Customs station. The railway link between Bangladesh and India through Benapole was discontinued when war broke out between Pakistan and India in September 1965. Urbanization of Benapole started in the 1990s along the Grand Trunk Road.
  On the Bangladesh-India land border, Benapole is the most important checkpost of Bangladesh and is operated by the Bangladesh Land Port Authority (BLPA). Geographically Benapole is a major strategical point for border trading between India and Bangladesh owing ito its proximity to Kolkata. According to Land Port Authority, approximately 90 percent of the total imported items from India come through Benapole. Primarily Benapole land port was an Land Customs station and gradually it turned into a Customs Division 1984) and later Custom House (1997) in response to its rising importance as in terms of import volume. In 2009, Finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith opened the newly constructed building of Benapole Customs and Immigration Check post.
  
  wn.com/Benapole
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  Bhutan
  
  Coordinates: 27°25′01″N 90°26′06″E / 27.417°N 90.435°E / 27.417; 90.435
  Bhutan (Dzongkha: འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, tr ʼbrug-yul, "Druk Yul"; Devanagari भूटान, Bhūṭān), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China. Bhutan is separated from the nearby country of Nepal to the west by the Indian state of Sikkim, and from Bangladesh to the south by the Indian states of Assam and West Bengal.
  Bhutan existed as a patchwork of minor warring fiefdoms until the early 17th century, when the area was unified by Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, who fled religious persecution in Tibet and cultivated a separate Bhutanese identity. In the early 20th century, Bhutan came into contact with the British Empire, after which Bhutan continued strong bilateral relations with India upon its independence. In 2006, Business Week rated Bhutan the happiest country in Asia and the eighth-happiest in the world, based on a global survey.
  
  wn.com/Bhutan
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  Bihar
  Bihar (/bɨˈhɑr/, pronounced [bɪˈɦaːr] ( listen)) is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at 38,202 sq mi (98,940 km²) and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India.
  Bihar lies mid-way between West Bengal in the east and Uttar Pradesh in the west. It is bounded by the country of Nepal to the north and by Jharkhand to the south. The Bihar plain is divided into two parts by the river Ganges which flows through the middle from west to east. Bihar has notified forest area of 6,764.14 km², which is 6.8% of its geographical area. Hindi and Urdu are the official languages of the state, while the majority of the people speak Angika, Bhojpuri, Magadhi, Maithili and Bajjika. In 2000, Bihar was divided into 2 parts, the Southern part known as Jharkhand.
  Ancient Bihar (which consisted of Anga, Videha/Mithila, Magadha and Vajji/Vrijji) was a centre of power, learning and culture in ancient and classical India. Out of five "The Greats" from India, four greats belonged to this region of India, Magadh: Chandragupta Maurya, Ashoka, Samudragupta and Vikramaditya. From Magadha arose India's first and greatest empire, the Maurya empire as well as one of the world's most widely adhered-to religions, Buddhism. Magadha empires, notably under the Maurya and Gupta dynasties, unified large parts of South Asia under a central rule. Its capital Patna, earlier known as Pataliputra, was an important centre of Indian civilization.Nalanda and Vikramshila were centres of learning established in the 5th and 8th century respectively in Bihar, and are counted amongst the oldest and truly international universities, where people all over the world came to study. Bihar has distinction of giving the world its first democracy through Lichchivi (modern days Vaishali) during ancient era.
  
  wn.com/Bihar
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  Bogra
  Bogra (Bengali: বগুড়া) is a town, and one of the oldest towns in northern Bangladesh. It is a centre of commerce and trade within the Bogra District and located under the Rajshahi Division. Bogra is sometimes described as the nerve centre of Northern Bangladesh. The area of the town is approximately 71.56 km² and the municipality is consisted of 21 wards. Amongst many notable activities, it has been hosting cricket test matches in Shaheed Chandu Stadium. Bogra is also home to the Western Wing of Bangladesh Highway Police. Bogra is also the battle honour of 5/11 Gorkha Rifles of Indian Army which fought a fierce battle with Pakistani army here during the Liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971 along with Muktibahni.
  Bogra town also has an importance in terms of transport in northern Bangladesh, as it's situated at the centre. Very close to the town there is a place called Mahasthangarh which was the earliest capital city of Bangladesh, formerly known as Pundravardhana. This place is considered to be sacred by Buddhists, Muslims and Hindus alike and is visited by tourists from all over Bangladesh throughout the year.
  
  wn.com/Bogra
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  British Empire
  The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the largest empire in history and, for over a century, was the foremost global power. By 1922 the British Empire held sway over about 458 million people, one-fifth of the world's population at the time, and covered more than 33,700,000 km² (13,012,000 sq mi), almost a quarter of the Earth's total land area. As a result, its political, linguistic and cultural legacy is widespread. At the peak of its power, it was often said that "the sun never sets on the British Empire" because its span across the globe ensured that the sun was always shining on at least one of its numerous territories.
  During the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal and Spain pioneered European exploration of the globe, and in the process established large overseas empires. Envious of the great wealth these empires generated, England, France and the Netherlands began to establish colonies and trade networks of their own in the Americas and Asia. A series of wars in the 17th and 18th centuries with the Netherlands and France left England (and then, following union between England and Scotland in 1707, Great Britain) the dominant colonial power in North America and India. The loss of the Thirteen Colonies in North America in 1783 after a war of independence deprived Britain of some of its oldest and most populous colonies.
  
  wn.com/British_Empire
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  Burma
  Burma ⁱ/ˈbɜrmə/ BUR-mə, also known as Myanmar ⁱ/ˌmjɑːnˈmɑr/ MYAHN--MAR, is a country in South Asia and Southeast Asia. It is bordered by India, Bangladesh, China, Laos and Thailand. One-third of Burma's total perimeter of 1,930 kilometres (1,200 mi) forms an uninterrupted coastline along the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. At 676,578 km² (261,227 sq mi), it is the 40th largest country in the world and the second largest country in Southeast Asia. Burma is also the 24th most populous country in the world with over 60.28 million people.
  Burma is home to some of the early civilizations of Southeast Asia including the Pyu and the Mon. In the 9th century, the Burmans of the Kingdom of Nanzhao, entered the upper Irrawaddy valley and, following the establishment of the Pagan Empire in the 1050s, the Burmese language and culture slowly became dominant in the country. During this period, Theravada Buddhism gradually became the predominant religion of the country. The Pagan Empire fell due to the Mongol invasions (1277–1301), and several warring states emerged. In the second half of the 16th century, the country was reunified by the Taungoo Dynasty which for a brief period was the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia. The early 19th century Konbaung Dynasty ruled over an area that included modern Burma as well as Manipur and Assam. The country was colonized by Britain following three Anglo-Burmese Wars (1824–1885).
  
  wn.com/Burma
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  Canada
  Canada ( /ˈkænədə/) is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean. Spanning over 9,900,000 km² (3,800,000 sq mi), Canada is the world's second-largest country by total area, and its common border with the United States is the longest land border in the world.
  The land that is now Canada has been inhabited for millennia by various Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French colonial expeditions explored, and later settled, along the region's Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy; the Canada Act 1982 severed the vestiges of legal dependence on Britain.
  
  wn.com/Canada
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  Chittagong
  Chittagong (Bengali: চট্টগ্রাম, Chôţţogram) is a commerce and industry hub, and a port city, in southeastern Bangladesh and the capital of an eponymous district and division. Built on the banks of the Karnaphuli River, the city is home to Bangladesh's busiest seaport and has a population of over 5.5 million, making it the second largest city in the country.
  A trading post since the 9th century, Chittagong has a multicultural heritage of Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist traditions, as the result of different waves of settlements throughout the Middle Ages and well into the start of the British Raj. A few parts of Chittagong were developed in the early 20th century under the British to accommodate a railway hub. The city also became a focal point for revolutionary activities against the British, notably the armed uprising led by Surya Sen in 1930. It was also an important military base and supply point for Allied forces during the Burma Campaign in World War II. After the partition of India in 1947, Chittagong became part of East Pakistan. It was then that several key outlying areas were included into the city of Chittagong, including Agrabad, a modern commercial centre today. Chittagong regained prominence as an important investment destination and sea port in the eastern part of a newly independent country. In 1971, as East Pakistanis rebelled against West Pakistan’s refusal to accept results of the 1970 Pakistan General Election, the declaration of East Pakistan's secession into Bangladesh was announced in Chittagong. The city went onto witness atrocities and naval blockades during the liberation war that followed. Chittagong's development has been heavily affected by neglectfulness by the government, and centralization of the capital has taken toll to the cities development and growth.
  
  wn.com/Chittagong
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  Delhi
  Delhi (/ˈdɛli/; locally pronounced Dillee or Dehli), officially the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT), is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest metropolis by population in India. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16.7 million inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census. The region has been given special status of National Capital Region under The Constitution (69th Amendment) Act, 1991. There are nearly 22.2 million residents in the greater National Capital Region urban area (which also includes the cities Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon,Sonepat and Faridabad along with other smaller nearby towns).
  Delhi is known to have been continuously inhabited since at least the 6th century BCE, though human habitation is believed to have existed since the second millennium BCE. Delhi is also widely believed to have been the site of Indraprastha, the legendary capital of the Pandavas during the times of the Mahabharata. Delhi re-emerged as a major political, cultural and commercial city along the trade routes between northwest India and the Gangetic plain after the rise of the Delhi sultanates. It is the site of many ancient and medieval monuments, archaeological sites and remains.
  
  wn.com/Delhi
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  Dhaka
  Dhaka (Bengali: ঢাকা, pronounced IPA: [ˈɖʱaka]; formerly spelled Dacca, named Jahangirnagar during Mughal era) is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka Division. Dhaka is a megacity and one of the major cities of South Asia. It is located on the banks of the Buriganga River. Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, had a population of over 16 million in 2011, making it the largest city in Bangladesh. It is the 9th largest city in the world and also 28th among the most densely populated cities in the world. Dhaka is known as the City of Mosques and with 400,000 cycle rickshaws running on its streets every day, the city is also described as the Rickshaw Capital of the World.
  Under Mughal rule in the 17th century, the city was known as Jahangir Nagar. It was a provincial capital and a centre of the worldwide muslin trade. The modern city, however, was developed chiefly under British rule in the 19th century, and became the second-largest city in Bengal after Calcutta (presently Kolkata). After the Partition of Bengal in 1905, Dhaka became the capital of the new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam but lost its status as a provincial capital again after the partition was annulled in 1911. After the partition of India in 1947, Dhaka became the administrative capital of East Pakistan, and later, in 1971, the capital of an independent Bangladesh. During the intervening period, the city witnessed widespread turmoil; this included many impositions of martial law, the declaration of Bangladesh's independence, military suppression, devastation during war, and natural calamities.
  
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  East Pakistan
  East Pakistan (Bengali: পূর্ব পাকিস্তান; Purbo Pakistan, Urdu: مشرقی پاکستان; Mashriqī Pākistān) was a provincial state of Pakistan that existed in Bengal region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent from 1955 until 1971, following the One Unit programme which laid the existence of East Pakistan.
  
  wn.com/East_Pakistan
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  Faridpur District
  Faridpur is a district in central Bangladesh. It is a part of the Dhaka Division. Faridpur District has a population of over 1.7 million people and is situated on the banks of the Padma river (Lower Ganges). Once a subdivision, the original area of the district comprised what is today the Greater Faridpur region which includes the present day districts of Rajbari, Gopalgonj, Madaripur, Shariatpur and Faridpur.
  Famous for its jute fields, which are considered to produce the finest raw jute, and aristocratic zamindar families, the district was a focal point for political movements in Bengal during the rule of the British Empire and the early days of the Pakistan era. It produced some of the most prominent politicians and cultural figures of Bengal.
  Faridpur is located in central Bangladesh under Dhaka division. The area of this district is 2072.72 km². The district is bounded by the Padma river to the north and east and across the river are Manikganj, Dhaka and Munshiganj districts. It is bordered by Madaripur to the east, Gopalgonj to the south and Rajbari, Narail and Magura to the west.
  
