[mukto-mona] Bangla: An Ancient Nation With An Ancient Culture

Please consider this article by NOVO for publication. It is a short venture into the past of Bangladesh.

 

 

Bangla: An Ancient Nation With An Ancient Culture

by NOVO

 

 

Many people think the history really begins with the conquest of Bangladesh by Muslims or the advent of Mongol rule. For some foreign rulers like Isa Khan and Sirajuddowla are heroes. (But hey, Bangladesh has a rich history of hero-worshipping her foreign conquerors!) And the history goes back further. So how old is it?

 

Some people will remember Gour (Gaur, Gaud, Gauda) as a medieval capital under Muslim rulers. The unique and distinct ruins of Gour includes the Shona Mosques, and the so called Kadamrasul Mosque. However, was this city built by the Muslim rulers? No. They conquered it from the Sens. It was the city of Lakshman Sen of the Sen dynasty (not Lakshsman, who was Rama's brother) when the Muslims invaded at the end of the 12th century.

 

Gour was also there before the 12th century. The Pals and Shoshanko (post-Gupta rulers of the first millennium C.E.) were lords of Gour. It was even there before that. Panini talks of Gour Pur or Gour City in the 5th century BC (Britanica).  Britanica also says that it was also known as Prachya (Prachyo, Prasii, Prasoi) which makes sense because of another bit of information which I shall not include here. (The people of Gour were sea farers.)

 

Now Gour and Prasii was not just the city of Gour but refered to the country. In ancient times, Bangladesh was variously called: Gour, Gourdesh and GourBanga, as well as Banga etc. How big was Gour or Prachyo? Britanica refers to the western region of Bengal as Gour. The capital city was Palibothra (supposedly Patna which is in Bihar). Gour or Prasii may have been bigger. According to Pliny, Selucas was king of Syria and fought Chandragupta, king of Prasii (Mauryan empire) . So Prasii must have bordered near Syria at the time.

 

Anyway, the more ancient Prasii (pre-Mauryan) was also extensive. Alexander's forces retreated after reaching the Jamuna river in northwestern India. The mighty Prasii and Gangaridai empires were next. Prasii thus probably spanned north India upto or near the river Jamuna. 

 

Moreover, Ranajit Pal believes that the Nondo empire called Prasii included Iran. He believes Darius (Arta-Sata or Sarva-Arta-Sata  or sarva artha siddhi) was a Nondo king. (His research is based on Babylonian sources and the drama 'Mudra Rakkhsas' (drama on Alexander's adventure) and other sources. (Later the throne of the empire was usurped by Chandra Gupta, after the Nondo dynasty was eliminated by Chanakya.)

(http://www.1stmuse.com/frames/sasigupta.html)

 

So Prasii at one time was the huge and mighty empire of the Nondos which was succeeded by the Mauryan Gupta dynasty and the other later Gupta dynasty.

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So this brings us to Gangaridai, the other old empire of Bangladesh. Its capital is suspected to be either in West Bengal (Chandraketu Garh) or near Dhaka. (Because of a piece of information I am not sharing I believe it was at some point in the greater district of Dhaka. Dhaka was also the ancient sea port called Dobak.) Muslin was produced in Gangaridae. (The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Wilfred H. Schoff, p. 47-8)

 

Gangaridae possibly spanned from northern orissa to southern and eastern Bengal. May be, further east. They were ruled by the Ganga dynasty. The dynasty also ruled in the rest of orissa (Kalinga) and in Karnataka and Andhra. The names of the Gangas reverberate all through Indian history and even as far as Cambodia and Borneo. (Mohisasur was probably a title of a ruler of this land who was killed supposedly by Durga, a Hindu goddess. The name Mohisasur does not appear in the list of the ruling dynasty probably as it was a title given by those who killed him.)

 

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Copy pasted the following two quotes:

In Apollonius of Rhodes' "Argonautika", Datis, a chieftain, leader of the Gangaridae was in the army of Perses III fought against Aeetes during the Colchian civil war."

 

"On the doors will i represent in gold and ivory the battle of the Gangaridae and the arms of our victorious Quirinius. "---Virgil, "Georgics" (III, 27)

 

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Now who were the Gangas? They were the Das, Singh(o)s, Deb, Barman, Kaibartas, Pande etc. (This Singh(o) may or may not be  the Rajput name Singh.) In other words, the Bengals are the Gangas. The Gangas apparently were enslaved after the fall of the Indus civilization (destroyed by Indro as mentioned in the Rig Bed). They later escaped during a great flood recorded in ancient stories (Purans) that engulfed the whole of northern India from Pakistan to Bangladesh and made their way to south west Bengal and Orissa. (Pals were actually Debs, and an ancient ruler of Gour was Bosu Deb.)

 

Anyway, these two empires are mentioned as extremely powerful by the Greeks and Latins. The origin of Bangladesh lies in these two empires. Pliny thought Prasii was the most powerful and in ancient greek and latin epics the bravery of the Gangaridae are exhalted. Gour dance forms are even continued today and the Muslin of Gangaridae is legendary. The history of Bangladesh is ancient and its culture rich from its long journey from the Indus Valley. Of course, most of it is lost -- only tantalising glimpses remain in various epics and history (both Indian and greek). More information may come to light from archaeology in the future. Bangladeshis should be proud of their heritage and not sell themselves and their culture short.

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