BENGAL, ben-gal' ( Ilind. Bungfike, Slat. Vangalam, from V adga, one of the five Aryan kingdoms). A licutenant-governorship of British India, situated in the northeastern part of the Empire, extending from about latitude 19° IS' to 28° 15'N. and from about longitude 82° to 93° E. It is bounded by Nepal, Bhutan, and As sam (till 1874 a part of Bengal.) on the north, Assam and Burma on the east, the Bay of Ben gal and Madras on the south, and the North west and Central Provinces and Central India on the west. Thus outlined, the lieutenant-gov ernorship comprises the provinces of Bengal proper, Behar, Orissa, and Chota-Nagpur, be sides the tributary States. The total area of the four provinces under the direct administra tion of Great Britain is 151,543 square miles, while that of the tributary States amounts to 58,500 square miles.
In its topographical conformation Bengal may be regarded as consisting of two river valleys, the western part forming the basin of the Ganges, and the eastern that of the Brahma putra. While in the northern part the surface partakes to some extent of the mountainous character of the neighboring regions, the central, and especially the southeastern part around the vast delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra, is a low plain, whose character is determined solely by the two great water-arteries of the region, and the soil is mostly of an alluvial nature.
With the exception of Egypt, there is hardly another country in the world in which the hydrographic system is such a determining factor in the agricultural and general economic conditions of the country as it is in Bengal. This is especially true of the Ganges. After a long and swift course through the mountainous regions of Northern India, where it receives the drainage of the surrounding country through its numerous tributaries, its course is checked by the more level surface of Bengal, and the im mense quantities of silt brought by the current are deposited through numerous canals upon the surrounding level country. This process of natu ral manuring and periodic rejuvenation of the soil results in extraordinary fertility and pro ductiveness, few regions excelling Bengal in variety or luxuriance of vegetation. In the southeastern part, where the for hun dreds of miles around is overflowed by the waters of the vast number of streams, streamlets, and creeks forming the complicated delta of the Ganges, numerous embankments have been erected to cheek excessive inundation.