Bangladesh StudiesLecture: 1-2

Chapter-1

Development trend of the name of Bangladesh:

Anthropologists agree that Bangladesh has historically been a land of many

races. Long before the arrival of the Aryans in the 5 th and 6th centuries B.C.,

the Bangalees were already racially mixed. It is said that the origin of human

beings is Africa, but that some of them at first moved into the northern part

of the Middle East and then dispersed across the world.

The main reasons for coming to Bengal were first the zeal to conquer and

occupy a new region, and the second was to do business in the wealthy and

prosperous Bengal and third was environmental.

The groups of the people who went to South-East Asia had crossed the land

of Bangladesh more than fifty thousand years ago. These people developed

languages, known as Austric Languages with their name Austric or Austro-

Asiatic people. These people entered Bangladesh several thousand years ago

from South-East Asia. Near about the same time or later some other people,

whom we now classify as Mongoloid also entered the territories of

Bangladesh from the East and spread mainly into the uplands and hilly

areas.

Name of Bangladesh in Pre-Muslim Era (Up to 1203 A.D.):Before the coming of Aryans peoples the name our country was ‘Bang’.

Bang was the name of tribal peoples of Dravidian those who came from the

Southern and western parts of South-Asia. During the Aryans era, especially

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the era of Janapada, it was recognized as ‘Banga/Vanga’. The location of

Banga was in the east and southeast portion of the present day of

Bangladesh there grew a Janapada called ‘Banga’. It is supposed that a race

called Banga used to live there. Hence the region was called Banga after

their name. From the old stone inscription, we learn about two parts of

Bengal. One of them is ‘Vikrampura’ and the other is ‘Navya’. It is

supposed that the low-lying areas of the Faridpur, Bakergang and Patuakhali

were included in the ‘Navya’ region. The ancient Banga Janapada was a

powerful region. It has been learnt from the stone inscription that the reputed

‘Banga Raj’ and the Banga soldiers took part in many formidable battles.

After the Aryans people up to Sena regime that means from 756 A.D. up to

1203 A.D. it was recognized as ‘Bengal’.

Name of Bangladesh in Muslim Era (1203-1757 A.D):I. Sultani Era:Bangalah as a territorial name came to be used from the 14th century

onwards, more specifically from the time of Sultan Shamsuddin ILIYAS

SHAH, denoting the territory which now comprises the modern independent

state of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal. Ziauddin Barani

was the first Muslim historian who used the terms iqlim-i-bangalah or diyar-

i-bangalah (by which he meant eastern Bengal). Shams-i-Siraj Afif (1357

AD) mentioned Iliyas Shah as 'Shah-i-Bangalah', 'Sultan-i-Bangalah' and

'Shah-i-Bangaliyan' after he had consolidated his power over whole of

Bengal by bringing LAKHNAUTI, SATGAON and SONARGAON under his sole

control.

II. Mughal regime:

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The Mughals after establishing their supremacy over the region included

Bangalah as a subah (province) which came to be known as Subah-i-

Bangalah. Abul Fazl, the Mughal historian explained the origin of the name

thus: The original name of Bangalah was Bang. Its former rulers raised

mounds measuring ten yards in height and twenty in breadth throughout the

province, which were called ‘al’. From the suffix, this name Bangalah took

its rise and currency. One may not agree with the explanation of Abul Fazl,

but it is obvious that he meant that 'Bangalah' originated from 'Bang', ie

'Vanga' of the pre-Muslim period.

Name of Bangladesh in Post Muslim Era (up to 1971 A.D.):The same name appeared in the Portuguese records as 'Bengala' and the

English made it firstly ‘Bengal’ and in 1905 A.D. on the basis of ‘Rizli

Plan’, on the 16th October 1905, Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India by a

declaration divided the province of Bengal into two parts. This event is

known as the Partition of Bengal. According to the Partition of Bengal, the

province of ‘Eastern Benga’l and Assam was formed, consisting of Dhaka,

Chittagong, Rajshahi Divisions and Assam, Dhaka became the capital of the

new province. On the other hand, the province of West Bengal was formed,

consisting of West Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, and Kolkata was made its

capital. Although the proposal for the Partition of Bengal came into effect in

1905, it was officially made in the middle of the nineteenth century. After

1947, on the basis of the ‘Two Nation Theory’ it was recognized in the

world as ‘East Pakistan’ up to 1971 A. D. in the record of Pakistan

Government. During the Pakistan period firstly, the people as well as

politicians of East Pakistan decided to use the name of our country as

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‘Bangladesh’ on 5th Dec’ 1969. On the other hand on 10th April-1971, we

declared the ‘Government of Bangladesh’ and seven days later this

Government took its oath as ‘The Peoples Republic of Bangladesh’. Finally

the day of Victory and on 16th Dec’1972, constitutionally we established the

name of our country as ‘Bangladesh’.

