The History of Ancient Bengal

It is not easy to give a historical account of ancient Bengal. There is very little recorded history of the land, language, and its people. The history of Bengal is one of the most complex in the world.

The territory inhabited by Bengal-speaking people goes beyond the boundary of Bengal, which stretches from the Himalayas in the north to the Bay of Bengal in the south, from Brahmaputra, Kangsa, and Surma in the east to Nagar, Barakar and Suvarnerekha in the west. The majority of people in the western areas are Hindus, while in the east Muslims predominate. Although there are strong feeling towards Bengali and Bangladeshi nationalism, broadly speaking the term Bengal designates the Bengali-speaking area.

In most characteristic feature of the Bengali landscape is its vast river system which characterizes the Bengali people and their literature. Among the main rivers the Ganges and the Padma are the two most important and these are referred to in many literary compositions, including the carya poems. Bengal was famous in ancient times for river and sea crafts. The arts of navigation, boat building and maritime warfare developed because of the many rivers and the long seacoast. Bengal carried on a large sea trade mostly through the ancient seaport of Tamralipta. River and sea voyages are often characterized in Bengali folklore and literature, particularly in the Manasa and Chandi poems composed later than the caryas.

Being situated in the extreme east of India, Bengal served as the connecting land link between the sub-continent, Burma, South China and the Malay Peninsula and Indo-China. Bengal not only acted as intermediary in trade and commerce but also played an important role in the cultural association between the diverse civilizations of South East and Eastern Asia. An inscription in the Malay Peninsula of the fourth or fifth century A.D. records the gift of a great captain Buddhagupta, who was probably Bengali. It is also said that it was a Bengali prince, Vijaya, the Pala period. There is an affinity between the scripts used on Javanese sculptures and the proto-Bengali alphabets. The influence of ancient Bengal was of Tibet and China.

Diverse civilization and cultures met in the Bengal delta. Various races entered India during pre-historic times through the North West of the Indian sub-continent and lived there until they were driven further east. Bengal continually attracted people from outside.

There are many accounts and references which point out that the ancient people of Bengal were different in race, culture and language from the Aryans who compiled the Vedic literature. The original inhabitants of Bengal were non-Aryan. Many linguists and anthropologists believe that the early tribes of Bengal were Dravidian, but belonged to a separate family1.

The early history of Burma and Thailand tells us that before the arrival of Tibeto-Chinese tribes, these countries were inhabited only by Mon-Khmer people. Dravidians from Bengal and Kalinga migrated there and became the ruling race. Later, when non-Aryan Indians assimilated the Brahmic culture they introduced the Sanskrit language and traditions as well. It is interesting to note that a Bengal Tribe, the Gaudas, and a royal family, the Palas, were considered to have an oceanic connection.

Lying at the crossroads of South-East Asia, South Asia and Central Asia, Bengal attracted people from the early civilizations of the fertile crescent: Central Asia Arabia, China and Europe, as well as from India and karnataka .the people of Bengal are composed of diverse racial element: Northern Indian Aryan longheads, Alpine shortheads, Dravido-Munda longheads and Mongolian shortheads. The presence of a Negroid element has been traced among the Nagas of Assam but not among the Bengali people. We find dialects of the languages spoken within Bengal from ancient times: the Austric (Mon -khmer and Kol), the Dravidian, the Sino-Tibetan or Tibeto-Chinese and the Indo -European (Aryan).

It used to be accepted that the Brahmins and other high castes of Bengal were descended from the Aryan invaders who imposed their culture upon the primitive barbarian tribes of Bengal. Although we know very little of pre-Aryan Bengali civilization, it is now generally held that the foundations of the agriculture -based village life, which is also believed to be one of the foundations of Indian civilization, were laid by the Nishadas or Austric -speaking peoples of Bengal. According to Dr. S. K.Chatterji, the Austric tribes of India belonged to more then one group of the Austro-Asiatic section, i.e. to the kol, the khasi and the mon-khmer group. They brought with them a primitive system of agriculture. The Nishada were succeeded by the Alpine race, who form the main element of the present-day Bengalis The ideas of karma and transmigration, the practice of yoga, the concept of the divinity of Shiva, Devi and visnu, and the ritual of puja as opposed to the Vedic ritual of home, all these are thought to be per-Aryan .the cultivation of rice and some important crops such as coconut, tamarind, and betel leaf and nut, the Hindu dress of dhuti, marriage rituals with vermilion and turmeric, and many other customs have come to us from our pre-Aryan ancestors.

