INTRODUCTION
Bangladesh is characterized by a unique coming together of many races, languages and religions. Its culture is a distinctive composite to which Jains, Buddhists, Hindus, Vaisnavas and Muslims have all contributed. From time to time Bangladesh searches for its roots as if trying to put back the missing parts in its long history. In the search for these roots we must look at its poetry.
Defining poetry and tradition1, C.M. Bowra states that poetry is the most important element of history. He maintains that poetry ensures the continuity of civilization by preserving the treasures of the past for future generation; in so doing it also predicts and shapes the future. The poetry of a nation reveals to us what that nation has seen and left. In the absence of recorded history poetry can serve as a dependable documentation of the past. It unfolds a civilization. At the same time it enables us to know ourselves and to look at our own translation from a fresh perspective. Poetry serves as an important cultural vehicle. The translation of poetry allows us to look deeply into a foreign civilization and communicate with others. Though translation can never be an adequate substitute for the original, it is nevertheless a valuable instrument for spreading new outlooks and ideas, in showing us what kind of culture others experience, and for suggesting areas of exchange and the cooperation of ideas and techniques.
In 1907 an Indian scholar, Haraprashad Sastri, working in the Royal Archive in Nepal discovered a palm-leaf manuscript of 'Caryagiti' mystic poems by Bengali Buddhist poets. The poems, also collectively known as the 'Caryapada' were published by him in 1916. Sastri's discovery brought to light the oldest specimens not only of Bengali poetry but also of Indo-Aryan literature. According to Dr. Mohammad Shahidullah the discovery of the Cayagiti means that Bengali literature can be dates as far back as the seventh century. It is probable that the language had developed a hundred years before this.
These poem-songs in old Bengali, designed to be sung with a particular rage, constitute an integral part of the heritage of Bangladesh and the basis of a long established tradition of poetry which has survived to the present day. These verse by Buddhist mystic poets are not only beautifully written and add greatly to Bengali literary traditions but they also constitute an invaluable source for the study of Bengali society and the Buddhist religion between the seventh and twelfth centuries. They are a particularly important discovery, since there are very few historical documents of the period in existence. Although the siddhacaryas, the writers of the Caryagiti dealt primarily with certain deeper metaphysical problems of tantric Buddhism, they also described their world.
They give us a vivid account of the life and occupations of the common people, their work, events of birth, marriage and death, religious activities, dress and ornaments, food and utensils, and music and musical instruments. There is also a beautiful description of the riverine and green eastern part of Bengal which is Bangladesh today. The poems describe rivers, canals, ponds, muddy shores, various types of boats and their different parts, ferrying, and rowing; all these were used by the siddhacaryas as spiritual symbols.
The Bengali siddhas, Buddhist mystics, used poetry as a vehicle for teaching one of the most difficult and mystic religious, that known as the shahajia mystic school of Buddhism. Through the use of the mother tongue of the common people, the mystic poets conveyed serious religious philosophies. The poems are a part of the cultural and religious heritage of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet. Although these songs are still ritually sung in Nepal and Bhutan very little research has been carried out on the subject. They deserve to be known outside the region.
According to Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah, the Caryagiti as a literary genre are the origin of both the later Vaisnavaite songs, according to Dr. Shahidullah, are:
1. They are short rhymed poems intended for singing,
2. The name of the composer appears in the last verse,
3. They are near erotic in theme2.
The Caryagiti influenced Gita-govinda, a famous Sanskrit work of the Bengali poet Jayadeva and Vaisnava Padabali, and much later, Rabindranath Tagore and the Baul songs of Bangladesh; Gita-govinda is a celebration of love between Krishna, the god of love and Radha. Divine love is humanized and the poems present erotic mysticism. Gita-govinda is written in a Kavya form, divided into formal cantos, and includes lyric drama, pastoral, an opera, a melodrama and a refined Yatra or play. The poems do not follow the Sanskrit tradition but bear a close resemblance to the spirit and style of the Caryagiti and old Bengali poetry. The musical padabalis, although composed in Sanskrit, actually follow the Bengali manner of expression and use rhymed and melodious moraic metres, uncommon in Sanskrit poems. Tagore was greatly influenced by the Baul songs during his stay in East Bengal, as he frequently mentions in his writing. In Bangladesh the Shahajia Baul songs continue the tradition today.
My main objective here is to provide an anthology in English of the poems Sastri's text. There have been three attempts to translate the Caryagiti into English but in no case did any of the scholars have access to the original manuscript, depending instead on Tibetan and Mongolian translations and on the Sanskrit notes provided in the manuscript by the Sanskrit commentator, Munidatta.
The need to publish an up-to-date translation is particularly urgent, since the original palm-leaf manuscript in Nepal appears to be missing and is therefore no longer available to scholars of the microfilm copy of the original manuscript in my possession.
In addition to the Sastri collection, I am including three poems which are missing in the Nepal collection which have since been retrieved from Tibetan sources. I have also included three caryas composed by Atisa Srigana Dipankara. More importantly, this anthology includes a second Caryagiti manuscript which I discovered during an extensive search in Nepal in `984 and 1988; the paper manuscript containing these Caryagiti has not been published anywhere. It is possible that the source of this manuscript has not age, or older than, the manuscript found by Sastri. My publication of this finding will, I hope, encourage other scholars to search for old manuscript which still lie buried in archives and temples and which are in danger of being destroyed.
For the first time in an English edition, this anthology includes the iconography and life sketches of the siddhas from the school of the famous eighty-four siddhas.