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  Ganges delta
  The Ganges Delta (also known as the Ganges–Brahmaputra Delta, the Sunderbans Delta, or the Bengalla Delta) is a river delta in the South Asia region of Bengal, consisting of Bangladesh and the state of West Bengal, India. It is the world's largest delta, and empties into the Bay of Bengal. It is also one of the most fertile regions in the world, thus earning the nickname The Green Delta. The delta stretches from the Hooghly River on the west to the Meghna River on the east. It is approximately 350 km (220 mi) across at the Bay of Bengal.Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) and Haldia in India and Mongla and Chittagong in Bangladesh are the principal seaports on the delta.
  A number of large rivers flow through the Ganges Delta, including the Padma (main distributary of the Ganges) and the Jamuna (main distributary of the Brahmaputra), which merge and then join the Meghna before entering the sea.
  The Ganges delta has the shape of a triangle, and is considered to be an "arcuate" delta (arc-shaped). It covers more than 105,000 km² (41,000 sq mi), and although the delta lies mostly in Bangladesh and India, rivers from Bhutan, China, India, and Nepal drain into it from the north. Approximately two-thirds of the delta is in Bangladesh. Most of the delta is composed of alluvial soils made up by small sediment particles that finally settle down as river currents slow down in the estuary. Rivers carry these fine particles with them, even from their sources at glaciers as Fluvio-glacial. Red and red-yellow laterite soils are found as one heads farther east. The soil has large amounts of minerals and nutrients, which is good for agriculture.
  
  wn.com/Ganges_delta
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  Ganges Delta
  The Ganges Delta (also known as the Ganges–Brahmaputra Delta, the Sunderbans Delta, or the Bengalla Delta) is a river delta in the South Asia region of Bengal, consisting of Bangladesh and the state of West Bengal, India. It is the world's largest delta, and empties into the Bay of Bengal. It is also one of the most fertile regions in the world, thus earning the nickname The Green Delta. The delta stretches from the Hooghly River on the west to the Meghna River on the east. It is approximately 350 km (220 mi) across at the Bay of Bengal.Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) and Haldia in India and Mongla and Chittagong in Bangladesh are the principal seaports on the delta.
  A number of large rivers flow through the Ganges Delta, including the Padma (main distributary of the Ganges) and the Jamuna (main distributary of the Brahmaputra), which merge and then join the Meghna before entering the sea.
  The Ganges delta has the shape of a triangle, and is considered to be an "arcuate" delta (arc-shaped). It covers more than 105,000 km² (41,000 sq mi), and although the delta lies mostly in Bangladesh and India, rivers from Bhutan, China, India, and Nepal drain into it from the north. Approximately two-thirds of the delta is in Bangladesh. Most of the delta is composed of alluvial soils made up by small sediment particles that finally settle down as river currents slow down in the estuary. Rivers carry these fine particles with them, even from their sources at glaciers as Fluvio-glacial. Red and red-yellow laterite soils are found as one heads farther east. The soil has large amounts of minerals and nutrients, which is good for agriculture.
  
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  Hindu Kush
  Coordinates: 35°N 71°E / 35°N 71°E / 35; 71
  The Hindu Kush (Pashto/Persian: ھندوکُش‎, Urdu: سلسلہ کوہ ہندوکش) is an 800 km (500 mi) long mountain range that stretches between central Afghanistan and northern Pakistan. The highest point in the Hindu Kush is Tirich Mir (7,708 m or 25,289 ft) in Chitral District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
  It is the westernmost extension of the Pamir Mountains, the Karakoram Range, and is a sub-range of the Himalayas.
  The names Hindu Kush (Persian: ھندوکُش‎), Hindu Kūh (ھندوکوه) and Kūh-e Hind (کوهِ ھند) are usually applied to the entire range separating the basins of the Kabul and Helmand rivers from that of the Amu River (ancient Oxus) or more specifically to that part of the range, northwest of the Afghan capital Kabul. Sanskrit documents refer to the Hindu Kush as Pāriyātra Parvata (पारियात्र पर्वत). Greek geographers adapted the Sanskrit to "Paropanisadae" by Greeks in the late first millennium BC.
  The Persian-English dictionary indicates that the word 'Kush' is derived from the verb Kushtar - to slaughter or carnage. Kush is probably also related to the verb Koshtan, meaning to kill.
  
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  Howrah
  Howrah or Haora (Bengali: হাওড়া) is an industrial city, a municipal corporation in the Howrah district, West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of the district, and also the headquarters of Howrah Sadar subdivision of the district. Located on the west bank of the Hoogli River, it is a twin city of Kolkata. Howrah is the second small district after Kolkata. The two cities are connected by the four bridges on river Ganges, named Howrah Bridge (also known as Rabindra Setu), the Vidyasagar Setu (also known as the second Hooghly Bridge), the Vivekananda Setu (also known as Bally Bridge), the Nivedita Setu (also known as Second Vivekananda Setu and ferry services between various jetties in the two cities.
  Howrah Station serves as a terminal for two railway zones of India: the Eastern Railway and the South Eastern Railway. There are six other railway stations with the city, including the railway junction at Santragachhi and the terminal at Shalimar Station—all the six are part of the South Eastern Railway network. Two national highways—NH 2 and NH 6—are connected to Vidyasagar Setu via Kona Expressway. One endpoint of the Grand Trunk Road is at the Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden here, where the Great Banyan tree stands. Bengal Engineering & Science University, over 150 years old, is the prestigious engineering university located in the city.
  
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  India
  India (ⁱ/ˈɪndiə/), officially the Republic of India (Bhārat Gaṇarājya), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the south-west, and the Bay of Bengal on the south-east, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west;China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Burma and Bangladesh to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; in addition, India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.
  Home to the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history. Four of the world's major religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism—originated here, whereas Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived in the 1st millennium CE and also helped shape the region's diverse culture. Gradually annexed by and brought under the administration of the British East India Company from the early 18th century and administered directly by the United Kingdom from the mid-19th century, India became an independent nation in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by non-violent resistance led by Mahatma Gandhi.
  
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  Iran
  Coordinates: 32°N 53°E / 32°N 53°E / 32; 53
  Iran (ⁱ/ɪˈrɑːn/ or /aɪˈræn/;Persian: ایران‎ [ʔiˈɾɒn] ( listen)), officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (Persian: جمهوری اسلامی ایران‎ Jomhuri-ye Eslāmi-ye Irān), is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran", which in Persian means "Land of the Aryans", has been in use natively since the Sassanian era. It came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia ( /ˈpɜrʒə/ or /ˈpɜrʃə/). Both "Persia" and "Iran" are used interchangeably in cultural contexts; however, "Iran" is the name used officially in political contexts.
  The 18th-largest country in the world in terms of area at 1,648,195 km² (636,372 sq mi), Iran has a population of around 79 million. It is a country of particular geopolitical significance owing to its location in the Middle East and central Eurasia. Iran is bordered on the north by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. As Iran is a littoral state of the Caspian Sea, which is an inland sea, Kazakhstan and Russia are also Iran's direct neighbors to the north. Iran is bordered on the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan, on the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, on the west by Iraq and on the northwest by Turkey. Tehran is the capital, the country's largest city and the political, cultural, commercial and industrial center of the nation. Iran is a regional power, and holds an important position in international energy security and world economy as a result of its large reserves of petroleum and natural gas. Iran has the second largest proven natural gas reserves in the world and the fourth largest proven petroleum reserves.
  
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  Jessore District
  Jessore (Bengali: যশোর or Bengali: যশোহর) is a district located in the Khulna Division of southwestern Bangladesh. It is bordered by India to the west.
  The district produces a variety of crops year-round. Date-sugar, called patali, is made from the sap of locally grown date trees. It is cooked, thickened and crystallised using a traditional method. Patali is mainly produced in Khajura, but many date trees are cultivated in the Keshabpur and Monirampur areas.
  Jessore district was established in 1781. It consists of 4 municipalities, 36 wards, 8 upazilas, 92 unions, 1329 mouzas, 1434 villages and 120 mahallas. Upazilas are: Abhaynagar Upazila, Bagherpara Upazila, Chaugachha Upazila, Jessore kotwali Upazila, Jhikargachha Upazila, Keshabpur Upazila, Manirampur Upazila, and Sharsha Upazila.
  Jessore town, which stands on the Bhairab, consists of 9 wards and 73 mahalls. Jessore municipality was established in 1864. The area of the town is 25.72 km². The town has a population of 117,8273; male 52.97%, female 47.03%. The Literacy rate among the town people is 56.57%. The town has one dakbungalow.
  
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  Jharkhand
  Jharkhand /dʒɑrˈkɑːnd/^{[citation needed]} (Hindi: झारखण्ड; Bengali: ঝাড়খন্ড; Urdu: جھاڑکھنڈ; Jhārkhaṇḍ, pronounced [ˈdʒʱaːrkʰəɳɖ] ( listen)) is a state in eastern India. It was carved out of the southern part of Bihar on 15 November 2000. Jharkhand shares its border with the states of Bihar to the north, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to the west, Orissa to the south, and West Bengal to the east. It has an area of 79,714 km² 49,821 sq mi (129,040 km²). The industrial city of Ranchi is its capital and Dumka is sub capital while Jamshedpur is the largest and the biggest industrial city of the state. Some of the other major cities and industrial centres are Dhanbad, Bokaro and Hazaribagh.
  The name "Jharkhand" means "The Land of Forests".
  According to some writers like Gautam Kumar Bera, there was already a distinct geo-political, cultural entity called Jharkhand even before the period of Magadha Empire. Bera's book (page 33) also refers to the Hindu Mythological book Bhavishya Purana. The tribal rulers, some of whom continue to thrive till today were known as the Munda Rajas, who basically had ownership rights to large farmlands. During the Mughal period, the Jharkhand area was known as Kukara.
  
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  Kannauj
  Kannauj (Hindi: क़न्नौज, Urdu: قنوج), also spelt Kanauj, is a city, administrative headquarters and a municipal board or Nagar Palika Parishad in Kannauj district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city's name is traditionally derived from the term Kanyakubja (The city of the hunchbacked maidens). Kannauj is an ancient city, in earlier times the capital of Emperor Harshavardhan. It is said that Kanyakubja Brahmin's are originally from Kannauj. Kannauj is known for the distilling of scents and is a market center for tobacco, perfume, and rose water. It has given its name to a distinct dialect of the Hindi language known as Kanauji. It was called Calinipaxa during reign of Alexander the Great.
  Kannuaj remained a focal point for the three powerful dynasties, namely the Gurjara Pratiharas, Palas and Rashtrakutas, between the 8th and 10th centuries. The conflict between the three dynasties has been referred to as the Tripartite struggle by many historians.
  There were initial struggles but ultimately the Gurjar Pratihars succeeded in retaining the city. The Gurjar Pratihars ruled Malwa, which was bounded to the South by the Rashtrakuta Empire, and the Pala dynasty to the East. The Tripartite Struggle began with the defeat of Indrayudh at the hands of Gurjar Pratihar ruler Vatsaraja. The Pala ruler Dharampala was also keen to establish his authority at Kannauj, giving rise to a struggle between Vatsaraja and Dharampala. Dharampala was however defeated. Taking advantage of the chaos, the Rastrakuta ruler Dhruva surged northwards, defeated Vatsaraja, and took Kannauj for himself, completing the furthest northern expansion by a South Indian ruler.
  
