Lying in the eastern end of Gangetic plain, the extending from the Himalayan mountains to the sea, West Bengal has been subjected to a variety of influences from diverse sources. West Bengal's closest links are with the north, its language being related through Sanskrit to the languages of northern India, and its culture being infused with the Brahmanic culture that spread along the course of the Ganges to the delta. The Bengali region has links with the south: it has at times been under the rule of southern dynasties, and has been a source for the spread of Brahmanic culture to southern India as well as to the Southeast Asia. Thus, some Bengali cultural traits- religious practices and rituals, methods of food preparation, and some forms of clothing- indicate a cultural development in some spheres that is more akin to the south than to the north and west.
But despite basic affinities with other parts of India, Bengal has always been a definite cultural region in its own right, distinct from both north and south. Since West Bengal is located in the northeastern corner of India, far from the Hindu Kush mountains, it managed to escape to some extent the far-reaching influences which the earlier invaders had on the Hindu heartland. Bengal was always on the periphery of the great Hindu empires; it was generally the last area to come under, and first to break away from, central control. Though Brahminism spread to Bengal, it did so by fits and starts, and in the process was altered in basic ways by the tribal and folk cultures that already existed in this region. In the earlier history of Bengal was deeply influenced by the teachings of Lord Buddha, who was born on its border about six hundred years ago before Christ. In fact, Buddhism remained the dominant religion of Bengal until the nineth century. When the Sena kings, in contrast to their predecessors, attempted to establish the pure religion and social organization of the midlands, and to purge Bengal of its nonBrahmanic cultural traits. But although the Sena dynasty did effect a solidly caste-based social structure which was to survive for centuries, the work of the Senas was never completed, and in the thirteen century they were overthrown by the Pathans, who were in turn overthrown by the Mughals, who were later replaced by the British. Before the independence and subsequent partitioning of the British colony of India into India and Pakistan in 1947, Bengal was a single province; a political boundary was thereafter created between West Bengal and East Pakistan. In 1971, East Pakistan gained independence and the nation of Bangladesh was created.