Slide Summer 21 Bangla Language and Literature
Slide Summer 21 Bangla Language and Literature
Slide Summer 21 Bangla Language and Literature
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INTRODUCTION
Bangla is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken by Map of major Indo-Aryan languages and
language groups
the Bengali peoples in South Asia.
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Generally, it is understood that Bangla was born from Sanskrit, but there are
scholars and linguists who believe that this language was derived from Indo-Aryan
languages like Magadhi Prakrit and Pali. Modern Bangla comprises of words taken
from languages like Turkish, Portuguese, Persian as well as English. This effect
can be explained through the eras of different rulers of Bengal.
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Bangla Literature dates back to the 7th century at least and it may be divided into
three main periods: ancient, medieval, and modern.
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THE MODERN PERIOD BEGINS IN 1800 AD AND CAN AGAIN BE DIVIDED INTO
SIX PHASES:
I. The era of prose from 1800 AD-1860 AD,
III. The phase of Rabindranath Tagore (1861 AD-1941 AD) from 1890 AD-1930 AD,
III. The earliest extant specimens of ancient Bangla are the 47 Charyapada
spiritual hymns now known as Charyapada composed by
Buddhist monks.
2. Shastri edited the manuscript which was published by the Vangiya Sahitya
Parisad under the title of Hajar Bachharer Purana Bangala Bhasay Bauddhagan O
Doha (Thousand-year-old Buddhist songs and verses in Bangla) in 1916.
1. The stories, rhymes and sayings of Dak and Khana may be dated to this period. The
Apabhramsa of the Charyapada became more Bangla in character.
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1. During this period, Bangla literature developed in three main areas: Vaishnava
literature, Mangala literature and translation literature. This period also saw the
beginning of Muslim Bangla literature in the form of romantic and narrative poems.
2. The greatest of Vaishnava writers was the poet Baru Chandidas (14 th century) who
extracted Jaydev’s Sanskrit words about Radha and Krishna into Bangla.
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1. The patronage provided by the Muslim rulers, particularly Sultan Alauddin Husain
Shah, his son Nusrat Shah and commander-in-chief, Paragal Khan, in promoting
Bangla literature is especially remarkable.
2. The 45-year rule of the Husain Shahi dynasty (1493-1538 AD) in Bengal not only led
to political, social and cultural prosperity, but also developed Bangla Language and
literature.
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2. Sanjay and Srikar Nandi also wrote versions of the Mahabharata. Popularly, the most
important Bangla Mahabharata was, however, composed by Kashiram Das around
1602-1610 AD.
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The greatest contribution of the Muslims to Bangla literature during this period was,
however, the introduction of narrative and romantic poems.
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MUSLIM BANGLA LITERATURE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES
1. Shah Muhammad Sagir (c 1400) was one of the earliest of the
Bengali Muslim poets. Other epic poets include Jainuddin,
Muzammil, Sheikh Faizullah, Daulat Uzir Bahram Khan.
Jainuddin became famous with Rasulbijay, his only epic.
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LATE MEDIEVAL PERIOD (1700-1800 AD)
1. The close of the medieval period was in many ways a
period of decline. The decline of the Mughal Empire, the
inroads of the European trading powers and the
establishment of the British halted the natural flow of
literary creation.
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RAMPRASAD AND OTHERS
1. In the artificial atmosphere of an age of decline,
Ramprasad Sen (1721-1781 AD) was an exception
because of his sincere devotionalism and simplicity of
language. Although he was reputed for his
Shaktapadavali, he also wrote Vidyasundarkahini and
Krsnakirtan.
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MODERN PERIOD (1800- )
2. The foreign rulers also felt the need to learn Bangla, leading to the compilation of dictionaries
and the writing of books of grammar.
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2. Other well-known regular and irregular periodicals published between 1818 and 1831
include Samachardurpan (1818), edited by John Marshman; Sambadkaumudi (1821),
edited by Tarachand Dutta and Bhabanicharan Bandyopadhyay.
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EVOLUTION OF BANGLA LANGUAGE AND
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF BANGLA PERIODICALS AND
NEWSPAPERS
1. An important role was also played by the mouthpiece of the
Brahmo Samaj, Tattvbodhini Patrika, which appeared in
1843 and which was edited by Akshay Kumar Datta for 12
years.
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1. Peary Chand Mitra (1814-1883 AD) and Kali Prasanna Singh (1840-1870 AD) were the
first Bangla novelists. Peary Chand Mitra was a fine essayist, writing on a variety of
varied subjects. His Bangla Novel, Alaler Gharer Dulal (1858).
2. His language, the common people’s language with its mixture of Arabic, Persian and
Hindustani vocabulary, was fondly called ‘Alali prose’.
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2. While the ‘Young Bengalis’ were emulating western ways, the Muslims were agitating
against the British.
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Towards the end of the century, Munshi Meherullah and his disciple, Munshi
Muhammad Zamiruddin, launched a movement to make Bangali Muslims aware of their
Muslim identity through literary efforts.
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They attempted to make Muslims conscious of their Islamic heritage and glorious past by
creating literature in their mother tongue Bangla.
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Kazi Akram Hossain became famous for his book Islamer Itihas (1924). Yakub Ali
Chowdhury (1888-1940 AD) was a rare scholar in the Muslim society of the time. His
Manab Mukut testified to his depth of knowledge as a philosopher.