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  Khulna
  Khulna is the third largest city in Bangladesh. It is located on the banks of the Rupsha and Bhairab rivers in Khulna District. It is the divisional headquarters of Khulna Division and a major industrial and commercial center. It has a seaport named Mongla on its outskirts, 38 km from Khulna City. The population of the city, under the jurisdiction of the City Corporation, was 1,000,000 in 2010 estimation. The wider Statistical Metropolitan Area had at the same time an estimated population of 1,435,422.
  The city is 333 km southwest of Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, to which it is connected by air, road, train and water transportation. The steamer fleet for this route includes the ancient ships Tern (1912), Osrich and Lepcha.
  Khulna is located in south-western Bangladesh with a total area of 59.57 km², while the district itself is about 4394.46 km². It lies south of Jessore and Narail, East of Satkhira, West of Bagerhat and North of the Bay of Bengal. It is part of the largest delta in the world. In the southern part of the delta lies the Sundarban, the world's largest mangrove forest. The city of Khulna is in the northern part of the district, and is mainly an expansion of trade centers close to the Rupsha and Bhairob rivers.Kapotakkh river is important in khulna.
  
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  Kolkata
  Kolkata /kɒlˈkætə/, or Calcutta /kælˈkʌtə/, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it is the principal commercial, cultural, and educational centre of East India, while the Port of Kolkata is India's oldest port as well as its sole major riverine port. As of 2011, the city had 4.5 million residents; the urban agglomeration, which comprises the city and its suburbs, was home to approximately 14.1 million, making it the third-most populous metropolitan area in India. As of 2008, its economic output as measured by gross domestic product ranked third among South Asian cities, behind Mumbai and Delhi. As a growing metropolitan city in a developing country, Kolkata confronts substantial urban pollution, traffic congestion, poverty, overpopulation, and other logistic and socioeconomic problems.
  In the late 17th century, the three villages that predated Kolkata were ruled by the Nawab of Bengal under Mughal suzerainty. After the Nawab granted the East India Company a trading license in 1690, the area was developed by the Company into an increasingly fortified mercantile base. Nawab Siraj ud-Daulah occupied Kolkata in 1756, and the East India Company retook it in the following year and by 1772 assumed full sovereignty. Under East India Company and later under the British Raj, Kolkata served as the capital of India until 1911, when its perceived geographical disadvantages, combined with growing nationalism in Bengal, led to a shift of the capital to New Delhi. The city was a centre of the Indian independence movement; it remains a hotbed of contemporary state politics. Following Indian independence in 1947, Kolkata—which was once the centre of modern Indian education, science, culture, and politics—witnessed several decades of relative economic stagnation. Since the early 2000s, an economic rejuvenation has led to accelerated growth.
  
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  Lahore
  Lahore (Punjabi: لہور, Urdu: لاہور) is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich history dating back over a millennium, Lahore is a main cultural centre of Pakistan. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains an economic, political, transportation, entertainment, and educational hub.
  Lahore successively served as regional capital of the empires of the Shahi kingdoms in the 11th century, the Ghaznavids in the 12th century, the Ghurid State in the 12th and 13th centuries the Mughal Empire in the 16th century, the Sikh expansion in the early 19th century, and it was the capital of the Punjab region under the British Raj in the mid 19th and early 20th century. The traditional capital of Punjab for a thousand years, Lahore was the cultural center of the northern Indian subcontinent which extends from the eastern banks of the Indus River to New Delhi. Mughal structures such as the Badshahi Mosque, the Lahore Fort, Shalimar Gardens, and the mausolea of Jehangir and Nur Jehan are tourist attractions. Lahore is also home to many British colonial structures built in the Indo-Saracenic style, such as the Lahore High Court, the General Post Office, Lahore Museum and many older universities including the University of the Punjab. The Lahore Zoo, thought to be the fourth oldest in the world, is also situated here.
  
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  Madhya Pradesh
  Madhya Pradesh /ˈmɑːdjə prəˈdɛʃ/, abbreviated MP, often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city.
  Madhya Pradesh is the second largest state by area and with over 75 million inhabitants the sixth largest state in India by population. It borders the states of Uttar Pradesh to the northeast, Chhattisgarh to the southeast, Maharashtra to the south, Gujarat to the west, and Rajasthan to the northwest.
  The city of Ujjain (also known as Avanti) arose as a major center in the second wave of Indian urbanization in the sixth century BC, and served as the chief city of the kingdom of Malwa or Avanti. Further east, the kingdom of Chedi lie in Bundelkhand. Chandragupta Maurya united northern India c. 320 BC, establishing the Maurya empire (321 to 185 BC), which included all of modern-day Madhya Pradesh. King Ashoka's wife was said to come from Vidisha- a town north of today's Bhopal. The Maurya empire went into decline after the death of Asoka the Great, and Central India was contested among the Sakas, Kushanas, and local dynasties during the 3rd to 1st centuries BCE. Ujjain emerged as the predominant commercial center of western India from the first century BCE, located on the trade routes between the Ganges plain and India's Arabian Sea ports. It was also an important Hindu and Buddhist center.
  
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  Mahasthangarh
  Mahasthangarh (Bengali: মহাস্থানগড় Môhasthangôṛ) is the earliest urban archaeological site so far discovered in Bangladesh. The village Mahasthan in Shibganj thana of Bogra District contains the remains of an ancient city which was called Pundranagara or Paundravardhanapura in the territory of Pundravardhana. A limestone slab bearing six lines in Prakrit in Brahmi script, discovered in 1931, dates Mahasthangarh to at least the 3rd century BC. The fortified area was in use till the 18th century AD.
  Together with the ancient and mediaeval ruins, the mazhar (holy tomb) of Shah Sultan Balkhi Mahisawar built at site of a Hindu temple is located at Mahasthangarh. He was a dervish (holy person devoted to Islam) of royal lineage who came to the Mahasthangarh area, with the objective of spreading Islam among non-Muslims. He converted the people of the area to Islam and settled there.
  Mahasthan means a place that has excellent sanctity and garh means fort. Mahasthan was first mentioned in a Sanskrit text of the 13th century entitled Vallalcharita. It is also mentioned in an anonymous text Karatoya mahatmya,, circumstantially placed in 12th-13th century. The same text also mentions two more names to mean the same place – Pundrakshetra, land of the Pundras, and Pundranagara, city of the Pundras. In 1685, an administrative decree mentioned the place as Mastangarh, a mixture of Sanskrit and Persian meaning fortified place of an auspicious personage. Subsequent discoveries have confirmed that the earlier name was Pundranagara or Paundravardhanapura, and that the present name of Mahasthangarh is of later origin.
  
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  Maldives
  Maldives (ⁱ/ˈmɒldaɪvz/ or /ˈmɒldiːvz/), (Dhivehi: ދިވެހިރާއްޖެ, Dhivehi Raa'je), officially Republic of Maldives (Dhivehi: ދިވެހިރާއްޖޭގެ ޖުމްހޫރިއްޔާ, Dhivehi Raa'jeyge Jumhooriyya), also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls oriented north-south off India's Lakshadweep Islands, between Minicoy Island and Chagos Archipelago. It stands in the Laccadive Sea, about 700 kilometres (430 mi) south-west of Sri Lanka and 400 kilometres (250 mi) south-west of India. During the colonial era, the Dutch referred to the country as "Maldivische Eilanden" in their documentation, while "Maldive Islands" is the anglicised version of the local name used by the British, which later came to be written "Maldives".
  The archipelago is located on top of the Chagos-Maldives-Laccadive Ridge, a vast submarine mountain range in the Indian Ocean. Maldives also form a terrestrial ecoregion together with the Chagos and the Lakshadweep. The atolls of Maldives encompass a territory spread over roughly 90,000 square kilometres (35,000 sq mi), making it one of the world's most geographically dispersed countries. Its population of 328,536 (2012) inhabits 200 of its 1,192 islands. Maldives' capital and largest city Malé had a population of 103,693 in 2006. It is located at the southern edge of North Malé Atoll, in the Kaafu Atoll. It is also one of the Administrative divisions of the Maldives. Traditionally it was the King's Island where the ancient Maldive Royal dynasties were enthroned.
  
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  Meghna River
  The Meghna River (Bengali: মেঘনা নদী) is an important river in Bangladesh, one of the three that forms the Ganges Delta, the largest on earth fanning out to the Bay of Bengal. Being a part of the Surma-Meghna River System, Meghna is formed inside Bangladesh by the joining of different rivers originating from the hilly regions of eastern India. The river meets Padma River in Chandpur District. The river ultimately flows into the Bay of Bengal in Bhola District.
  Major tributaries of the Meghna include the Dhaleshwari River, Gumti River, and Feni River. The Meghna empties into the Bay of Bengal via four principal mouths, named Tetulia, Shahbazpur, Hatia, and Bamni.
  The Meghna is the widest river among those that flow completely inside the boundaries of Bangladesh. At one point near Bhola, Meghna is 12 km wide. In its lower reaches this river follows almost a straight line in its path. Despite its very calm and quiet look, this river is the cause of many deaths every year. Several ferry sinkings in the past have killed hundreds, like the MV Salahuddin-2 and the MV Nasrin-1. Near Chandpur it is very dangerous.
  
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  Mughal Empire
  The Mughal Empire, Shahan-e-Gurkhani, Shahan-e-Mughal, Sultanate-e-Mughliya, Daulat-e-Mughliya (Persian: شاهان گورکانی‎ Shāhān-e Gūrkānī; Urdu: مغلیہ سلطنت; self-designation: گوركانى Gūrkānī ),‎ or Mogul (also Moghul) Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were direct descendants of Genghis Khan through Chagatai Khan and Timur. The Mughal Empire began in 1526; at the height of their power in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, they controlled most of the Indian Subcontinent—extending from Bengal in the east to Balochistan in the west, Kashmir in the north to the Kaveri basin in the south. According to "Babur-Nama", Kazakh tribal aristocracy along with number of other Turkic soldiers participated actively in the campaign of Babur, which made great influence over the development of Mughal Empire. Its population at that time has been estimated as between 110 and 150 million, over a territory of more than 3.2 million square kilometres (1.2 million square miles).
  
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  Munshiganj District
  Munshiganj (Bengali: মুন্সীগঞ্জ) also historically known as Bikrampur is a district in central Bangladesh. It is a part of the Dhaka Division and borders Dhaka District.
  Total land area is 235974 acres (954 km²), out of which 138472 acres (560 km²) are cultivable and 5609 acres (23 km²) are fallow land. It has no forest area. 40277 acres (163 km²) of land is irrigated while 26242 acres (106 km²) of land is under river. It has 14 rivers of 155 km passing through.
  The district consists of 6 upazilas:
  Munshiganj is one of the largest producer of potato in Bangladesh. It produces significant amount of jute, rice, wheat and other vegetables. It also produces sugar cane and banana.
  Bikrampur (Munshiganj) was the political and cultural centre of ancient Bengal. It was officially known as Bikrampur until 1986 and was part of Dhaka District. The remains of the city of Bikrampur, the capital of the ancient kingdoms of southeastern Bengal, are lost and its location can only be guessed on the basis of available data. Bangla, Old History
  
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  Narayanganj
  Narayanganj (Bengali: নারায়ণগঞ্জ Naraeongônj) is a city in central Bangladesh. It is located in the Narayanganj District, near the capital city of Dhaka and has a population of 220,000. The city is on the bank of the Shitalakshya River. The river port of Narayanganj is one of the oldest in Bangladesh. It is also a center of business and industry, especially the jute trade and processing plants, and the textile sector of the country. It is nicknamed the Dundee of Bangladesh due to the presence of lots of jute mills. Dundee was the first industrialised Juteopolis in the world.
  The town got its name from Bicon Lal Pandey, a Hindu religious leader who was also known as Benur Thakur or Lakhsmi Narayan Thakur. He leased the area from the British East India Company in 1766 following the Battle of Plassey. He donated the markets and the land on the banks of the river as Devottor or Given to God property, bequeathed for maintenance expenses for the worship of the god Narayan. A post office was set up in 1866, and Dhaka-Narayanganj telegraph service was started from 1877. The Bank of Bengal introduced the first telephone service in 1882.
  
