Forty one promising rice varieties of eastern India were evaluated for physico- chemical and cooking characters to study the diversity pattern among the genotypes. The genotypes were grouped into ten clusters. Maximum 11 genotypes were grouped in cluster IV followed by ten in cluster I. The clusters VI, VIII, IX and X are represented by single genotype namely Gayatri, Hanseswari, Satyakrishna and Saket-4 respectively indicating high degree of heterogeneity among the genotypes. The intra cluster distance is highest in cluster IV(D=13.41) followed by cluster V(10.16), cluster II(10.05) and lowest in cluster VII(D=7.31). The coefficient of variation was highest in water uptake(10.1) and volume expansion ratio (6.97)and lowest in hulling%(1.26) The cluster mean for Kernel length and Kernel length after cooking were highest in cluster V. Highest cluster mean was reported in cluster VI for Hulling% and Kernel breadth. Percentage of contribution towards total divergence is highest in alkali spreading value (33.05) and lowest in milling recovery(0.0).Alkali spreading value, kernel length after cooking, amylose content and kernel breadth together accounted for 83.78 percent to the total divergence. So these characters should be considered during hybridization programme.