In translating these poems I have been struck by their simplicity and grace and I have attempted to use simple English in order to make them more readable. Whilst I have kept as close as possible to the original, I have also tried to retain a local flavor. Both in my translations and commentaries I have avoided burdening the reader with notes, strictly adhering to the view that the poems should speak for themselves. I have deliberately treated them with a light hand so as not to overburden them with my own interpretations of their meanings and inner-meanings. After all, who can be sure what the poets really meant? Besides, If everything were to be explained, it would dilute the mystic qualities of the poems.
THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT BENGAL
It is not easy to give a historical account of ancient Bengal. There is very little recorded history of the land, language, and its people. The history of Bengal is one of the most complex in the world.
The territory inhabited by Bengal-speaking people goes beyond the boundary of Bengal, which stretches from the Himalayas in the north to the Bay of Bengal in the south, from Brahmaputra, Kangsa, and Surma in the east to Nagar, Barakar and Suvarnerekha in the west. The majority of people in the western areas are Hindus, while in the east Muslims predominate. Although there are strong feeling towards Bengali and Bangladeshi nationalism, broadly speaking the term Bengal designates the Bengali-speaking area.
In most characteristic feature of the Bengali landscape is its vast river system which characterizes the Bengali people and their literature. Among the main rivers the Ganges and the Padma are the two most important and these are referred to in many literary compositions, including the carya poems. Bengal was famous in ancient times for river and sea crafts. The arts of navigation, boat building and maritime warfare developed because of the many rivers and the long seacoast. Bengal carried on a large sea trade mostly through the ancient seaport of Tamralipta. River and sea voyages are often characterized in Bengali folklore and literature, particularly in the Manasa and Chandi poems composed later than the caryas.
Being situated in the extreme east of India, Bengal served as the connecting land link between the sub-continent, Burma, South China and the Malay Peninsula and Indo-China. Bengal not only acted as intermediary in trade and commerce but also played an important role in the cultural association between the diverse civilizations of South East and Eastern Asia. An inscription in the Malay Peninsula of the fourth or fifth century A.D. records the gift of a great captain Buddhagupta, who was probably Bengali. It is also said that it was a Bengali prince, Vijaya, the Pala period. There is an affinity between the scripts used on Javanese sculptures and the proto-Bengali alphabets. The influence of ancient Bengal was of Tibet and China.
Diverse civilization and cultures met in the Bengal delta. Various races entered India during pre-historic times through the North West of the Indian sub-continent and lived there until they were driven further east. Bengal continually attracted people from outside.
There are many accounts and references which point out that the ancient people of Bengal were different in race, culture and language from the Aryans who compiled the Vedic literature. The original inhabitants of Bengal were non-Aryan. Many linguists and anthropologists believe that the early tribes of Bengal were Dravidian, but belonged to a separate family1.
The early history of Burma and Thailand tells us that before the arrival of Tibeto-Chinese tribes, these countries were inhabited only by Mon-Khmer people. Dravidians from Bengal and Kalinga migrated there and became the ruling race. Later, when non-Aryan Indians assimilated the Brahmic culture they introduced the Sanskrit language and traditions as well. It is interesting to note that a Bengal Tribe, the Gaudas, and a royal family, the Palas, were considered to have an oceanic connection.
Lying at the crossroads of South-East Asia, South Asia and Central Asia, Bengal attracted people from the early civilizations of the fertile crescent: Central Asia Arabia, China and Europe, as well as from India and karnataka .the people of Bengal are composed of diverse racial element: Northern Indian Aryan longheads, Alpine shortheads, Dravido-Munda longheads and Mongolian shortheads. The presence of a Negroid element has been traced among the Nagas of Assam but not among the Bengali people. We find dialects of the languages spoken within Bengal from ancient times: the Austric (Mon -khmer and Kol), the Dravidian, the Sino- Tibetan or Tibeto-Chinese and the Indo -European (Aryan).
It used to be accepted that the Brahmins and other high castes of Bengal were descended from the Aryan invaders who imposed their culture upon the primitive barbarian tribes of Bengal. Although we know very little of pre-Aryan Bengali civilization, it is now generally held that the foundations of the agriculture -based village life, which is also believed to be one of the foundations of Indian civilization, were laid by the Nishadas or Austric -speaking peoples of Bengal. According to Dr. S. K.Chatterji, the Austric tribes of India belonged to more then one group of the Austro- Asiatic section, i.e. to the kol, the khasi and the mon -khmer group2. They brought with them a primitive system of agriculture. The Nishada were succeeded by the Alpine race, who form the main element of the present -day Bengalis The ideas of karma and transmigration, the practice of yoga, the concept of the divinity of Shiva, Devi and visnu, and the ritual of puja as opposed to the Vedic ritual of home, all these are thought to be per- Aryan .the cultivation of rice and some important crops such as coconut, tamarind, and betel leaf and nut, the Hindu dress of dhuti, marriage rituals with vermilion and turmeric, and many other customs have come to us from our pre-Aryan ancestors.
Gradually indigenous tribes, such as the Vangas, Sumahs, sabaers, Pulindas, Kiratas and Pundras, were brought into the framework of Aryan society by classifying them as Kshatiyas. It must have taken many centuries before the Aryans from the midland and the people of Bengal were brought under a rigid Aryan society .An increasing number of high class Aryans arrived in Bengal during the early centuries of the Christian ear, including followers of Brahminism and jainism .The essential features of Aryan society were present in Bengal by the fifth century A.D.
The little we know of the earliest period of Bengal is found by studying Vedic literature, Braahmin scripts composed in Sanskrit from 1500 B.C to 600
B.C the land known as Bengal finds no proper mention in the Vedic hymns. Rather, Some deprecatory references indicate that the primitive people in the Vedic hymns. Rather, some deprecatory references indicate that the primitive people in Bengal ware different in race and culture form the Vedic beyond the boundary of Aryandom and who were classed as 'dasyus', which in Bengali means robbers. Among these people we find mention of the pudras. Pundranagara, the ancient capital of Bengal, was located in the Bengal. An old Brahmi inscription discovered at Mahastangar in Bogra further proves the existence of Pundranagara. In the other classic, the Aitareya Aranyaka, the name of the Vangas, an early Bengal tribe has been traced. Because Bengal was different in race and culture from the Aryans who compiled the Vedic literature, it was not given the importance which it deserved.
