Chakraborty Origin of Bangla Eighth Part The 'Banga' enigma

1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-3-7554-0711-9
Verlag: BookRix
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, Band 10, 160 Seiten

Reihe: Origin of Bangla

Europeans have known since time immemorial that somewhere in the east there is a country where the River Ganges flows. Ptolemy's world map gives testimony to that. Many more, even older references, may be mentioned in that regard. Before the advent of Jesus Christ, some Europeans wrote first-hand accounts of that land. The Greek and Roman empires met the destiny that every empire meets eventually. Subsequently, Europe plunged into a chaotic phase that led to the free downfall of that society.   When Europe regained itself once again and started its journey into what we call 'modern times', at that time, unfriendly empires emerged between Europe and the land of the Ganges. For various reasons, the land of the Ganges has been something that has attracted the world towards it since time immemorial.   Modern Europeans circumvented the African continent from west to east, just before the end of the fifteenth century and reached India. However, they could not reach the true 'land of the Ganges' until they reached the Bengal Basin. The British got the chance to start ruling a significant portion of the 'land of the Ganges' before they placed themselves at the helm of the affairs of the whole country, i.e., India. Ultimately, in that land, they came to know about some ancient literature that started writing a new chapter in history. The Europeans started unearthing an almost forgotten civilization. Whatever progress could be made was due to the progress in the scientific and technological fields. Like many other things, their efforts came to an abrupt end around the middle of the 20th century. From the ancient texts, it could be found that there was mention of a land called 'Banga' in the eastern part of India in the most distant past, in the existence of that land. Although some logical, analysis-based explanations have been put forward for the advent of the word 'Bangla', with respect to the word 'Banga', not much progress could be made. No reason-based or tangib

Autoren/Hrsg.