Gradually indigenous tribes, such as the Vangas, Sumahs, sabaers, Pulindas, Kiratas and Pundras, were brought into the framework of Aryan society by classifying them as Kshatiyas. It must have taken many centuries before the Aryans from the midland and the people of Bengal were brought under a rigid Aryan society .An increasing number of high class Aryans arrived in Bengal during the early centuries of the Christian ear, including followers of Brahminism and jainism .The essential features of Aryan society were present in Bengal by the fifth century A.D.

The little we know of the earliest period of Bengal is found by studying Vedic literature, Braahmin scripts composed in Sanskrit from 1500 B.C to 600 B.C the land known as Bengal finds no proper mention in the Vedic hymns. Rather, Some deprecatory references indicate that the primitive people in the Vedic hymns in Bengal were different in race and culture form the Vedic beyond the boundary of Aryandom and who were classed as ‘dasyus’, which in Bengali means robbers. Among these people we find mention of the pudras. Pundranagara, the ancient capital of Bengal, was located in the Bengal. An old Brahmi inscription discovered at Mahastangar in Bogra further proves the existence of Pundranagara. In the other classic, the Aitareya Aranyaka, the name of the Vangas, an early Bengal tribe has been traced. Because Bengal was different in race and culture from the Aryans who compiled the Vedic literature, it was not given the importance which it deserved.

The first clear references to the Vangas occur in the ancient epics and the Dharmasutras. In the great epic Mahabharata the Vangas and the Pundras are referred to as well-bred Kshatriyas, while the people of the Bengal sea coast are referred to as Mlechchas or untouchables. The Bhagavata Purana classes them as sinful people while Dharmasutra of Bodhayana prescribes expiatory rites after a journey among the Pundras and Vangas. Jaina writers of the Acharanga-sutra describe the land of the Ladhas in West Bengal as a pathless country inhabited by a rude people who attacked peaceful monks. However the Jaina authors of the epic Prajnapana includes the Vangas and Ladhas as Aryans while Dravidians rank as Mlechacchas or barbarians. The earliest Buddhist literary reference to Vanga is contained in the Milinda-panho. The Milinda-panho mentions Vanga as a maritime country where trading ships came from various parts of the world.

The bodhayana Dharmasutra divides the land into ethnic and cultural divisions which were held in varying degrees of esteem. The holiest was Aryavarta, followed by Arattas, the pundras, the Sauviras, the Vangas and the Kalingas. The regions inhabited by these people were regarded as outside the Vedic. Culture. People who lived among these local folks even for a short period were required to go through sacrificial rites. In the epic Vanaparvan we find more detail of the topography of Bengal during the epic age. We also learn that the poets of Northern India held Bengal in esteem.

In Tirtha-yatra of the epic Mahabharata, the Karatoya, Padma and Bhagirathi, the lower parts of the Ganges became recognized as sacred places. In Bhishma-parvan the Bengali kings heroically face attacks from the Pandus or conquerors of Upper India. There is a lively description of the encounters between the Pandus and the ‘mighty ruler of the Vangas. Wgile some of the Bengal kings fought on elephants, others rode on ‘ocean-bred steeds of the hue of the moon.’4

Kautilya’s artha-Sastra, from the end of the fourth century B.C., describes the fine quality of silk and other crafts made in Pundra, Suvarnakudya and Vanga or Banga. The oldest Indian treatise on the training and diseases of elephants, the Hastyayur Veda, ascribed to Pala Kapya, is a Work compiled during the Sutra period (600-200BC). Its author is described as a man from ‘where the Lauhitya (Brahmaputra, a river in Bangladesh) flows towards the sea’, which implies that Bangladesh is near the mouth of Ganges.5

Dated history begins only in 326 B.C., when the warriors of the Gangaridai and the Prasioi resisted the threatening onslaught of Alexander, who gad advanced to the Hyphasis and was eager to penetrate deeper into the interior of India, Bengal. We do not possess any detailed information about the social and political history of Bengal before this event although we can guess that there was an organized society and people before the advance of Alexander in Bengal. Greek and Latin writers refer to the ancient people of Bengal as the Gangaridai or the ‘people of the Ganges region.’ Historians of Alexander refer to the Gangaridai, a people who lived in the lower Ganges and its tributaries.