The first clear references to the Vangas occur in the ancient epics and the Dharmasutras. In the great epic Mahabharata the Vangas and the Pundras are referred to as well-bred Kshatriyas, while the people of the Bengal sea coast are referred to as Mlechchas or untouchables. The Bhagavata Purana classes them as sinful people while Dharmasutra of Bodhayana prescribes expiatory rites after a journey among the Pundras and Vangas. Jaina writers of the Acharanga-sutra describe the land of the Ladhas in West Bengal as a pathless country inhabited by a rude people who attacked peaceful monks. However the Jaina authors of the epic Prajnapana includes the Vangas and Ladhas as Aryans while Dravidians rank as Mlechacchas or barbarians. The earliest Buddhist literary reference to Vanga is contained in the Milinda-panho. The Milinda-panho mentions Vanga as a maritime country where trading ships came from various parts of the world.
The bodhayana Dharmasutra divides the land into ethnic and cultural divisions which were held in varying degrees of esteem. The holiest was Aryavarta, followed by Arattas, the pundras, the Sauviras, the Vangas and the Kalingas. The regions inhabited by these people were regarded as outside the Vedic. Culture. People who lived among these local folks even for a short period were required to go through sacrificial rites. In the epic Vanaparvan we find more detail of the topography of Bengal during the epic age. We also learn that the poets of Northern India held Bengal in esteem.
In Tirtha-yatra of the epic Mahabharata, the Karatoya, Padma and Bhagirathi, the lower parts of the Ganges became recognized as sacred places. In Bhishma-parvan the Bengali kings heroically face attacks from the Pandus or conquerors of Upper India. There is a lively description of the encounters between the Pandus and the 'mighty ruler of the Vangas. Wgile some of the Bengal kings fought on elephants, others rode on 'ocean-bred steeds of the hue of the moon.'4
Kautilya's Artha-Sastra, from the end of the fourth century B.C., describes the fine quality of silk and other crafts made in Pundra, Suvarnakudya and Vanga or Banga. The oldest Indian treatise on the training and diseases of elephants, the Hastyayur Veda, ascribed to Pala Kapya, is a Work compiled during the Sutra period (600-200BC). Its author is described as a man from 'where the Lauhitya (Brahmaputra, a river in Bangladesh) flows towards the sea', which implies that Bangladesh is near the mouth of Ganges.5
Dated history begins only in 326 B.C., when the warriors of the Gangaridai and the Prasioi resisted the threatening onslaught of Alexander, who gad advanced to the Hyphasis and was eager to penetrate deeper into the interior of India, Bengal. We do not possess any detailed information about the social and political history of Bengal before this event although we can guess that there was an organized society and people before the advance of Alexander in Bengal. Greek and Latin writers refer to the ancient people of Bengal as the Gangaridai or the 'people of the Ganges region.' Historians of Alexander refer to the Gangaridai, a people who lived in the lower Ganges and its tributaries.
The classical scholar Diodorus locates the nation of the Gangaridai, whose king had four thousand elephants trained and equipped for war, beyond the Ganges. It may be reasonably inferred from the Latin and Greek scholars' accounts that at about the time of Alexander's invasion, the Gangaridai were a very powerful nation. The accounts of the periplus and ptolemy indicate that during the early centuries of the Christian era the whole of deltaic Bengal was organized into a powerful kingdom. From the fourth century A.D. onwards the epigraphic records show chronological periods such as the Gupta, early post-Gupta, Pala and Sena ages, which give us some idea. The Brihat-Samhita of Varahamigira from the sixth century A.D. distinguishes North, Centerland Eastern Bengal. In the seventh century A.D., a Gauda King had his capital at Karnasuvarna near Murshidabad.
The discovery of terracotta figurines of the Sunga period at Mahastangarh proves that the city of pundrabardhana continued to flourish even after the fall of the imperial Mauryas who ruled over India before Alexander came.
Fragments of a huge image, the pedestal of which bore an inscription was discovered in Silua, Noakhali, belong to the second century B.C. The inscriptions of the age of Samudragupta disclose the existence of new kingdoms. The establishment of the Gupta empire marks the end of the independence of the various states that flourished in Bengal at the beginning of the fourth century A.D.
When the Mauryas ruled over the greater part of India, the upper region of Bengal also came under their rule. Chandra Gupta Maurya established his rule in 321 B.C. After the Mauryas the Guptas ruled India as well as the upper part of Bengal, which was identified as Pundrabardhan. The Gupta kingdom was founded by Chandra Gupta in 321A.D.A stone inscription from the period of a Gupta king, Samudra Gupta, refers to Samatat and Pushkaran as two independent states. While Samatat referred to East Bengal, Pushkaran meant West Bengal. At the end of the Gupta reign two independent kingdoms were established in Bengal: Samatat and Gaura. Around 606 A.D. Shasanka became the ruler of Gaura and succeeded in uniting many parts of Bengal into one kingdom. During his reign Bengal became known as an independent country, but after his death it disintegrated into smaller states. From the period of Shasanka, Pundra, Gaura and Vanga became three important regions of Bengal. Next were the Pala kings, who originally came from Karnataka, and ruled between the eighth and twelfth centuries; they first ruled over Varendra and then gradually brought Vanga and Magadh under their rule. The Sena rulers succeeded the Palas, who originally came from Karnataka. Both the Pala and Sena rulers used the title 'King of Gaura' although they ruled entire Bengal.
