The East Zone of the Ranji Trophy, 1978-79 was comprised of a number of 4 teams, all the regular participants in the tournament. The teams included the likes of Bihar, Orissa, Assam and Bengal and they were representing different states from the Eastern India. The teams fought hard with each other in the zonal level with an aim of becoming the topper in the zone and also to get a chance for competing with the top teams of the other zones in the knock out level of the tournament. The teams like Bengal and Bihar once again became the toppers in the East Zone and they also got promoted to the knock out level of the tournament.

The East Zone league matches in the Ranji Trophy, 1978-79 started with the match between the teams of Assam and Orissa at Dibrugarh from 26-28 November, 1978. The match remained drawn during the stipulated period of time and the match officials awarded both the Assam and Orissa teams 2 points, each for the match. The second match of the zone was played between the teams of Assam and Bihar at Dibrugarh from 01-03 December, 1978. The Bihar team showed a very good performance in the match and clinched a victory of 160 runs for earning 8 valuable points from it.

The clash between the teams of Bengal and Orissa took place in the third of the East Zone league matches in the Ranji Trophy, 1978-79 and the match was held at Calcutta from 02-04 December, 1978. The Bengal team clinched a hardly earned victory of only 2 wickets in the match and also earned 8 points from it. The Bengal team played its next match against the Assam team at Dibrugarh from 07-09 December 1978. It showed a much-improved performance in this match as it won the match by a huge margin of an innings and 85 runs. The Bengal team earned 8 points from the match, as well.

The Bihar and Orissa teams clashed with each other in the fifth of the East Zone league matches in the Ranji Trophy, 1978-79 and the teams played the match at Jamshedpur from 09-11 December, 1978. The Bihar team continued its wonderful form of the first match in this match also and it beat the Orissa team by a huge margin of an innings and 66 runs for earning 8 points from the match. The last match of the East Zone was played between the two most powerful teams of the zone, Bengal and Bihar and the match took place at Calcutta from 12-14 January, 1979. The match saw a very close contest between the two teams and the Bengal team eventually became successful to beat the Bihar team by a narrow margin of 4 wickets in the match. The Bengal team also earned 8 valuable points from the match.