The Root of Bengali
Culture
Towards the end of the eighteenth century, a few Europeans
started a historical and cultural inquiryIndia .
Perhaps it was assumed they had no cultural traditions of their own different
from the Vedic Aryan. It was not until the latter part of the nineteenth
century that a few Bengalee scholars started to enquire specifically into the
culture and history of Bengal . Consequent
research indicated that the cultural tradition of the pre Aryan people or more
generally the people of Eastern India is distinct in many features from that of
the dominant Vedic Aryan civilization of Northern India .
into Aryan civilization. However, no
similar effort was made towards exploring the civilization of the different
regional peoples of pre-Aryan
“We have the long standing
tradition that, Vijay came toCeylon from Bengal and founded and expired here in the 6th
century BC. This belief is confirmed by the evidence of Mahavansa, Dipavansa
and other works and is supported by the striking resemblance between the
feature and appearance of Bengalees and Buddhist population of Ceylon . (P.
Shilananda, Buddhist Priest and professor of Shinhalise, Calcutta University )
tradition that, Vijay came to

Prehistoric archaeological finds
in Bengal are almost invariably located in the western fringes where the
Chhotanagpur plateau just into alluvial Bengal at a large number of points. Pioneers like
Valentine Bell discovered lots of ‘chipped stones’ in Burdwan, Bankura,
Midnapore and the neighboring district of Jharkhand like Manbhum and Singbhum
between 1865 and 1878. The stones implements pointed to a remarkable convergence
of different races coming from all over the subcontinent.
It has been suggested that the
Pandu Rajar Dhibi represents the ruins of a trading township. The people
“carried on trade not only with the interior regions of India , but also
with the countries overseas. They were predominantly a sea-faring people, and
in ships made by themselves they could traverse the Seven Seas of
the world.” The discoveries at Pandu Rajar Dhibi show that the Traders of
Bengal (SAODAGAR) had intimate trade relations with Crete and other countries of the Mediterranean
world.
Excavation of Tarafeni Valley
in North-West Midnapore (1997) shows the evolution of Stone Age culture
covering Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. Artifacts
were found isolated over wide areas including riverbeds and cultivated field.
It is when we come to the rich
find of Chandraketurgarh (from around 500 BC onward) that the real
archaeological history of Bengal begins. The
beads discovered in large numbers as well as the rich terracotta artifacts and
murals uncovered at several places in this area reveal a high developed
civilization. Several efforts have been made to identify Chandraketurgarh with
places mentioned in Greek and Roman texts such as Periplus of the Erythrian sea
and the work of Ptolemy. He describes ‘Gange’ as the capital city
of the Gangaridai people situated in the deltaic southern Bengal . In the wake of Alexander’s invasion of
North-western India (now Pakistan ), the
Greek writers repeatedly speak of two mighty powers in the East, the Gangaridai
and the Prasii. Diadorus refers, “ Xandramas had gathered 2,000,00 solders,
8,000 chariots and 80,000 horses to resist Alexander’s mighty army, and the
Greek army withdrew from India
rather than face the eastern power.