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  Nepal
  Nepal (नेपाल) (ⁱ/nɛˈpɔːl/ ne-PAWLNepali: नेपाल [neˈpal] ( listen)), officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India. Specifically, the Indian states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, and Sikkim border Nepal, while across the Himalayas lies the Tibetan Autonomous Region. With an area of 147,181 square kilometres (56,827 sq mi) and a population of approximately 27 million (and 2 million absentee workers living abroad), Nepal is the world's 93rd largest country by land mass and the 41st most populous country. Kathmandu is the nation's capital and the country's largest metropolis. Kathmandu Valley itself has estimated population of 5 million.
  Nepal has a rich geography. The mountainous north has eight of the world's ten tallest mountains, including the highest point on Earth, Mount Everest, called Sagarmatha in Nepali. It contains more than 240 peaks over 20,000 ft (6,096 m) above sea level. The fertile and humid south is heavily urbanized.
  
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  Orissa
  
  
  Orissa /ɔːˈrɪsə/ (Oriya: ଓଡ଼ିଶା [oˑɽisaˑ], Hindi: ओड़िशा – Oṛiśā), officially spelled Odisha, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BCE. The modern state of Orissa was established on April 1, 1936, as a province in India, and consists predominantly of Oriya speakers. April 1^st is therefore celebrated as Utkala Dibasa (formation day of Orissa). Cuttack remained the capital of the state for over eight centuries until April 13, 1948 when Bhubaneswar was officially declared as the new capital of Orissa, and is the present capital of this state.
  Orissa is the ninth largest state by area in India, and the eleventh largest by population. Oriya (officially spelled Odia) is the official and most widely spoken language, spoken by three quarters of the population. Orissa has a relatively unindented coastline (about 480 km long) and lacked good ports, except for the deepwater facility at Paradip, until the recent launch of the Dhamara Port (The Dhamra Port Company Limited (DPCL) is a 50:50 joint venture of L&T and Tata Steel. DPCL has been awarded a concession by Government of Orissa to build and operate a port north of the mouth of river Dhamra in Bhadrak district). The narrow, level coastal strip, including the Mahanadi River delta supports the bulk of the population. The interior of the state is mountainous and sparsely populated.Deomali at 1672 m is the highest point of the state. Orissa is subject to intense cyclones. The most intense one, in October 1999, Tropical Cyclone 05B caused severe damage and nearly 15,000 deaths.
  
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  Pakistan
  Pakistan (ⁱ/ˈpækɨstæn/ or ⁱ/pɑːkiˈstɑːn/; Urdu: پاکستان) (Urdu pronunciation: [paːkɪˈst̪aːn] ( listen)), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (Urdu: اسلامی جمہوریۂ پاکستان), is a sovereign country in South Asia. It sits at the crossroads of the strategically important regions of South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046-kilometre (650 mi) coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west and north, Iran to the southwest and China in the far northeast. It is separated from Tajikistan by Afghanistan's narrow Wakhan Corridor in the north, and it shares a marine border with Oman.
  The territory of modern Pakistan was the site of several ancient cultures, including the Neolithic Mehrgarh and the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilisation, and has undergone invasions or settlements by Hindu, Persian, Indo-Greek, Islamic, Turco-Mongol, Afghan and Sikh cultures. Thus the area has been ruled by numerous empires and dynasties, including the Indian Mauryan Empire, the Persian Achaemenid Empire, the Arab Umayyad Caliphate, the Mongol Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Durrani Empire, the Sikh Empire and the British Empire. As a result of the Pakistan Movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and India's struggle for independence, Pakistan was created in 1947 as an independent nation for Muslims from the regions in the east and west of India where there was a Muslim majority. Initially a dominion, Pakistan adopted a new constitution in 1956, becoming an Islamic republic. A civil war in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh.
  
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  Peshawar
  Peshawar (Pashto: پېښور Pēx̌awar; Hindko: پيشور Pishōr; Urdu: پشاور Pishāwar; Persian: پیشاور‎ P īshāwar;  pronunciation (help·info)) is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as NWFP), and the administrative centre and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated in a large valley near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass. Known as "City on the Frontier", Peshawar's strategic location on the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia has made it one of the most culturally vibrant and lively cities in the greater region. Peshawar is irrigated by various canals of the Kabul River and by its right tributary, the Bara River.
  Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities. In the last three decades, there has been a significant increase in urban population, in part due to internal migration of people in search of better employment opportunities, education, and services, and in part because of the influx of Afghan refugees and other people displaced by military operations and civil unrest in neighboring regions. Peshawar is the major educational, political and business center of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
  
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  Portuguese empire
  The Portuguese Empire (Portuguese: Império Português), also known as the Portuguese Overseas Empire (Ultramar Português) or the Portuguese Colonial Empire (Império Colonial Português), was the first global empire in history. In addition, it was the longest-lived of the modern European colonial empires, spanning almost six centuries, from the capture of Ceuta in 1415 to the handover of Macau in 1999 or the grant of sovereignty to East Timor in 2002. The empire spread throughout a vast number of territories that are now part of 53 different sovereign states.
  Portuguese sailors began exploring the coast of Africa in 1419, using recent developments in navigation, cartography and maritime technology such as the caravel, in order that they might find a sea route to the source of the lucrative spice trade. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and in 1498, Vasco da Gama reached India. In 1500, either by an accidental landfall or by the crown's secret design, Pedro Álvares Cabral discovered Brazil on the South American coast. Over the following decades, Portuguese sailors continued to explore the coasts and islands of East Asia, establishing forts and factories as they went. By 1571, a string of outposts connected Lisbon to Nagasaki along the coasts of Africa, the Middle East, India, and Asia. This commercial network brought great wealth to Portugal.
  
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  Rajshahi
  The city of Rajshahi (Bengali: রাজশাহী) is the divisional headquarters of Rajshahi division as well as the administrative district that bears its name and is one of the six metropolitan cities of Bangladesh. Often referred to as Silk City and Education City, Rajshahi is located in the north-west of the country and has an estimated population of around 1000,000 people. Its total area is 96.69 km² (37.33 sq mi) and is situated on the northern banks of the river Padma (or Ganges which is one of the major rivers of the Indian subcontinent). Rajshahi consists of 4 Thanas, 35 Wards and 175 Mahallahs.
  Rajshahi was formerly known as Rampur Boalia. An epigraphic record engraved on the Dargah (mausoleum) of the famous saint Hazrat Shah Makdhum (Rh.) indicates that the antiquity of Rajshahi goes back to at least 1634 A.D. The town was given importance in 1825, when the East India Company shifted the administrative headquarters of the district of Rajshahi from Natore to then Rampur Boalia, mainly for the ease of communication from Calcutta through the Hooghly river, Bhairab River and Padma river. Rajshahi Municipality, which was one of the first municipalities in Bangladesh, was established in 1876. Rajshahi Municipality was renamed as Rajshahi Pourashabha, and finally, Rajshahi Pourshava was declared Rajshahi City Corporation in 1991. Besides the City Corporation, a governing body named Rajshahi Unnayan Kortripokhkho (Rajshahi Development Authority-RDA) is there to plan the development of the city and to coordinate all the development related work.
  
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  Sandakfu
  Sandakfu or Sandakphu (3636 m; 11929 ft) is the highest peak in the state of West Bengal, India. It is situated at the edge of the Singalila National Park in Darjeeling district on the West Bengal-Sikkim border, and is the highest point of the Singalila Ridge. Sandakphu has a small village on the peak with a number of hostels. The peaks of Kanchendzonga and Everest can be seen from its summit.
  From Sandakphu the best view of the mountain Kanchendzonga is possible, which is known as the sleeping Buddha or the sleeping Shiva.
  Sandakphu can be reached by trekking. The trekking starts from Manebhanjan via Chitrey, Meghma, Tonglu, Tumling, Gairibas, Kala Pokhri, Bekhey Bhanjan to Sandakphu.
  The trek along the Singalila Ridge to Sandakphu and Phalut is one of the most popular ones in the Eastern Himalayas due to the grand vistas of the Kanchenjunga range and the Everest range which can be seen from the ridge, and also for the seasonal wildflower blooms and birding. Treks begin at Manebhanjan which is 51 km (1.5 hours by road) from Darjeeling.
  
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  Santiniketan
  Santiniketan (Bengali: শান্তিনিকেতন Shantiniketôn) is a small town near Bolpur in the Birbhum district of West Bengal, India, approximately 180 kilometres north of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). It was made famous by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, whose vision became what is now a university town (Visva-Bharati University) that attracts thousands of visitors each year. Santiniketan is also a tourist attraction because Rabindranath Tagore wrote many of his literary classics here, and his house is a place of historical importance.
  Santiniketan was previously called Bhubandanga (named after Bhuban Sinha). This area was gifted from the Sinha family (family of Lord SP Sinha) to the Tagore family. Rabindranath's father, Maharshi Debendranath Tagore, found it very peaceful and renamed it Santiniketan, which means abode (niketan) of peace (shanti). It was here that Rabindranath Tagore started Patha Bhavana, the school of his ideals, whose central premise was that learning in a natural environment would be more enjoyable and fruitful. After he received the Nobel Prize (1913), the school was expanded into a university in 1921. By 1951, it had become one of India's central universities. Many world famous teachers came to be associated with it, including C.F. Andrews and Alex Aronson. Some of its illustrious students are Gayatri Devi, Indira Gandhi, Satyajit Ray, Abdul Ghani Khan and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen.
  
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  Siliguri
  Siliguri ( pronunciation (help·info), Bengali: শিলিগুড়ি Nepali: सिलीगुड़ी ) also known as Gateway of North East India is a city in the Indian state of West Bengal. Siliguri is located on the banks of the Mahananda River and the foothills of the Himalayas, it is a principal commercial, tourism, transportation, and educational centre of North Bengal.
  As of 2011, the city had 5 lakhs residents; the urban agglomeration, which comprises the city and its suburbs, was home to approximately 7 lakhs, making it the most populous city in North Bengal. It is also the transit point for air, road and rail traffic to the neighbouring countries of Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, and to the North East. It is famous for its four 'T's i.e.; Tea, Transport, Tourism and Timber. Presently, Siliguri has been witnessing an economic boom in the organised retail, hospitality and real estate industries due to population growth and its strategic geographical location. It is the largest city in the entire North East. The total area of Siliguri Metro is 210 sq km whereas the suburbs area comprise 62 sq KM. The city of Siliguri runs 48km from North to south and 34km from east to west. Siliguri is a commercial hub for the North East drawing in many new residents from other states.
  
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  Somapura Mahavihara
  
  Somapura Mahavihara (Sanskrit; Bengali: সোমপুর মহাবিহার Shompur Môhabihar) in Paharpur, Badalgachhi Upazila, Naogaon District, Bangladesh (25°1'51.83"N, 88°58'37.15"E) is among the best known Buddhist viharas in the Indian Subcontinent and is one of the most important archeological sites in the country. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.
  A number of monasteries grew up during the Pāla period in ancient Bengal and Magadha. According to Tibetan sources, five great Mahaviharas stood out: Vikramashila, the premier university of the era; Nalanda, past its prime but still illustrious, Somapura Mahavihara, Odantapurā, and Jaggadala. The five monasteries formed a network; "all of them were under state supervision" and there existed "a system of co-ordination among them . . it seems from the evidence that the different seats of Buddhist learning that functioned in eastern India under the Pāla were regarded together as forming a network, an interlinked group of institutions," and it was common for great scholars to move easily from position to position among them.
  