#History of the Bangla Language#

Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the

region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day

Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of

Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script. With nearly 230

million total speakers, Bengali is one of the most spoken languages (ranking

4th) in the world where in 1993 it was 5th.

Chronological development trend of Bangla Language:

1. Before the Indo-Aryan language:

Austro-Asiatic Languages like Santali (abola, acir-pacir, ador, alga etc),

Mundari (akal, akhir, amdani) and Khasi (ator, ain, babo, biskit) b) Sino-

Tibeten like Kachhari (akaj,ajala means foolish), Garo, Tripuri etc. c)

Dravidian and Kol

2. Indo-Aryan Language (kentum#Europe & satam#Indo-Iranni):

Like other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, Bengali arose from the eastern

Middle Indic languages of the Indian subcontinent. Magadhi Prakrit (200

BC) and Pali, the earliest recorded spoken languages in the region and the

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language of the Buddha, evolved into Ardhamagadhi. Ardhamagadhi, as

with all of the Prakrits of North India, began to give way to what are called

Apabhramsa languages .The local Apabhramsa language of the eastern

subcontinent, Purvi Apabhramsa or Apabhramsa Abahatta, eventually

evolved into regional dialects, which in turn formed three groups: the Bihari

languages, the Oriya languages, and the Bengali-Assamese languages

Usually three periods are identified in the history of Bengali:

Old Bengali (650/900-1200)—texts include Charyapada, devotional

songs; emergence of pronouns Ami, tumi, etc.; verb inflections -ila, -iba,

etc. Assamese branch out in this period and Oriya just before this period

(8th century-1300).

Middle Bengali (1351–1800) — major texts of the period, Krittivas'

Ramayan has been credited to be a classic. Other narrative poems include

Srikrishnavijaya by Maladhar Vasu and Srikrishnakirttan by Baru

Chandidas which Spread of compound verbs; Persian influence.

New Bengali (since 1801)—shortening of verbs and pronouns, among

other changes (e.g. tahar → tar "his"/"her"; koriyachhilô → korechhilo

he/she had done).

Historically closer to Pali, Bengali saw an increase in Sanskrit influence

during the Middle Bengali (Chaitanya era), and also during the Bengal

Renaissance. Of the modern Indo-European languages in South Asia,

Bengali and Marathi maintain a largely Pali/Sanskrit vocabulary base (use of

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Sanskrit words by some Bengali poets such as Jaydev, Umapatidhara and

Govardhan Acharya) while Hindi and others such as Punjabi, Sindhi and

Gujarati are more influenced by Arabic and Persian.

3. Contribution of Muslim people: From the 13th century to 15th century (Arabic words like Okil, Kalam, Dalal,

Loksan, Khajna, Haloa, Masla etc. Persian words- Ain, Ajad, Abdar, Romal,

Bagan, Goanda and some Turkish words like Toshak, Galicha, Daroga, Bibi,

Lash, Chakor).

4. Contribution of Portuguese:During the 16th Century Portuguese people came in our region and

contributed for the development of our language. At present some

Portuguese words used in our language like- Almary, Alkathra, Alpin,

Saban, Gosal, Balti, Nilam etc.

5. Dutch, French and English: In the Dutch, French and English started arriving in Bengal. As a result,

words from these languages started entering Bangla vocabulary; for

example, from the French: cartouche, coupon, café, restora; Dutch: hartan,

iskaban, iskurup; English: table, chair, lord/lat, general/jadrel, etc.

Chronological development trend of Bangla Language:

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Indo-European

Kentum

Iranni Aryan

Vedic

Assamese

AhaniaOld Oriya

Apabramsa

Kamrupi BanglaBihari

Bangla

Indian Aryan

Prakrit

Sanskrit

Pali

Satam

Bangladesh StudiesLecture: 1-2

6. Contribution of William Carey: With the start of British rule in the 18th century and the spread of English

education, Bangla started absorbing increasing numbers of English words. In

CALCUTTA in 1801, the efforts of its head, WILLIAM CAREY, and his

associate Bengali scholars, made Bangla department.