The classical scholar Diodorus locates the nation of the Gangaridai, whose king had four thousand elephants trained and equipped for war, beyond the Ganges. It may be reasonably inferred from the Latin and Greek scholars’ accounts that at about the time of Alexander’s invasion, the Gangaridai were a very powerful nation. The accounts of the periplus and ptolemy indicate that during the early centuries of the Christian era the whole of deltaic Bengal was organized into a powerful kingdom. From the fourth century A.D. onwards the epigraphic records show chronological periods such as the Gupta, early post-Gupta, Pala and Sena ages, which give us some idea. The Brihat-Samhita of Varahamigira from the sixth century A.D. distinguishes North, Centerland Eastern Bengal. In the seventh century A.D., a Gauda King had his capital at Karnasuvarna near Murshidabad.

The discovery of terracotta figurines of the Sunga period at Mahastangarh proves that the city of pundrabardhana continued to flourish even after the fall of the imperial Mauryas who ruled over India before Alexander came.

Fragments of a huge image, the pedestal of which bore an inscription was discovered in Silua, Noakhali, belong to the second century B.C. The inscriptions of the age of Samudragupta disclose the existence of new kingdoms. The establishment of the Gupta empire marks the end of the independence of the various states that flourished in Bengal at the beginning of the fourth century A.D.

When the Mauryas ruled over the greater part of India, the upper region of Bengal also came under their rule. Chandra Gupta Maurya established his rule in 321 B.C. After the Mauryas the Guptas ruled India as well as the upper part of Bengal, which was identified as Pundrabardhan. The Gupta kingdom was founded by Chandra Gupta in 321A.D.A stone inscription from the period of a Gupta king, Samudra Gupta, refers to Samatat and Pushkaran as two independent states. While Samatat referred to East Bengal, Pushkaran meant West Bengal. At the end of the Gupta reign two independent kingdoms were established in Bengal: Samatat and Gaura. Around 606 A.D. Shasanka became the ruler of Gaura and succeeded in uniting many parts of Bengal into one kingdom. During his reign Bengal became known as an independent country, but after his death it disintegrated into smaller states. From the period of Shasanka, Pundra, Gaura and Vanga became three important regions of Bengal. Next were the Pala kings, who originally came from Karnataka, and ruled between the eighth and twelfth centuries; they first ruled over Varendra and then gradually brought Vanga and Magadh under their rule. The Sena rulers succeeded the Palas, who originally came from Karnataka. Both the Pala and Sena rulers used the title ‘King of Gaura’ although they ruled entire Bengal.

The name Vanga or Banga was abhorred by the Aryans who succeeded the Senas, and avoided by the Palas and Sena rulers, but it became the sole identity of Bengal under Muslim rule. When Bakhtiar Khilji, a Turk, conquered Bengal in 1204 it became known as Banga and Gaura. Ilias Shah established full control over all the provinces of Bengal and became known as the Sultan of Bengal; he founded Sonargaon as his capital. During the period of the Mughal emperor Akbar Bengal became known as ‘Subah Bangla’ and the Europeans who came to India at that time called the land Bengala which eventually became Bengal. British Bengal consisted of five divisions which took the boundary of Bengal up the Himalayas in the north, including Nepal, Bhutan and Sikkim, the Bay of Bengal in the south, Chittagong and Assam in the east and Bihar and Orissa in the west. In 1905 Bengal was divided and East Bengal and Assam Province were created. Even after the creation of Pakistan in 1947, the eastern Province of Pakistan was known as East Bengal until 1956. In 1971 East Pakistan finally became a totally independent country. This is the history of Bangladesh, which took a thousand years to become an independent identity.

The literary references in the Vedic, epic and Sutra texts do not represent chronological facts. It is therefore necessary to look at other Indian and foreign literature and early epigraphs for historical information about ancient Bengal.

