Bengali Voice over

How do new languages evolve from old ones? Why do they change? Do they change through decay… carelessness in articulation? Is it that man has a predilection for simplification that applies to language as well? Is it just a natural process, like so many other changes in the cosmos? Or is it a reflection of social change?

In India, Sanskrit was the language of the learned. Whereas, Prakrits were a body of languages evolved from Sanskrit, spoken by the common man in various parts of India. Significantly, the word Prakrit originates from Prakriti (Nature) which has to do with artless simplicity vis-à-vis Sanskrit which means refined!

Like most languages spoken in India, Bengali too evolved from one of the three main Prakrits - the Magadhi Prakrit, which is the earliest recorded spoken language in roughly the region of present day West Bengal, Assam and Bangla Desh. Magadhi Prakrit further evolved into Ardhamagadhi - literally half Magadhi - which like all the various Prakrits of India, further evolved into the Apabhranshas (decadent forms). The Purvi (Eastern) Apabhramsa further divided into Bihari, Oriya and the Bengali-Assamese group of languages.

Some of the oldest forms of Bengali are found in the devotional verses Charyapada. Then next point of change was Chandidas`s Srikrishnakirtan which can be called the pre-curser of Modern Bengali.

Unlike Hindi which absorbed Persian and Arabic influences, Bengali, drew heavily on Sanskrit. However, most Indian languages have absorbed a good measure of Persian-Arabic words. Interestingly the very first recorded text on Bengali grammar was written by a Portuguese missionary Manoel da Assumpcam before Raja Ram Mohan Roy wrote his "Grammar of the Bengali Language" in 1832. He was also the first one to compile a Bengali dictionary.

The Bengali alphabet is derived from the Brahmi alphabet around 11th Century AD. Later, in late 18th century Charles Wilkins gave it a more standard form when he adapted and modified it for one of the first printing presses for Bengali. During the 19th century the script was further modernized to its present form.

Bengali can be written in the cursive form unlike other Nagari scripts, as the letters have at least a partial line at the top, which connects to the other letters in a word. Bengali has two forms - Sadhu, the highly Sanskritised, artificial form, and Cholito, the colloquial language. Ishwar Chandra Visyasagar and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay were proponents of Sadhubhasha. But by the time Tagore was at the peak of his glory he had already switched from Sadhu to Cholito. Modern standard Bengali is the language spoken by the educated people in Calcutta.

Bengali, the state language of West Bengal boasts of approximately 300 million speakers the world over, including Bangladesh, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, USA, Singapore and Australia. In India, it is the 2nd most spoken language after Hindi, and it ranks the 6th most spoken language in the world.

A Bengali is justifiably proud of his language, as upholding one of the oldest and richest cultural traditions among Indian languages. The itinerant Baul singers of yesteryear such as Lalan Fakir, the greatest of all Bauls, constituted the ethos of Bengal with their simple philosophical compositions.

Later, Jatra the traditional folk theatre form evolved into the modern day Bengali theatre, which became a vibrant platform for rousing the populace to protest against the British Raj.

Tagore is to Bengali what Shakespeare is to the English literature. It is said that Tagore's Rabindrasangeet songs are the quintessence of some 500 years of literary & cultural churning that the Bengali community has gone through.

Bengali cinema has made a mark the world over with Satyajit Ray and his Trilogy Pather Panchali, Apur Sansar and Aparajito. Award winning directors such as Mrinal Sen, Bimal Ray, Ritwik Ghatak have earned Indian cinema a world audience.