Origin of Bangla Fifth Part Bangal

By Dibyendu Chakraborty

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’.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookRix
• Release date: Mar 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9783748777694

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Disclaimer

None of the maps presented in this work are prepared following the rules of geography, except for the ones for which proper sources have been declared. Images that have been termed as maps in this work are only for illustration purpose.

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, giving rise to the name Bangal or Bangala. Someone else has explained that the Portuguese and English languages have influenced the coining of the word Bangala from the already existing word Bango. In another opinion, the name was derived from the name of a group called Bong or Bāng in South India. The word 'Bonga', an Austronesian word thought to be used by the oldest inhabitants of the region, has also been forwarded as the basis for the naming of a large part of the Bengal Basin as Bongal, Bangal, or Bangla within the political boundaries of the Indian state of West Bengal and Bangladesh by many. Some 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 the cultivation of that item.

The propagators of each of those views are revered as renowned scholars in their respective fields. None of those explanations can in any way be set aside as implausible. But it is undeniable that all those 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).           

The 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 in anthropology and archaeology have provided many clues in favour of that notion. Unlike many other places (including some areas within India) on earth, where the early inhabitants have vanished without any trace, human settlements in the Chota Nagpur Plateau can be traced back to that time limit, to which scientists are able to look back.

Geologists as well as the 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 contenders for naming the Bengal Basin were the people who lived on the Chota Nagpur Plateau or some areas adjacent to it. There is probably no evidence that the Adivasis (natives) left any area around their settlements unnamed.They had their own names for all the places where they trudged.

A question arises in mind, that if the Adivasis were there since time immemorial, then why did the people of the northeastern part of the Bengal Basin get 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 that basin who could easily stamp their own name on that 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 was able to cross the river Ganges and reach its eastern part would be untenable. Tangible evidence vouches for otherwise.

There hardly should be any doubt that the Europeans had a great impact on that land during the past few centuries. It seems quite evident that the Europeans had a tough time coming to terms with the tongue twisters of the Sanskrit language 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. Like many other things, the local people were hardly influenced by and accepted such twisted versions of Indian words. Tripura remained unchanged for the local populace. Innumerable examples of such cases 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 the passage of many centuries of colonial rule.          

A land that had remained inhabited continuously since time immemorial had little chance to be given an identity by people who appeared on that land only a few centuries ago. It may be argued that the old identity has gotten lost. But many contrary examples exist. No other common name for that whole basin area was ever known to exist. The earlier names within that basin that had been changed by the newer people remained accessible to modern man. The name Sylhet is almost universally used, but that could not erase the existence of its earlier name, ‘Srihatta’ completely. Chittagong could not swallow ‘Chattogram’ entirely. Such historical identities continue to remain available in one way or the other. As far as the entire Bengal Basin is concerned, except for Bango, there is no other name in existence to refer to that geography as a unit.       

For the common dwellers of that basin, the entire basin always had two alternative names: Bango and Bangla. However, Bangla is a derived word from Bango ('Origin of Bangla First Part A Mythical Voyage'). Those words register their existence deep in antiquity. Many experts have indicated that Bango was in existence when Sanskrit was introduced to that land. Available evidence of human settlements in that land predates the estimated creation period of the oldest-known Sanskrit texts by ages. In comparison to the existence of human beings on the Chota Nagpur Plateau, the emergence of the Gangetic Plain in the Bengal Basin is quite a recent phenomenon.

The word Sanskrit is a simpler version of the original word Saṃskṛta (‘संस्कृत’). The Digital South Asia Library hosted at the University of Chicago has provided that diacritical-marks-laden spelling on their website. The construction of that word demonstrates the usual Sanskrit way of combining a root word with another one (s) for construction of a final word.  In that case, the focus is on the verb ‘कृ’ (‘kri’), which means preparation etc., and the whole word Saṃskṛta (संस्कृत) is said to mean ‘polished expression.’" 

The original word ‘Sam’ (may be pronounced as Sawm) as present in Saṃskṛta, has another meaning where the letter ‘m’ has little deeper pronunciation as compared to the regular ‘m’ in the English alphabet. That word ‘Sam’ is used as an adjective, and it means ‘likewise’ and ‘aggregate’, depending on its use. In that connotation also, the word Sanskrit denotes the aggregation of multiple in one. The pre-existence of the earlier inhabitants, before the advent of the creators of Sanskrit, was again indicated through that word.

In short, Sanskrit provided the grammatical framework to construct a language from innumerable dialects that were prevalent in India prior to its advent.

With this context in mind, it appears an untenable logic that levees built by recent kings (kingdom is a relatively new concept in Bengal) could provide identity to the entire region.

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 are carried out, 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), the administration creates major new roads much higher than the surrounding land. The administration generally keeps in mind the highest flood levels in recorded history. Such practise cannot be referred to as the reason for the naming of a huge geographical area. Moreover, the western neighbour of the Bengal Basin, the Central Indian highland area, has much higher levees between the patches of fragmented cultivable land.

If a word ‘Bango’ in the Austronesian vocabulary is referred to as the source of the naming of that land, then a question arises as to why they kept that word reserved, particularly to be applied to that region only. They travelled a very long way to reach that basin, ultimately. On their way to that basin, they created much larger settlements. Any of those settlements could have been named after that sacred word of their culture. The only explanation for such an occurrence is by chance. ‘By chance’ cannot be the basis of a logical construct. That approach is contrary to the proof-based scientific approach.

An annoyance often appears in Naru’s world to register its