A brief history of the Bengali language
The Bengali language is one of the members of the Indo-European language family. It is the state language of Bangladesh and one of the official languages of India. Bengali is widely spoken in the Indian states of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura, and in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It is the sixth-largest language in the world in terms of the number of native speakers. According to the data of 2021, at present around 26 crore people around the world use the Bengali language.
There were ten ancient branches of the Indo-European language group. According to linguists, these ancient languages were born out of the original language sometime around 2500 BC. Among these branches, the Indo-Iranian branch speakers identified themselves as Aryans. The two sub-branches of this branch are Iranian and Indian Aryans. The people of the Indian Aryan (Vedic Sanskrit) language group first settled along the northwestern border of India. Then gradually moving eastwards, Punjab defeated the local non-Aryan inhabitants of North and Central India, spread their language and culture and assimilated some of it.
The structure of the Indian Aryan language changed from about the 6th century BC and the Central Indian Aryan language emerged. The Indian Aryan language left its ancient Sanskrit form and became middle class or Prakrit. The four main forms of Prakrit are Maharashtri, Shourseni, Magadhi and Ardhamagadhi. Among these, Bengali, Oriya and Assamese languages originated from the eastern corruption of Magadhi. According to many, there was another form of Prakrit which is known as Gaudiya Apabhrangsa and it is from this Gaudiya Apabhrangsa that the Bengali language originated.
There is disagreement among linguists as to the exact time of origin of the Bengali language. However, the Charyapadas have been recognized as the earliest works of the Bengali language, and the approximate period of their composition is between the seventh and twelfth centuries AD. The period of evolution of the Bengali language from its origin to the present time can be roughly divided into four parts. E.g.
1. Ancient Bengali era
2. Ancient (early) Middle Bengali era
3. Orbachin (neo) Middle Bengali era
4. Modern Bengali era
Bengali Language in the Ancient Bengali era
The period from approximately 650 AD to 1200 AD is considered as the ancient period or early period of the Bengali language. Charyapadas written by Buddhist Siddhacharyas such as Louis, Kahn, Vusuku, Shabar, Dhenwan are recognized as ancient works of Bengali language. There are also examples of ancient Bengal in about three hundred Bengali words quoted in the commentary of Tikasarvasva Amarkosh written by a Bengali scholar Sarbananda Bandya in the twelfth century AD. Words, place names and names of people are also found in some of the copperplates of the kings of the pre-Turkish conquest period.
Early Middle Bengali era
The Turkish invasion of Bangladesh started from the beginning of the thirteenth century and the Sultanate was established in Bangladesh in the middle of the fourteenth century. This period is considered as a void in the history of the Bengali language. The period from the end of the fourteenth century to the fifteenth century is recognized as the ancient Middle Ages in the history of the Bengali language. During this period the Bengali language gained the patronage of the Sultan of Gaur and other aristocrats. One of the best literary works of this era is Srikrishnakirtan Kavya written by Baru Chandidas. Also, the Ramayana, written by Krittibas Ojha, Srikrishna Vijaya written by Maladhar Basu, and Manasamangal Kavya by Bipradas Pipilai etc. are notable works of the era. Towards the end of this period, the influence of Chaitanyadev can be noticed in Bengali literature.
Neo Middle Bengali era
The period of Bengal’s modern or neo-medieval period is from the sixteenth century to the first part of the eighteenth century. Gaudiya Vaishnava literature flourished during this period. The language of Vaishnava texts was created in this era by imitating the idea and language of the Maithili poet Vidyapati. In this age, many powerful poets have written many lyric poems about Radha-Krishna. During this time many Persian words entered the Bengali language. Also at this time, some Portuguese, Dutch and French words entered Bengali as a result of establishing factories by different European nations for business purposes. Towards the end of this period, Muslim Bengal was introduced under the influence of Persian and Hindi-Urdu and interpreter manuscript literature emerged. Satyanarayana’s Panchali is considered to be the creation of this era.
Modern Bengali era
The modern era of the Bengali language started in the last half of the eighteenth century. It was during this period that prose was first used in Bengali literature. Earlier, in the first half of the eighteenth century, Portuguese clergy introduced prose writing in Bengali in Roman script. But their initiative was not successful and later this section was abolished. Fort William College was established in 1800 AD to teach the English language to the English royal staff. There is a need to write textbooks for the students of this college. Prose writing in Bengali literature started with the efforts of William Carey, Mrityunjaya Vidyalankar, Ramram Bose and others. But the language of this prose had an abundance of Sanskrit words. Later, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Raja Rammohun Roy, Akshay Kumar Dutt and others wrote books on comparatively simple prose. In 1854, Parichand Mitra started writing the first Bengali novel, Alaler Gharer Dulal, in a monthly magazine, Masik Patrika. The use of colloquial language in the first Bengali literature can be seen in this novel. In the first half of the twentieth century, Rabindranath used Bengali prose more simply, which is close to spoken language. In the course of time, instead of the sadhu style, the common style was introduced in Bengali prose literature.