Though the name Banga has been used since the earliest centuries for one for one of the regions of Present Bangladesh, the name Vangala-desa has been mentioned in epigraphic and literacy records since the eleventh century A.D. It was Vangala, rather than the Vanga of earlier references that gave its name to the eastern subah or province of the Mughal empire that stretched from Chittagong to Garhi. Historian Abu’l-Fazl regarded Vanga and Vangala as identical. The derivation of the name Vangala supports its identification with the part of old Vanga intersected by ‘khals’or canals, dides and bridges that was known as Bhati or ‘downstream’ or ‘land of tide and ebb’ during the time of Akbar and Lama Tartan. Taranath refers to ‘Bati’ near the mouth of the Ganges. It is in this land that Gastaldi (1561A.D.) Places Bangala.

It may be presumed that Bengal had developed a culture of its own which was non-Vedic and non-Aryan. It is true that the Aryan culture, and the Vedic, Buddhist and Jaina religions influenced Bengal. The primitive culture became absorbed but it also influenced its adopted religion. The diffusion of the Vedic culture is seen during the Gupta period, evidenced by epigraphic inscriptions. The Vedic influence became stronger in Bengal during the Pala period. The Varman and the Sena kings were patrons of the Vedic culture.

When the Chinese traveler Fa Hien came to Bengal in the fifth century the country was flourishing in Aryan learning and culture. Huen Tsang visited Bengal during the first half of the seventh century and found that the Bengalis had great respect for their learning. According to him Mahayana and Hinayana Buffhism, Brahminism and Jainism exited in harmony. From about the second millennium B.C. Aryanization in India extended to the Ganges Valley. The non-Aryans the Dravidians and the Kol (another aboriginal people,) fought with the Aryans and eventually made peace with them. Many non-Aryans remained unaffected by Aryan culture and language for quite some time, although they were looked down upon as “Sudras” by the Aryan settlers or the “Vaisas”. The Dravidian culture was not possessed a philosophy which influenced the Aryans. Some of the cosmic notions seem to be Dravidian. The composite culture of Bangladesh reflects a synthesis of Dravidian and Aryan culture. The eastern Aryans were a mixed people. The Vedic Aryans called the non-Vedic Aryans Vratyas, outcasts or people without rights, who could obtain admission into the Vedic community by performing a sacrifice. Bengal was Aryansized much later than other parts of India.

The rise of the anti-Brahmin and the anti-sacrificial ideas of the Buddhists and the Jains among the eastern people or Bengalis shows that other strong traditions were established before the Brahmins came and that Vedic ideas brought by the Brahmin did not inspire the masses. According to Dr. Dinesh Chandra Sen, the country was for centuries in open revolt against Hindu orthodoxy. Buddhist and Jain influences were so great that the Hindu code of Manu prohibited all contact of the Hindus with this land; hence Brahminism could not thrive there for many centuries. With the revival of Hinduism the Sanskrit pundits did not accept works in Bengal were carried away to Nepal and Burma as Buddhism was gradually suppressed in India by the Brahmins. Sanskrit scholars from outside Bengal who brought about a Hindu revival in Bengal abhorred the simple Bengali language.

A number of old Bengali inscriptions of this period, consisting of copper plates on which are recorded deeds of grants of land made to Brahmins, are extant. Brahmins were given gifts of land so that they might settle in Bangladesh. Although Bengal adopted the Aryan civilization and culture, it never became a stronghold of Brahminc orthodoxy. Even as late as the early part of the nineteenth century, when Bengali was highly developed, orthodox Brahminc were highly critical of the publication of Bengali translations of the Hindu scriptures by Rajah Ramona Roy who a reformer.

There in no definite evidence as to when Buddhism originated in Eastern India and Bengal. The reference to Vanga as an important center of Buddhism can be found in a Nagarijunikonda inscription which can be dated to the second or third century A.D. It includes Vanga in a long list of well-known countries converted to Buddhism. A line of Buddhist kings ruled in East Bengal towards the close of seventh century A.D. Buddhism flourished in Bengal in the seventh century. The Buddhist scholars of Bengal in the seventh century A.D. largely contributed to the development of the Nalanda monastery which was situated in Magadha.