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  Sri Lanka
  Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (ⁱ/ʃriː ˈlɑːŋkə/, /sriːˈlɑːŋkə/, or /sriːˈlæŋkə/;Sinhala: ශ්‍රී ලංකාව, Tamil: இலங்கை), is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent in South Asia. Known until 1972 as Ceylon ( /sɨˈlɒn/, /seɪˈlɒn/, or /siːˈlɒn/), Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar, the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the Maldives.
  As a result of its location in the path of major sea routes, Sri Lanka is a strategic naval link between West Asia and South East Asia. It was an important stop on the ancient Silk Road. Sri Lanka has also been a center of the Buddhist religion and culture from ancient times, being the nation where the Buddhist teachings were first written down as well as the oldest continually Buddhist country. Sri Lanka boasts a diverse range of cultures, languages and religions. The Sinhalese people form the majority of the population; Tamils, who are concentrated in the north and east of the island, form the largest ethnic minority. Other communities include Moors, Burghers, Kaffirs, Malays and the aboriginal Vedda people.
  
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  Sundarbans
  The Sundarbans (Bengali: সুন্দরবন, Shundorbôn) is the largest single block of tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the world. The Sunderbans is a UNESCO World Heritage Site covering parts of India and Bangladesh.
  The Sundarbans National Park is a National Park, Tiger Reserve, and a Biosphere Reserve located in the Sundarbans delta in the Indian state of West Bengal. Sundarbans South and Sundarbans West are two protected forests in Bangladesh. This region is densely covered by mangrove forests, and is one of the largest reserves for the Bengal tiger.
  The name Sundarban can be literally translated as "beautiful forest" in the Bengali language (Shundor, "beautiful" and bon, "forest"). The name may have been derived from the Sundari trees that are found in Sundarbans in large numbers. Alternatively, it has been proposed that the name is a corruption of Samudraban (Bengali: সমুদ্রবন Shomudrobôn "Sea Forest") or Chandra-bandhe (name of a primitive tribe). However, the generally accepted view is the one associated with Sundari trees.
  
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  Sylhet
  Sylhet (Sylheti: ছিলট Silôţ, Bengali: সিলেট Ṣileţ), is a major city in north-eastern Bangladesh. It is the main city of Sylhet Division and Sylhet District, and was granted metropolitan city status in March 2009. Sylhet is located on the banks of the Surma Valley and is surrounded by the Jaintia, Khasi and Tripura hills. The city is approaching a population of 500,000 people while also having a high population density.^{[citation needed]} It is one of the largest cities in Bangladesh. The Sylhet region is well known for its tea gardens and tropical forests. The city is also known for its business boom; being one of the richest cities in Bangladesh, with new investments of hotels, shopping malls and luxury housing estates, brought mainly by expatriates living in the United Kingdom.
  Sylhet has a history of conquests and heritage from different types of cultures. The city is described as a City of Saints, with the mausoleum of the great saint Hazrat Shah Jalal, who brought Islam to Bengal during the 14th century, being located here. During the next few centuries it was part of the state of Assam during the rule of British India. After independence between India and Pakistan, Sylhet was then part of East Pakistan based on a referendum, and is now part of Bangladesh. It played a major role in the Bangladesh Liberation War during the 1970s.^{[citation needed]}
  
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  Tripura
  Tripura /ˈtrɪpərə/ is a state in North East India, and one of the Seven Sister States. The third smallest state of India, it occupies an area of 4,051 sq mi (10,490 km²). Tripura is surrounded by Bangladesh on the north, south, and west. The Indian states of Assam and Mizoram lie to its east. The state capital is Agartala. A landlocked state, Tripura's geography is characterized by several north-south laid parallel hill ranges with intervening valleys, and plain in the western part of the state.
  The area of the modern Tripura was part of an independent Tripuri kingdom that ruled for several centuries, probably millennia. It was known as "Hill Tippera" during the British rule in India. The kingdom merged with independent India on 15 October 1949 by the Tripura Merger Agreement. Ethnic strife between original tribes and largely migrant Bengali population led to tension and scattered violence since 1970s. Establishment of an autonomous tribal zone soothed such tensions to a great extent, and the state remains peaceful, as of 2012.
  
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  United Kingdom
  The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.
  The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Associated with the UK, but not constitutionally part of it, are three Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1922, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.
  
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  West Bengal
  West Bengal /bɛŋˈɡɔːl/ (proposed new English name: Paschim Banga) is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. Covering a total area of 34,267 sq mi (88,750 km²), it is bordered by the countries of Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh, and the Indian states of Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar, Sikkim, and Assam. The state capital is Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). West Bengal encompasses two broad natural regions: the Gangetic Plain in the south and the sub-Himalayan and Himalayan area in the north.
  In the 3rd century BC, the broader region of Bengal was conquered by the emperor Ashoka. In the 4th century AD, it was absorbed into the Gupta Empire. From the 13th century onward, the region was ruled by several sultans, powerful Hindu states and Baro-Bhuyan landlords, until the beginning of British rule in the 18th century. The British East India Company cemented their hold on the region following the Battle of Plassey in 1757, and the city of Calcutta (now known as Kolkata) served for many years as the capital of British India. The early and prolonged exposure to British administration resulted in expansion of Western education, culminating in development in science, institutional education, and social reforms of the region, including what became known as the Bengal Renaissance. A hotbed of the Indian independence movement through the early 20th century, Bengal was divided in 1947 along religious lines into two separate entities: West Bengal – a state of India – and East Bengal, which initially joined the new nation of Pakistan, before becoming part of modern-day Bangladesh in 1971.
  
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  Akbar
  Jalal-ud-Din Muhammad Akbar (Persian: جلال الدین محمد اکبر ‎ - Jalāl ud-Dīn Muḥammad Akbar), also known as Shahanshah Akbar-e-Azam or Akbar the Great (14 October 1542  – 27 October 1605), was the third Mughal Emperor. He was of Timurid descent; the son of Emperor Humayun, and the grandson of the Mughal Emperor Zaheeruddin Muhammad Babur, the ruler who founded the Mughal dynasty in India. At the end of his reign in 1605 the Mughal empire covered most of northern and central India. He is most appreciated for having a liberal outlook on all faiths and beliefs and during his era, culture and art reached a zenith as compared to his predecessors.
  Akbar was 13 years old when he ascended the Mughal throne in Delhi (February 1556), following the death of his father Humayun. During his reign, he eliminated military threats from the powerful Pashtun descendants of Sher Shah Suri, and at the Second Battle of Panipat he decisively defeated the newly self-declared Hindu king Hemu. It took him nearly two more decades to consolidate his power and bring all the parts of northern and central India into his direct realm. He influenced the whole of the Indian Subcontinent as he ruled a greater part of it as an emperor. As an emperor, Akbar solidified his rule by pursuing diplomacy with the powerful Hindu Rajput caste, and by marrying Rajput princesses.
  
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• Alaol
  Alaol (Bengali: আলাওল; 1607?-1680? CE) was a medieval poet in Bengal. He is thought to be born around 1607 in Faridpur in the present-day Bangladesh. His most well known work is Padmavati, which depicts the story of Padmavati, the Sinhala princess and the queen of Chittor. There is an important literary prize named after him in Bangladesh, the Alaol Puroshkar. He is widely believed to be one of the most talented of Bengali medieval poets.
  Alaol was born in Faridpur. He was son of a minister of Majlis Qutb, the ruler of Fatwabad. Alaol is believed to be kidnapped by Portuguese pirates while travelling on boat with his father. He was taken to Arakan. Alaol worked as a bodyguard for a while, but slowly his reputation as a poet spread. His talent was first recognised by Solaiman, a minister of king Srichandra Sudharma (Tsandathudhamma) of Arakan. He completed Daulat Qazi's Sati Mayana-Lor-Chandrani and translated Tohfa at his request. Later, prince Magan Thakur, the foster-son of the sister of king Srichandra Sudharma and co-regent o£ Arakan and the prime minister of Arakan, secured him a place in the court of Arakan.
  
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  Alexander the Great
  Alexander III of Macedon (20/21 July 356 – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great (Greek: Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Μέγας, Aléxandros ho Mégas from the Greek αλέξω alexo "to defend, help" + ανήρ aner "man"), was a king of Macedon, a state in northern ancient Greece. Born in Pella in 356 BC, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle until the age of 16. By the age of thirty, he had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, stretching from the Ionian Sea to the Himalayas. He was undefeated in battle and is considered one of history's most successful commanders.
  Alexander succeeded his father, Philip II of Macedon, to the throne in 336 BC after Philip was assassinated. Upon Philip's death, Alexander inherited a strong kingdom and an experienced army. He was awarded the generalship of Greece and used this authority to launch his father's military expansion plans. In 334 BC, he invaded Persian-ruled Asia Minor and began a series of campaigns that lasted ten years. Alexander broke the power of Persia in a series of decisive battles, most notably the battles of Issus and Gaugamela. He subsequently overthrew the Persian King Darius III and conquered the entirety of the Persian Empire. At that point, his empire stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River.
  
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  Alivardi Khan
  Ali Vardi Khan (Bengali: আলীবর্দী খাঁ, Urdu: علی وردی خان; May 10, 1671 – April 9, 1756) was the Nawab of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa during 1740 - 1756. He toppled the Nasiri Dynasty of Bengal and took power as Nawab.
  His father was Shah Quli Khan Mirza Muhammad Madani and his mother was the daughter of Nawab Aqil Khan Afshar. His birth name was Mirza Muhammad Ali (Urdu: مرزا محمد علی). He was a Shia Muslim. His father was an employee of Azam Shah, the son of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. Azam Shah also employed the sons of Mirza Muhammad. But after the death of Azam Shah, the family fell into poverty. His two sons Muhammad Ali and Mirza Ahmed managed to find employment under the Subahdar of Orissa, Shuja-ud-Din. After Shuja-ud-Din was promoted to Nawab, the two brothers' future prospects widened.
  In 1728, Shuja-ud-Din promoted Muhammad Ali to Faujdar (General) of Rajmahal and entitled him as Ali Vardi Khan. In 1733, he was assigned as the Naib Nazim (Deputy Subahdar) of Bihar. A year later he was titled Mahabat Jang and the rank of 5000 by Nawab Shuja-ud-Din. Ali Vardi Khan aspired for larger authority. On 10 April 1740 in the Battle of Giria, he defeated and killed Shuja-ud-Din's successor, Sarfaraz Khan. Thus he took control of Bengal and Bihar. Then on 3 March 1741 he defeated Rustam Jang, deputy governor of Orissa and a relative of Sarfaraz Khan, in the battle of Phulwarion.Orissa also went under control of Ali Vardi Khan.
  
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  Anga
  Anga (अंग aṅga) was a kingdom that flourished on the eastern Indian subcontinent in the 6th century BCE until taken over by Magadha in the same century. Counted among the "sixteen great nations" (solas Mahajanapadas) in Buddhist texts like the Anguttara Nikaya, Anga also finds mention in the Jain Vyakhyaprajnapti’s list of ancient janapadas.
  Some refer that the Angas were grouped with people of ‘mixed origin’, generally in the later ages.
  Based on Mahabharata evidence, the kingdom of the Angas roughly corresponded to the districts of Bhagalpur, Banka, Purnia, Munger, Katihar and Jamui in Bihar and districts of Deoghar, Godda, and Sahebganj in Jharkhand; later extended to include parts of Bengal. The River Champa (modern Chandan) formed the boundaries between the Magadha in the west and Anga in the east. Anga was bounded by river Koshi on the north. According to the Mahabharata, Duryodhana had named Karna the King of Anga.
  Sabhaparava of Mahabharata (II.44.9) mentions Anga and Vanga as forming one country. The Katha-Sarit-Sagara also attests that Vitankapur, a city of Anga was situated on the shores of the sea. Thus the boundaries of Anga may have extended to the sea in the east.
  
