1.
History of Bengal
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The history of Bengal includes modern-day Bangladesh and West Bengal in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent, at the apex of the Bay of Bengal and dominated by the fertile Ganges delta. The advancement of civilization in Bengal dates back four millennia, the region was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans as Gangaridai. The Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers act as a marker of the region. Bengal, at times, has played an important role in the history of the Indian subcontinent, the areas early history featured a succession of Indian empires, internal squabbling, and a tussle between Hinduism and Buddhism for dominance. Ancient Bengal was the site of several major Janapadas, while the earliest cities date back to the Vedic period, the region was part of several ancient pan-Indian empires, including the Mauryans and Guptas. It was also a bastion of regional kingdoms, the citadel of Gauda served as capital of the Gauda Kingdom, the Buddhist Pala Empire and Hindu Sena Empire. This era saw the development of Bengali language, script, literature, music, art, from the 13th century onward, the region was controlled by the Bengal Sultanate, Hindu Rajas, and Baro-Bhuyan landlords. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, Isa Khan, a Muslim Rajput chief, afterwards, the region came under the suzerainty of the Mughal Empire. Under the Mughals, Bengal Subah generated 50% of the empires GDP, the gradual decline of the Mughals led to quasi-independent state under the Nawabs of Bengal, subsequent Maratha expeditions in Bengal, and finally the conquest by the British East India Company. The British took control of the region from the late 18th century, the company consolidated their hold on the region following the Battle of Plassey in 1757 and Battle of Buxar in 1764 and by 1793 took complete control of the region. Kolkata served for years as the capital of British controlled territories in India. The exact origin of the word Bangla is unknown, though it is believed to be derived from the Dravidian-speaking tribe Bang/Banga that settled in the area around the year 1000 BCE. Other accounts speculate that the name is derived from Venga, which came from the Austric word Bonga meaning the Sun-god, according to the Mahabharata, a number of Puranas and the Harivamsha Vanga was one of the adopted sons of King Vali who founded the Vanga Kingdom. It was either under Magadh or under Kalinga Rules except few years under Pals. The Muslim accounts refer that Bong, the earliest reference to Vangala has been traced in the Nesari plates of Rashtrakuta Govinda III which speak of Dharmapala as the king of Vangala. The records of Rajendra Chola I of the Chola dynasty, who invaded Bengal in the 11th century, shams-ud-din Ilyas Shah took the title Shah-e-Bangla and united the whole region under one government. An interesting theory of the origin of the name is provided by Abul-Fazl in his Ain-i-Akbari, from this suffix added to the Bung, the name Bengal arose and gained currency Stone Age tools dating back 20,000 years have been excavated in the state. Remnants of Copper Age settlements in the Bengal region date back 4,000 years, the original settlers spoke non-Aryan languages— they may have spoken Austric or Austro-Asiatic languages like the languages of the present-day Kola, Bhil, Santhal, Shabara, and Pulinda people. At a subsequent age, peoples speaking languages from two other language families— Dravidian and Tibeto-Burman—seem to have settled in Bengal, archaeological discoveries during the 1960s furnished evidence of a degree of civilisation in certain parts of Bengal as far back as the first millennium BC
2.
Bengalis
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The Bengalis, also spelled as the Bangalees, are a major Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group. They are native to the region of Bengal in South Asia and they speak the Bengali language, the most easterly branch of the Indo-European language family. Bengalis are the third largest ethnic group in the world after the Han Chinese, apart from Bangladesh and West Bengal, Bengali-majority populations also reside in Indias Tripura state, the Barak Valley in Assam state and the union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The global Bengali diaspora has well-established communities in Pakistan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and they have four major religious subgroups, including Bengali Muslims, Bengali Hindus, Bengali Christians and Bengali Buddhists. Archaeologists have discovered remnants of a 4,000 years old Chalcolithic civilisation in the greater Bengal region, however evidence of much older Palaeolithic human habitations are found in the form of a Stone Implement and a Hand Axe in Rangamati and Feni districts of Bangladesh. The origin of the word Bangla ~ Bengal is unknown, though it is believed to be derived from a tribe called Bang that settled in the area around the year 1000 BCE. Kingdoms of Anga, Vanga and Magadha were formed in and around Bengal and were first described in the Atharvaveda around 1000 BCE as well as in Hindu epic Mahabharata, from the 6th century BCE, Magadha expanded to include most of the Bihar and Bengal regions. It was one of the four kingdoms of India at the time of Buddha and was one of the sixteen Mahajanapadas. One of the earliest foreign references to Bengal is the mention of a land ruled by the king Xandrammes named Gangaridai by the Greeks around 100 BCE, the word is speculated to have come from Gangahrd in reference to an area in Bengal. Later from the 3rd to the 6th centuries CE, the kingdom of Magadha served as the seat of the Gupta Empire, one of the first recorded independent kings of Bengal was Shashanka, reigning around the early 7th century. After a period of anarchy, Gopala came to power in 750, atisha was a renowned Bengali Buddhist teacher who was instrumental in revival of Buddhism in Tibet and also held the position of Abbot at the Vikramshila university. Tilopa was also from Bengal region, the Pala dynasty was later followed by a shorter reign of the Hindu Sena Empire. Islam was introduced to Bengal in the century by Sufi missionaries. Subsequent Muslim conquests helped spread Islam throughout the region, bakhtiar Khilji, a Turkic general of the Slave dynasty of Delhi Sultanate, defeated Lakshman Sen of the Sena dynasty and conquered large parts of Bengal. Consequently, the region was ruled by dynasties of sultans and feudal lords under the Bengal Sultanate for the few hundred years. Islam was introduced to the Sylhet region by the Muslim saint Shah Jalal in the early 14th century, Mughal general Man Singh conquered parts of Bengal including Dhaka during the time of Emperor Akbar. Few Rajput tribes from his army permanently settled around Dhaka and surrounding lands, later on, in the early 17th century, Islam Khan conquered all of Bengal. Other figures have been considered to be part of the Renaissance and he is considered one of the fathers of radio science, and is also considered the father of Bengali science fiction
3.
