First
Part
Bengali literature
has a great heritage of about a thousand years. The earliest
literary specimen in the New Indo-Aryan Vernacular, Bengali,
just evolving out of Proto-Bengali style of Apobhramsa,
was Charyapadas. Charyapadas on the Buddhist
mystic songs of the Bajrajan cult flourished between the 8th and
the 10th centuries in the Eastern region of India, comprised of
the areas now known as Bihar, Qrissa, Assam, West Bengal and
Bangladesh. According to some scholars, these songs can
be accepted as the earliest form of both Bengali and
Hindi.
Since Ikhtiaruddin Bakhtiar
Khilji's conquest of Bengal
(1301 A.D.), the culture and language of Bengal gradually
underwent changes. During the Muslim rule (1301-1757), the
culture of Bengal had significant interaction with Buddhist,
Hindu and Muslim cultures. Muslim rulers
graciously patronized the Bengali literature. Irrespective of
caste and creed, they encouraged the writers to compose literary
works. These rules used to patronize the authors either
with financial help or by awarding royal titles.
Shamsuddin Yusuf Sha, the Sultan of Bengal
(1474-82
A.D.) awarded the title of Gunaraj Khan to poet Maladhes
Basu who translated the ‘Bhagabat’ into Bengali. One Shrikar
Naundi, the translator of ‘Mahabharat’ into Bengali,
eulogized his patron Alaudding hussain Shah (1493-1519) as the
Krishna of the present age (Kali Kale hailo yeno Krishno Abatar).
Maithili poet Vidyapati in his poem wished a happy long life (Chira
jib jayathu Giasuddin Sultan) to Sultan Giasuddin Ajam Shah
(14th century), the great connoisseur of language and learning.
Giusuddin Ajam Shah invited the Persian poet Hafiz to visit
Sonar Gaon, the then capital of Bengal. Hafiz, of course, could
not come to Bengal but he sent a beautiful piece of Persian
couplet as a gift to Sultan, wherein he wrote “the birds
of Hindi will all be sweet-beaked when the sweets of Persia will
come to Bengal.” This shows that, Bengal was culturally very
close to Persia during those days.
Bengali literature throughout the ages had always been
very receptive to foreign influence. Bengali language is also
very pliable and more prone to changes than any other Indo-Aryan
language. Specially during the middle age, many Persian,
Arabic, Turkish, Portuguese and Dutch words were absorbed into
Bengali. The first well-known medieval Bengali poet Badu
Chandidhas (14th century) used a few Persian words in his poetry.
Towards the end of the medieval Bengali period, Bengali language
borrowed such Persian words, which either had no Bengali
alternatives or had displaced the Bengali equivalents. But the
most significant and deep-rooted influence of Persian poetry was
in Medieval Bengali Romantic poetry.
In early medieval Bengali literature, devotional poetry
had its full sway and most of the narratives were of religious
themes. Tired of the monotony of religious and didactic poetry the
readers naturally felt interested in stories of love and
passion. Persian literature, great tradition of romantic poems,
became very popular in Bengal. Narrative poems depicting the
love and passion of Laila and Majnu, Yusuf and Julekha were very
popular with the readers. Different libraries and depositories
in Bengal have many manuscripts of these works. Some of the
Muslim poets of medieval Bengali literature earnestly came down
to the surface of the earth started writing stories depicting
instance human
passions. In doing so they looked towards the Persian romantic
tales as their source of inspiration.
Daulat
Uzir Bahram Khan was the first poet to adapt the
story of Laila-Majnu (belween 1543-1553), a very popular Persian
tale, into Bengali. In this work Bahram
Khan followed Najami
Ganjabhi (1188 A.D.) version. The Bengali version of Lailee
Majnu was not a translation in true sense, but a free adaptation,
high-lighting the contemporary taste and popular demand. The
Bengali poet added some new episodes, of which the most
significant was Mujnus seasonal song or Baramashi and dialogue
between Lailee and her maid Hetubati.
more in next issue.......
