Geographical Factors in Bengal History. Assignment for Aksadul Alam. Bangladesh studies. University of dhaka. IML. FFL

ASSIGNMENT GEOGRAPHICAL FACTORS IN BENGAL HISTORY Md. Shakwat Hossain BAFFL, ROLL: 04 | Bangladesh Studies | 26-09-2016  ‘BENGAL’ AS A UNIT OF GEOGRAPHICAL STUDY Vanga an ancient janapada or human settlement in Eastern Bengal. Like all other settlements of the region, its geographical connotation varied in different periods of history. The name Vanga, indicating a people, occurred for the first time in the Aitareya Aranyaka, where they are mentioned along with the Magadhas. In the Baudhayana Dharmasutra the Vangas are mentioned in a list of peoples who lived in regions beyond the zone of Aryan civilisation in the neighbourhood of Kalinga. In the Puranas they are mentioned along with other eastern people such as Anga, Magadha, Mudgaraka, Pundra, Videha, Tamralipti and Pragjyotisa. The Ramayana mentions the Vangas to be in league with Ayodhya. In the Digvijaya section of the Mahabharata it is related that Bhima killed the king of Modagiri, subjugated the ruler of the Pundras and another potentate who ruled on the banks of the river Kaushiki. He then fell on the Vangas, and after having subjugated the Tamraliptas, Karvatas, Suhmas and the people living in the coastal regions, he reached the banks of the Lauhitya (Brahmaputra). In a later section of the epic it is indicated that the realm of the Vangas extended up to the sea. The earliest known reference to Vanga as a territorial unit is found in the Arthaxastra of Kautilya, in which it is mentioned as an area where finest quality white and soft cotton fabrics (svetam-snigdham-dukulam) were produced. The references in the Mahaniddesha (c 2nd century AD) and the Milindapanho (c 1st or 2nd century AD) indicate that there was a coastal area approachable from the sea in the territory of Vanga. From the above references Vanga appears to be an eastern country located in the proximity of the janapadas of pundra, suhma, tamralipti, anga, Mudgaraka, Magadha and pragjyotisa. It apparently extended up to the sea. But none alludes to its exact location. Some indication of its location, however, is available in Kalidasa's Raghuvamsa (4th-5th century AD). While describing the conquests of Raghu, it is mentioned that after having defeated the Suhmas he exterminated the Vangas, who are said to be able naval people (nausadhanodyatan). Raghu then set up pillars of victory in the islands situated in between the channels of the Ganges (Gangasroto' ntaresu). This clearly indicates the location of Vanga in the triangular deltaic land between the two main streams of the Ganges - the Bhagirathi and the Padma. The inhabitants of this submerged flood plain would naturally be able naval people. This is the area which classical Greek and Latin writers termed as gangaridai. The Chinese text Wei-lueh (3rd century AD) referred to Pan-yueh (ie Vanga) as the country of Han-yueh (Xan-gywat) or the Ganga. The Jaina Upanga Pannavana (Prajnapana), assignable to 1st century BC-1st century AD, furnishes a little wider denotation for Vanga. It includes Tamralipti (Tamluk, Medinipur district) in Vanga. If the tradition recorded in the Mahavamsa regarding the sending of the Bodhi tree to Singhala from Tamalitti during the reign of Ashoka is to be believed, Tamralipti's existence as a port is to be dated back to the Maurya period. So it is not unlikely that in the early historical period Vanga included parts of the territory lying to the west of the Bhagirathi. However, in the post-Gupta period Vanga no longer seemed to include the territory now in West Bengal to the west of the Bhagirathi, when the names of gauda and radha got currency. In the Daxakumaracharita of Dandin, however, Damalipta (a variant of Tamralipta) is referred to as a city in Suhma. In the Satpanchaxaddexabibhaga section of the Shaktisangamatantra, the territory of Vanga is said to have extended from the sea to the Brahmaputra, which may be taken to have marked its northern as well as eastern boundary. In Yashodhara's commentary on Vatsyayana's Kamasutra, Vanga is located to the east the Lauhitya. This may refer to the extended connotation of the territorial unit of Vanga; the extension resulted from the political domination of Vanga over a wider area. The epigraphical records of the Sena period refer to Vikramapura bhaga and navya bhaga of Vanga, denoting the greater Dhaka, Faridpur and Barisal areas of Bangladesh. The Kamauli copperplate of Vaidyadeva refers to Anuttara-Vanga or southern Vanga. The Sahitya