ABSTRACT
The earliest known inhabitants of the Chittagong region were probably of Mongoloid, Austric, or Dravidian origin. It is believed that more than 2,000 years before the Common (Christian) Era, these people lived in a sophisticated society whose wealth, commerce, and arts paralleled those of Egypt. Sometime around 2000 B.C. the Aryan invasions began, de stroying this civilization and laying the foundation of much of contemporary society on the Indian subcontinent; Vedic Hinduism was introduced, as was the caste system. The Aryan newcomers, who left records in Sanskrit, referred to the native peoples as dasayus or Namaśūdras; many historians believe that the Namaśūdras were descendants of the original residents of Bangladesh.
