Chapter One Introduction

‘Wisp’ teleported Naru into the depths of time to give him a glimpse of the situation that prevailed in Bengal Basin in the distant past. A considerably long time passed after that, when a line of communication was opened once more with the 'Wisp'. On that occasion, it was the initiative of the ‘Wisp’.

 

“Are you planning to visit Kolkata anytime soon?” A message reached Naru from the ‘Wisp’, many months after his last meeting with the virtual form of the ‘Wisp’.

 

A call from the ‘Wisp’ was not something that Naru could ever avoid. He planned a trip to that city.

 

Years and even a decade-long detachment did not have any impact on the brightness that was always created whenever Naru met ‘Wisp’.

 

On the agreed-upon day, they planned to meet somewhere in the heart of the central part of Kolkata. It was a partly cloudy autumn noon. A strong breeze blowing from the side of the nearby Ganges made walking a pleasure.

 

Intense conversation always remained an integral part of their walks together. That day, too, it was not a different situation. Without any consultation between themselves about the destination, they discovered that they were standing just outside of the compound of Victoria Memorial Hall.

 

As they were stepping inside that compound, Naru said, "This area occupies a special place in my mind."

 

"What is so special about it?" ‘Wisp’ inquired.

 

Naru continued, "I started my working life here in Kolkata. At that time, the city was known as Calcutta. My employer's organisation had its office in a building just opposite this place. On the 18th floor, that office space offered a very attractive and totally unobstructed frontal view of this hall on its west side. The Victoria Memorial Hall is a majestic piece of architecture in Indo-Saracenic style. That view used to become more attractive because of the presence of the very wide and open space known as ‘Maidan’ in its vicinity. Naturally, the sitting chamber of the owner of that organisation occupied the view-side room. Sometimes, in opportune moments, on the onset of evening, I used to stare towards the illuminated Victoria Memorial through the windows of that chamber. I had permission for access to that room from the authorities, as I was reporting directly to the owner of that organisation. That view used to be most attractive in the winter season, as during that season, days would become shorter. In that season, before the office hours were over, darkness fell, and the splendour of floodlights could be observed within the office hours.

 

When bright lights were thrown on this hall from outside, the bird's-eye view of this floodlit building from a height of about 200 feet used to become astonishing and, at the same time, majestic. People and vehicles used to look like miniature toys.

 

The extremely busy schedule of my life during that phase did not allow me to have a taste of a close encounter with the Victoria Memorial. On every working day, I travelled 200 kilometres to attend duty using the multimodal transport system. In many Bengali novels and stories, mention of the Victoria Memorial has drawn my attention since I was a teenager. I developed a fascination with this place.

 

Within a couple of years, destiny took me to Bangalore, and I stayed there for a long period of time. After the Bangalore chapter of my life was over, i.e., after almost a decade when I started my working life in Calcutta, life took me to the lap of the Himalayas, where I met you. I never knew that I would ever enter the Victoria Memorial compound again, and that too, with you beside me.”

 

"When I met you last time, after that, have you made any further progress on your cerebral journey that you were pursuing?" ‘Wisp’ asked.

 

"Yes, some progress has been made. Now I am pacing on the road for which you have opened the gate and on which you projected your light to dispel the dark cover on it." Naru replied.

"Be careful; this time you should not fall down while speeding. Do you remember how you slipped on the downhill journey from that hilltop monastery on our last visit?" ‘Wisp’ quipped.

 

Naru became astonished. He remembered that on a very steep slope on the hill, he was walking far behind the ‘Wisp’, when he slipped on the thick cover of dried bamboo leaves spread over the ground. That time, he thought that the 'Wisp’ did not notice that incident.

 

On that day, at Victoria, he realised that the ‘Wisp’ was well aware of what had happened to him. 'Wisp,' like many other incidents, successfully suppressed any spontaneous reaction. That was one of the features of the ‘Wisp’ that heavily influenced Naru.     

 

"I have gotten the greatest boost to my cerebral journey from the event of a fall—probably it was the greatest fall that a human mind can imagine. My journey is now targeted at reaching the bottom of the mystery associated with a fall of unprecedented proportion. That journey started with the gate-opening that was triggered by you." Naru continued with his narration. It was mostly a monologue.

