It was an over 2,000-page detailed research document that paved the way for the Union Cabinet’s decision to extend the ‘classical language’ tag to Bengali along with Marathi, Pali, Prakrit and Assamese. And the West Bengal government-run organisation that prepared the document, the Institute of Language Studies and Research (ILSR), is delighted its more than a year-long efforts have paid off.
“It is indeed a matter of great joy and accomplishment that the Institute of Language Studies and Research has prepared a comprehensive report to establish the classical status of Bangla language. This is a monumental task, and therefore, necessitated a collective effort and without the teamwork and constellations of various stakeholders and academic bodies this task could not have been possible,” Swati Guha, Director, ILSR, Kolkata, said.
The document, a copy of which is with The Indian Express, detailed the origin of Bengali and chronicled its growth over hundreds of years.
In January this year, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi citing the evidence collected by her government which shows that Bengali dates back to prehistoric times. “I take this opportunity to present before you a summary of a scholarly work undertaken by us in four volumes, which dates the origin of Bangla/Bengali language to the 3rd-4th BCE. In sum, the research shows that our language is a classical language with roots in antiquity, and we seek its recognition as such,” Banerjee wrote in her letter.
In the document, ILSR tried to prove how Bengali had grown as a language from ancient times, even before Sanskrit. It also gave evidence of how Bengal had a connection with ancient China, other countries in Asia, and the Graeco-Roman or Western world.
The chapter titled Bangla Language: Its Origin and Heritage, written by historian Amitava Das, who led the team of around 15 researchers and professors, and linguistic professor Rajib Chakraborty, pointed out how Bengali was the “seventh largest spoken and written language” in the world.
“Generally ‘Bangla’ (or Bengali) is historically and genealogically regarded as an eastern Indo-Aryan language with around 178.2 million speakers in Bangladesh (98% speakers), and 83.4 million speakers in the Indian states of West Bengal (68.37 million), Tripura (2.15 million), South Assam (7.3 million), Odisha (0.49 million) and Delhi (0.21 million) as well as in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (close to a hundred thousand) – accounting for 8.3% of India. It is a major language in Jharkhand (2.6 million), too and a language with a sizable population in Bihar (0.44 million). Apart from these, there are a huge number of Bangla-speaking diasporas spread all over the world,” the researchers of language history said.
“Bangla is the national and official language of Bangladesh, and one of the 22 official languages in India (listed in the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution). It is also one of the official languages of Sierra Leone. The script is also called Bangla, which is an eastern variety of the Brāhmī Writing System, written from left to right. Historically it derives from the Brāhmī alphabet as used in the Aśokan inscriptions (269-232 BCE),” the chapter further stated.
The researchers also pointed out how the origin of Bengali “must be pre-Aryan” but “is influenced mainly by Sanskrit” in the course of its development from the sixth century A.D. “This influence, in a contact situation has an impact primarily in the vocabulary of Bengali language and as a result not only tatsama words are accumulated in the Bengali vocabulary but also this lexical diffusion resulted in diachronic change by developing ardhatatsama and tadbhava words,” they said.
“In the similar way, phonological nativization has taken place in case of borrowing of Arabic, Persian, English and other foreign words in the direction of phonological and syllabic pattern of the native language. So, the influence of other languages including OIA [Old Indo-Aryan] is external and the Bengali language retains its own core grammatical structure,” they add.
The researchers also referred to noted Indologist Prof Jules Bloch’s preface to Dr Muhammad Shahidullah’s dissertation titled Textes Pour l’Letude du Bouddhisme Tardif Les Chants Mystiques de Kanha et de Saraha les Doha-Kosa that Shahidullah’s research showed with certainty that “Bengali becomes the most anciently attested language among the modern languages of India”.
“…a Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary compiled by Li-Yen bears testimony to the fact that at least 51 Bangla words made their way into that dictionary…The Chinese-Sanskrit dictionary, compiled in the 8th Century CE, included or rather was compelled to include words of a third language, i.e., Bangla. This is indicative of the fact that Bangla had already been standardized and was one of the influential tongues which was regarded as the lingua franca of the geographic area that was known as Bengal,” they added.
This, they said, illustrated “with absolute certainty that Bangla must have been the language of communication for several centuries before the time of composition of Caryā songs. By the time Caryā songs were composed, Bangla had already acquired prosodic as well as rhetoric sophistication to be considered as a medium of literary discourse”.
Another chapter titled Maritime History of Bengal was written by Rajat Sanyal and Amitava Das. “In this chapter, we are broadly exploring the existence of various seaports/riverports in the Bengal coast, both in early historic period and early medieval era, which were not only hubs of a dynamic mercantile trade route in these parts; but also showcased a vibrant cultural community who had regular transactions with many countries of South-east Asia,” it stated.
It further pointed out, “Trade and commerce between Sri Lanka and India have been documented in literary sources dating back to the 5th century CE. This is further supported by various versions of Bengali narrative poetry about Goddess Manasā and Caṇḍī spanning different centuries in Bengal’s history. The stories of Mansā and Caṇḍī have their roots in oral tradition, with episodes reflecting different time periods.”
It also referred to the seaports at Tāmralipta and Samandar. “Tāmralipta was vibrant in Western Bengal as an early historical port. Samandar, on the other hand, thrived in Southeastern Bengal in the early medieval period. For a long period of time these two areas with their feeder ports survived and became prosperous through the rich hinterlands and communications. In case of Tāmralipta, we also notice the linkage between the upland hills and the lowland port. Various references found in texts and remains from archaeological explorations also suggest Tāmralipta’s direct contacts with regions of Southeast Asia and an indirect association with the Graeco-Roman or western world presumably,” the chapter stated.
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