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These writers depicted the lives of working people, the problems of human existence, the
politics of India, etc.
Rajshekhar Basu (1880-1960 AD) was the main architect of satirical short stories in
Bangla.
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POST-PARTITION ERA (1947-1971 AD)
The most important development in the intellectual history of Muslim Bengal was the
establishment in Dhaka of the Muslim Sahitya Samaj the thirties.
The group’s principal source of inspiration was Abul Hussain (1896-1938 AD) and its
main writer was Kaji Abdul Wadud (1894-1970 AD). The Samaj’s mouthpiece was
Shikha which proclaimed the idea of free thought.
Among those who paved the way for a new stream of literature in the then East Pakistan
and later in independent Bangladesh, Mohammad Najibur Rahman (1860-1923 AD)
deserves particular mention. His novel Anwara (1912 AD), which depicts the life of an
ideal Muslim family, was read very widely in Muslim homes.
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BANGLADESH ERA
The literature of Bangladesh may be divided into three phases:
1. First phase 1947-1957 AD, 2. Second phase 1958-1970 AD and 3. Third phase from
1971 onward.
East Bengal faced a host of problems, such as an influx of refugees, economic distress
and communal disturbances, as well as the Pakistani regime’s hostile attitude to East
Bengal and Bangla.
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EVOLUTION OF BANGLA LANGUAGE AND
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BANGLADESH ERA: FIRST PHASE (1947-1957 AD)
Soon after the creation of Pakistan, the people of the eastern region realized the
illogicality of a state based on religion.
The decision to make Urdu the sole state language of the country caused Bengalis to
protest, culminating in the Language Movement of 1952.
NOVELS
The novels produced in Bangladesh was in fact a continuation of the novels produced by
the Muslim writers of undivided Bengal.
Prominent among them were Muhammad Najibur Rahman, Korban Ali, Sheikh Idris Ali,
Kazi Imdadul Huq, Kazi Abdul Wadud, Abul Fazal and Humayun Kabir.
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These writers continued to carry out valuable research on Bangla language, literature
and culture. Shahidullah’s Bangla Sahityer Katha (volume 1, 1953, volume 2, 1965) and
Abdul Hai’s Sahitya O Samskrti (1954) deserve special mention in the essay literature of
this phase.
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The people’s uprising in 1968, the students’ movement in 1969 to realise their 11-point
demand, the victory of the Bengalis in the general elections of 1970 but the refusal of the
Pakistani junta to transfer power to them, the liberation war of 1971, the victory won by
the Bengalis and the establishment of the sovereign state of Bangladesh all there deeply
affected the social life of the people and were amply reflected in the Bangla literature of
the 1958-1970 period.
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BANGLADESH ERA: SECOND PHASE (1958-1970 AD)
Shamsur Rahman was a Bangladeshi poet, columnist and journalist.
A prolific writer, Rahman produced more that sixty books of poetry
collection and is considered as a key figure in Bengali literature from
the latter half of the 20th century. He was as the unofficial poet
laureate of Bangladesh. Major themes of his poetry and writings
include liberal humanism, human relations, romanticized rebellion of
youth, the emergence and consequent events in Bangladesh, and
opposition to religious fundamentalism.
FICTION
Syed Shamsul Huq is an expert in writing such novels. His most well-
known novels are Deyaler Desh (1959), Ek Mahilar Chhabi (1959) and
Anupam Din (1962).
Zahir Raihan’s Shes Bikeler Meye (1960) was apparently a romantic
love story but it really portrayed the complicated life of the rising 57
Bengali middle class of the time.
EVOLUTION OF BANGLA LANGUAGE AND
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FICTION
Syed Shamsul Huq’s novels of this phase depict the complex and
multifaceted conflicts. His novel Duratva (1981) very faithfully
portrays, the intricate socio-political realities of post-1975
Bangladesh.
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Bashir al-Helal’s Shes Panpatra (1986) is also a fine portrayal of conflicts and questions of
existence in post-independent rural Bangladesh.
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BANGLADESH ERA: THIRD PHASE (1971- )
The post-1971 novels painted pictures of the post-independence
instability and despondency. Sarder Jayenuddin’s Shrimati Ka
O Kha depicts the overwhelming corrosion in the life of the
middle class in the post-liberation days.
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Those who started writing poetry prior to liberation and continued to be active in the
post-independence days include Abdul Mannan Syed, Abdullah Abu Sayeed, Rafiq Azad,
Muhammad Rafiq, Jinat Ara Rafiq, Altaf Husain and Asad Choudhury.
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The major themes of research include ancient and medieval literature, modern literature,
Rabindra literature, Nazrul literature, Folkore Literature, linguistics, the language
movement, and the liberation war.
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Those who worked on linguistics were Mohammad Abdul Qayyum, Rafiqul Islam, Abul
Kalam Manjoor Morshed, Mansur Musa, Humayun Azad, Daniul Huq and
Moniruzzaman.
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Those who worked on linguistics were Mohammad Abdul Qayyum, Rafiqul Islam, Abul
Kalam Manjoor Morshed, Mansur Musa, Humayun Azad, Daniul Huq and
Moniruzzaman.
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THANKS!
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