In the present investigation an attempt was made to estimate the genetic diversity among seventy landraces of rice using Mahalanobis D2 analysis which revealed the existence of considerable diversity among the genotypes. Based on the relative magnitude of D2 values, the experimental material was distributed into nine clusters. Out of nine clusters, cluster I was the largest comprising of fifty landraces. Total number of grains panicle-1, decorticated grain length, 100-grain weight, amylose content, time of heading and stem length together contributed maximum (94.16 %) to the total genetic divergence. A wide range of variation was observed in cluster means for all the traits under study. Maximum inter cluster distance was exhibited between clusters VIII and IX followed by clusters V and IX. The greater the distance between two clusters, the wider the genetic diversity among the genotypes of these clusters. Hence hybridization between the landraces from these clusters would produce high heterotic recombinants.