Chakraborty Origin of Bangla Fifth Part Bangal

1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-3-7487-7769-4
Verlag: BookRix
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 113 Seiten

There was nothing incomprehensible about what Naru had heard from Grandma as a child. Everything from the beginning to the end of those narrations was bound in an unbroken chain of reason. The problem started after crossing the boundaries of the primary school. Everything that was written in the textbook was known, but one of the things that were not understood was the origin of the word 'Bangal'.     He heard from his father about the interpretation of the word 'Bangal'. His father referred to what he had learnt from a renowned scholar who was a former student of Naru's school. The explanation could not satisfy Naru. That explanation is related to Bangla and its levees ('Al' in Bengali). For Naru, that explanation was farfetched.   Everything that can be found in this regard ends up in a clue that leaves the question of where the incarnation of that clue came from unanswered. Naru could never digest unstructured knowledge.   For some reason, Naru's enthusiasm has never diminished. These issues have always been active in Naru's mind, whether in academic or professional pursuits. Decades later, it seemed as if some related clues had come to light through the game of football that the life has played with him, or he has played with the life. He is blessed that he has been able to recognize the clues. This book is about Naru's unique understanding about the coining of the word 'Bangal'.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Chakraborty, Dibyendu

Leseproben

Chapter 1 – Introduction
Preface   A few experts have opined that in the olden times the local kings used to create gigantic levees (Al in bengali) on the generally watery landscape in the eastern part of the Bengal Basin and that had given rise to the naming of Bangal or Bangala. Someone else has explained that the Portuguese and English languages have influenced the coining of the word Bangala from already existing word Bongo. In another opinion the name was derived from the name of a group called Bong or Ba¯ng in South India. The word 'Bonga', an Austronesian word thought to be used by the oldest inhabitants of the region, is also forwarded as the basis for naming of a large part of Bengal Basin as Bongal, Bangal or Bangla within the political boundaries of Indian state of West Bengal and Bangladesh by many. Prominent linguists believe that a word Bango once was used to indicate cotton within the Bengal Basin and the region was named Bango because of its ancient connection with that cultivation.     The propagators of each of these views are revered as renowned scholars in their respective fields. None of these explanations can in anyway be set aside as incorrect. But it is undeniable that all these explanations give rise to some other fundamental questions. Such questions have annoyed Naru like many other Bengalis from his school days (Origin of Bangla First Part A Mythical Voyage).              Natural setup of the eastern fringes of the Chota Nagpur Plateau makes it the best candidate to be considered as the oldest inhabited area within the Bengal Basin. Experts of Anthropology and Archaeology have provided many clues in favour of this claim. Unlike many other places of earth, including some areas within India, where the inhabitants have vanished without any trace human settlements in the Chota Nagpur Plateau are in continuous existence to the limit to which scientists are able to look back.        Geologists as well as historians have firmly concluded that 5-7 thousand years ago the main Ganges Basin started to become inhabitable for human beings. The Bengal Basin followed suit around 2 thousand years later, i.e., 3-5 thousand years ago.   Obviously the first contender for naming the Bengal Basin was the people who were there on the Chota Nagpur Plateau or adjacent to it. There is probably no example that the Adivasis (natives) left any place unnamed around their inhabitations. They had their own names for all the places they trudged.   A question arises in mind, that if the Adivasis were there since time immemorial then why people of the northeastern part of the Basin got the chance to set the identity of the entire basin through one of their activities. There were much more important groups, kingdoms etc. in other parts of the Basin who could easily stamp their own name on this region. The answer in one word is ‘impossible’. Such an explanation is beyond logic and common sense. An assumption that no member of the Adivasi clan could cross the river Ganges and reached its eastern part would be untenable. Tangible evidences vouch otherwise.   There hardly should be any doubt that the Europeans had a great impact on this land during the past few centuries. It seems quite evident that the Europeans had a tough time in coming to terms with the tongue twisters of Sanskrit related pronunciations. The word ‘Tripura’ became Tippera in their vocabulary. They named a relatively mature flat land situated below the hilly region of Tripura hills as Tippera Surface. As like many other things, the local people hardly was influenced and accepted such twisted versions of Indian words. Tripura remained unchanged to the local populace. Innumerable such examples may be put forward. A city built exclusively by the British was named Calcutta but for the local population it always remained Kolkata even after passage of many centuries of colonial rule.             