The name Vanga or Banga was abhorred by the Aryans who succeeded the Senas, and avoided by the Palas and Sena rulers, but it became the sole identity of Bengal under Muslim rule. When Bakhtiar Khilji, a Turk, conquered Bengal in 1204 it became known as Banga and Gaura. Ilias Shah established full control over all the provinces of Bengal and became known as the Sultan of Bengal; he founded Sonargaon as his capital. During the period of the Mughal emperor Akbar Bengal became known as 'Subah Bangla' and the Europeans who came to India at that time called the land Bengala which eventually became Bengal. British Bengal consisted of five divisions which took the boundary of Bengal up the Himalayas in the north, including Nepal, Bhutan and Sikkim, the Bay of Bengal in the south, Chittagong and Assam in the east and Bihar and Orissa in the west. In 1905 Bengal was divided and East Bengal and Assam Province were created. Even after the creation of Pakistan in 1947, the eastern Province of Pakistan was known as East Bengal until 1956. In 1971 East Pakistan finally became a totally independent country. This is the history of Bangladesh, which took a thousand years to become an independent identity.
The literary references in the Vedic, epic and Sutra texts do not represent chronological facts. It is therefore necessary to look at other Indian and foreign literature and early epigraphs for historical information about ancient Bengal.
Though the name Banga has been used since the earliest centuries for one for one of the regions of Present Bangladesh, the name Vangala-desa has been mentioned in epigraphic and literacy records since the eleventh century A.D. It was Vangala, rather than the Vanga of earlier references that gave its name to the eastern subah or province of the Mughal empire that stretched from Chittagong to Garhi. Historian Abu'l-Fazl regarded Vanga and Vangala as identical. The derivation of the name Vangala supports its identification with the part of old Vanga intersected by 'khals'or canals, dides and bridges that was known as Bhati or 'downstream' or 'land of tide and ebb' during the time of Akbar and Lama Tartan. Taranath refers to 'Bati' near the mouth of the Ganges. It is in this land that Gastaldi (1561A.D.) Places Bangala6.
It may be presumed that Bengal had developed a culture of its own which was non-Vedic and non-Aryan. It is true that the Aryan culture, and the Vedic, Buddhist and Jaina religions influenced Bengal. The primitive culture became absorbed but it also influenced its adopted religion. The diffusion of the Vedic culture is seen during the Gupta period, evidenced by epigraphic inscriptions. The Vedic influence became stronger in Bengal during the Pala period. The Varman and the Sena kings were patrons of the Vedic culture.
When the Chinese traveler Fa Hien came to Bengal in the fifth century the country was flourishing in Aryan learning and culture. Huen Tsang visited Bengal during the first half of the seventh century and found that the Bengalis had great respect for their learning. According to him Mahayana and Hinayana Buffhism, Brahminism and Jainism exited in harmony. From about the second millennium B.C. Aryanization in India extended to the Ganges Valley. The non-Aryans the Dravidians and the Kol (another aboriginal people,) fought with the Aryans and eventually made peace with them. Many non-Aryans remained unaffected by Aryan culture and language for quite some time, although they were looked down upon as "Sudras" by the Aryan settlers or the "Vaisas". The Dravidian culture was not possessed a philosophy which influenced the Aryans. Some of the cosmic notions seem to be Dravidian. The composite culture of Bangladesh reflects a synthesis of Dravidian and Aryan culture. The eastern Aryans were a mixed people. The Vedic Aryans called the non-Vedic Aryans Vratyas, outcasts or people without rights, who could obtain admission into the Vedic community by performing a sacrifice. Bengal was Aryansized much later than other parts of India.
The rise of the anti-Brahmin and the anti-sacrificial ideas of the Buddhists and the Jains among the eastern people or Bengalis shows that other strong traditions were established before the Brahmins came and that Vedic ideas brought by the Brahmin did not inspire the masses. According to Dr. Dinesh Chandra Sen, the country was for centuries in open revolt against Hindu orthodoxy. Buddhist and Jain influences were so great that the Hindu code of Manu prohibited all contact of the Hindus with this land; hence Brahminism could not thrive there for many centuries. With the revival of Hinduism the Sanskrit pundits did not accept works in Bengal were carried away to Nepal and Burma as Buddhism was gradually suppressed in India by the Brahmins. Sanskrit scholars from outside Bengal who brought about a Hindu revival in Bengal abhorred the simple Bengali language.
A number of old Bengali inscriptions of this period, consisting of copper plates on which are recorded deeds of grants of land made to Brahmins, are extant. Brahmins were given gifts of land so that they might settle in Bangladesh. Although Bengal adopted the Aryan civilization and culture, it never became a stronghold of Brahminc orthodoxy. Even as late as the early part of the nineteenth century, when Bengali was highly developed, orthodox Brahminc were highly critical of the publication of Bengali translations of the Hindu scriptures by Rajah Ramona Roy who a reformer.
There in no definite evidence as to when Buddhism originated in Eastern India and Bengal. The reference to Vanga as an important center of Buddhism can be found in a Nagarijunikonda inscription which can be dated to the second or third century A.D. It includes Vanga in a long list of well-known countries converted to Buddhism. A line of Buddhist kings ruled in East Bengal towards the close of seventh century A.D. Buddhism flourished in Bengal in the seventh century. The Buddhist scholars of Bengal in the seventh century A.D. largely contributed to the development of the Nalanda monastery which was situated in Magadha.
In Bengal, Buddhism spread rapidly among those people who never took to the Aryan caste system. Aryanization in Bengal began from the time of Asoka in the third century B.C.