Bengali renaissance
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This movement questioned existing orthodoxies, particularly with respect to women, marriage, the dowry system, the caste system, and religion. The parallel socio-religious movement, the Brahmo Samaj, developed during time period. Future leaders like Keshub Chunder Sen were as much devotees of Christ, as they were of Brahma and it must also be acknowledged that many of the later Brahmos were also leaders of the freedom movement. The renaissance period after the Indian Rebellion of 1857 saw a magnificent outburst of Bengali literature, while Ram Mohan Roy and Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar were the pioneers, others like Bankim Chandra Chatterjee widened it and built upon it. The first significant nationalist detour to the Bengal Renaissance was given by the writings of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, later writers of the period who introduced broad discussion of social problems and more colloquial forms of Bengali into mainstream literature included Saratchandra Chatterjee. The Tagore family, including Rabindranath Tagore, were leaders of this period and had a particular interest in educational reform and their contribution to the Bengal Renaissance was multi-faceted. Indeed, Tagores 1901 Bengali novella, Nastanirh was written as a critique of men who professed to follow the ideals of the Renaissance, in many ways Rabindranath Tagores writings can be seen as imbued with the spirit of the Upanishads. His works repeatedly allude to Upanishadic ideas regarding soul, liberation, transmigration and—perhaps most essentially—about a spirit that all creation not unlike the Upanishadic Brahman. Tagores English translation of a set of poems titled the Gitanjali won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 and he was the first Asian to win this award. That was the example at the time but the contribution of the Tagore family is enormous. A serious comparison was started by the dramatis personae of the Bengal renaissance like Keshub Chunder Sen, Bipin Chandra Pal, for about a century, Bengals conscious awareness and the changing modern world was more developed and ahead of the rest of India. The role played by Bengal in the awakening of India is thus comparable to the position occupied by Italy in the European renaissance. Very much like the Italian Renaissance, it was not a mass movement, there were, nevertheless, examples of Muslim intellectuals such as Syed Ameer Ali, Mosharraf Hussain, Sake Dean Mahomed, Kazi Nazrul Islam, and Roquia Sakhawat Hussain. The Freedom of Intellect Movement sought to challenge religious and social dogma in Bengali Muslim society, sir Jagadish Chandra Bose was a polymath, a physicist, biologist, botanist, archaeologist, and writer of science fiction. He pioneered the investigation of radio and microwave optics, made significant contributions to plant science. He is considered one of the fathers of science, and is also considered the father of Bengali science fiction. He was the first from the Indian subcontinent to get a US patent, anil Kumar Gain and Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis were leading mathematicians and statisticians of their time. Gain went on to found Vidyasagar University, while Mahalanobis laid the foundation of the Indian Statistical Institute, satyendra Nath Bose was a physicist, specializing in mathematical physics
4.
