ABSTRACT
Bengal is a transition zone between South-west and South-east Asia. Arabian, Persian and Turkish influences are noticeable in religious architecture, some art forms, and ceremonial food, some of the clothing and in many words of the Bengali vocabulary. Bengal forms the capstone of the arch formed by the Bay of Bengal, and because of the Tibetan massif to the north it is a comparatively narrow land-bridge between the subcontinent of India and the subcontinent of South-east Asia. It has therefore a strategic position in South Asia. Bangladesh has nineteen major administrative units known as Districts. The Districts are divided into Sub-Divisions, of which there are 62. The next lower level of administration is the Thana, which is the smallest unit which can be conveniently used in a statistical description of distribution. The modern geographical study of Bengal may be said to have begun with James Rennell's Memoris of a Map of Hindoostan.