Of the two forms of Buddhism practiced in India, Mahayana and Hinayana, Mahayana became more widely accepted in Bengal. The Mahayana form of Buddhism developed forms of mysticism, known as Vajrayana and Tantrayana, which dealt with certain deeper metaphysical issues. In Bengal Buddhist mysticism had three important forms: Vajrayana, Shahajayana and Kalachakrayana. Vajrayana and Shahajayana represented different aspects of the same mysticism. The first was concerned in which ceremonies had no place. The siddha authors of Caryagiti treated this aspect of mysticism.
The earliest Bengali Buddhist teacher to achieve distinction outside Bengal is Shilabhadra. Hiuen Tsang came to India to study under Shilabhadra, who was then in charge of Nalanda. Shilabhadra and Atisa Srigana Dipankara, another great Buddhist scholar and reformer, were both born in Bangladesh but converted Tibet to Bengali Buddhism and enriched Tibetan literature by writing in both Sanskrit and Tibetan.
Bengali Baul songs, which are considered close to Carya poems in mysticism, are a synthesis of Shahajia Buddhism, Vaisnava Shahajia and Indo-Persian Sufism. Tagore was highly influenced by the Baul songs of Bangladesh. Murshidi, an old form of folk mimic, perhaps bears the last traces of Buddhist influence. One finds the impression of maya borrowed from the Buddhists. 'The world is nothing - we have to leave it behind' forms a common theme. 'Like the dew on the grass the body is transient' is an essential message.
Among ancient works the Atharva Veda hymns were highly mystical poems composed earlier than the Buddhist mystical songs and may have directly influenced the later. The Hindu Krishna legend, an essential element of Vaishnavism in Bengal which was formed in Bengal as early as the sixth or seventh century A.D., was also inspired by Buddhism in Bengal. Evidence of this is found in the sculptures of Paharpur, the oldest of which probably belong to sixth or seventh centuries A.D. and the latest to the eighth century A.D. The Krishna legend was highly popular by the seventh century A.D.
Bengal influenced Tibet in many ways and vice versa. The form of the Buddhist religion and monastic order in Tibet was largely shaped by number of famous Buddhist scholars from Bengal. The Tibetan chronicles give detailed accounts of these.
According to the Tibetan book, Pag Sham Jon Zang Of the eleventh century, Bengal occupied first place in the field of art. Tibetan opera or old drama combines singing and dancing, which immediately reminds one of the Carya Nryta and Carya singing which is still founded in Nepal and Bhutan today. Dance movements in Tibetan opera correspond with lyrics and melodies much as in the Carya Nrytas or dance. Some movements, such as bowing with the hands clasped and scriptures. The use of metaphors in the Caryas.
Between 581 and 600 A.D. Srong Tsan founded a powerful kingdom in Tibet. He led a victorious campaign to India possibly Bengal since the campaign is commemorated in both Bengal and Assam. Through the influence of his Buddhist queen from Nepal he was converted to Buddhism and Indian. Invited Pundits to Tibet, and had Bengali alphabets.
The form of the Buddhist religion and monastic order in Tibet was largely shaped by a number of famous Buddhist teachers from Bengal. The Tibetan chronicles have preserved detailed accounts of these Pundits from Bengal, in particular from the Pala Kingdom; they not only preached the Bengali culture and civilization. In the middle of the eighth century A.D. Santirakshita was invited to Tibet by the king there. According to Pag Sham Jon Zang (compiled in 1747 A.D.) Santirakshita was born into the royal family of Zohar, which is the phonetic equivalent of Sabhar, outside Dhaka. On his advice the king to the Lama in Tibet. After Santirakshita, Kamalasila went to Tibet invitation of the king. Another great scholar from Bengal invited by the king of Tibet during the middle of eleventh century was Atisa Dipankara. Born in 982 A.D. near Dhaka, Atisa's village is still known as Vajrayogini and his original home site is called 'Nastik Punditer Vita' or 'abode of the non-believer learning as the Chief Monk. According to Tibetan tradition Dipankara went to Tibet at the age of fifty-nine and spent the last thirteen years of his life in Tibet. When he reached Tibet he translated many treatises into Tibetan. In Bsam Yes Monastery in 1042 he found many Sanskrit manuscripts which no longer existed in Bengal or India so he translated them into Tibetan. Because of him a vast number of Sanskrit and Pali literature is preserved in Tibet. He died in 1054 at the Snye-thang Monastery. The Chinese believe that many original manuscripts are buried under that monastery which is not too far from Lhasa.
The Anargha-raghva composed by the poet Murari during the latter half of the eighth century A.D. mentions Champa as the Capital of the Gaudas. The people of Champa in Bengal founded a colony in Cochin China, as I was told during my visit there. It will be interesting too trace similarities there with those of Bengali culture.
The Muslim Pathans occupied Bengal early in the thirteenth century from Bulk, Oxus and settled in the plains of Bengal. Dr. Sukumar Sen writes in his History of Bengali Literature (p.33): It is true that the whole of Bengal did not fail into the hands of the Turk adventurers in the course of a few great monasteries and universities were soon abandoned by the pundits and priests. This established social and cultural milieu was shattered and a new Bengali people emerged. This regeneration is personified in Chaitanya. The pundits' and poets' writing were silent but not the singers of the mystic cults and folk culture of the common people. Middle Bengali native and lyric poetry flourished for centuries.
