Bengali Hindus (Bengali: বাঙালি হিন্দু) are ethnic Bengali adherents of Hinduism, and native to the Bengal region of the Indian Subcontinent. Bengali Hindus speak Bengali, which is classified as a part of the Indo-Aryan language family and adhere to the Shakta and Vaishnava traditions of their native religion, Hinduism. Bengali Hindus form the majority of population in the Indian city of Kolkata, but the city is also home to a sizeable number of other communities such as Marwaris, Biharis, Odias, Muslims etc. Before Independence of India, the city of Dhaka used to have a significant number of Bengali Hindus but their number have considerably dwindled throughout the following decades and they have been overwhelmingly outnumbered by Bengali Muslims. Around the 8th century, Bengali branched o