Spoken mostly in Eastern India, Bengali (also known as Bangla) is the second most spoken language in India. It is also one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. Originating from Magadhi Prakrit and Sanskrit, Bengali is the native tongue for thousands of people spread across Bangladesh, West Bengal, Assam and Tripura, including some across the globe. Overall, there are nearly 230 million Bengali speakers.
The history of Bengali as a language falls under three eras - Old Bengali (950 A.D - 1350 A.D.), Middle Bengali (1350 - 1800 A.D.) and Modern Bengali (1800 A.D. onwards). The only literary souvenir we have from the Old Bengali era is a collection of forty-eight poems called the Charva Songs composed by the Siddhacharyas, who were Buddhists. Middle Bengali on the other hand, covers a much longer period. The 15th century saw the rise in popularity of the narrative poetry genre with classics such as Krittivas’ Ramayan and other poems including Srikrishnavijaya by Maladhar Vasu, Chaitanyamangal (the biography of Saint Chaitanya) and epic poems such as Chandimangal and Manasa.
The 17th century was a bit of a low tide for Bengali language and literature, except for its romantic verse tales that were written solely by Muslims. Even the Muslims of Arrakan, who maintained a close intellectual relationship with Bengal, remained active in their literary pursuits in Bengali. Come 19th century and Bengali witnessed a literary renaissance. Michael Madhusudan and Bankim Chandra Chatterjee were two of the literary giants who ushered in the modern era in Bengali literature. Madhusudan was the first Bengali poet to write in blank verse and even allowed western influences to reflect in his work.
Unlike the purely alphabetical script of Latin, Bengali is a variant of the Eastern Nagari script, used throughout Bangladesh and East India. Similar to the Assamese, Oriya and Mithilakshar script, it is believed to have stemmed from the modified Brahmic script. Bengali grammar is also strikingly different from Hindi, as Bengali nouns are not assigned gender and verbs do not change in accordance with nouns.
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