Two homologous series of calamitic liquid crystals containing a benzothiazole ring and two different linkages have been prepared, and their liquid crystalline properties are studied and compared with each other and those of similar structure. The mesogens with only the cinnamate linking group showed better thermal properties than those with an ester. Nematic and smectic phases were observed. All the compounds of both the series were characterized by elemental analysis, FT-IR, mass spectrometry, H-1-NMR, and C-13-NMR. Phase transition temperatures and the thermal parameters were obtained from differential scanning calorimetery (DSC). The textural observations were performed using hot-stage Polarizing Optical Microscopy (POM).