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  Aparna Sen
  Aparna Sen (née Dasgupta) (Bengali: অপর্ণা সেন Ôporna Shen; born 25 October 1945) is a critically acclaimed Bengali Indian filmmaker, script writer, and actress. She is the winner of three National Film Awards and eight international film festival awards.
  Aparna Sen was born in Calcutta to a Bengali family, originally from East Bengal (now Bangladesh). Her father is the veteran critic and film-maker Chidananda Dasgupta. Her mother Supriya Dasgupta is the cousin of renowned Bengali poet Jibanananda Das. She spent her childhood in Hazaribagh and Kolkata and had her schooling initially in South Point and later mostly in Modern High School for Girls, Kolkata.
  She studied her B.A. English honors in Presidency College..
  She met the Magnum photographer, Brian Brake, in Kolkata in 1961 when he was visiting India to photograph his Monsoon series. Brake used Sen as the model for what was to become one of his most well known photographs — a shot of a girl holding her face to the first drops of monsoon rain. The photo shoot was set up on a Kolkata rooftop with a ladder and a watering can. Sen described the shoot:
  
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• 
  Bengali people
  The Bengali people are an ethnic community native to the historic region of Bengal (now divided between Bangladesh and India) in South Asia. They speak Bengali (বাংলা Bangla), which is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit and Sanskrit languages. In their native language, they are referred to as বাঙালী (pronounced Bangali). They primarily belong to Indo-Aryan and Mongolo-Dravidian stock,and are closely related to Austro-Asiatic, Dravidian, Assamese, Sinhalese, Munda, and Tibeto-Burman linguistic/ethnic stocks. As such, Bengalis are a homogeneous but considerably diverse ethnic group with heterogeneous origins. They are the second largest single ethnic group in the world^{[citation needed]}.
  They are mostly concentrated in Bangladesh and the states of West Bengal and Tripura in India. There are also a number of Bengali communities scattered across North-East India, New Delhi, and the Indian states of Assam, Jharkhand, Bihar, Maharastra, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa. In addition, there are significant Bengali communities beyond South Asia; some of the most well established Bengali communities are in the United Kingdom and United States. Large numbers of Bengalis (mainly from Sylhet) have settled in Britain, mainly living in the East boroughs of London, numbering from around 300,000; in the USA there are about 150,000 living across the country, mainly in New York. There are also millions living across the Gulf States, majority of whom are living as foreign workers. There are also many Bengalis in Pakistan, Malaysia, South Korea, Canada, Japan, Australia and many other countries (see Bangladeshi diaspora).
  
  wn.com/Bengali_people
• Chandidas
  Chandidas (Bengali: চণ্ডীদাস; born 1408 CE) refers to (possibly more than one) medieval poet of Bengal. Over 1250 poems related to the love of Radha and Krishna in Bengali with the bhanita of Chandidas are found with three different sobriquets along with his name, Baḍu, Dvija and Dina as well as without any sobriquet also. It is not clear whether these bhanitas actually refer to the same person or not. It is assumed by some modern scholars that the poems which are current in the name of Chandidas are actually the works of at least four different Chandidas, who are distinguished from each other by their sobriquets found in the bhanitas. It is also assumed that the earliest of them was Ananta Baḍu Chandidas, who has been more or less identified as a historical figure born in the 14th century in Birbhum district of the present-day West Bengal state and wrote the lyrical Srikrishna Kirtan (Songs in praise of Krishna). It might also refer to the Indian cricketer, Sourav Chandidas Ganguly.
  
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  Devapala
  Deva Pala (Deva Pala the Great), (ruled 810–850 CE) was a powerful emperor from the Pala Empire of Bengal region in the Indian Subcontinent. He was the third king in the line and had succeeded his father, emperor Dharamapala (ruled 770–810 CE). He inherited a great empire built by his father but he also made his own significant contributions to it to expand its frontiers.
  Though not much is known about the details of his military campaigns, he is said to have exacted tributes from whole of northern India from Himalayas to Vindhyas and from east to west ocean . More specifically, the inscriptions reveal that his victorious military compaigns led him as far as to Kamboja of northwest and Deccan in the south and that he exterminated the Utkalas, conquered the Pragjyotisha (Assam), shattered the pride of the Hunas, and humbled the lords of Gurjara Pratiharas and the Dravidas.
  Information provided by these inscriptions bears witness to Devapala's encounter with the Kambojas of Kabol valley, which nation, since remote antiquity, had been known for its quality war horses^{[citation needed]}. The Monghyr Charter also bears witness to the fact that the Palas recruited their war horses from this Kamboja of the northwest. King Devapala definitely had some sort of relations with the north-west borderland of India (i.e. Kamboja) which fact also appears probable from his connections with Viradeva, a scholar from Nagarahara, Jalalabad near Kabul whom he had appointed to the post of Abbot of Nalanda in south Bihar . Probably, Devapala had brought Viradeva during his military expedition to Kamboja in north-west .
  
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• Ganesh Pyne
  Ganesh Pyne (Bengali: গণেশ পাইন) (born 1937) is a Calcutta-born Indian artist.
  Pyne was born in Calcutta in 1937. He was a student at the Government College of Arts & Craft, Calcutta between 1955 and 1959. Surprisingly he held his first solo exhibition as late as 1988 at The Village Gallery, New Delhi.
  Pyne started as a watercolourist in the Bengal School mode.
  
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  Gautama Buddha
  Gautama Buddha or Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम बुद्ध; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. The word Buddha is a title for the first awakened being in an era. In most Buddhist traditions, Siddhartha Gautama is regarded as the Supreme Buddha (P. sammāsambuddha, S. samyaksaṃbuddha) of our age, "Buddha" meaning "awakened one" or "the enlightened one." Gautama Buddha may also be referred to as Śākyamuni (Sanskrit: शाक्यमुनि "Sage of the Śākyas"). The Buddha found a Middle Way that ameliorated the extreme asceticism found in the Sramana religions.
  The time of Gautama's birth and death are uncertain: most early 20th-century historians dated his lifetime as c. 563 BCE to 483 BCE, but more recent opinion dates his death to between 486 and 483 BCE or, according to some, between 411 and 400 BCE. UNESCO lists Lumbini, Nepal, as a world heritage site and birthplace of Gautama Buddha. There are also claims about birth place of Gautama Buddha to be Kapileswara, Orissa or Kapilavastu at Piprahwa, Uttar Pradesh He later taught throughout regions of eastern India such as Magadha and Kośala.
  
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• Govinda III
  Govinda III (793–814 CE) was a famous Rashtrakuta ruler who succeeded his illustrious father Dhruva Dharavarsha. He was militarily the most successful emperor of the dynasty with successful conquests from Cape Comorin in the south to Kannauj in the north, from Banaras in the east to Broach (Bharuch) in the west. He held titles such as Prabhutavarsha, Jagattunga, Anupama, Kirthinarayana, Prithvivallabha, Shrivallabha, Vimaladitya, Atishayadhavala and Tribhuvanadhavala. From the Someshvara inscription of 804 it is known that Gamundabbe was his chief queen.
  Though Govinda III became the emperor it was not before having to face some internal family feuds. His elder brother Kambarasa (also known as Stambha) who coveted the throne went to war having formed an alliance of twelve chiefs as written in the Navasari record. Other records like the Sisvayi and Sanjan records mention support to Govinda III from brother Indra and victory against the combined forces of Kambarasa. Shivamara II of Ganga Dynasty of Talakad had joined Kambarasa but after the defeat was imprisoned for a second time while Kambarasa was pardoned and allowed to govern from Gangavadi.
  
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  Greeks
  The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes (Greek: Ἕλληνες, [ˈelines]), are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and other regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world.
  Greek colonies and communities have been historically established in most corners of the Mediterranean, but Greeks have always been centered around the Aegean Sea, where the Greek language has been spoken since antiquity. Until the early 20th century, Greeks were uniformly distributed between the Greek peninsula, the western coast of Asia Minor, Pontus, Egypt, Cyprus and Constantinople; many of these regions coincided to a large extent with the borders of the Byzantine Empire of the late 11th century and the Eastern Mediterranean areas of the ancient Greek colonization.
  In the aftermath of the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922), a large-scale population exchange between Greece and Turkey transferred and confined Christians from Turkey, except Constantinople (effectively ethnic Greeks) into the borders of the modern Greek state and Cyprus. Other ethnic Greek populations can be found from southern Italy to the Caucasus and in diaspora communities in a number of other countries. Today, most Greeks are officially registered as members of the Greek Orthodox Church.
  
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  Hemu
  Samrat Hem Chandra Vikramaditya, Hemu Vikramaditya, Raja Vikramaditya or simply Hemu (Hindi: सम्राट हेम चंद्र विक्रमादित्य) (1501–5 November 1556) was a Hindu emperor of India during the sixteenth century AD. This was one of the crucial periods in Indian history, when the Mughals and Afghans were desperately vying for power.
  The son of a Hindu priest, who later became a food seller, and a vendor of saltpetre at Rewari, Hemu rose to become Chief of Army and Prime Minister of Adil Shah Suri of the Suri Dynasty. He fought Afghan rebels across North India from the Punjab to Bengal and the Mughal forces of Akbar and Humayun in Agra and Delhi, winning 22 battles continuously, without a single setback.
  Hem Chandra acceded to the throne of Delhi on 7 October 1556, assuming the title of "Vikramaditya" that had been earlier adopted by many Hindu kings since the Vedic times. His Rajyabhishek (coronation) as Samrat was held at Purana Quila in Delhi. Hemu re-established the Hindu rule (albeit for a short duration) in North India, after over 350 years of Muslim rule. Some historians say that this rule was on the pattern of a strong Hindu state prevailing in South India for more than three centuries, known as 'Vijaynagar Empire'. Hemu struck coins bearing his title.
  
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  Humayun
  Nasir ud-din Muhammad Humayun (Persian: نصیر الدین محمد همایون‎; full title: Al-Sultan al-'Azam wal Khaqan al-Mukarram, Jam-i-Sultanat-i-haqiqi wa Majazi, Sayyid al-Salatin, Abu'l Muzaffar Nasir ud-din Muhammad Humayun Padshah Ghazi, Zillu'llah; OS 7 March 1508 – OS 17 January 1556) was the second Mughal Emperor who ruled present day Afghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of northern India from 1530–1540 and again from 1555–1556. Like his father, Babur, he lost his kingdom early, but with Persian aid, he eventually regained an even larger one. On the eve of his death in 1556, the Mughal empire spanned almost one million square kilometers.
  He succeeded his father in India in 1530, while his half-brother Kamran Mirza, who was to become a rather bitter rival, obtained the sovereignty of Kabul and Lahore, the more northern parts of their father's empire. He originally ascended the throne at the age of 22 and was somewhat inexperienced when he came to power.
  Humayun lost Mughal territories to the Pashtun noble, Sher Shah Suri, and, with Persian aid, regained them 15 years later. Humayun's return from Persia, accompanied by a large retinue of Persian noblemen, signaled an important change in Mughal court culture, as the Central Asian origins of the dynasty were largely overshadowed by the influences of Persian art, architecture, language and literature and also there are many stone carved and Persian language In India from the time of Humayun also thousands of Persian manuscript in India.
  
