Socio-Cultural Activities of Ancient Civilizations in Bengal

Ancient Bengal had been a 4,000 year old civilization that thrived between the banks of Ganges to Brahmaputra and sustained itself with the riches of Ganges Delta. Remnants of earliest cities in the state dated back to the Vedic Period. The oldest archaeological site in Bangladesh had been Mahasthangarh, which dates back to 700 BCE. And according to wiki sources-the history of Bengal had been intertwined with the history of the broader Indian subcontinent and the surrounding regions of South Asia and Southeast Asia. It included modern-day Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal and Assam?s Karimganj district, located in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent, at the apex of the Bay of Bengal and dominated by the fertile Ganges delta. The advancement of civilization in Bengal dated back four millennia. The Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers acted as a geographic marker of the region, but also connect the region to the broader Indian subcontinent. Bengal, at times, had played an important role in the history of the Indian subcontinent. Hence it had become tremendously important to study the ancient activities and cultural practices of ancient Bengal. And this paper would try to attempt to provide a brief glimpse of ancient civilizations in Bengal and their commercial activities, religion, medical practice, position of women and their social life.