History of Bengali Literature

Paagla Dashu

The conquest of Bengal by the Mauryas in the 3rd century BC led to the spread of Aryan languages in the Bengal delta. The bangla language, however, developed from prakrit, through apabhrangsha and abahattha and outside the direct influence of Aryan languages. The earliest extant specimens of ancient Bangla are the 47 spiritual hymns now known as charyapada composed by Buddhist monks. Because the language of these hymns is only partly understood, it is called sandhya or twilight language. The Charyapada hymns possess both linguistic and literary value. The Siddhacharya, or composers of the Charyapada hymns, include Luipa, Bhusukupa, kahnapa and Shavarpa.

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Sree

Thanks for posting on such a good topic. I would like to add some points:

The first Bengali theatre was established by a Russian adventurer, Gerasim Lebedoff (1749-1818). For about 25 years productions were mostly adaptations of Sanskrit or English plays with exceptions like Dinabandhu Mitra's Nildarpan (1860).


The first truly romantic Bengali novel is Bankim Chandra's Durgeshnandini (1865), while the first Bengali novel of social realism is Peary Chand Mitra's Alaler Gharer Dulal (1858).

Biharilal Chakravarti’s (1834-94) Saradamangal (1879) and Sadhar Asan (1888-1889) brought in a breath of fresh air by its tender and refined lyrics. This style of writing even influenced Rabindranath Tagore who himself gave a new meaning to Bengali literature.

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sadhuji

yes, we must include the modern generation of writers also - writers like shankar, sunil gangopadhaya, chanakya sen, bimal kar, bimak mitra and others of their genre. they have contributed immensely for the upliftment of bengali literature.