7. Role of some key persons:

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During the 19th century, the efforts of Bengali writers contributed to the

further growth of the language. Among them were RAJA RAMMOHUN ROY,

BHABANICHARAN BANDYOPADHYAY, ISWAR CHANDRA VIDYASAGAR,

BANKIMCHANDRA CHATTOPADHYAY, MICHAEL MADHUSUDAN DUTT and MIR

MOSHARRAF HOSSAIN. The 20th century witnessed the elevation of

colloquial Bangla to a written literary medium through the work of many

talented writers such as RABINDRANATH TAGORE and PRAMATHA

CHOWDHURY.

Finally, through the study of a particular dictionary, Sunitikumar Chatterji,

taking JNANEDRA MOHAN DAS's Bangala Bhashar Abhidhan into account,

showed that Bangla has 51.45 per cent tadbhava words, 44.00 per cent

tatsama words, 3.30 per cent Perso-Arabic words and 1.25 per cent from

English, Portuguese and other languages where Jnanendra Mohan Das's

lexicon has around 150,000 words.

‘Origin and Identity’ of the People of Bangladesh:

Anthropologists agree that Bangladesh has historically been a land of many

races. Long before the arrival of the Aryans in the 5 th and 6th centuries B.C.,

the Bangalees were already racially mixed. It is said that the origin of human

beings is Africa, but that some of them at first moved into the northern part

of the Middle East and then dispersed across the world. The groups of the

people who went to South-East Asia had crossed the land of Bangladesh

more than fifty thousand years ago. These people developed languages,

known as Austric Languages with their name Austric or Austro-Asiatic

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people. These people entered Bangladesh several thousand years ago from

South-East Asia. Near about the same time or later some other people,

whom we now classify as Mongoloid also entered the territories of

Bangladesh from the East and spread mainly into the uplands and hilly

areas.

Bangladesh is a melting-pot of ancient peoples. Different races and

immigrants gradually added to the earlier stocks. The main peopling of this

land was by those who came from the Southern and western parts of South-

Asia and they are known as Dravidians. They were a physically diverse

people speaking different languages, known as Dravidian family of

languages. It is to be noted that the Dravidian language speakers were a

mostly a Caucasoid people, which means in hair form and other physical

features they resemble the people of the Middle-East more than they

resemble the people of East-Asia. However they are generally darker than

the different peoples to the East and West of South-Asia.

The latest arrivals were a people well known as the Aryans. They spoke a

language of the Indo-European family of languages and they are said to have

originated from the Northern parts of the Middle East and the Eastern parts

of Europe. Over the centuries they mixed with the Dravidians and moved

into the Bengal Basin sometimes after 600 B. C. They in turn mixed with the

Austric and Mongoloid peoples already in Bangladesh and produced the

physical types which are so common nowadays. Later other immigrants-

Arabs, Turks and Pathans also came to this land. These people too added

their physical stock to the melting-pot, so that today we have in Bangladesh

a great variety of physical features. The Bengali ancestry, therefore, includes

the Austric-speakers the Mongoloids, the Dravidians, the Aryans, the Arabs

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and the Turks and Pathans. Within the polity of Bangladesh there are also

some groups of people, known as tribal people, who retain their distinct

cultural entities and have not merged into the mainstream of Bangla-

Speaking group.

At a Glance ‘Origin & Identity of the people of Bangladesh’:

According to the Anthropologist According to Prof. Humayum Azad

1. Austro-Asiatic from south east

Asia

2. Mongoloid from east part of

Asia

3. Dravidian from the Southern

and western parts of South-

Asia

4. Indo-Aryan people from the

Northern parts of the middle-

east and the eastern parts of

Europe.

5. Arabs, Turks and Pathan

1.Vaddara from Sri-Lanka

2.Mongoloid from east part of Asia

3. Indo-Aryan people from the

Northern

parts of the middle-east and the

Eastern parts of Europe.

4.Shak people from Turkistan

5.Persian, Arab, Pathan and Mughal

[Source: Lal Nil Dipabali ba Bangla

Shahityer Jibani; page no-12-16.]

Finally, in the poem of ‘Bharat Tirtha’ Rabindranath Tagore articulated that

the origin and identity of the people of Bangladesh is a mixed one.

According to him, the blood which one contains in our body, it’s circulated

from various groups of people like Hun, pathan, Mughal etc.

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Chapter Related Questions:1. Discuss the development trend of the name of Bangladesh.

2. What was the name of Bangladesh during the Pre-Muslim era?

3. What was the name of Bangladesh during the Muslim era?

4. What was the name of Bangladesh during the Post-Muslim era?

5. Discuss the origin and identity of the people of Bangladesh.

6. What was historical background of Bangla language?

7. Discuss the role of various groups of people for developing Bangla Language.

8. ‘Bangla Language is a melting pot’-explain this statement.

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