A land that had remained inhabited continuously since the time immemorial had little chance to be given an identity by people who appeared on this land only a few centuries ago. It may be argued that the old identity has got lost. But many contrary examples exist. No other common name for this whole Basin area was ever known to exist. The earlier names within this basin that had been altered by the newer people remained available to the modern man. The name Sylhet is almost universally used but that could not erase the existence of the earlier name Srihatta completely. Chittagong could not swallow Chattogram entirely. Such historical identities remain available in one way or the other.  So far as the entire Bengal Basin is concerned, except for Bongo there is no other name in existence to refer to this geographical existence as a unit.          For the common dwellers of this Basin, the entire area always had two alternative names Bongo and Bangla. However, Bangla is a derived word from Bongo (Origin of Bangla First Part A Mythical Voyage). These words register their existence deep in the antiquity. Many experts have indicated that Bongo was in existence when Sanskrit was introduced to this land. Human settlements in this land predate Sanskrit by ages. In comparison to the existence of human beings on the Chota Nagpur Plateau, the appearance of the Gangetic Plain is quite a recent phenomenon.   From the book titled ‘Origin of Hindu v The Name’ it may be found that “The word Sanskrit is a simpler version of the original word Sa?sk?ta (???????). The Digital South Asia Library hosted at the University of Chicago has provided this diacritical marks laden spelling on their website. The description of this word focuses on the usual Sanskrit way of combining a root word with other one(s) for construction of a final word. In this case, the focus is on ‘??’ (‘kri’) which means preparation etc. and the whole word ??????? is said to mean ‘polished expression.’ ”    “The original word ‘Sam’ (may be pronounced as Sau¯m) as present in Sa?sk?ta has another meaning, where the letter ‘m’ has a little deeper pronunciation as the regular ‘m’ in English alphabet. This ‘Sam’ is an adjective and it means ‘likewise’ and ‘aggregate’, depending on its use. Going by this meaning also, Sanskrit shall denote the aggregation of multiple in one. The pre-existence of original inhabitants before the advent of the creators of Sanskrit is again indicated.”   In short, Sanskrit provided the grammatical framework to construct a language from innumerable dialects, which were prevailing in this land prior to the advent of Sanskrit.   Keeping such background in mind, it seems an untenable logic that levees created by the kings of recent times (kingdom is relatively a very recent concept in Bengal) could provide identity to this whole land.   Low-lying land is not a scarcity in Bengal Basin even today. Are there any gigantic levees present on such land today? Even in the tidal swamps, where huge commercial scale land related activities go on, one can hardly find any gigantic levee. Such structures were and still are used for transportation purposes. But that is the case throughout the world. In the much higher western margin of the Basin (Naru’s birthplace), administration creates major new roads much higher than the surrounding land. The administration generally keeps in mind the highest flood levels in the recorded history. Such practice cannot be referred to as the reason for the naming of a huge geographical area. Moreover, the western neighbour of the Bengal Basin, Central Indian high land area has much higher levees between the patches of fragmented cultivable land.         If a word Bongo in the Austronesian vocabulary is referred to as the source of the naming of this land, then a question arises that why they kept that word reserved particularly to be applied for this land only. They travelled a very long way to reach this place ultimately. On the way, they created much larger settlements. Any of those settlements could have been named against that sacred word of their culture. The only explanation of such happening is “by chance”. ‘By chance’ cannot be the basis of a logical construct. This approach is contrary to proof based scientific approach.     “An annoyance often appears in Naru’s world to register its presence. Somehow it had got a whiff that Naru was trying to write his thoughts on different aspects of a land known as Bangla. Giggling as always it revealed that the name of Bangla has been derived from the name of a son of Vali (elder brother of Sugriva, in Ramayan). ‘Bango’ was the name of one of the sons of Vali and therefrom, the name of Bengal i.e. Banga has originated” (Origin of Bangla Third Part Sundarban ). That argument also becomes very weak in the light of the previous discussion.   Having received some light of the modern education system Naru understood that a few words that had occurred in someone’s mind shall not be sufficient to offer as an acceptable explanation to any of the unsolved mysteries faced by the human beings....