Chakraborty, Dibyendu

Leseproben

Preface
  A century ago, somewhere in the middle of present-day Bangladesh, north of Tangail city, a village named ‘Roail’ existed within the limits of the service area of ‘Kaloha’ post office. Clan members of an extended family constituted the majority of the households in that village. For the members of that clan who resided in that village at the beginning of the twentieth century, Madhab Chandra Chakraborty was the doyen. At that time, the family members were fully aware that, from some forgotten root, their ancestors had arrived at that place three or four generations back. Probably, that was the time when that land started becoming inhabitable by changing its character from an immersed area to a somewhat dry land. During the time of the partition of India, they were Bengalis and ‘Bangal’ to the core.   From the descriptions that Naru heard from his grandmother, he could very well imagine that area as being one of the most cut-off areas, even by the standards of the then Bengal province. That village had no specialty to speak of and, for all practical purposes, was nondescript. Generation after generation the heads of the family pursued medicine as a profession. At the end of their basic education, they used to go to Calcutta for the study of medicine. What Naru could manage to make out from the narrations told by his grandmother was that this was the practice followed for at least three generations of their family before the independence of India. Though the family owned a significant amount of land, the family members were never associated with cultivation activities. Their lives revolved around the management of the cultivation related activities and around the activities of the dispensary that the head of the family used to run. British doctors had close connections with the dispensaries run by them. Naru’s grandfather was the last one in that chain. The chain was broken because of the happening of guardian-less partition of India. Naru's grandfather died a pauper in one remote village in India. The surviving members of the family had a strong reluctance to discuss the chapter of the partition of the country. Naru found a book in their residence, which was the second part of a two-book series on medicine, written by his grandfather, Dinesh Chandra Chakraborty and published in Calcutta around 1920 AD.   Naru found exceptional enthusiasm in his ancestors, particularly in his grandma, in describing the physical environment of the ancestral land that they left. Other senior members of their family did not enjoy the luxury of spending sufficient time on those types of discussions, then also they showed good amount of enthusiasm whenever they took part in such discussions. That land became Naru’s land of imagination.   The most captivating of all the physical features of that land was that it used to go under water for a long time every year. In the first phase of that event of prolonged inundation, that land was used to becoming flooded without any rainfall. From the northern direction, water would flow towards that area. A lot of fish used to appear there, along with the freshly arrived water. That used to be a festive time for the younger members of that clan. They would select and pick fish at will, according to their palatal preferences, and take those to their respective mothers.   That area used to remain waterlogged for the next few months until the end of the monsoon. With the advent of the first flow of water, the process of cultivation of the most important crop would start. The only function to be performed was to sprinkle the seeds of paddy on the land that had just started to become submerged. In the mean time, the monsoon used to arrive, and with the joint effect of the two supply sources, the water cover on that land would increase slowly. At the peak of the rainy season, the water cover used to attain a depth of 10–12 feet on the farmlands.   During the next few months i.e., after the arrival of first flow of floodwaters, the seedlings sprouted from the paddy seeds, sprinkled on the farmlands, used to grow taller continuously, keeping pace with the gradually rising water level. Eventually, those plants used to attain a height of more than 10–12 feet. Inflorescences that had appeared over the water level would ripe while floating over the water and would be harvested by using boats.   Young Naru could hardly find anything similar to that geography in his known world at that time. Something started to disturb him. He faced some difficulty in conceiving of that description in a logically consistent manner. A journey started. Water was central to that journey.   Any journey towards the grey past of the Bengal Basin ultimately hits an unsurpassable roadblock in the word ‘Banga’. To date, no logically sound and consistent explanation of the origin of that word has been found. Naru had also remained stuck up at that roadblock for a long time.   Although the majority of the theories related to the origin of the word ‘Banga’ available today are like opinions in character, a couple of explanations are also available which are backed up by facts to varying degrees. There are problems associated with those explanations also. When one starts progressing with any of those explanations, it is revealed that those explanations are incapable of covering all the aspects related to the concept of ‘Banga’. For example, the advent of the term ‘Banga’ was proposed to be associated with the ancient cultivation of cotton in the ‘Rarh’ region, situated in the westernmost part of the Bengal Basin. That approach might have the backing of some facts, but it fails in associating the north-central parts of the Bengal Basin with the word ‘Banga’ in an inseparable manner. The north-central parts of the Bengal Basin are the core areas that carry the mantle of the idea of ‘Banga’. That is one of the necessary conditions to be fulfilled for any explanation in relation to ‘Banga’ to pass the acid test. That region is all-important to be associated with, so far as any viable explanation of 'Banga’ is concerned.   It is undeniable that the word ‘Banga’ has found direct mention in the Sanskrit texts of ancient origin that refer to events and places that were prehistoric. Various scholars have repeatedly mentioned that in their writings. It is by no means plausible and reasonable to assume that those who composed the structure of the Sanskrit language (grammar) were victims of the habit of corrupting words that had been created by them at the dawn of the current civilisation. They were the ones who created or adopted the terminologies and documented them.   The majority of ancient Indian literature that has reached the hands of modern people is related to Hinduism. Any contemporary issue discussed today assumes another dimension when a link is established between such an issue and the ancient Sanskrit literature. Various reasons may be attributed to that phenomenon.   It may be learnt that the experts have found the oldest mention of the word ‘Banga’ in Aitareya Aranyak, a part of the Rig Vedic literature. The period when the Aitareya was composed is said to be at least 3000 years earlier than the present time.   The presence of the word ‘Banga’ is essential for the coining of the word 'Bangail'. Without the existence of the word 'Banga', it cannot be said that the territory of ‘Banga’ has been reached i.e., ‘Banga Ail’ in Bengali. (Origin of Bangla Fifth Part Bangal)   Again, in the Bengali language, except for the word 'Vanga' (broken), the presence of a word close to 'Banga' is absolutely missing. According to Naru's own logic, the word 'Banga' cannot be a corrupted form of 'Vanga'. The presence of the word 'Banga' in ancient Indian writings, long before the advent of ‘Vanga Janapad’, unequivocally establishes that argument. According to the research of many experts, the presence of the word ‘Banga’ even predates the origin of the Sanskrit language and that opinion sounds logical.   Upon reaching that juncture, all discussions about another very important word ‘Bangal’ become haywire like the river Mahananda at Kisanganj.   Naru also reached a situation where if he could not find an acceptable explanation for the coining of the word ‘Banga’ at a period when inhabitable land had just started to emerge within that basin, he would be forced to accept the explanation that he was taught in school. His search would also remain as one more example of an incomplete assumption, just like the others.   In the early stages of the maturation of the Bengal Basin, the Rarh region, the Teesta Fan, and the Barind region emerged as habitable large areas. Perhaps that is why those regions came to be known as Rarh Bangla and Barendra (Barind) Bangla, as there was no ‘Bangla’ (Bengal) present outside of those two regions.   It was not only Naru, it was not only the others who reached the ‘Boro’ area of Assam, the ones who tried to trace the link to the Tibetan language in search of the term Bangla; even the official accounts of the Mughals reached the areas east of the Karotoya River to explain ‘Bangal’. Upon learning that, Naru became even more motivated.   Naru began to organise his thoughts and experiences in his late forties. During that phase, he frequently...