In Bengal, Buddhism spread rapidly among those people who never took to the Aryan caste system. Aryanization in Bengal began from the time of Asoka in the third century B.C.

Of the two forms of Buddhism practiced in India, Mahayana and Hinayana, Mahayana became more widely accepted in Bengal. The Mahayana form of Buddhism developed forms of mysticism, known as Vajrayana and Tantrayana, which dealt with certain deeper metaphysical issues. In Bengal Buddhist mysticism had three important forms: Vajrayana, Shahajayana and Kalachakrayana. Vajrayana and Shahajayana represented different aspects of the same mysticism. The first was concerned in which ceremonies had no place. The siddha authors of Caryagiti treated this aspect of mysticism.

The earliest Bengali Buddhist teacher to achieve distinction outside Bengal is Shilabhadra. Hiuen Tsang came to India to study under Shilabhadra, who was then in charge of Nalanda. Shilabhadra and Atisa Srigana Dipankara, another great Buddhist scholar and reformer, were both born in Bangladesh but converted Tibet to Bengali Buddhism and enriched Tibetan literature by writing in both Sanskrit and Tibetan.

Bengali Baul songs, which are considered close to Carya poems in mysticism, are a synthesis of Shahajia Buddhism, Vaisnava Shahajia and Indo-Persian Sufism. Tagore was highly influenced by the Baul songs of Bangladesh. Murshidi, an old form of folk mimic, perhaps bears the last traces of Buddhist influence. One finds the impression of maya borrowed from the Buddhists. ‘The world is nothing – we have to leave it behind’ forms a common theme. ‘Like the dew on the grass the body is transient’ is an essential message.

Among ancient works the Atharva Veda hymns were highly mystical poems composed earlier than the Buddhist mystical songs and may have directly influenced the later. The Hindu Krishna legend, an essential element of Vaishnavism in Bengal which was formed in Bengal as early as the sixth or seventh century A.D., was also inspired by Buddhism in Bengal. Evidence of this is found in the sculptures of Paharpur, the oldest of which probably belong to sixth or seventh centuries A.D. and the latest to the eighth century A.D. The Krishna legend was highly popular by the seventh century A.D. [Ed. This refers to the earliest accepted artifacts of Krishna worship in Bengal, and the apparant connection to Buddhist sites. The reference to a ‘legend being formed’ is, of course, a misinterpretation.]

Bengal influenced Tibet in many ways and vice versa. The form of the Buddhist religion and monastic order in Tibet was largely shaped by number of famous Buddhist scholars from Bengal. The Tibetan chronicles give detailed accounts of these.

According to the Tibetan book, Pag Sham Jon Zang of the eleventh century, Bengal occupied first place in the field of art. Tibetan opera or old drama combines singing and dancing, which immediately reminds one of the Carya Nryta and Carya singing which is still founded in Nepal and Bhutan today. Dance movements in Tibetan opera correspond with lyrics and melodies much as in the Carya Nrytas or dance. Some movements, such as bowing with the hands clasped and scriptures. The use of metaphors in the Caryas.

Between 581 and 600 A.D. Srong Tsan founded a powerful kingdom in Tibet. He led a victorious campaign to India possibly Bengal since the campaign is commemorated in both Bengal and Assam. Through the influence of his Buddhist queen from Nepal he was converted to Buddhism and Indian. Invited Pundits to Tibet, and had Bengali alphabets.