The Muslim emperors learnt the Bengali language and lived with the people. Mosques and temples rose side by side. The Muslim rulers ordered translations of Sanskrit classics into Bengali for the first time for the common people to understand. Poet Vidyapati prased Nasir Shah and Sultan Giasuddin for their intellectual patronage. Mahabharata was translated into Bengali. Muslim sultans patronized translations of Sanskrit and Persian works. Brahmins were compelled to write in Bengali. Bengali was adopted in Assam, Nefa, Orissa, Arakan, Ranchi and Bihar. Bengali Puthi literature was highly influenced by Muslims and the Persian language. The Muslims introduced many Persian, Arabic and Turkish words into Bengali. Dr. Dinesh Chandra Sen points out. 'This elevation of Bengali to a literary status was brought about by several influences of which the Mohammedan conquest was undoubtedly one of the oremost.7 An enriched folk culture grew up in Bangladesh due to both the Hindu and Muslim common masses and Bengali was its vehicle. Bengali was the common language and literature of the masses. The majority of the Muslims of Bengal, being convert from the Krishna and Nath. The unity between Hindus society, continued with their ancient cults such as the Sahajiya, Krishna and Nath. The unity between Hindus and Muslims in Bengali arose out of racial oneness, common interest and the communal life of the village. It was usual for Hindus and Muslims to take part in each other's social and religious festivals.
A new culture, based on folk culture thus emerged in Bengali. The decline of orthodox Brahminism and classical Hidus culture, well before the Muslim conquest, and their virtual extinction after the conquest gave the new Bengali culture full opportunity to grow. Bengali literature found room to expand in the gap left by Sanskrit.
THE HISTORY OF THE BENGALI LANGUAGE
Bengali belongs to the Aryan branch of the Indo-European family of languages. It has been in existence as an independent language for more than ten centuries. It is the speech of the largest number of people in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent, being spoken by over 150 million people in west Bengal and India and 110 million people in Bangladesh.
The history of ancient Bengali is based on copper plate inscriptions and stone script findings. The oldest epigraphical record, found at Mahastangar in the Bogra district of Bangladesh is a very short inscription on stone written in Prakrit. Archaeologists believe it to have been written in the third century B.C.; the script shows the Brahmi characters of the time of Asoka. The inscription contains the word 'Pundrabardan which was a renowned Buddhist and Jain center of learning in Bengal. *
An early form of Bengali can be found in the grants of the Pala kings. A distinct literary flair appears in these documents, which contain a number of verses ; the kings commissioned court poets and pundits to draft the literary and panegyrical sections. Bengali inscriptions form the fifth century onwards preserved old place names, the study of which can throw more names were Sanskritized, in order to give them some respectability.
From ancient times we find various languages of the following families spoken in Bengali : the Austric (Mon-Khmer and Kol), the Dravidian, the Sino-Tibetan or Tibeto-Chinese, and lastly the Indo-European (Aryan). If a Negroid people ever existed in Bengal then they may have, in ancient times, spoken a language related to Andamanese. All these tribes had their own languages, or which they were proud.
Speakers of Austric are believed to have entered Bengal through Assam from Northern Indo-China. The Austrics were succeeded by the Dravidian speakers, who appear to have been concentrated in West Bengal. However, we do not have enough information on them to be certain of this. Then came the Tibeto-Chinese or Sino-Tibetan tribes, belonging mainly to the Tibeto-Burman group- the Bodos and others - who overcame the earlier Austric settlers in North and East Bengal. Finally came the Aryans. The Aryanzation of Bengal may be said to have begun during the closing centuries of the first millennium B.C. Non-Aryan dialect did not disappear right away. It is important to note that the languages spoken by all these ethnic groups and tribes contributed to the language that the language that is now Bengali. The Bengali language as such not born before 700 A.D.
Professor Suniti Kumar Chatterji from the time the Aryans entered India up to the time of three periods :
1. The Old Indo-Aryan period, from the time the Aryans entered India up to the time of Buddha (roughly from 1500 B.C. to 600 B.C.), Vedic and Early Sanskrit are representative of this period.
2. The Middle Indo-Aryan period, which appears to have manifested itself in the Aryan language earlier in Eastern India than in North Western India and which continued from the time of Buddha up to 1000 A.D. Pali, Asokan and other inspirational Prakrits, and the later Prakrits and Apabhramsa of literature are representative of the Aryan speech of the period.
3. The new Indo-Aryan period, which began about 1000 A.D., when the modern Indo-Aryan languages or vernaculars emerged out of the Apabhramsas.
This comes into conflict with the view that North Indian languages like Bengali developed in the seventh century A.D.
Bengali is derived from Magadhi Prakrit, which was the official language of the great emperor Asoka. A related dialect was used by Buddha and by Mohavira, the apostle of Jainism. In Bengal in the their of the first millennium B.C. no Aryan language was spoken but the people there had their own language and possessed great artistic skills. During the period of Asoka, the Prakritic or Magadhi form developed into Bengali. About a thousand years ago two kinds of language were apparently in use : the Sauraseni Apabramsa and the native language of Bengal, Proto-Bengali which had become Old Bengali by 1000 A.D.
As Bengali began to take shape and become the common language, the attitude of the learned class towards popular language was that it was a vulgar language or 'Apabhramsa', which meant 'speech fallen off'. In Bengali Pundits described Sanskrityzed literary Bengali as sadhubhasa and the actual living Bengali as apa-bhasa.
The Apabhramsa popular dialects were the medium of composition for songs and couplets. Sauraseni was possibly the polite language and was used for literary purposes. It was the language of the court. Vidyapati, the Maithili poet of 1400, wrote in his native Maithili as in Avahatta or Apabharasta. Which is only a late form of Sauraseni Apabhamsa. The modern forms of Magadhi Apabhramsa are Bengali, Assamese, Oriya, Magadhi, Maithili and Bhojpuria. This explains the closeness of the different branches of the main stream of which Bengali was an offshoot.
