legendary bengal

 

legendary bengal

 

When Agudemba traveled to India, he also went to Bangladesh. Modern people are not familiar with Bangladesh. At most, they know that there is a young Bangladesh in the world, which is a small country. The modern state of Bangladesh was established in 1971. After the Bangladesh Liberation War, Bangladesh achieved independence from Pakistan.

In fact, if you want to understand India, you must understand Bangladesh. The early history of Bengal was characterized by successive Indian empires, internal strife and struggles for Hindu and Buddhist dominance.

Old Lavani told Agudumba the story of Bengal:

Bangladesh has been inhabited by humans at least 20,000 years ago, and the Bronze Civilization appeared about 4,000 years ago. Many archaeological excavations in Bangladesh have revealed evidence of the northern black polished ceramic culture of the Indian subcontinent. This was an Iron Age culture that began around 700 BC and reached its peak between 500 and 300 BC. In Chinese classics, Bangladesh is named "Panqi Kingdom" in "Book of the Later Han Dynasty".

In the early Middle Ages, the Pala dynasty was the first independent Buddhist dynasty in Bangladesh. In the Song Dynasty, Zhao Rushi wrote "Zhufan Zhi" and called it "Pengqieluo" and the capital of the country was "Cha Na Ka"; Yuan Wang Dayuan wrote "Daoyi Zhilue" as "Pengjiala"; Ming Ma Huan wrote "Yingya Shenglan" As "Bang Ge La".

The Bangladeshi people are one of the ancient ethnic groups in the South Asian subcontinent. The earliest inhabitants of Bangladesh were Asian-Australians. Later, Mongolians who spoke the Tibeto-Burman language came in from the northeast, and then Aryans, who were mixed with the Dravidians, moved in. After a long period of integration, these groups of people gradually formed today's Bangladeshis. In the early days, people in Bangladesh mostly believed in Buddhism and Hinduism.

The ancient Indian Sanskrit epic "Mahabharata" and the Sanskrit literature Puranas all mention Venga or the delta king of Bengal. In the 4th century BC, it became the territory of the Mauryan Dynasty in India, and Buddhism began to be introduced to Bangladesh. In the 4th century AD, Bengal became the territory of the Gupta dynasty.

Islam first appeared in Bangladesh in the 7th century. This one was brought by Arab Muslim caravans and Sufi missionaries. In the 9th century, there was a unified feudal country.

At the end of the 12th century, the Bengal region became the territory of the Delhi Sultanate. In 1203, the first Muslim ruler, a Turk, Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji, captured Nadia and established Muslim rule, and Muslims conquered the area. In the 13th century, Islam was converted to Islam due to foreign influence, which also led to Islam being deeply rooted here. In 1338, the Sultanate of Bangladesh was established with Dhaka as its capital.

Old Lavani said to Agudengba:

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive in Bangladesh. They came here in the late 15th century. Many people do not know that by the 16th century, Bangladesh had developed into the most densely populated, economically developed and culturally prosperous region on the subcontinent.

The Nawab of Bengal was the hereditary ruler of Suba of Bengal in Mughal India. In the early 18th century, the Nawab of Bengal was the de facto independent ruler of the three regions of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, which constituted the modern sovereign state of Bangladesh and West Bengal in India. States, Bihar and Odisha. They are popularly known as the Nawabs of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. The Nawab family was based in Murshidabad, centrally located in Bangladesh, Bihar and Odisha. Their leader, a former Prime Minister, became the first Nawab. The Nawab continued to issue coins in the name of the Mughal emperor, but for all practical purposes the Nawab governed as an independent monarch. Bangladesh continues to contribute the largest share of funds to the royal treasury in Delhi. The Nawabs, with the support of bankers such as Jagat Seth, became the financial backbone of the Mughal court. In the 18th century, the Nawabs of Bengal were among the richest rulers in the world.

In the mid-18th century, the Bangladesh region became the center of British colonial rule in India. In the second half of the 19th century, Bangladesh became a province of British India.

In 1904, Bangladesh was divided into eastern and western parts by the British colonial government and later reunited. In 1947, India and Pakistan were partitioned. Bangladesh was divided into east and west parts, with the west belonging to India and the east belonging to Pakistan. In March 1971, East Pakistan declared independence. In January 1972, the People's Republic of Bangladesh was formally established.

Old Lavani said to Agudengba:

In 1883, a small collection of East Indian folktales "Folktales of Bengal" was published. The author Lal Behari Day said in his preface that he was in a small village and listened to stories told by the woman who was the best storyteller in the village every night. People call her the mother of San Bo. The author has heard many of them since he was a child, but most of them have been forgotten. This collection was collected at the request of his friends. He heard a lot from a Bangladeshi woman and wrote down most of the episode from what she said. There are also two passages in the collection that I heard from an old Brahmin; three passages from a barber; two passages from the author's servant; and several passages from another Brahmin. He told it. The author heard many other stories. He thought they were all different ways of telling the same story, so he did not collect them. There are only twenty-two stories in this collection, which, according to the author, are very representative of the stories that old women in Bangladeshi villages have always told their children.

Old Lavani said:

The village woman who told stories about Bangladesh would sing a little song after each story. Why do you have to sing this little song every time you finish speaking? I don’t know why, because the relationship and meaning of the words in the song are difficult to explain. Perhaps the village woman who told the story deliberately read out this meaningless words after finishing speaking, in order to make the children listening to the story more interested. Mr. Agudemba, you are a wise man, you might as well study what this little song is about.

Old Lavani sang this little song called "Learn to Think About It":

 

The story I tell is wow,

It’s over here,

Natiya also withered.

 

I think you should answer me:

Na Tiye, why do you wither?

Why do you want me to feed your cow grass?

Cow, cow, why do you want people to feed you?

Why doesn't your pastor come to watch over me?

Shepherd, why don't you go see the cows?

Why doesn't your daughter-in-law give me the rice?

Daughter-in-law, why don’t you give me rice?

My children, why are you crying?

Children, why do you always cry?

Oops, why are the ants biting me?

Ant, why do you always bite people?

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