Parisad copperplate of Vishvarupasena refers to Vangala-vadabhu in the Ramsiddhi pataka of the navya region of Vanga. Ramsiddhi has been identified.Division of Vanga can be taken to have comprised the southern part of Bangladesh. Chandradvipa of the Chandra copperplates refers to the same area and was a part of Vanga. In addition to these divisions of Vanga, early epigraphic and literary records seem to indicate other sub-divisions of Vanga. The Brhat Sanghita mentions Upa-Vanga in the list of countries of the southeastern divisions of India; Vanga is also included in the same list. According to the Digvijaya-Prakaxa (c 1600 AD) Upa-Vanga denoted Jessore and the adjoining forest areas, probably portions of the Sundarbans. The coastal territory in the southern portion of Vanga was vangala, which may have had separate existence at certain period of time. From the above discussion it is clear that the territorial name of Vanga, as with other such units, had an ethnic origin. It is difficult to ascertain its exact location in different periods of history, but broadly it may be said to have denoted areas in the south and southeastern part of present Bangladesh. It may have extended to areas in southern West Bengal in the earlier period, but the area within the two main streams of the Ganges (from the Bhagirathi to the Padma-Meghna) formed the core of this territorial unit. It was this area which saw the rise of the independent kingdom of Vanga. In the early part of Muslim rule in Bengal this unit came to be mentioned as 'Bang' and it continued to be so known till the name 'Bangalah' got currency in the mid 14th century to denote the whole region of Bengal (present Bangladesh and the Indian province of West Bengal). STRUCTURAL EVOLUTION/OUTLINES The present understanding is that India, Australia and Indian Ocean constitute a plate- the Indian plate- which presses against the African Plate on the west and the Eurasian Plate on the north. The friction between the plates, with a convergent motion on one side balanced by divergent one on other, has constantly changed land-forms by pushing up or pressing down land along the fault lines. As under these various impulses both land forms and sea limits have constantly changed. In the Himalayas and the salt range, rocks containing fossils of marine life go back to the Cambrian period, which shows that these rocks have developed out of sea sediments and that where Himalayas situated now, was once a sea, named Tethys Sea. The Himalayas began to rise out of the severe folding caused by the pressures of the Indian plate against Eurasian plate. The tectonic movement and upheavals continued to persist throughout the entire ‘Oligocene-Mayo-Pleistocene’ ep0ch. Some specimens have been found to prove the existence of not only the anthropoids, but also of human beings in the Indian subcontinent and ‘Bengal’ also. Bengal has had a long submerged existence under the ocean for millions of years. As the course of these immense water began to shift gradually southwards, there emerged the extensive fertile alluvial land tract. Veranda, Madhupur, Lalmai, mainamati, burdwan, bankura, murshidabad, and the other laterite lands in Bengal have also emerged through this process. Abu Bakar Opines stated that at the beginning of the Pleistocene epoch the northern tract of Bengal was a delta, and the sea lay 200 miles further north. Most of the landscape of Bengal was created in the Pliocene age. Ganga and the Brahmaputra created Bengal basin. Hills surrounding the three sides, numerous rivers, and sporadic presence of old alluvial lands, extensive plains, and the sea and the coastal areas in the south of Bengal impart a substantial degree of uniqueness to the geo-features of Bengal. GEOLOGICAL OUTLINES OF BENGAL There is a good deal of physiographic variety within the general pattern of geological setting of the Bengal delta. The entire geological structure of the region was being fixed through the continuous process of evolution and devolution due to the tectonic and orogeny movements. Some relevant facts need to be mentioned here in the context of the entire geological outline of the region, viz, the extensive and well defined old alluvial land tracts, older rock of the surrounding hills, jungles, the comparatively new alluvial land, rivers and most importantly the deltas. BENGAL DELTA Named after the Greek alphabet 'delta' for its commonly triangular shape by Greek historian Herodotus in the 5th century, deltas come in a variety of shapes and sizes.Bengal Delta two Himalayan