HISTORY OF BENGALI

HISTORY OF BENGALI

Sanjeev Nayyar

PART-2

1300 to 1526

As we have seen above B descended from the old Magadhi Prakrit. The oldest specimens of B literature dated roughly from 1050 to 1200 followed by a period of transition from 1200 to 1350. It is likely that the first drafts of the great B narrative poems were made during this period.

The first century and a half after the Turks conquered Bengal the state did not produce any literature. However, when a stable Muslim govt was established and the Brahmans could pay greater attention to old learning a renaissance of Sanskrit studies appears to have started in Bengal in the 14th and 15th centuries. Probably the first great poet of Middle B of whom we have some record was Krittivasa Ojha Mukhati (born about 1399). He was probably the first and the most popular poet to adopt the Ramayana into B 1418. His poem is mainly narrative – not with a spirit of Bhakti as we are to see later. The Krishna story was taken up by Maladhara Basu, Gunaraja Khan about 1473 in his Sri-Krishnavijaya, which is based on the Sanskrit Bhagavata Purana. To the 15th century are attributed two poems on this theme (the story of Bihula, who was widowed on the night of her wedding by snake bite through the machinations of Manasa, the snake Goddess, how she worshiped the Gods and brought back her husband to life – is one of the greatest tales of wifely devotion and womanly courage through love) by Vijaya Gupta and Bipradasa Piplai.

A great name in early medieval B literature is that of Chandidasa who is considered by many to be the greatest lyrical poet of Bengal prior to Rabindranath Tagore. Over 125 poems relating to the love of Radha and Krishna are current in the name of Chandidasa. He is supposed to have existed around 1450 as Chaitanya 1486 to 1533 used to sing his poems. In 1916 was discovered Sri Krishna-kirttana written too by a Badu Chandidasa. This created a problem on who was Chandidasa. Probably there were three Chandidasas with the names Bapu, Dvija and Dina. It is one and two who were great poets but all get remembered as one Chandidasa.

The 15th century was a great one for Bengal. It was ruled by the Sultans of Turkish - Afghan origin who had become sufficiently Bengalized to support B literature. One such king was Husain Shah who had as his private secretary and intimate minister two Brahmans who later on became followers of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Husain Shah was also an active patron of B literature while Parag and Chuti Khan governors of Chittagong had the Mahabharata translated into B verse, first by a poet called Kavindra and secondly by Srikara Nandi. From the early 15th to the 19th century the tradition of telling Ramayana and Mahabharata stories esp relating to Krishna continued.

The Sanskrit scholars in Bengal were active during the 15th century and an all round cultural renaissance started from the end of the century. When Chaitanya came to preach the Bhakti Cult through the figure of Krishna, the Puranas, Mahabharata and Ramayana were eagerly studied. Renowned jurists like Raghunatha Siromani and poets like Chaturbhuja Misra (author of Haricharita, a kavya in Sanskrit on the story of Krishna) came to strengthen the tradition of Sanskrit scholarship in Bengal. Social organizers like Devivara Ghataka established a set of social usages in matters of marriage among Brahmans to keep society intact from the onslaught of Islam. Colleges of Sanskrit learning sprung up everywhere and contacts with other centers of learning like Mithila, Gaya and Kashi were established.

Chaitanya who flourished from 1486 to 1533 rode at the crest of the wave of the 15th century renaissance and gave a new turn to Hinduism in Bengal through reviving Vaishnavism with Krishna and Radha as symbols for the Divinity and its innate power of bliss. The personality of Chaitanya is looked upon by many Bengalis as the greatest fact of Bengal’s cultural and spiritual life in late medieval times. He left only eight Sanskrit verses and an eight-stanza hymn to Jagannatha or Vishnu. But what he is supposed to have taught is elaborated by the later Gaudiya or Bengali Vaishnava philosophy in the 16th to 18th centuries. After living his early life in Bengal Chaitanya went on pilgrimage to South India from where he brought Sanskrit words, returned to North India via Maharashtra and passed away at Puri.

(To be continued)