The lifestyle of the Bengalis has undergone many changes over the millennia of their initial settlements. The people, initially settled in the Bengal region, appear to not to have been the roaming people living on hunting and gathering in forests. In many countries, the primitive people found their shelter in caves and/or under the shade of woodland trees. But the early people of Bengal, when they migrated into and settled in this land, had already acquired a good degree of civilization and did not live by hunting and gathering alone─ they combined agriculture with hunting and gathering. They had permanent dwellings constructed either of bamboo and thatch, which are in modern time known as jhupri lived by the very poor sections of the population, or they lived in pits constructed by them in the ground. The successive development in dwelling was the brick-built houses lived by the richer sections of the population. The changes in dwelling have been from the shelters made of available crude agricultural materials in the ancient to mediaeval times to the modern high rise apartment buildings today. The Bengalis have an unusually rich indigenous culture evolved through generations of practices. With the indigenous culture was added traditions derived from various religions with their spread. Thus, the Bengalis have a common native culture, religious culture, and national culture. The Bengalis have also adopted foreign culture, especially the western culture, to enrich their own culture. The subject matters of this book are the lifestyle and a range of cultural dimensions of the people of Bengal, described in historical perspective. The major issues include lifestyle, customs and festivities, art and architecture, performing arts, and games and pastimes which are organized in seven chapters.