This dataset contains Mg/Ca and Mg/Ca-derived SST data of sediment core MD161-17 from the Bay of Bengal. For Mg/Ca analysis, 30-40 specimens (>150 µm) of G. ruber (white) were used. The sample preparation followed Barker et al. (2003) with slight modifications. Mg/Ca ratios were measured using an Agilent Technologies 700 Series ICP-OES with a CETAX ASX-520 autosampler housed at the Faculty of Geosciences, University of Bremen. Mg/Ca values were then used to estimate SSTs using the equation Mg/Ca=0.449exp(0.09*T) (Anand et al., 2003).