In old Bengali there is an abundance of Prakrit words, which are called 'tatbhava'. In addition, from its birth, Bengali contained a large number of Sanskrit words, called 'tatsama;, which were profusely used during the classical revival that took place between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. Bengali has a large number of 'desi' words borrowed directly from the non-Aryan languages, and indirectly through Sanskrit and Magadhi-Prakrit (e.g. kaila, gura, maita, kala, kana, anu, thikm bora and phira). Nasal sound influences, direct and indirect , are seen in its phonetics, grammar and syntax. Nasal sounds were not originally present in the ancient Aryan languages of India; their presence in Sanskrit, Magadhi-Prakrit, and Bengali is due to Dravidian influence. The syntax of Sanskrit and Bengali, as well as all Aryan languages in India, is Dravidian rather than Aryan. The extensive use of onomatopoeic words in Bengali represents a Kol-Dravidian characteristic. Dravidian influence is particularly strong in Bengali place-name and suffixes (e.g. ra, and guri in Magura and Shiliguri). The Bengali people in the east have a rather Mongolian influence which drops nasalization. West Bengal, under Dravidian influence, retains nasalization.
The Muslim conquest of Bengal in c. A.D. 1200 introduced many Persian, Arabic and Turkish words; the Persian influence was the greatest. Later on the Portuguese, Dutch, French and English who came to India from the sixteenth century onwards also contributed to the Bengali vocabulary.
The oldest specimens of Bengali prior to the Muslim conquest are :
1. A number of place-names in copper and stone inscriptions and in old books from the third century A.D.
2. A glossary of over 300 words in a Sanskrit commentary on the Amarksa by a Bengali Pundit, written about 1159 A.D. The work, called Tika Sarvasva, was lost in Bengali itself but preserved in Malabar. The vernacular belongs to old Bengali and remains a valuable source for the study of Bengali phonology.
The earliest literary compositions in Bengali, however, are the forty-seven songs called Caryapadas or Caryagiti, composed by siddhas of the Shahajia sect, and off-shoot of Tantrika Mahayana Buddhism. These songs were preserved in a palm-leaf manuscript which was discovered by Hara Prashad Sastri in the Royal Nepalese Archive.
The subject matter of the Caryapada is highly mystic, centering round the esoteric doctrines and yoga of the Shahajias; the Sanskrit commentary does not make now sung and danced to. A number of poems in old Bengali have been translated into Tibetan and have been included in the Bstan-Hgyur (Tan-Jur), the Bengali originals having been lost. The language of the Caryas is Bengali. The metres of the Carya poems are known as matra-vrtta.
OTHER LITERATURE OF THE SAME PERIOD
The search for ancient Bengali manuscripts started in 1878 when Sir Grierson published the Ballad of King Manikchandra in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in Dev-Nagari characters with notes and an English translation by Dr. Dinesh Chandra Sen. Dr. Sen also acquired an ancient manuscript of the poem Mrgalubdha by the poet Rati Deva of Chakrasala in Chittagong, Bangladesh. On this occasion, Dr. D.C. Sen wrote : 'By the year 1847 I was in possession of quite an unexpected treasure of old manuscripts collected from various parts of Bengal, mostly from East-Bengal. The existence of these was absolutely unknown to the educated people of the present generation.1 In the Calcutta collection of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, some of the ancient manuscript go as far back as the ninth century A.D. They are written on various materials - paper, palm-left, birch-bark and the bark of other trees. Some of the paper manuscripts may go back centuries to the time of the introduction of papers into India by the Muslims. Besides these unique manuscript which open new areas of research into the history and religion of ancient India, complete literary works on Vajrayana, Mantrayana and Kalacakraya, are also to be found. Another interesting finding is that of Laghukalacakra with tika by Vimala Praha. This is a manuscript in palm-leaf (221/2'x21/2' Folia 222) in Bengali with 12,000 slokas. The verses attribute the original tantra to Monzuvajra Bodhisattva who received it from Paranadi Buddha. The manuscript was copied on the twenty-ninth of Asadha in the thirty-ninth year of Harivarmadeva. King of Bengal, who is believed to have reigned during the last half of the tenth century A.D. In a later hand it seems to indicate that the manuscript was recited on the banks of the river Veng in Jessore, Bangladesh.
Other remains of proto or old Bengali poems include a few couplets in Prakrita-Paingal composed during 900-1400 A.D., written in Apabhramsa. Two poems by jayadeva, a great Bengali poet of the twelfth century, are preserved in the Sikh holy book Adi Granth (Sunitikumar Chatterji, p. 125) Which is a sixteenth century collection of devotional hymns composed by Sikh Gurus and saints. Jayadave was well-known in North India as a Bengali Vaisnav poet. The Gita Govinda of Jayadeva was written in Aoabhramsa but the use of the 'matra-vrtta' metre and verbal poems similar to Jayadeva's by hymns are found in Prakrita-Paingala. Since the Pundits abhorred anything composed in the vulgar tongue or vernacular, Jayadeva, who was a Vaisnava of the Shahajia sect, may have written in the vernacular but the Pundits, charmed by the poems, later Sanskritised them. The style of Gita-govinda had great influence on Bengali lyrics.
Another literary work though composed in Sanskrit in 1205 during the reign of Lakshmanasena, who was contemporary of Jayadeva, is a remarkable collection of verse called Saduktikarnamrita. The anthology was compiled by a Bengali, Sridharadasa. Most of the poets were Bengali and the verses retain a distinct Bengali flavor.
It is sometimes difficult to locate Bengali manuscripts because in addition to the Bengali alphabets, Oryia, Maithili, Devnagari, Newari, Sylheti, and nagari alphabets were also used. Later on Arabic and Persian were also acceptable as a medium of expression in Bengal. Weather conditions are also very unkind to old manuscripts.
The Bengali manuscripts known as the Pundits were generally on 'tulat' or stained paper. The majority of the existing Puthis belong to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The cayyas composed between the seventh and twelfth centuries and the Sri-Krishna-kirtan of the fifteenth century are the oldest.