.Map of the Bay of Bengal, c. 1660

The form of the Buddhist religion and monastic order in Tibet was largely shaped by a number of famous Buddhist teachers from Bengal. The Tibetan chronicles have preserved detailed accounts of these Pundits from Bengal, in particular from the Pala Kingdom; they not only preached the Bengali culture and civilization. In the middle of the eighth century A.D. Santirakshita was invited to Tibet by the king there. According to Pag Sham Jon Zang (compiled in 1747 A.D.) Santirakshita was born into the royal family of Zohar, which is the phonetic equivalent of Sabhar, outside Dhaka. On his advice the king to the Lama in Tibet. After Santirakshita, Kamalasila went to Tibet invitation of the king. Another great scholar from Bengal invited by the king of Tibet during the middle of eleventh century was Atisa Dipankara. Born in 982 A.D. near Dhaka, Atisa’s village is still known as Vajrayogini and his original home site is called ‘Nastik Punditer Vita’ or ‘abode of the non-believer learning as the Chief Monk. According to Tibetan tradition Dipankara went to Tibet at the age of fifty-nine and spent the last thirteen years of his life in Tibet. When he reached Tibet he translated many treatises into Tibetan. In Bsam Yes Monastery in 1042 he found many Sanskrit manuscripts which no longer existed in Bengal or India so he translated them into Tibetan. Because of him a vast number of Sanskrit and Pali literature is preserved in Tibet. He died in 1054 at the Snye-thang Monastery. The Chinese believe that many original manuscripts are buried under that monastery which is not too far from Lhasa.

The Anargha-raghva composed by the poet Murari during the latter half of the eighth century A.D. mentions Champa as the Capital of the Gaudas. The people of Champa in Bengal founded a colony in Cochin China, as I was told during my visit there. It will be interesting too trace similarities there with those of Bengali culture.

The Muslim Pathans occupied Bengal early in the thirteenth century from Bulk, Oxus and settled in the plains of Bengal. Dr. Sukumar Sen writes in his History of Bengali Literature (p.33): It is true that the whole of Bengal did not fail into the hands of the Turk adventurers in the course of a few great monasteries and universities were soon abandoned by the pundits and priests. This established social and cultural milieu was shattered and a new Bengali people emerged. This regeneration is personified in Chaitanya. The pundits’ and poets’ writing were silent but not the singers of the mystic cults and folk culture of the common people. Middle Bengali native and lyric poetry flourished for centuries.

The Muslim emperors learnt the Bengali language and lived with the people. Mosques and temples rose side by side. The Muslim rulers ordered translations of Sanskrit classics into Bengali for the first time for the common people to understand. Poet Vidyapati prased Nasir Shah and Sultan Giasuddin for their intellectual patronage. Mahabharata was translated into Bengali. Muslim sultans patronized translations of Sanskrit and Persian works. Brahmins were compelled to write in Bengali. Bengali was adopted in Assam, Nefa, Orissa, Arakan, Ranchi and Bihar. Bengali Puthi literature was highly influenced by Muslims and the Persian language. The Muslims introduced many Persian, Arabic and Turkish words into Bengali. Dr. Dinesh Chandra Sen points out. ‘This elevation of Bengali to a literary status was brought about by several influences of which the Mohammedan conquest was undoubtedly one of the oremost. An enriched folk culture grew up in Bangladesh due to both the Hindu and Muslim common masses and Bengali was its vehicle. Bengali was the common language and literature of the masses. The majority of the Muslims of Bengal, being convert from the Krishna and Nath. The unity between Hindus society, continued with their ancient cults such as the Sahajiya, Krishna and Nath. The unity between Hindus and Muslims in Bengali arose out of racial oneness, common interest and the communal life of the village. It was usual for Hindus and Muslims to take part in each other’s social and religious festivals.

A new culture, based on folk culture thus emerged in Bengali. The decline of orthodox Brahminism and classical Hidus culture, well before the Muslim conquest, and their virtual extinction after the conquest gave the new Bengali culture full opportunity to grow. Bengali literature found room to expand in the gap left by Sanskrit.

The Bay of Bengal

2 Comments

K. Mitra on April 25, 2016 at 11:23 am

Who has written this story. Please provide evidence of the ideas you state or don’t create false statements. It is well known that there were nothing called Aryan tribe ever. It was just a false story preached by the substandard european race to lower the status of Bharatiyas and show themselves as higher beings. Ancient Bengal was indeed very advanced and developed and the proof lies in the intellect that the Bangalis still carry forward, the strong cultural identity that they still uphold and the sweetest language in the world that was developed over ages from Sanskrit which they still use as their mother-tongue. You can’t even prove the Aryan theory, so please don’t preach false stories like the sly europeans. Who runs this website ? Provide your identity.
Girdari on January 3, 2017 at 1:11 am

The article appears truncated.

Could we have the rest of it, including the list of references, please?