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  James Rennell
  Major James Rennell, FRS (3 December 1742 – 29 March 1830) was an English geographer, historian and a pioneer of oceanography.
  Rennell was born near Chudleigh in Devon. His father, John Rennell, an officer in the Royal Artillery, was killed in action shortly after the birth of his son; his mother made a "poor second marriage", leading to Rennell being brought up by a guardian, the Rev. Gilbert Burrington, vicar of Chudleigh.
  Rennell entered the navy as a midshipman in 1756 at the age of fourteen, and was present at the attack on Cherbourg (1758), and the disastrous action of St Cast in the same year. In 1760 he went out to the East Indian station, and served in the Grafton under Captain Hyde Parker (1714–1782) during the three following years, when he saw some active service, including a cutting-out expedition at Pondicherry. He soon mastered the theory and practice of marine surveying, and, on account of his proficiency in this regard, Parker lent his services to the East India Company. He served for a year on board one of the company's ships bound to the Philippines, with the object 'of establishing new branches of trade with the natives of the intervening places'. During this cruise Rennell drew several charts and plans of harbours, some of which have been engraved by Dalrymple.
  
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• Jamini Roy
  Jamini Roy (Bengali: যামিনী রায়; 11 April 1887 – 24 April 1972) was an Indian painter.
  Jamini Roy was born in 1887 into a middle-class family of land-owners in a village called Beliatore in the District of Bankura in Bengal .
  When he was sixteen he was sent to study at the Government School of Art in Calcutta. He was taught to paint in the prevailing academic tradition drawing Classical nudes and painting in oils and in 1908 he received his Diploma in Fine Art.
  However, he soon realised that he needed to draw inspiration, not from Western traditions, but from his own culture, and so he looked to the living folk and tribal art for inspiration. He was most influenced by the Kalighat Pat, with its bold sweeping brush-strokes. He moved away from his earlier impressionist landscapes and portraits and between 1921 and 1924 began his first period of experimentation with the Santhal dance as his starting point.
  
  
  
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  Kazi Nazrul Islam
  Kazi Nazrul Islam (Bengali: কাজী নজরুল ইসলাম Kazi Nozrul Islam) (25 May 1899–29 August 1976), sobriquet Bidrohi Kobi (Rebel Poet), was a Bangladeshi poet, musician and revolutionary who pioneered poetic works espousing intense spiritual rebellion against fascism and oppression. His poetry and nationalist activism earned him the popular title of Bidrohi Kobi (Rebel Poet). Accomplishing a large body of acclaimed works through his life, Nazrul is officially recognised as the national poet of Bangladesh and commemorated in India.
  Born into a Muslim quazi (justice) family in India, Nazrul received religious education and worked as a muezzin at a local mosque. He learned of poetry, drama, and literature while working with theatrical groups. After serving in the British Indian Army, Nazrul established himself as a journalist in Kolkata (then Calcutta ). He assailed the British Raj in India and preached revolution through his poetic works, such as "Bidrohi" ("The Rebel") and "Bhangar Gaan" ("The Song of Destruction"), as well as his publication "Dhumketu" ("The Comet"). His impassioned activism in the Indian independence movement often led to his imprisonment by British authorities. While in prison, Nazrul wrote the "Rajbandir Jabanbandi" ("Deposition of a Political Prisoner"). Exploring the life and conditions of the downtrodden masses of India , Nazrul worked for their emancipation.
  
  wn.com/Kazi_Nazrul_Islam
• Lakshman Sen
  Lakshman Sen (Bengali: লক্ষ্মণ সেন; reign: 1178–1206) was the fourth king of the Sen dynasty of Bengal, who ruled for about 28 years. Lakshman Sen succeeded his father Ballal Sen. The history of his reign can be reconstructed from the epigraphs of his time so far discovered.
  
  
  
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  List of Bengalis
  This article provides lists of famous and notable Bengali people, from West Bengal, India or Bangladesh, or people with Bengali ancestry or people who speak Bengali as their primary language/mother tongue.
  Shama Rahman, Distinguished Rabindra Sangeet Singer, Bangladesh
  
  
  
  wn.com/List_of_Bengalis
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  Muhammad Yunus
  Muhammad Yunus (Bengali: মুহাম্মদ ইউনুস, pronounced Muhammôd Iunus; born 28 June 1940) is a Bangladeshi economist and founder of the Grameen Bank, an institution that provides microcredit (small loans to poor people possessing no collateral) to help its clients establish creditworthiness and financial self-sufficiency. In 2006 Yunus and Grameen received the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts through microcredit to create economic and social development from below". Yunus himself has received several other national and international honors.
  He is a member of advisory board at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology. Previously, he was a professor of economics at Chittagong University where he developed the concepts of microcredit and microfinance. These loans are given to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. He is the author of Banker to the Poor and two books on Social Business Models, and a founding board member of Grameen America and Grameen Foundation. Grameen Intel is just one of hundreds of public and private partnerships now mediated through Youth & Yunus. In early 2007 Yunus showed interest in launching a political party in Bangladesh named Nagorik Shakti (Citizen Power), but later discarded the plan. He is one of the founding members of Global Elders.
  
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  Murshid Quli Khan
  Murshid Quli Khan (Bengali: মুর্শিদ কুলি খান) was the first Nawab of Bengal. In fact circumstances resulted in his being the first independent ruler of Bengal post the death of Emperor Aurangzeb. Though he continued to recognize the nominal overlordship of the Mughal Emperor, for all practical purposes he was the Nawab of Bengal.The founder of the Nasiri, Murshid Quli Jafar Khan, was born a poor Deccani Oriya Brahmin before being sold into slavery and bought by one Haji Shafi Isfahani, a Persian merchant from Isfahan who converted him to Islam.
  The decay and downfall of the Mughal Empire began in right earnest after the reign of Aurangzeb. The Peacock Throne in Delhi became a "musical chair" for the successors of Aurangzeb and fueled by court intrigues of numerous nobles the tenure between 1707 and 1719 saw no less than eight Mughal Emperors (more than the sum of the last 180 years) namely Bahadur Shah I, Jahandar Shah, Farrukh Siyar, Rafi ud-Darajat, Rafi ud-Daulah, Neku Siyar, Muhammad Ibrahim and finally some stability came in the form of Muhammad Shah in 1719.
  
  wn.com/Murshid_Quli_Khan
• Nandalal Bose
  Nandalal Bose (Bengali: নন্দলাল বসু, Nondo-lal Boshū) (3 December 1882 – 16 April 1966) was a notable Indian painter of Bengal school of art. A pupil of Abanindranath Tagore, Bose was known for "Indian style" of painting. He became the principal of Kala Bhawan, Shanti Niketan in 1922. He was influenced by the Tagore family and the murals of Ajanta, his classic works include paintings of scenes from Indian mythologies, women, and village life.^{[citation needed]}
  Today, his paintings are considered among India's best modern paintings by many critics.. In 1976, the Archaeological Survey of India, Department of Culture, Govt. of India declared his works among the "nine artists", whose work "not being antiquities, were to be hence forth considered to be 'art treasures' .
  Nandalal was born on the 3rd of December, 1882 in a middle-class Bengali family of Kharagpur, a small town in the Monghyr district of Bihar state. His father, Purnachandra Bose, was at that time working in the Darbhanga Estate. His mother Kshetramonidevi was a housewife with a skill in improvising toys and dolls for young Nandalal. From his early days Nandalal began taking an interest in modelling images and later, decorating Puja pandals.
  
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  Pashtun people
  Pashtuns (Pashto: پښتانه Pax̌tānə; also spelled Pushtuns, Pakhtuns or Pukhtuns), also known as ethnic Afghans (Persian: افغان‎) or Pathans (Urdu: پٹھان, Hindi: पठान Paṭhān), are an Eastern Iranian ethnic group with populations primarily in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Pashtuns are typically characterised by their usage of the Pashto language and practice of Pashtunwali, which is a traditional set of ethics guiding individual and communal conduct. Their origins are unclear but historians have come across references to various ancient peoples called Paktha (Pactyans) between the 2nd and the 1st millennium BC, who inhabited the region between the Hindu Kush and Indus River and may be the early ancestors of Pashtuns. Since the 3rd century AD and onward, they have been referred to by the ethnonym "Afghan".
  Often characterised as a warrior and martial race, their history is spread amongst various countries of South, Central and Western Asia, centred around their traditional seat of power in medieval Afghanistan. During the Delhi Sultanate era, the Pashtun Lodi dynasty replaced the Turkic kingdoms as the ruling dynasty in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. Other Pashtuns fought the Persian Empire and the Mughal Empire before obtaining an independent state in the early-18th century, which began with a successful revolution by the Mirwais Hotak followed by conquests by Ahmad Shah Durrani. Pashtuns played a vital role during the Great Game from the 19th century to the 20th century as they were caught between the imperialist designs of the British and Russian empires.
  
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  Persian people
  The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians. The synonymous usage of Iranian and Persian has persisted over the centuries although some modern Western sources use Iranic/Iranian as a wider term that includes the term Persian as well as related Iranian languages and ethnic groups. However, these terms have been used both synonymously as well as in a complementary fashion since ancient times; as the Ancient Iranian peoples such as the Old Persians, Medes, Bactrians, Parthians and Avesta peoples considered themselves to be part of the greater Iranian ethnic stock.
  The term Persian translates to "from or of Persis" which is a region north of the Persian Gulf located in Pars, Iran. It was from this region that Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid empire, united all other Iranian empires (such as the Medes and the Elamites), and expanded the Persian cultural and social influences by incorporating the Babylonian empire, and the Lydian empire. Although not the first Iranian empire, the Achaemenid empire is the first Persian empire well recognized by Greek and Persian historians for its massive cultural, military and social influences going as far as Athens, Egypt, and Libya.
  
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  Pratapaditya
  Maharaja Pratap-Aditya (Bengali: মহারাজা প্রতাপাদিত্য) (1561–1611 CE) was the Hindu King of Jessore and the most prominent of the Baro-Bhuyan of Bengal, who declared independence from the Mughals and established an independent Hindu state in Bengal. His kingdom at its zenith encompassed the districts of Nadia, North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas in West Bengal, as well as extending into modern-day Bangladesh from Kushtia district in north, Barisal in east and Sundarbans and Bay of Bengal to south.
  Pratapaditya's love for the Motherland, fierce spirit of Hindu independence from Muslim yoke, and epic battles against the Mughal imperialists made him the most famous legendary hero for the Hindus in Bengal. His bravery and heroism became the subject of many ballads, none grander than Annadamangal, the magnum opus of Bharat Chandra the greatest medieval poet of Bengal. In the final of the three-part epic, Bharat Chandra introduces Pratapaditya as excerpted below:
  Pratapaditya Roy has been recognized as a national hero in several narratives of Hindu Nationalism where he has been placed alongside Shivaji and Guru Govind Singh for his immortal deeds.
  
