The Ancient Bengal

2020-Session 01

Dr. Abdul Baqee

BANGLADESH STUDIES Part time Teacher
Human 1103 : Bangladesh Studies
Historical Pretext of
Ancient Bengal
At times it is
Hard to
substantiate it.

Texts that connote

Ancient – means age
old asking.

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Remember
HISTORY is based
on “SOURCES” • Constructing
history of ancient
Bengal is very
difficult mainly
because of
scarcity of
sources.

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The history of Bengal is It includes modern-day
intertwined with the Bangladesh and the Indian
history of the states of West Bengal,
broader Indian Tripura and Assam’s Barak
subcontinent and the Valley, located in the
surrounding regions eastern part of the Indian
of South Asia and subcontinent.
Southeast Asia.

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The advancement of The Ganges and the Brahmaputra
civilization in Bengal River acts as a geographic marker
dates back to four of the region, but also connects
millennia. the region to the broader Indian
subcontinent.
Bengal, at times, has
played an important role
in the history of the
Indian subcontinent.

The region was known to the ancient Greeks

and Romans as Gangaridai.
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At times
very
confusing

• Available sources are heavily based on;

-- Travel Account
-- Religious Pilgrimage -- Ethnic Clinging
-- War Account
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Travel Literature include accounts of aristocrats, clergy,
Account leisure time travelled to learn about the art and
architecture of its past.
Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Nasir al-Darʻi (1647–1717), a Moroccan Scholar

Religious
Pilgrimage Journey of moral or spiritual significance.
It is a journey to a shrine or other location of
importance to a person's beliefs and faith,
although sometimes it can be a metaphorical
journey into someone's own beliefs.
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Ethnic
Clinging Ethnic cleansing is the systematic removal
of ethnic or religious groups from a given
territory by a more powerful ethnic group.

War
Account The Battle of Plassey was a decisive victory of the
British East India Company over the Nawab of
Bengal and his French Allies on 23 June 1757.
The battle consolidated the Company's presence
in Bengal, which later expanded to cover much of
India over the next hundred years.
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* a widely held but false belief or idea.
* a traditional story, of a group of people, explaining a natural or social phenomenon,
involving supernatural beings or events.

Posing question and look for

Strived for solving problems from;
understanding the past, -- neglecting surface
from myths and disturbances
documents. -- observe the long and
medium-term evolution of
economy,
society and civilization

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Before addressing
sources of history,
we need to know
some major school of These are;
thoughts of history  Nationalist Historiography
of India in general  Marxist Historiography
and Bangladesh in
 Subaltern Historiography
particular.
 Cambridge / British
Historiography
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 History is the study of the past as it described in
written documents.
Events occurring before written record are
considered prehistory.

 Nationalist
approach in Indian
and Bangladesh
History was taken
as means of
motivating force.
 It was done
to instil
patriotic
feelings;

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 National pride  Re-interpretation(s) of
played a big role History: ‘The Revolt of
in providing 1857’ renamed as the first
inspiration to ‘Indian War of
common people Independence’; Siraj-ud-
and historical Daulah: A hero?
consciousness
began to grow
steadily as never
before;

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  It also known as
Historical
 The centrality of Materialism.
SOCIAL CLASS and
economic  Economic  Interdisciplinary
constraints in production methods of
determining and social searching the past
historical classes have are widely used
outcomes are the become basic and found to be
key aspects of tenets in more useful.
Marxist historical
Historiography. construction.

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  At the initial stage Western
World was far away from
understanding the inner
thread of the hypothesis.
 Broadening
the scope of
understanding
the history.

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Subaltern is a word used by
the British army to denote a
subordinate OFFICER,
and
“subaltern studies” was
coined by Indian scholars to
describe a variety of
approaches to the situation of
South Asia, in particular in the
colonial and postcolonial era.
 Subaltern
Historiography focuses
more on what happens
among the masses at
the base levels of
society than among
the elite.
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 It is in fact, a historiography of protest!
 It challenges of both;
(a) Colonial or British  Quite many of
Imperialist Historiography
the Historian
(b) Indian Nationalist Historiography explained the
situation as;
-- there was a domain of people’s politics in
which the principle actors were the subaltern
classes and groups constituting the mass of the
population.
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 The main tenets
of the Cambridge Previously,
School of  Ideology was to recovery
Historiography is the Indian history.
to study British
Empire using the
imperialist point
of view.  Study of ancient text and
documents; Colebrooke and Max
Muller.

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 Discovery and study of
old inscriptions,  British Imperialist
monuments and coins. Historians
 The British
Imperialist
administrator
historian.

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The absence of It was more than that...
historical chronicles in Are we interested to
ancient Bengal can preserve our own history
not be explained by even today?
stating that later
invaders destroyed
them wholesale.
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 That’s all for the day

 Western assumption  Justification for the

regarding India’s past is continuance of British
that; rule.
 Dominance of the
 A static, unchanging political element
society. (not social or cultural;
benevolence of British conquest
 Oriental despotism* and benevolence should
* exercise of absolute power, especially continue)
in a cruel and oppressive way.

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