rivers, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, which drain to the Bay of Bengal as a combined river, carry the largest sediment load. These two rivers together with another non-Himalayan river, the Meghan, have built one of the largest delta in the world known as the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta or the Bengal Delta. On its northeastward migration, the Ganges built several deltas and then abandoned them before finally occupying its present position. Building the early Brahmaputra delta near Mymensingh. At present the river has a straight southward course. However, while these two rivers previously debouched individually to the Bay of Bengal, at present they combine before finally emptying into the bay. These delta building activities of the rivers contributed to the formation of some 60% of the total Bangladesh coastline. Generally it is being the prevalent notion that, the expansive/ or vast land tract that extends till Padma in the north, Bhagirathi in the west, Meghna in the East, and the bay of Bengal in t6he south constitutes the main floodplain land and the delta of Ganga-Brahmaputra. According to Bagchi, apart from Ganga no other river has played a pivotal role in the formation of deltaic Bengal. Hence it is to be noted that the process of formation of the deltaic Bengal is still on the way which continues to shape and reshape the geological settings of Bengal. It is also now scientifically established fact that this delta, which is the largest delta in the world, is the combined creation of the sediment, sand, alluvial soil and mud of the river flows over a prolonged period of time. RIVERS OF BENGAL It will not be an exaggeration to state that Bengal’s geography is conditioned by its river system which forms the most characteristic physical feature of the land, Satish Chandra Mitra made a very precise comment that as we have veins in our bodies, Bengal is vivified by numerous rivers. We can also mention here a very significant comment made by Niharanjan Ray “Bengal’s history is founded on its numerous and diverse rivers and streams. These waterways- the life of the land – have nurtured Bengal through the ages and have determined its appearance and its nature, as they continue to do still”. These waterways are the blessing of Bengal but sometimes there are the curse. They have played very important role in the formation of deltaic land and character of the people of the same through centuries. Brahmaputra Amongst all the rivers that drench the region, Brahmaputra is the greatest stream which drains the northern slope of the Himalayas under the name of Tsamgpo. It stretches for over 1800 miles. Rises in Mansarovar in Tibet and then running eastward it takes a vicious turn into Assam. It enters Bengal through the border of Rangpur and Cooch Behar. In the plains of Assam the Brahmaputra is a mighty river and spreads into a vast expanse of water. It has numerous islands and changes its course very often. Originally, the Brahmaputra flowed southeast across mymensingh district where it received the surma river and united with the Meghna, as shown in runnel’s atlas (1785). By the beginning of the 19th century its bed had risen due to tectonic movement of the madhupur tract and it found an outlet farther west along its present course. The entire lower Brahmaputra consists of a vast network of channels, which are dry in the cold season but are inundated during the monsoon. It has numerous islands that are locally known as chars. This is the widest river system in the country flowing north-south. It meets the Ganges at goalandaghat. The river is in fact a multi-channel one. Channels of many different sizes, from hundreds of meters to kilometers wide, and of different patterns including braiding, meandering and anastomosing pattern in the country. The main factor controlling the channel pattern in the Brahmaputra is its discharge. GANGA Ganges River one of the largest river systems of the world and an important river flowing through India and Bangladesh. The term 'Ganges' is a corrupt form, used by a Greek historian, of the Sanskrit name 'Ganga' by which the river is popularly known throughout the sub-continent. Its drainage basin covers one of the most thickly populated regions of the world, a region where the Indo-Aryan civilisation has flourished for many centuries. The Ganges proper is formed of two tributaries - the Bhagirathi and the Alakananda. The Ganges rises near the Tibet-Indian border. The Bhagirathi is accepted traditionally as the original Ganges, although the