Although a systematic and continuos search has never been conducted, it is believed that Bengali manuscript may be found in different libraries, temples and private collections in many countries including Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Bhutan and China.
In Bangladesh the following places have valuable manuscripts but some of them are lying in total neglect are in danger of being destroyed by fire, dust and time :
1. Ramamala Library, Comilla.
2. Kaiballadham Ashram, Pahartali, Chittagong.
3. Vatendra Research Society, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi.
4. Dhaka University Library, Manuscript and Rare Books Section, Dhaka.
5. National Museum, Dhaka.
6. Bangla Academy, Dhaka.
The following places contain the most important manuscript collections in this region :
In Calcutta, India :
1. Asiatic Society of Bengal.
2. Vangiya Sahitya Parishat.
In Nepal :
1. Royal Archives for manuscripts, Kathmundu.
2. Asha Archive - private collection, Mostly in Newari, Kathmundu.
3. Library of Newari, Newari University, Kathmundu.
In Bhutan :
1. National Library, Thimhu. It contains 6100 Tibetan, Bhutanese and other books both manuscripts and xylographs, and a collection of 9000 printing boards.
THE TEXT
The discovery of the palm-leaf manuscript of Caryagiti by Bengali Buddhist poets has pushed back the history of Bengali literature to over a thousand years. The poems, collectively known as the Caryapadas were discovery in 1907 by the Indian scholar Haraprashed Sastri in the Royal Archive of Nepal and were published in 1916. This discovery brought to light the oldest specimen not only of Bengali poetry but also of Indo-Aryan literature.
The manuscript published by Sastri and entitled Hajar Bacharer Purana Bahgala Bhasay Bauddha Gaan o Doha (Buddhist songs and couplets in one thousand year old Bengali language') contains forty-six songs and a fragment of one further song. It consists of sixty-nine folios with writing on both sides. The missing songs are nos. 24,25 and 48 and the last line of song 23. These songs are preserved in Tibetan translations. The original manuscript may have been longer, since the commentary by Munidatta to song 50 is incomplete. The colophon in the Tibetan translation is missing. The manuscript is a commentary which quotes the songs it comments on. The text of Caryagiti and Munidatta is included in the Tibetan Bstan-'gyur or Tanjur.
Besides the Sastri's discovery, Tibetan translations and Mongolian translations of the Caryagiti exist, which actually helped in the putting together of a complete anthology. It seems that Dr. Nilratan Sen alone had access to the only available Sastri manuscript of the Caryagiti, Which he published in a facsimile reproduction of the manuscript of the edition. No other author seems to have actually working with the primary source except Sastri who hand-copied the manuscript as he discovered them.
Per Kvaerne, the Norwegian scholar who translated Caryagiti wrote : The original MS utilized by Sastri has not been available for inspection. It fact, I have not been able to discover where, it at all, it is preserved.1 In view of this comment I have brought together two manuscripts for inspection by readers and new scholars.
The Mongolian translation of the Tibetan text of Caryagiti is found in the Mongolian Tanjur vol. 49, folios 292b-345a, under the title Yabudal-un dayalal-un Sang-un tailburi. A copy of this rare Mongolian Tanjur is preserved in the State Public Library of the Mongolian people's Republic in Ulan Bator.
After an exhaustive search I have rediscovered only a few pages of the Sastri manuscripts, so long thought to be well preserved in the Nepalese Archive. The complete manuscripts exist on microfilm but the original manuscript in missing, except for a few pages which I am presenting in this text.
In 1984, I discovered a second manuscript of the Caryagiti, on paper, in the Asha Archive, a private collection in Nepal. I am presenting this second manuscript of the Caryagiti, Which has not yet been published anywhere. At a first reading the two manuscripts seem to be quite similar, including the numbers of the missing poems in the palm-left manuscripts, which are now available on microfilm. The script in the second manuscript seems well defined. Although they seem to be similar, they must obviously stand as separate sources of the Caryagiti. I am including three Caryatikas composed Atisa Srigana Dipankara which I copied from Tanjur in Bhutan and from Dr. Alko Chattopadhaya's English translations. Dr. M. Aries of Oxford University has provided me the translation and comments which I am including in the present text.
Rahul Samkrayan discovered am old palm-leaf manuscript of East Indian origin in the Sa-Skya monastery in Tibet. It includes fifteen songs by Vinasri, one by Sumai, one by Lui and one by Kanhapa. Others have discovered carya songs composed at a much later date. I am including a few pages from caryas composed after our present text, which I found in Nepal. (Illustration 5).
The Cayras were songs and were used as accompaniments for dance, as was common in trantric rites. Solo and chorus were accompanied by musical instruments such as cymbals, ankle bells, Mridonga and drums. These songs are still being in Nepal and Bhutan and are sometimes danced to by the Vajracaryas in Nepal. The dance is expressed in slow motion with complex but rhythmic movements of the entire body, and is usually performed by old tantric Vajracaryas. I had the pleasure of witnessing Vajracarya dancing and singing at the Lalitkala Academy in Nepal.
Sastri referred to the song-poems as Caryacaryaviniscaya, which means determining what is and what is not title from the accompanying Sanskrit notes by Munidatta who uses the term in the introductory verse, 'ascarya-carya-caya/' It is the Tibetan translation which gives the title of the work, Carya-giti-kosha-vrtti. Popularly the poems are known in Bengal as Carya-giti or Carya songs.
The Caryagiti are accompanied by a detailed commentary in Sanskrit by one Munidatta. Munisatta was well-versed in the writing of the siddhas - he commented on as well as reproduced the poems in a Sanskritised form. According to Per Kvaerne who has used Munidatta and Tibetan translation is more or less unintelligible without constant reference to the basic text.' It is for reason that I felt that an English translation based on the Bengali text itself will be most relevant.
