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Old Bengali

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Old Bengali was the earliest recorded form of the Bengali language, spoken in the Bengal region of eastern Indian subcontinent during the Middle Ages. It developed from a Apabhraṃśa of Magadhi Prakrit around 650 AD, and the first Bengali literary works date from the 8th century. Between 1200 and 1350 AD, no written form or literary work of Bengali language is found; during this period the Islamic invasion took place in Bengal.[1][2] It is marked as the barren age, and also marks the end of the Old Bengali era, as the Middle Bengali language developed later.

Old Bengali
Adi Bangla
Page-39 of the Charyapada manuscript, a sign of the Old Bengali
RegionBengal region
EthnicityBengalis
EraMostly developed into Middle Bengali by the 14th century
Early forms
Proto-Gauda–Kamarupa
  • proto-Bengali (Gauda)
Gaudi script
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
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Old Bengali is an Indo-Aryan language that is one of the Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, and its closest relatives are Old Odia and Kamarupi Prakrit. Like other Old Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, it is distinct from Modern Bengali and is not fully incomprehensible to Modern Bengali speakers without study. Within Old Bengali grammar, the verb evolved and a letter is omitted from a ligature formed by consonants.

History

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Old Bengali was spoken in the Bengal region which became the Pala Empire and the Sena kingdom. These included present-day Bangladesh, the Indian state West Bengal and its western border areas of Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha, the Barak Valley of Assam.

According to Suniti Kumar, it overlapped the last Apabhraṃśa phase. Proto-Bengali was the last stage of an already decayed order, so it inflection less than later languages with its new postpositional affixes and other devices. Chatterji compares it to the 'Sea Old' period of modern Romance and Teutonic languages. Old Bengali is dated to 650 AD, and it originated from proto-Bengali, a form of the Bengali language of the period before 600 AD.[3]

A Sanskrit-Chinese dictionary compiled by the Chinese poet Li Ye in 782 AD shows the presence of Bengali. A four-volume research document "Classical Bangla" published in 2024 by the Kolkata-based institute "Institute of Language Studies and Research" (ILSR), mentions the presence of 51 Bengali words in the dictionary. The inclusion or rather Compulsion to include of the Bengali (Bengali word) as a third language in the Sanskrit-Chinese dictionary indicates the fact that—Bengali was already standardized and was the dominant language considered as the language of the geographical region (Bengal).[4]

Vajrayani and Sahajani Acharyas composed charyas between the tenth and twelfth centuries AD. There is disagreement among historians about the period of composition. According to Suniti Kumar Chatterji and Prabodh Chandra Bagchi, the Charyapadas were composed between the 10th and 12th centuries; but Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah Hall and Rahul Sankrityayan put this period back by another 200 years and expressed the opinion that the period of Charya's composition was from eighth to twelfth century AD. Some of the Old Bengali songs compiled in Mānasollāsa—also known as Abhilashitartha Chintamani—were composed in the third decade of the twelfth century. Chalukya king Someshvara III was the patron of the book. The songs were composed in the Bengal and circulated as far as Maharashtra.[5]

Phonology

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Sound changes

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Some of the major sound changes that took place in the history of Old Bengali were as follows:

  • One of the consonants of the ligatures was lost, and the preceding vowel was lengthened to compensate for this loss. Exception to this rule is found in the Ardha-tatsama words. There is a loss of assimilative consonant but the preceding vowel is not lengthened. Ligatures formed by joining with nasal consonants are also often unassimilated; however, in Old Bengali the preceding vowel of such added consonants is lengthened.[6][7]
  • The nasal consonant was lost in many cases, and as a result the preceding vowel became nasal.[6][8]
  • Widespread use of /s/ (স্‌) in place of (/ʃ/) (শ্‌).[6]
  • Multiple vowels located side by side were retained. But multiple vowels at the end of words were pronounced as compound vowel and eventually two together became a single vowel.[6][7]

Grammar

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Morphology

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Signs of Sanskrit, Prakrit and Avahatta can be found in the grammar of Old Bengali in various—part of speech,declension for case, genders, numbers etc.[9]

In Old Bengali, adjectives had gender, which has declined in Modern Bengali. In the case of adverbs, the suffix /ɛ/ (এ) or /ɛm̐/ (এঁ) was added. Besides, adverbs are made by adding /i/ (ই) or /jə/ (ইয়া) to infinitive verbs.[10]

There were two types of pronouns—personal and demonstrative. Personal pronouns were of two types, and demonstrative pronouns were of five types—general demonstrative, near demonstratives, far demonstrative, relative demonstrative and indefinite demonstrative or indefinite demonstrative. There were no gender differences in pronouns. I used to refer to any gender, male or female.[11]

Literature

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Four pages–38 to 41–of the Charyapada manuscript.

The collection of Old Bengali literature is small but still significant, with only a few surviving manuscripts. Many of the written works of the Buddhist Tantric Sahajiyas mingle in Old Bengali, which is one of the richest and most significant bodies of literature preserved among the early language groups derived from Magadhi Prakrit.[12]

The most important surviving work of Old Bengali literature is the Charyapada, a collection of devotional song; which is considered as the best sign created in Old Bengali.[13] According to Tibetan sources, the original manuscript was called Charyagiti-koshavrtti and contained 100 verses. But till now 51 Padas or verses of the manuscript have been discovered. There are also some literary works, such as few Bengali songs compiled in Sekshuvodaya, some rhymes and poems of Bidagdha Mukhomandal.[12] Bandyaghatiya Sarbananda wrote the note on the Sanskrit lexicon Amarkosh by Amar Singh, which contains about 400 Bengali words which are considered to be traces of Old Bengali.[13]

Some of the songs written in Old Bengali were compiled in Mānasōllōsa or Abhilaṣitārthacintāmaṇi. These Bengali songs were placed in the gitbinod section of the Sanskrit text. The theme of the songs was the story of Krishna's lila with the gopis and Vishnu in various incarnations.[5]

References

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  1. ^ Shahidullah 1998, p. 42.
  2. ^ "Bengali literature". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 11 October 2024.
  3. ^ Chatterji 1926a, p. 17.
  4. ^ Mitra, Atri (8 October 2024). "Behind Bengali's classical language tag, a Kolkata institute's 2,000-page research document". The Indian Express. Kolkata. Retrieved 10 November 2024. And the West Bengal government-run organisation that prepared the document, the Institute of Language Studies and Research (ILSR), is delighted its more than a year-long efforts have paid off...."…a Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary compiled by Li-Yen bears testimony to the fact that at least 51 Bangla words made their way into that dictionary…The Chinese-Sanskrit dictionary, compiled in the 8th Century CE, included or rather was compelled to include words of a third language, i.e., Bangla. This is indicative of the fact that Bangla had already been standardized and was one of the influential tongues which was regarded as the lingua franca of the geographic area that was known as Bengal,"....
  5. ^ a b Ray 2022, p. 764.
  6. ^ a b c d Shaw 1984, p. 601.
  7. ^ a b Bhattacharya 2012, p. 147.
  8. ^ Bhattacharya 2012, p. 148.
  9. ^ Bhattacharya 2012, p. 191.
  10. ^ Bhattacharya 2012, pp. 192.
  11. ^ Bhattacharya 2012, pp. 194–1945.
  12. ^ a b Shaw 1984, pp. 600–601.
  13. ^ a b Shaw 1984, p. 600.

Bibliography

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