 

Almost sixty acre area of the Victoria Memorial did not take a very long time for them to take a round. A medium-sized pond was there, almost in front of that building, on its east side. The bank of that pond, which was facing the Victoria Memorial Hall side, had a row of medium-sized trees with thick foliage cover. The shade created by those trees provided good shelter on an increasingly warm afternoon. It was because of Naru’s insistence that the ‘Wisp’ agreed to sit on the edge of that pond on the grass cover. Probably, the strict vigilance that was maintained in that area made the ‘Wisp’ hesitant to sit there. They were not sure whether they were violating any rules or not. Anyway, the next few hours passed peacefully, allowing them to engage in an intense conversation.

 

‘Wisp’ was keenly watching the movement of the shoal of fish that was moving near the bank of the pond amidst the waterweeds. Keeping the observant eyes fixed on that school of fish, suddenly ‘Wisp’ said, "How quickly water becomes placid after the fish dive below the surface."

 

"Are you trying to remind me about tabula rasa? That was one of your areas of interest when I first met you." Naru asked.

 

Sitting on the lawn of the Victoria Memorial Hall, Naru reminded 'Wisp' about the episode in the Himalayas involving the phrase 'Tabula Rasa'. ‘Wisp’ stared straight at the water without responding in any manner for a long time and then suddenly murmured, "Hu, that did not happen".

 

Naru’s mind raced back.

 

Regeneration of Bengali society

 

Mother Nature created a Tabula Rasa in the area that is currently known as the Bengal Basin. A very long time had passed before human presence started to take place in that area again.

 

During that period of human reappearance in the Bengal Basin, a few sets of non-Adivasi people arrived at various places around the core area of the Bengal Basin. The word ‘Banga’ survived. Most probably, the Adivasis carried that term forward. With Banga, the term ‘Banga-la’ also survived. Upon reaching that place, the new settlers learned to revere some entities that belonged to a higher level of existence. Their list of deities was enriched.

 

A completely new society started forming. As with any other living structure, that society also continued to evolve. The core feature of the culture of that land was inherited from the last cycle of human presence on that land. That feature acted similarly to the first particle around which a crystal is formed.

 

The present people have gathered information and understanding about many human settlements that were there within the Bengal Basin in a really old phase of history. As I told you earlier, there is much more to the past of the Bengal Basin than what our present understanding of history can reveal. That phase of history is partly hazy and otherwise blank.

Chapter Two Historical puzzles

 

In order to take our journey to the desired destination, it is necessary to arrange the scattered, relevant information described earlier at various stages in a proper manner.

 

No skeletal remains of fabled Aryans

 

Eminent historian Niharranjan Ray, in his book titled ‘Bangalir Itihas’, commented that Bengali is a 'mix race'. It is also written in that book that 'the people who created the unique Indian civilisation and culture have been termed proto-Nordic. They were the creators of the Vedic texts.’ In the next sentence, it has been declared, ‘In India, no skeletal remains of such people have been discovered.’ A question should naturally arise: why have no such remains been found?

 

Sanskrit Language

 

Knight Dunlap - "The Great Aryan Myth", published in ‘The Scientific Monthly’ Vol. 59, No. 4 (Oct., 1944), pp. 296-300.

 

Generally, experts associate the Sanskrit language with the fabled Aryans. From the writings of Knight Dunlap, the following may be learnt:

 

“In its commonest form, the Aryan myth postulated a group of people calling themselves ‘Aryans,’ who invaded India at sometime before the Christian Era and settled in the Indus Valley. Various speculative theories as to the location of the original “home” of these Aryans were invented by the scholars who credulously accepted the myth…

 

We cannot date the origin of the myth earlier than the nineteenth century, because it was not until 1788 that Sir William Jones pointed out that the Greek, Latin, Celtic, French, and Germanic languages had definite affinities with the Sanskrit. In 1808 Freidrich Schlegel declared that Sanskrit was the parent language of the Indo-European group and identified it as the language of a parent Aryan race. Jones’ concept of an Indo-European family of related languages was rapidly accepted, and is accepted today, although the ‘family’ has been rather drastically revised in recent years; but Schlegel’s notion that the Sanskrit was the original Indo-European languages was soon discarded, even by those who gave credence to the myth of the Aryan race.”

 

During the course of my journey, at least once a thought arose in my mind that Sanskrit might be the parent language of all the Indo-European languages. That idea opens up the possibility that a central civilisation was there that eventually disappeared from the face of the Earth. There is no restriction on why such a civilization could not have been present in the core area of Banga.

 

Friedrich Max Müller was a German-born philologist and orientalist. He was one of the pioneers who founded the academic discipline known as Indian studies.