Alakananda is the larger river. The actual source of the former is Gangotri glacier at an altitude of about 3,900m in the Himalayas. The river flows in a southeasterly direction across India and crosses the western border of Bangladesh in nawabganj district. Inside the country, flowing almost in the same direction it meets the Yamuna (the Brahmaputra) at goalondaghat and then further down meets the Meghna at Chandpur. From the confluence with the Jamuna to the confluence with the Meghna the river is named Padma. The entire course of the Ganges inside Bangladesh is popularly called the Padma, though actually it is not. In Bangladesh it has only one tributary, the mahananda, while it has a good number of distributaries such as the ichamati, nabaganga, bhairab, Kumar, goari madhumati, and Arial khan. The Ganges is the major hydrodynamic system that formed the world's largest delta that occupies a major portion of Bangladesh and a greater part of west Bengal in India. In the long history of development of the Ganges Delta, the river shifted southeast and has reached its present position in the Bengal low land. The hydrology and drainage systems of the Ganges Delta in the southwestern part of Bangladesh are intimately related to the mighty Ganges and the fluvio-hydrological setting of the Bengal Basin. Padma River Padma River the downstream of the Ganges, more precisely, the combined flow of the Ganges and the Jamuna after their confluence at goalandaghat. In Bangladesh the Ganges is popularly known as the Padma from its point of entrance at Manakosa and Durlabhpur unions of shibganj upazila, nawabganj district. The Padma is 120 kilometers long and from 4 to 8 km wide. The very important Goalandaghat-Chandpur steamer route is mostly on this river. Near Tepakhola, 14 km from Goalandaghat, the small Faridpur Khal distributary takes off from the rightbank. Fifty kilometres further down the arial khan takes off from the rightbank. Fourteen kilometres further downstream the Lohajang river falls into it at lohajang upazila on the leftbank, and the Kristanagar river branches off from the opposite side. A few kilometres from Lohajang, the Shosha Khal and the Naria Khal take off from the rightbank, join up and as one stream falls into the Arial Khan south of madaripur. The Padma joins the Meghna 5 km from Sureshwar in a maze of shifting shoals and chars. The Lower Meghna is actually a continuation of the joint flow of the Padma and the Meghna. MEGHNA RIVER Meghna River one of the major rivers in Bangladesh, specially famous for its great estuary that discharges the flows of the Ganges-Padma, the Brahmaputra-Jamuna and the Meghna itself. The downstream of surma river from Ajmiriganj is often referred to as the Meghna. The matter would be simpler but for the fact that from Madna downstream for about 26 km (in a straight line) one of the two channels of the Surma-Meghna is known as the dhaleshwari. The channel from Ajmiriganj down to the confluence with the Dhanu is referred to as the Surma. This confluence is five kilometers east of Kuliarchar and north of Bhairab Bazar. Downstream from this point, the river is referred to as the Meghna. TISTA RIVER Tista River an important river of the northern region of Bangladesh. According to Hindu mythology, it originated from the breast of Devi Parvati (Goddess Parvati). Actually it originates in Chitamu Lake in the Sikkim Himalayas at an altitude of about 7,200 m and comes down first to the Darjeeling plain and then to the Duar plain of West Bengal (India). It flows through a magnificent gorge known as Sivok Gola in Darjeeling. It is a wild river in the Darjeeling Hills where its valley is clothed with dense forest, but its drainage area in the mountains is only 12,500 sq km. It enters Bangladesh at the Kharibari border of Nilphamari district. CLIMATIC CONDITION Bangladesh is located in the tropical monsoon region and its climate is characterised by high temperature, heavy rainfall, often excessive humidity, and fairly marked seasonal variations. The most striking feature of its climate is the reversal of the wind circulation between summer and winter, which is an integral part of the circulation system of the South Asian subcontinent. From the climatic point of view, three distinct seasons can be recognised in Bangladesh - the cool dry season from November through February, the pre-monsoon hot season from March through May, and the rainy monsoon season which lasts from June through October. The month of March may also be considered as the spring season, and the period from