The Name
In ancient Indian literature
different name are used to indicate different territorial divisions of this
part of South Asian subcontinent. Some of the historical references are to “Gaur”
referring to the region of which Gaur (near present Malda town in West Bengal)
was the principal town, “Samatat” referring to the middle portion of
present Bangladesh, “Banga” referring to the eastern part of Gangetic
Delta, “Harikela” referring referring to the Chittagong area, “Chandradwipa”
referring to an area in eastern Bengal, “Varendra-Pundra Vardhana”
referring to the Rajsahi division and “Radha” (Rar) referring to the west part
of Hugli river.
The name “Vanga” finds mentioned in the epic Mahabhrata
and Kalidas’s Raghuvansam. We have the reference to ‘Vangalam” in an
inscription in the “Vrihadeshwara” temple at Tanjore in South
India as one among the countries overrun by the Cholas. This is
perhaps the earliest reference to Bengal as
such.
The English expression Bengal
is indeed a derivation from Vanga and Vangla. Vanga
occurs in early literary records as the name of both the country and the people
inhabiting it. Bangla is also mentioned in both literary and epigraphic records
as the name of a part of ancient Bengal .
In the Tabaqat-i-Nasiri and Tarikh-i-
Firuzshahi, the regions attached to the town of Satgaon (Hugli), Sonargon (East of Dacca) and
Lakhnauti (Gaur) are called Deyar-i-Banga, perhaps a verbal translation of the
old Bangadesh. But the word Bengal or
Bangla does not occur in the Tabaqat-i-Nasiri.
It is, however, in a passage of Ghazal by Hafiz that the form Bangla
occurs. The Muslim writers in the Mughal period (13th century) used
the term Bangla to denote the deltaic region of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra . It has transformed into Bengala by the
Portuguese and Bengal by the English people.
This Bengal today is divided into two distinct regions and states whish have
been named a West Bengal and Bangladesh .
Land and the People
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Physical
Features: The Greater Delta
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Since the Pleistocene period, the
Bengal delta has been formed with heavy loads
of alluvium from the mountain ranges in the north. It has been presumed that
about 30 million years ago there was a great convulsion of nature, which was
responsible for bringing down the landmass on both side of this subcontinent
and thereby forming the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea .
Then again, a mighty convulsion brought into existence of the Himalayas .
Regarding the creation of Himalayas Dr. Rajkumar Gupta a famous geologist
describes in his book ‘The living Himalayas,’ “Himalayas
are the youngest of the mountains and were once part of an ocean, the Tethys
Sea, for nearby 600 millions years. After 70-80 millions years ago some
signs of development of this mountain belt might have been visible but the
softest mountain belt were build up with the last 10 millions year”.

Origin and Racial Affinities of the Bengali-speaking Race

Four principal racial elements
came together to merge as the Bengalee ethnic entity. The original settlers in
Bengal were of the Austric stock and were present in Bengal well before the Aryan invasions from the Northwest
around 2000-1500 BC.

There were three other major
racial elements, which also came together to form the Bengalee race, the Dravidians,
Mongolians and finally the Aryans. There was substantial
intermarriage between the Dravidians, from the South-west, and the Mongolian
races from the North-eastern Himalayas and Chittagong hills. Later, a relatively
small-scale migration of Aryans took place from the West. All these layers
combined together to form the Bengalee race.
In an interesting study of thirty
modern caste of North India Prof. P.C. Mahalanobis came to the following
conclusion about the seven castes of Bengal, viz. Brahman, Kayastha,
Sadgopa, Kaibarta, Rajbansi, Pod and Bagdi, ( JASB NS XXIIIpp. 301-33):
a)
The Brahman in Bengal are the only group to have a
clear resemblance with the upper castes of North India, but they are much
closer to the Bengalee caste than to the Brahman from North
India .
b)
There is a close relationship between a caste’s social
statuses its resemblance with the Bengalee Brahmans. That is to say, the higher
position in the social hierarchy, the greater is the resemblance with the
Bengalee Brahmans.
c)
The Kayasthas, Sadgopas and the Kaibartas are the
typical indigenous castes of Bengal and have some resemblance with the people
of Bihar . The Kayasthas are also very close to
all the middle caste of Bengal such as
Sadgopas, Kaibartas and Podas (Paundra Kshatriyas). The Kaibarta show less
affinity with upper caste than with lower caste.
Anthropological
and historical at times differ strongly on the origin of the race. Herbert
Risley had traced the round-headed Beengalee race to admixture of Dravidian and
Mongoloid elements. His views have been opposed by R.P. Chanda who argued in
favor of the Bengalee race originating from the Homo-alpines type of people
that came from the Pamir region and spoke an
Indo-European language.

Thus, it is anthropologically and
archaeologically established that, the Bengal
region had a well-developed civilization before the Aryan migration into this
region. Clearly, Bengal was not in the Aryan
sphere of influence up to the later Vedic period. Even as late as the early
Buddhist and Jain periods, it remained outside of North
India .
Well written! But! ইংরেজিতে করলেন কেন? ইংরেজিতেতো অনেক মেলে। ব্লগটা ভালো সাজিয়েছেন। চালিয়ে যান।
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