A Handbook of West Bengal undertaken by the Department of Bengall, International School of Dravidian Linguistics (ISDL), is a comprehensive work on the socio-cultural life of the region. The purpose is to present the rich and colourful tradition of Bengal before the non-Bengall readers.
This has been planned as two volumes. The present volume gives the background information on the prehistory, land and population, history, religion, and a broad view of the folk and urbanised culture of the region. The second volume deals with economy, language and literature, educational system, art, media, administration and other aspects of the land.
Thematically arranged, the work provides up-to-date information as far as possible. The culture-related words have been given in Roman script. Some special pronunciations have been taken care of, like v in other languages being pronounced as b in Bengali Sufficient illustrations have been added to highlight the tenor of the matter presented. Some contributed articles from experts in the respective fields are important additions. Inspite of sincerity, the work may have lacunae.
I express my deep gratitude to our Hon. Director, Prof. V.I. Subramoniam who is the main inspiration of the project, with his innovative endeavour in planning such a work from a region of extreme distance. When I was entrusted with the work in September, 1990, he advised me to prepare a Handbook of Bengal without deviation from facts. Since then, he has constantly encouraged me in several ways in the compilation of the work. I pay my utmost reverance to him.
Many scholars from different fields and research institutions have extended generous assistance and advice. I gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness to them: Mr. Sunil Bhattacharya (Joint Secretary, Higher Education Department) and Mr. Amalesh Pathak (Personal Secretary to the Minister for Higher Education) of the Government of West Bengal, Mr. Kumud Ranjan Biswas (Editor), Mr. Tarapada Pal and Ms. Subha Som (Research Associates), and Mr. Tarun Pyne (Librarian) of West Bengal District Gazetteers, Profs. B.B. Chaudhuri (ISI), Subhadra Kumar Sen (University of Calcutta) and R.B. Saha Chowdhury, Mr. Sugata Barua and Drs. Sompa Sen, Sanat Kumar Mitra (Rabindra Bharati University) and Pasupati Prasad Mahato (Anthropological Survey of India), late Mr. Ganesh Lalwani (Jaina Bhavan), Mr. Hemendu Bikash Chowdhury (Bauddha Dharmankur Sabha), Dr. Manas Kamal Choudhury (Director) and the staff (Cultural Research Institute), and Mrs. Asha Bhattacharya, all from Calcutta, and Drs. Rajat Ghosh (Dibrugarh University) and Suhrid Kumar Bhowmick (Howrah), Maha Bodhi Society Library, Geological Survey of India Library, Asiatic Society Library and National Library, all from Calcutta and Centre for Development Studies (CDS) Library (Thiruvananthapuram), and Firma KLM Pvt. Ltd. and Pustak Bipani (Calcutta).
I am grateful to Prof. P.K. Bhowmick, a distinguished anthropologist and folklorist, for his suggestions and new information.
A Handbook of West Bengal, Volume I, to be released at Calcutta in May 1998, covers the Land and Population, Political History, Religion, Folk Culture, and Social Life and Culture.
Though the work is titled as 'A Handbook of West Bengal', it also covers East Bengal, so, it can be rightly called the Handbook of Bengal
Why an Institution based in Thiruvananthapuram is concemed with West Bengal is a question long fielded by friends and critics of the institution
The first President of the Dravidian Linguistics Association (DLA) was the far-famed Prof. Suniti Kumar Chatterji who Inaugurated the First Conference of Dravidian Linguists at Thiruvananthapuram in 1971. He and his well-known student, Sukumar Sen, were helpful in popularising linguistics in this part of the country. Besides, Sukumar Sen was a Senior Fellow of the DLA, and worked on the Place-Names of West Bengal, which was published by the Association in 1982. Before him, S Bhattacharya, the noted scholar in Dravidian tribal linguistics and a collaborator of T. Burrow, was also a Senior Fellow of the DLA in 1974. It was the far-sighted Asutosh Mukherjee, the then Vice Chancellor of the Calcutta University, who welcomed LA. Ananthakrishna lyer, the self-taught anthropologist of Kerala, to be a Visiting Professor at the Calcutta University Just at that time, a book on Malayalam phonetics by LV. Ramaswamy lyer, the prolific contributor to Dravidian philology, was published by the Calcutta University. These bonds were formed in the 20th century. A strong thread of intimacy was discovered when the history of West Bengal was analysed. The Senas who ruled over West Bengal and parts of Bihar, were originally from Karnataka. It is surmised that the earliest Sena was a chieftain in the army of Rajendra Chola I, the Chola Emperor who extended his sway far beyond the confines of the present-day Tamil Nadu. The Senas ruled over West Bengal for over two and a half centuries, Introduced Vedic ritualism and settled the cast hierarchies, in the place of the non-Vedic practices encouraged by the Pala rulers. The Dravidian words in Bengali are due to their dominance in that country.
While leafing through the pages on the history of Salvism, especially the Ph.D. thesis of Dr. V.S. Nandimath, I can easily find the closeness between Salvism in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. This, perhaps, led Rajendra Chola to invite the Sivacharyas from Gaudadesa to the Chola country and to settle them by giving grants of extensive lands. Many parallels are found in the cultural practices current in Kerala and West Bengal. Even now, they are in practice. The tükkam ceremony, the worship of the mother goddess, called Candi, Kall etc., wearing the dress of ladies by men as a ritual, which is found in several temples of southern Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, are only a fevr examples of the similarities in the worship of the gods.
Dripping of the water from a vessel hung over the head of the Sivalinga, found in Kerala, is also a feature in the Siva temples of West Bengal. The mega Sivalingas at Tanjavur and Gangalkonda Cholapuram have parallels in West Bengal dating to the 10th century AD.
Hindu (935)
Agriculture (118)
Ancient (1086)
Archaeology (753)
Architecture (563)
Art & Culture (910)
Biography (702)
Buddhist (544)
Cookery (167)
Emperor & Queen (565)
Islam (242)
Jainism (307)
Literary (896)
Mahatma Gandhi (372)
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