History

Bengal has a long history. Even in the great epic Mahabharata, three Bengali princes are mentioned as aspirants for Draupadi's hand. Alexander, the Greek hero had to abandon his dreams of conquering the whole of India in face of the prowess of Bengali fighters. The rulers of Bengal extended their empire over the whole of Aryavarta (N.India) and Dakshinatya (S. India). Even at the great battle of Kurukshettra, a Bengali king fought for the Kauravas. King Basudev of Gaurh (as Bengal was then called) fought with Krishna at Dwarka. King Vijaya Singh spread his rule as far as distant Sri Lanka. Much later, Harshavardhan, the ruler of Uttarakhand (or N. India), had to face a set-back in his dreams of extending his empire, when confronted by Shashanka, king of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.

The State has three main seasons - Hot Dry, from March to early June, Hot Wet, from July to September and Cool, from October to February. The South-West monsoon chiefly determines the weather and rainfall throughout the State, on which the harvest cycle partly depends

The state, West Bengal is long and narrow, running from the delta of the Ganges River system at the Bay of Bengal in the south to the heights of the Himalayas at Darjeeling in the north.  West Bengal, the gateway to the exotic east - is a land of passion and poetry, natural beauty and strong people, marked by a humane element, evident in every facet of their life.Some of the main attractive places of West Bengal include mosques of Malda, the palaces of Murshidabad,the temples of Vishnupur or the Sunderbans - Wildlife Sanctuary.

Climate

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