Introduction to Bengali Literature: Authors & Resources
Bengali literature (and language!) is extremely underrated in the literary world.
When I started studying Bangla for the first time, I was exposed to the mind blowing world that stemmed from the Bengali Renaissance.
Once upon a time, I was shamefully unaware of the most of South Asia and the diversity that existed there. After attending both fashion school and the Summer Institute at the International Writing Program, I swore to myself to do better in this topic, because South Asia was a key area for many of my interests colliding. As both a poet and author, upon discovering what exactly was going on in South Asia, especially in the West Bengal and Bangladeshi region, in regards to the culture and artistic scene, I was absolutely amazed. I had no idea that such big, important figures have historically come out of the region, ones that are still important today.
It came from this revelation that I should dig deeper into the complexities that is Bengali literature, and that this is a form of national literature that needs to be shared more. In the West we often limit ourselves when it comes to learning about different cultures and their national literature and literary movements, and it’s really time to change that.
Let’s dive right into this. First, let’s look at the history of Bengali people and nuances of Hindustani history.
A Brief History of South Asia & Bengal
I dub this section “South Asia” because the tale of the region is a complicated one, marred by colonialism, empires, and war. It wasn’t until 1972 did the Bengali people have an official country of their own, which is now called Bangladesh. Even in India, there is still a significant population of Bangla-speaking people, particularly in West Bengal and the city of Kolkata. But before we get there, we need to go a bit farther back in time, to the beginning.
The area that is now known as Bengal was first a civilization 4,000 years ago, as seen by archaeological evidence. The very first kingdom of the region was known as the Vanda Kingdom. We see evidence of this kingdom in the writings of the Greeks, who described their fine navy and war elephants. The first mention of this kingdom by foreigners was in 100 BCE.
Buddhism began to spread in the region, and then, in 700 CE, the Pala Empire arose out of the region. Trade began to ramp up between Bengal and the Middle East, introducing Islam to the people of South Asia. The Pala Empire fell and was replaced by the Hindu Sena Empire, but Islam continued to spread. The Turkic people then briefly took over the region to form the Bengal Sultanate, and the people began to accept Muslim scholarship and celebrated Bengali, Persian, and Arabic identity.
The Mughal Empire then conquered the Sultanate two hundred years later, in the 1500s, but when the Mughal Empire collapsed two centuries later, that left room for the British to conquer the land. Calcutta, the present-day capital of West Bengal in India, was named the capital of the British army. Bengali people faced famine, being taken to the Caribbean as laborers, and general discrimination when compared to their colonizers.
We see many big movements coming out of Bengal towards the late 1800s. First, we see the Bengali Renaissance, but we also began to see how many independence movements were stemming out of Calcutta. In 1905, we see the Partition of Bengal, in which the area was separated into two regions: one for Hindus and one for Muslims. This led to a call for two separate states, one Muslim and one Hindu once the British pulled out of the region.
And, in a way, this did occur. When the tragedy of the Partition of India occurred, the continent was split into two. On one side we had Pakistan, which was split in half to East and West Pakistan, as well as India. The region we now know as Bangladesh, home to the Bengali people, was merely known as East Pakistan. The people in the region opposed this, and, in 1971, fought for independence in the Bangladesh Liberation War.
With help from India, Bangladesh was born. Although the population of Bengali speakers is spread across national border lines, once, in a distant past, they were all united without the politics of contemporary issues. Since the formation of Bangladesh, there were decades of military coup, only for us to enter the current era upon writing this.
A Brief Overview of Bengali Literary History
The first works in Bengali language appeared in 900 CE, and they were the Charyapada; these were Buddhist texts and hymns created by monks. Our first glimpse of the literature in what we now know of today as Bangla was in the 1200s, where the current script of Bangla began to take place. As the region began more influenced by Muslim affairs and the Middle East, the literary traditions of the Arabic and Persian people were also brought into the forefront.
With these influences in mind, we began to see a literary tradition evolving in the Bengali language rooted from the love of these cultures. Epic poets began writing their own tales in Bengali language, which would then be translated into Arabic or Farsi for the entire Islamic world to read. Bhagavata Purana is the oldest narrative poem in Bangla in regards to the legend of the Hindu god Krishna.
Poetry continued to flourish in the region, even after the conquest of the Mughal Empire and then the British colonization. With the onset of the 1800s, we see an explosion of literary talent from Bengalis. Groundbreaking use of form outside of traditional methods are introduced, and experimental theatre and writers begin to emerge from the woodwork. It is then, in this era, that we see the Bengali Renaissance occur.
The Bengali Renaissance is the most pivotal area of Bengali literature to study. Led by Bengali Hindus in the Bengal region, their artistic, intellectual, and creative endeavors caught the world’s attention and brought great fame to the region. It ended with the death of the legendary Rabindranath Tagore, the first nonwhite European to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. The works produced in this era completely changed the literary landscape, thus ushering in a new era.
Since then, in the contemporary era, we have marked a return to experimental literature and avant-garde forms. One crucial movement in the 1960s was the Hungry Generation, a group of Bengali writers and poets who challenged the impacts of colonialism and the literary world they were in.
Notable Poets
Shah Muhammad Sagir was one of the first Bengali Muslim poets.
Syed Sultan was a prominent Bengali Muslim poet in the Medieval era.
Debi Roy was the first Dalit (lower caste) Bengali poet. He was one of the Hungry Generation poets.
Samir Roychowdhury was one of the Hungry Generation poets.
Kazi Nazrul Islam is considered to be the National Poet of Bangladesh.
Rabindranath Tagore is the most well-known Bengali writer.
Dwijendralal Ray was a poet and musician.
Notable Prose Writers
Rajshekhar Basu was a satirical short story writer.
Manik Bandopadhyay was a major figure and novelist in Kolkata.
Michael Madhusudan Dutt was a pioneer of Bengali drama.
Bankim Chandra Chatterjee was a novelist, poet, and journalist.
Mir Mosharraf Hossain was a well-known novelist.
Girish Chandra Ghosh was responsible for the Golden Age of Bengali theatre.
Traditional Forms of Storytelling
Theatre & Performance
Puppetry
Gaudiya Nritya is a traditional dance form.