 

The following opinion of Professor Max Muller may be learnt from the book titled ‘Origin of Hindu (Second Part) Arya Never Was Aryan’:

 

“Aryan, in scientific language, is utterly inapplicable to race. It means language and nothing but language; and if we speak of Aryan race at all, we should know that it means no more than X+Aryan speech”.

 

That deduction of Professor Max Muller is almost unassailable. Every bit of his statement stands vindicated in the light of various findings, except the incompleteness ingrained in the words ‘language’ and ‘speech’. If another word ‘concepts’ is added to ‘language’ and ‘speech’, then his statement probably becomes self-explanatory.

 

In India, Sanskrit is known as Deb-Bhasha, which means ‘the language of the deities’ in English.

 

When the great drowning of the island-mountain happened, no survivors were there in the area that is now known as the Ganga Plain. Probably no living soul was left in that geographical territory, which is currently known as India. The seas became too turbulent to sail. The related people to the ones present on that island who managed to survive in distant places did not inherit anything tangible. They inherited only the remnants of the culture of that land, apart from a few personal belongings. They inherited the grammar of the language that was in use in that land.

 

Thalassocracy

 

A thalassocracy, or thalattocracy, is a term that refers to the empires that expand into the sea in a considerable manner. It is said that such an empire did not expand into the inland areas, even when scope was there.

 

Many experts on history say that some kind of thalassocracy was present there, around the ‘Banga’ region of ancient Bengal. The naming of many of the islands in Malaysia and Indonesia bears testimony to the influence of Sanskrit-related words in that region. The traditional culture of those archipelagoes, including the language, reflects the influence of Sanskrit in a significant manner.

 

From India, the route for Sanskrit language and culture to reach those archipelagos had the maximum probability of going through the Bengal region. Thus, whether there was thalassocracy or not in the Bengal region in ancient times, the cultural closeness of that region to the archipelagoes is probably undeniable. Some historians claim that the ancient ‘Vanga’ Janapad, which is thought to have been present somewhere around the Bengal Basin, was a thalassocracy with colonies in Southeast Asia.

 

Inhabitants of the ‘War’ region of the Bengal Basin that I referred to earlier who had direct access to the neighbouring open sea were very likely to create a sea-faring community and thus a thalassocracy.

   

Apart from the ‘War’ region that I have described just now, there are references available in the old literature that the area that we know as 24-Paraganas at present, and which is mainly within the political boundary of the Indian part of Bengal, was known as the 'War’ region in earlier times.

 

When this information is reflected on the illustration that I was compiling earlier, then that may be modified into the following:

 

 

Ancient thalassocracies were present in places like West Asia, southern Europe, India, etc. One of the most well-known places where one of these empires existed and still carries its old name is Venice. The similarity between Venice and the Banga region did not escape the attention of the Europeans when they reached Bengal en masse around the seventeenth century.

 

No history available for Bengal

 

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay opened one of his essays, titled ‘History of Bengal,’ with the comment that ‘There is no history available for Bengal.' He was quite aware that learned people like Marshman J. had already written and compiled whatever was available and qualified to be considered a historical account of Bengal.

 

The list of Mahajanapadas, as available from Buddhist and Jain religious texts, included some territories in and around the area that is officially recognised as the Bengal Basin at present. Those texts referred to a time period that was more than 2600 years old from the present.

 

Like any other person, Bankim Chandra also must have been aware of those descriptions. In spite of that, he commented that there is no history of Bengal. In some places, Bankimchandra lamented about the lack of detail in the past accounts of Bengal and India. But less detail is one thing, and no account is another.

 

Something disturbed me when I started thinking that a materialistic person like Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, who was fully exposed to the western way of thinking and to the writings of the pundits that had become available in the public domain till that time, went on to comment that "no history has been written for Bengal".

 

When the present proposition of a drowned civilisation, that was once present in the heart of the Bengal Basin is put into the scenario, then this puzzle is satisfactorily addressed. With the drowning of that civilisation, the past of the Bengal Basin has been wiped out. A completely new Bengali civilization was

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Texte: Dibyendu Chakraborty
Bildmaterialien: Dibyendu Chakraborty
Cover: Dibyendu Chakraborty
Lektorat: Dibyendu Chakraborty
Korrektorat: Dibyendu Chakraborty
Satz: Dibyendu Chakraborty
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 04.11.2023
ISBN: 978-3-7554-5979-8

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Late Hiranmoyee Chakraborty, my Grandmother