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  Rabindranath Tagore
  Rabindranath Tagore (Bengali: রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941), sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region's literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse", he became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. In translation his poetry was viewed as spiritual and mercurial; his seemingly mesmeric personality, flowing hair, and other-worldly dress earned him a prophet-like reputation in the West. His "elegant prose and magical poetry" remain largely unknown outside Bengal. Tagore introduced new prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali literature, thereby freeing it from traditional models based on classical Sanskrit. He was highly influential in introducing the best of Indian culture to the West and vice versa, and he is generally regarded as the outstanding creative artist of modern India.
  A Pirali Brahmin from Calcutta, Tagore wrote poetry as an eight-year-old. At age sixteen, he released his first substantial poems under the pseudonym Bhānusiṃha ("Sun Lion"), which were seized upon by literary authorities as long-lost classics. He graduated to his first short stories and dramas—and the aegis of his birth name—by 1877. As a humanist, universalist internationalist, and strident anti-nationalist he denounced the Raj and advocated independence from Britain. As an exponent of the Bengal Renaissance, he advanced a vast canon that comprised paintings, sketches and doodles, hundreds of texts, and some two thousand songs; his legacy endures also in the institution he founded, Visva-Bharati University.
  
  wn.com/Rabindranath_Tagore
• Raghoji I Bhonsle
  Raghoji I Bhonsle (died 1755) was a Maratha general who took control of the Nagpur Kingdom in east-central India during the reign of Shahu. His successors ruled the kingdom until 1853.
  The Bhonsle family were originally headmen from Deor or Deur (presently in Koregaon Taluka, District Satara and was under Deshmukhi rights of Bhoite Clan), a village in Satara District. Raghoji's grandfather and his two brothers had fought in the armies of Shivaji, and to the most distinguished of them was entrusted a high military command and the collection of chauth (tribute) in Berar.
  Nagpur was then the capital of a Gond kingdom ruled by Chand Sultan, who had moved the capital to Nagpur from Deogarh. On Chand Sultan's death in 1739, there were disputes as to his succession, and his widow invoked the aid of Raghoji, who was governing Berar on behalf of the Maratha. Raghoji, on being called in by the contending Gond factions, replaced the two sons of Chand Sultan on the throne from which they had been ousted by a usurper, and retired to Berar, with a suitable reward for his assistance. Dissensions, however, broke out between the brothers, and in 1743 Raghoji again intervened at the request of the elder brother and drove out his rival. But he had not the heart to give back a second time the country he held within his grasp. Burhan Shan, the Gond Raja, though allowed to retain the outward insignia of royalty, became practically a state pensioner, and all real power passed to the Marathas.
  
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  Raja Sitaram Ray
  Raja Sitaram Ray (Bengali: রাজা সীতারাম রায়) (1658–1714) was an autonomous king, vassal to the Mughal Empire, who revolted against the Empire and established a short lived sovereign Hindu dominion in Bengal.
  Sitaram came from the Kashyap Das clan, one of the nine clans that constitute the Uttar Rarhi Kayasthas. The clan was settled in the Fatehsingh region of Murshidabad. Ramdas Khan Gajdani who became famous in the early 15th century by donating a golden elephant at his mother's sraddha, belonged to this family. His son Anantaram Das was an official at Delhi. After him the next few generations had fallen into penury. The family rose again when Sriram Das obtained the title of Khas Biswas from Man Singh, the then Mughal governor of Bengal. His son Harish Chandra Das rose to further prominence and obtained the title of Rai Raiyan from the Mughals. Harish Chandra's son Udaynarayan, the father of Sitaram rose to the post of a tehsildar under the faujdar of Bhusna.
  When Udaynarayan was posted at the Rajmahal, the capital of Bengal, he married Dayamayi, the daughter of a Kayastha Ghosh family of Mahipatipur in Katwa. Sitaram was born in Mahipatipur, the first child of Udaynarayan and Dayamayi in 1658, some time before Aurangzeb ascended the throne at Delhi. Sitaram's mother was a brave woman. In her girlhood she had fended off a band of dacoits with a khadga.
  
  wn.com/Raja_Sitaram_Ray
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  Santiniketan
  Santiniketan (Bengali: শান্তিনিকেতন Shantiniketôn) is a small town near Bolpur in the Birbhum district of West Bengal, India, approximately 180 kilometres north of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). It was made famous by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, whose vision became what is now a university town (Visva-Bharati University) that attracts thousands of visitors each year. Santiniketan is also a tourist attraction because Rabindranath Tagore wrote many of his literary classics here, and his house is a place of historical importance.
  Santiniketan was previously called Bhubandanga (named after Bhuban Sinha). This area was gifted from the Sinha family (family of Lord SP Sinha) to the Tagore family. Rabindranath's father, Maharshi Debendranath Tagore, found it very peaceful and renamed it Santiniketan, which means abode (niketan) of peace (shanti). It was here that Rabindranath Tagore started Patha Bhavana, the school of his ideals, whose central premise was that learning in a natural environment would be more enjoyable and fruitful. After he received the Nobel Prize (1913), the school was expanded into a university in 1921. By 1951, it had become one of India's central universities. Many world famous teachers came to be associated with it, including C.F. Andrews and Alex Aronson. Some of its illustrious students are Gayatri Devi, Indira Gandhi, Satyajit Ray, Abdul Ghani Khan and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen.
  
  wn.com/Santiniketan
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  Satyajit Ray
  Satyajit Ray ( Shottojit Rae (help·info); 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian Bengali motion-picture director, writer, and illustrator who brought the Indian cinema to world recognition with Pather Panchali (1955; The Song of the Road) and its two sequels, known as the Apu Trilogy. As a director Ray was noted for his humanism, his versatility, and his detailed control over his films and their music. He was one of the greatest filmmakers of the 20th century. Ray was born in the city of Kolkata into a Bengali family prominent in the world of arts and literature. Starting his career as a commercial artist, Ray was drawn into independent filmmaking after meeting French filmmaker Jean Renoir and viewing the Italian neorealist film Bicycle Thieves of Vittorio De Sica during a visit to London.
  Ray directed thirty-seven films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. He was also a fiction writer, publisher, illustrator, graphic designer and film critic. Ray's first film, Pather Panchali (1955), won eleven international prizes, including Best Human Documentary at the Cannes film festival. This film, Aparajito (1956) and Apur Sansar (1959) form The Apu Trilogy. Ray did the scripting, casting, scoring, and editing, and designed his own credit titles and publicity material. Ray received many major awards in his career, including 32 Indian National Film Awards, a number of awards at international film festivals and award ceremonies, and an Academy Honorary Award in 1992. The Government of India honoured him with the Bharat Ratna in 1992.
  
  wn.com/Satyajit_Ray
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  Shashanka
  Shashanka (Bengali: শশাঙ্ক Shôshangko) is often attributed with creating the first separate political entity in a unified Bengal called Gauda and as such is a major figure in Bengali history. He reigned in 7th century AD, and some historians place his rule approximately between 590 AD and 625 AD. He is the contemporary of Harshavardana. His capital was called Karnasuvarna (কর্ণসুবর্ণ Kôrnoshubôrno or কানসোনা Kanshona) and is located in modern Murshidabad. The development of the Bengali calendar is also often attributed to Shashanka as the starting date falls squarely within his reign.
  While Shashanka was known and referred to as the Lord of Gauda, his kingdom included more than just the region of Gauda. By the end of his reign, his domain stretched from Vanga to Bhuvanesha while in the east, his kingdom bordered Kamarupa. Prior to Shashanka, Bengal was divided into three regions, Banga, Samatata and Gauda and was ruled by a feeble ruler belonging to the later Gupta dynasty, Mahasengupta. Shashanka was one of his chieftains who rose to power taking the advantage of the weak ruler. After the death of Mahasengupta, Shashanka drove the later Guptas and other prominent nobles out of the ground to establish his own kingdom Gauda with the capital Karnasubarna.
  
  wn.com/Shashanka
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  Sher Shah Suri
  Sher Shah Suri (1486 – May 22, 1545) (Pashto: فريد خان شیر شاہ سوری - Šīr Šāh Sūrī, Bengali: শের শাহ সুরি), birth name Farid Khan, also known as Sher Khan (The Lion King), was the founder of the Muslim Sur Empire in northern India, with its capital at Delhi. An Afghan (Pathan) by origin, he rebelled against the Mughals and took control of India in 1540 until an accidental death in 1545 when Islam Shah Suri became his successor. He first served as a private before rising to become a commander in the Mughal Army under Babur and then as the governor of Bihar. In 1537, when Babur's son Humayun was elsewhere on an expedition, Sher Khan, power hungry turned on his true master and overran the state of Bengal and established the Sur Empire. A brilliant strategist, Sher Shah proved himself a gifted administrator as well as an able general. His reorganization of the empire laid the foundations for the later Mughal emperors, notably Akbar the Great, son of Humayun.
  During his five year rule from 1540 to 1545, he set up a new template for civic and military administration, issued the first Rupee and re-organised the postal system of India. He further developed Humayun's Dina-panah city and named it Shergarh and revived the historical city of Pataliputra as Patna which had been in decline since the 7th century CE. He is also famously remembered for killing a fully grown tiger with his bare hands in a jungle of Bihar.
  
  wn.com/Sher_Shah_Suri
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  Tareque Masud
  Tareque Masud (Bengali: তারেক মাসুদ; 6 December 1956 – 13 August 2011) was an award-winning Bangladeshi independent film director. He was known for directing the films Muktir Gaan (1995) and Matir Moina (2002), for which he won a two international awards, one of them the International Critics' Prize, FIPRESCI Prize, in the Directors' Fortnight section outside competition at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. He died in a road accident on 13 August 2011 while returning to Dhaka from Manikganj on the Dhaka-Aricha highway after visiting a filming location. His microbus collided head-on with an oncoming passenger bus. The cinematographer Mishuk Munier, a long-time colleague, was also killed in the accident, while Masud's wife Catherine Masud was seriously injured. At the time of his death, Masud was working on a movie titled Kagojer Ful (The Paper Flower). In 2012, he received Ekushey Padak, the highest civilian award of Bangladesh posthumously.
  Tareque Masud was born on 6 December 1956 in Nurpur village, Bhanga Upazila, Faridpur District, East Pakistan. He had started his education in an Islamic madrasah, but the outbreak of the Bangladesh Liberation War against Pakistan forces in 1971 put an end to his studies at the Islamic seminary. After the war, Masud pursued general education. he had completed his HSC from Dhaka College also completed his hons' and Masters degree in History from Dhaka University.
  
  wn.com/Tareque_Masud
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  Turkic peoples
  The Turkic peoples are a collection of ethnic groups that live in northern, central and western Asia, northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds. The term Turkic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people including existing societies such as the Turkish, Azerbaijani, Chuvashes, Kazakhs, Tatars, Kyrgyzs, Turkmens, Uyghurs, Uzbeks, Bashkirs, Qashqai, Gagauzs, Yakuts, Crimean Karaites, Krymchaks, Karakalpaks, Karachays, Nogais and as well as past civilizations such as the Göktürks, Kumans, Kipchaks, Avars, Bulgars, Turgeshes, Khazars, Seljuk Turks, Ottoman Turks, Mamluks, Timurids and possibly Huns and the Xiongnu.
  The distribution of people of Turkic cultural background ranges from Siberia, across Central Asia, to Eastern Europe. As of 2011^[update] the largest groups of Turkic people live throughout Central Asia—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan, in addition to Turkey and Iran. Additionally, Turkic people are found within Crimea, East Turkistan region of western China, northern Iraq, Pakistan, Israel, Russia, Afghanistan, and the Balkans: Moldova, Bulgaria, Romania, and former Yugoslavia. A small number of Turkic people also live in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Small numbers inhabit eastern Poland and the south-eastern part of Finland. There are also considerable populations of Turkic people (originating mostly from Turkey) in Germany, United States, and Australia, largely because of migrations during the 20th century.
  
  wn.com/Turkic_peoples
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  Vasco da Gama
  Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈvaʃku ðɐ ˈɣɐmɐ]) (c. 1460 or 1469 – 24 December 1524) was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India. For a short time in 1524 he was the Governor of Portuguese India, under the title of Viceroy.
  Vasco da Gama was born in either 1460 or 1469 in Sines, on the southwest coast of Portugal, probably in a house near the church of Nossa Senhora das Salas. Sines, one of the few seaports on the Alentejo coast, consisted of little more than a cluster of whitewashed, red-tiled cottages, tenanted chiefly by fisherfolk.
  Vasco da Gama's father was Estêvão da Gama, who had served in the 1460s as a knight of the household of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu and went on to rise in the ranks of the military Order of Santiago. Estêvão da Gama was appointed alcaide-mór (civil governor) of Sines in the 1460s, a post he held until 1478, and continued as a receiver of taxes and holder of the Order's commendas in the region.
  
  wn.com/Vasco_da_Gama

Bengal Tiger (2001)

Genres

• Action
• Crime

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