History of Bengali literature

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History of Bengali literature
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Ancient Age

Charyapada

Main article: Charyapada

The first works in Bengali, written in Old Bengali,[1] appeared between 10th and 12th centuries C.E. The collection of these words is generally known as the Charyapada. There are as many as 50 to 51 songs. But we got only 46 and a tore one of them(23). These are mystic songs composed by various Buddhist seer-poets: Luipada, Kanhapada, Kukkuripada, Chatilpada, Bhusukupada, Kamlipada, Dhendhanpada, Shantipada, Shabarapada, Arcjhanpada, Bhadehpada, Dharmapada, Dhombipada, Mohidharpada, Khonkonpada, Binapada,Birupada, Thantrikpada etc. Among them Kanhapada composed highest number of songs,13. And the second position goes to Bhusukupada,8.We haven't got any songs composed by Thantrikpada. The first song is composed by Luipada. The famous Bengali linguist Haraprasad Shastri discovered the palm leaf Charyapada manuscript in the Nepal Royal Court Library in 1907.

There is no Dark Age in Bengali literature."Sekh Subhadaya" collection of poems on some Muslim Fakir's biography which was founded by Bangladesh.They think that those poems were written in 12th century.

Middle Age

Early Vaishnab Literature

Shrikrishna Kirtana

Main article: Shreekrishna Kirtana

A torn manuscript of the Sreekrishna Kirtana Kabya was discovered by Basanta Ranjan Roy Biddyadwallav in 1909 from the house of Debendranath Chatterjee at a village named Kakinla in the district of Bankura, West Bengal. Shreekrishna Kirtana Kabya was composed by Boru Chandidas. It was first published under the composition made by Basontoh Ranjan Roy in 1916. While Charyapada shows us the most ancient example of Bengali language, Shreekrishna Kirtana depicts a new kind of speech style very clearly. Shreekrishna Kirtana have as many as 13 parts. It depicted the romantic relationship of Radha and Krishna. According to Suniti Kumar Chatterji, "The Grammar of the speech of the Shreekrishna Kirtana gives a clue to many of the forms of New Bengali".

Padavali of Vidyapati

The padas of Vidyapati—written in an early Bengali dialect that draws from Maithili—deeply influenced the medieval Bengali poets.

Padavali of Chandidas

There are a large number of Bengali padas related to the love of Radha and Krishna with the bhanita of Chandidas, with three different sobriquets—Baḍu, Dvija, and Dina—along with his name, as well as without any sobriquet. It is not clear whether these bhanitas actually refer to the same person or not.

Early translations from Sanskrit

Early Mangalkavyas

Main article: Mangalkavya

The Mangalkavyas were written to popularise the worship of a number of deities, mostly Manasa and Chandi. This genre of Bengali literature includes the majority of works of the medieval Bengali literature. This genre includes the following subgenres:

Hagiography of Sri Chaitanya

Chaitanya Bhagavat of Vrindavana Dasa

The Chaitanya Bhagavata—written by Vrindavana Dasa—is the earliest hagiographical work on the Vaishnava saint Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1533). Chaitanya is considered by his followers to be an incarnation of Radha and Krishna combined, and is a pivotal figure of the Hindu sect Gaudiya Vaishnavism.

Chaitanya Charitamrita of Krishnadasa Kaviraja

The Chaitanya Charitamrita is the magnum opus of the Bengali saint/author Krishna Dasa Kaviraja (1496-? CE). The book, a hybrid Bengali and Sanskrit biography, documents the life and precepts of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

As a religious text, the Chaitanya Charitamrita is the main theological resource for Gaudiya Vaishnava theology, and is divided into three sections; Adi-lila, Madhya-lila, and Antya-lila.

Later Vaishnab literature

Later Mangal Kavyas

Translation of Mahabharata

Muslim poets of the 17th century

Works of Raigunakar Bharatchandra

Shakta Padavali

মহারাজ নন্দকুমারের শাক্ত-পদাবলী

Baul Songs

Early Modern Age

Essay

Poetry

Drama

Novel/short story

Modern age

Essay

Poetry

Drama

Novel/short story

Periodicals

Modern Bangladeshi literature

The Hungryalist movement

The Hungryalist movement—better known as Hungry generation—was launched from the Patna residence of Malay Roy Choudhury in November 1961 by Malay, Shakti Chattopadhyay, Samir Roychoudhury, and Haradhon Dhara (alias Debi Roy). Later, around 30 more poets, writers, and painters joined the movement. In view of their anti-establishment writings, some of them were arrested in 1964, and ultimately charges were framed against Malay for his poem Stark Electric Jesus. He was jailed by the lower court, though the High Court exonerated him. The police action resulted into disbanding of the movement in 1965. However, the movement had a lasting effect, inasmuch as the writing trend changed, and subsequently there was a little magazine explosion.

The Prakalpana Movement

The Prakalpana Movement appears to be the only bilingual avant-garde literary movement ongoing in India for over four decades which has followers worldwide. Marked as the "tiny literary revolution"[3] and inculcated by Vattacharja Chandan,[4] this alternative movement has harboured the mail art and literary works of well-known international writers, such as Richard Kostelanetz, Don Webb, John M. Bennett, Sheila Murphy, and others, as well as their Indian counterparts, such as Vattacharja Chandan, Dilip Gupta, Bablu Roychoudhury, Nikhil Bhaumik, Ramratan Mukhopadhyay, Utpal, Baudhayan Mukhopadhyay, Shyamoli Mukherjee Bhattacharjee, Avijit Ghose, Arun Chakraborty, and Niva De.

See also

Literary movements

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to History of Bengali Language and Literature.
  1. ↑ Sen, Sukumar (1979) [1960]. History of Bengali (3rd ed.). New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi. p. 24. ISBN 81-7201-107-5.
  2. ↑ "Pranab Kumar Chattopadhyay". calcuttayellowpages.com.
  3. ↑ Songs of Kobisena by Steve Leblanc, Version 90, PMS Cafe Press, Alston, MS, USA.
  4. ↑ http://www.envf.port.ac.uk/illustration/zineopolis/collection/p/prakalpana.htm
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