mid-October through mid-November may be called the autumn season. The dry season begins first in the west-central part of the country by mid-December, where its duration is about four months, and it advances toward east and south, reaching the eastern and southern margins of the country by mid-March where its duration is about one month. The pre-monsoon hot season is characterised by high temperatures and the occurrence of thunderstorms. April is the hottest month when mean temperatures range from 27°C in the east and south to 31°C in the west-central part of the country. In the western part, summer temperature sometimes reaches upto 40°C. After the month of April, the temperature dampens due to increased cloud cover. The pre-monsoon season is the transition period when the northerly or northwesterly winds of the winter season gradually changes to the southerly or southwesterly winds of the summer monsoon or rainy season (June-September). During the early part of this season, the winds are neither strong nor persistent. However, with the progression of this season wind speed increases, and the wind direction becomes more persistent. During the early part of the pre-monsoon season, a narrow zone of air mass discontinuity lies across the country that extends from the southwestern part to the northeastern part. This narrow zone of discontinuity lies between the hot dry air coming from the upper Gangetic plain and the warm moist air coming from the Bay of Bengal. As this season progresses, this discontinuity weakens and retreats toward northwest, and finally disappears by the end of the season, making room for the onset of the summer monsoon. The rainy season, which coincides with the summer monsoon, is characterised by southerly or southwesterly winds, very high humidity, heavy rainfall, and long consecutive days of rainfall which are separated by short spells of dry days. Rainfall in this season is caused by the tropical Depressions that enter the country from the Bay of Bengal. ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF BENGAL/BANGLADESH The history of people living here is about 3000 years ago. But a Bangladesh as an independent country was born 45 years ago. So, there still remains a question, what was called this land in the ancient period? The name ‘Bangladesh’ is actually come from the ancient ‘Vongo’ and ‘Bongalo”. For these names the language of this land is Bangla. From the ancient period the geographical areas were created. ‘Rara’ ‘Gouro’ ‘Shamatat’ actually the people felt proud of their geographical states. This affected the religion. Many class were grown in the Hindu religion. Therefore there created classification in the society. But the name ‘Bango’/ ‘Vongo’ was never be changed. The sailors and businessmen from Greece , Portugal came in this region and named this region ‘Ganga Reddy’. Than people called this land ‘Pundro’ and than ‘Gouro’. But none of them were eternal. ‘Oitoreo Arannok’ ‘Bodhaoner Dharma Shutra’ ‘Mohavarat’ etc whe found the name “BANGO” in these books first. And we also found the name ‘BANGO’ in Ancient ‘RIKBED’ . and we also find the name “BANGO” in ‘Ramayan’ ‘Boudhayan’ ‘Adiparba’ etc. there are some views about the name of ‘Bango’ At first in the book ‘Riyazus sultani’ a descendent of prophet Nuh (pbuh) was called by “BANG”. And ‘banga’ is originated from that person but there was no strong evidence about that story. Secondly “BANGO” means Bourn. Ganga, Tista, Brahmaputra flow rapidly through the bengal and made hundrades of bourns. The word Bong is actually came from Tibetis word Bonos. Bonos means water. And with bonos the Drabir word Alam mixed and made the word “BANGALO” Thirdly “Bongo” means cotton. According to Dr. Shukumar Shen there was lots of cotton in this region. 16 centuries Abul Fazal said that the name ofn this Bongo was Bangal. As this was ebb area the land need breakets or AAL. That’s why AAL is Added with Bango (BANGO+AAL=BANGAL) The name Bongalo was found in a copper plate and there was the name of Gobinda Chandra. So we can say that from 11 centuries this land was called BANGAlO. But in 7 th centuries we see that the whole area was called GOURO. The king of Gouro was Shangko. The capital was Karnosuborno. But Gouro was not lasted long and Bongo name was established. In the medieval period Sultan Samsuddin Ilias Shah connected all the provinces of bengal and officially announced the name “BANGALA” he named himself as SHAHI BANGALA. At last we can say the todays Bangladesh is made from BONG, BONGO,BANGALA,BANGLA and the English BENGAl.