Bengal: Did you mean...?

The island of Sri Lanka (formerly known as Ceylon) became a focus of European attention soon after the Portuguese entry into the Indian Ocean in the late 15th century. Large swaths of the island would come first under Portuguese control...

The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a transformative uprising that shook British rule in South Asia. Sparked in May 1857 by mutinous sepoys ((from Persian sepāhī, for soldier)) of the East India Company in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, the revolt quickly...

An 1818 painting by Benjamin West showing Robert Clive (1725-1774), Governor General of Bengal and representative of the East India Company, meeting the Mughal emperor Shah Alam in 1765 to gain tax collecting rights. (British Library, London...

The course of the River Ganges. Beginning in the Himalaya it runs for 2,700 km to the Bay of Bengal.

Ruins of an indigo factory at Mongalganj, near Bangaon in West Bengal, India. Indigo was an important cash crop for the East India Company and during the British Raj.

A view of Fort William, Calcutta in the 1750s when it was commanded by the British East India Company. The fort was captured by the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daulah, in June 1756. Captured British soldiers who had defended the fort were then...

A silk scroll painting by Shen Du depicting a giraffe given in tribute by King Saif Al-Din Hamzah Shah of Bengal to the Yongle Emperor (r. 1403-1424 CE) of China's Ming Dynasty. The tribute was one of the many collected by Admiral Zheng He...

An 11th century CE slate relief of a dancing Ganesha from North Bengal, India. (Asian Art Museum of Berlin)

This sculpture represents the Buddha on the verge of enlightenment responding to the challenge of the demon Mara. Mara, who profits from chaos and suffering in the world, questioned the Buddha's right to become enlightened. Disturbed from...

A c. 1760 painting showing Robert Clive (1725-1774) and Mir Jafar, future nawab of Bengal, after the battle of Plassey, 23 June, 1757. (National Portrait Gallery, London)