BookRix

Before the advent of British rule in India, the last time when the entire Indian subcontinent was described in considerable details as a single entity like a theatre that was prehistoric times. This may seem like a surprising fact to any thinking person. Naturally, that realisation, among many other aspects of the prehistoric Indian literature surprised many members of the European intelligentsia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Above all other considerations, a high level of technological advancement is required even in the consideration of modern human capabilities to considering a landmass of more than 5 million square kilometers as a single arena. What modern people consider to be prehistoric times is not particularly known for technological advancement. Modern-day school textbooks teach that at that time, people were just beginning to discover the uses of various types of stone tools, living a life almost like primates.

The India that Europeans saw during the Mughal Empire did not show any signs that would suggest that the society was carrying the legacy of a technologically highly advanced society. A group of Europeans attempted to compile the various fragments and versions of prehistoric Indian literature, scattered across the vast expanse of the land known as India, into a unified and complete form. That effort blossomed and eventually took the form of the Asiatic Society. Despite being an occupying power, the British allocated considerable resources for that purpose for at least more than a century. If one tries to understand those activities very closely, one will see that those people were attracted, inexorably, by something hidden behind a veil. Whatever was there behind the veil, that was manifested by forms of philosophy and knowledge that were unknown to Europeans up to that time.

All of that revolved around a structured interpretation of the mundane world. The basic structure of those works is bound by an unbreakable bond of logic. That kind of realisation cannot be the result of a storyteller's imagination. The surprising thing was: How did the creators of that set of literature achieve that realisation? What was even more surprising was where that society or its representatives or flag bearers have gone?

It is clear that no existence of that society was found in the-then India, where the Europeans arrived en-masse in the middle of the last millennium. In that set of literature, information has been incorporated that reveals where and how those works emerged. But, that stage of antiquity could not be linked to the present. If it is assumed that those works were not the work of a storyteller, but were truly created and revolved around a philosophy created through a deep thought process or research, then it is natural to believe that the period in which those literature were created is beyond the history known to current humans. Naturally, the question arises: Where has the time in between gone? Is it possible to connect those two stages of time? Since time immemorial, people have been trying to rationally explain the unexplained that confronts them.

It is not possible to separate Bangla alias Bengal from India; Bengal's past is in no way separate from India's past.

This book tells about Naru's cerebral journey into the past of Bengal alias Bangla. In its earlier phase, that journey reached what can be described in the words of Rakhaldas Bandopadhyay, the noted Indian archaeologist, 'legends told in the tales of yore'. All that remained was the task of connecting the two ends that is, linking ‘Itihas’ or, the description of the forgotten past, with the present. Naru endeavoured to achieve that purpose. This book is the first part of that effort.

Before the advent of British rule in India, the last time when the entire Indian subcontinent was described in considerable details as a single entity like a theatre that was prehistoric times. This may seem like a surprising fact to any thinking person. Naturally, that realisation, among many other aspects of the prehistoric Indian literature surprised many members of the European intelligentsia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.   Above all other considerations, a high level of technological advancement is required even in the consideration of modern human capabilities to considering a landmass of more than 5 million square kilometers as a single arena. What modern people consider to be prehistoric times is not particularly known for technological advancement. Modern-day school textbooks teach that at that time, people were just beginning to discover the uses of various types of stone tools, living a life almost like primates.   The India that Europeans saw during the Mughal Empire did not show any signs that would suggest that the society was carrying the legacy of a technologically highly advanced society. A group of Europeans attempted to compile the various fragments and versions of prehistoric Indian literature, scattered across the vast expanse of the land known as India, into a unified and complete form. That effort blossomed and eventually took the form of the Asiatic Society. Despite being an occupying power, the British allocated considerable resources for that purpose for at least more than a century. If one tries to understand those activities very closely, one will see that those people were attracted, inexorably, by something hidden behind a veil. Whatever was there behind the veil, that was manifested by forms of philosophy and knowledge that were unknown to Europeans up to that time.   All of that revolved around a structured interpretation of the mundane world. The basic structure of those works is bound by an unbreakable bond o