Manasa
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Manasa is the sister of Vasuki, king of Nāgas and wife of sage Jagatkāru. She is also known as Vishahara, Nityā and Padmavati and her myths emphasize her bad temper and unhappiness, due to rejection by her father Shiva and her husband, and the hatred of her stepmother, Chandi. In some scriptures, sage Kashyapa is considered to be her father, rather than Shiva, Manasa is depicted as kind to her devotees, but harsh to people who refused to worship her. Denied full godhead by her parentage, Manasa’s aim was to fully establish her authority as a goddess. Originally a Adivasi goddess, Manasa was accepted in the pantheon worshipped by Hindu lower caste groups, later, she was included in higher caste Hindu pantheon, where she is now regarded as a Hindu goddess rather than a tribal one. As a Hindu goddess, she was recognized as a daughter of sage Kashyapa and Kadru, by the 14th century, Manasa was identified as the goddess of fertility and marriage rites and was assimilated into the Shaiva pantheon as a relative of Shiva. Myths glorified her by describing that she saved Shiva after he drank poison and her popularity grew and spread to Southern India, and her cult began to rival Shaivism itself. As a consequence, stories attributing Manasas birth to Shiva emerged, Manasa is depicted as a woman covered with snakes, sitting on a lotus or standing upon a snake. She is sheltered by the canopy of the hoods of seven cobras, sometimes, she is depicted with a child on her lap. The child is assumed to be her son, Astika and she is often called the one-eyed goddess and among the Hajong tribe of northeastern India she is called Kānī Dīyāʊ, as one of her eyes was burnt by her stepmother Chandi. The Mahabharata tells the story of Manasas marriage, sage Jagatkāru practiced severe austerities and had decided to abstain from marriage. Once he came across a group of men hanging from a tree upside down and these men were his ancestors, who were doomed to misery as their children had not performed their last rites. So they advised Jagatkāru to marry and have a son who could free them of those miseries by performing the ceremonies, Vasuki offered his sister Manasas hand to Jagatkāru. Manasa mothered a son, Astīka, who freed his ancestors, Astika also helped in saving the Nāga race from destruction when King Janamejaya decided to exterminate them by sacrificing them in his Yajna, fire offering. Puranas are the first scriptures to speak about her birth and they declare that sage Kashyapa is her father, not Shiva as described in the Mangalkavyas. Once, when serpents and reptiles had created chaos on the earth, the creator god Brahma made her the presiding deity of snakes and reptiles. Manasa gained control over the earth, by the power of mantras she chanted, Manasa then propitiated the god, Shiva, who told her to please Krishna. Upon being pleased, Krishna granted her divine Siddhi powers and ritually worshipped her, Kashyapa married Manasa to sage Jaratkaru, who agreed to marry her on the condition that he would leave her if she disobeyed him
5.
Nasreddin
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He is considered a populist philosopher and wise man, remembered for his funny stories and anecdotes. He appears in thousands of stories, sometimes witty, sometimes wise, but often, too, a Nasreddin story usually has a subtle humour and a pedagogic nature. The International Nasreddin Hodja fest is celebrated between 5 and 10 July in his hometown every year, claims about his origin are made by many ethnic groups. The alleged tomb of Nasreddin is in Akşehir and the International Nasreddin Hodja Festival is held annually in Akşehir between 5–10 July, according to Prof. Mikail Bayram who made an extensive research on Nasreddin, his full name is Nasir ud-din Mahmood al-Khoyi, his title Ahi Evran. He was sent to Anatolia by the Khalif in Baghdad to organize resistance and he served as a kadı in Kayseri. This explains why he addresses judicial problems in the not only religious ones. During the turmoil of the Mongol invasion he became an opponent of Persian Rumi. He was addressed in Masnavi by juha anecdotes for this reason and he became the vazir at the court of Kaykaus II. As generations have gone by, new stories have been added to the Nasreddin corpus, others have been modified, the themes in the tales have become part of the folklore of a number of nations and express the national imaginations of a variety of cultures. Although most of them depict Nasreddin in an early small-village setting and they purvey a pithy folk wisdom that triumphs over all trials and tribulations. The oldest manuscript of Nasreddin dates to 1571, today, Nasreddin stories are told in a wide variety of regions, especially across the Muslim world and have been translated into many languages. Some regions independently developed a similar to Nasreddin, and the stories have become part of a larger whole. In many regions, Nasreddin is a part of the culture. Since there are thousands of different Nasreddin stories, one can be found to fit almost any occasion, 1996–1997 was declared International Nasreddin Year by UNESCO. Some people say that, whilst uttering what seemed madness, he was, in reality, divinely inspired, many peoples of the Near, Middle East, South Asia and Central Asia claim Nasreddin as their own. In several cultures he is named by the title alone, in Arabic-speaking countries this character is known as Juha, Djoha, Djuha, Dschuha, Chotzas, Goha. Juha was originally a folk character found in Arabic literature as early as the 9th century. Lore of the two characters became amalgamated in the 19th century when collections were translated from Arabic into Turkish, in Sicily and Southern Italy he is known as Giufà
6.
Bengali cuisine
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Bengali cuisine is a culinary style originating in Bengal, a region in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent, which is now divided between Bangladesh and West Bengal. Other regions, such as Tripura, and the Barak Valley region of Assam also have large native Bengali populations, with an emphasis on fish, vegetables and lentils are served with rice as a staple diet. Bengali cuisine is known for its subtle flavours, and its spread of confectioneries, Bengali food has inherited a large number of influences, arising from a historical and strong trade links with many parts of the world. Bengal fell under the sway of various Turkic rulers from the thirteenth century onwards. The Jews brought bakeries to Bengal and the families of Wajid Ali Shah. British patronage and the Babu Renaissance fueled the development of different culinary strands into a distinct heritage. From the culinary point of view, some major historical trends influenced Bengali food, Bengal has been ruled by Muslim governors since the days of the Delhi Sultanate, five short-lived, Delhi-based kingdoms or sultanates, of Turkic origin in medieval India. However, for more than 500 years, Muslim rule in Bengal was centred in Dhaka, trade routes going from Delhi to Dhaka traversed almost the entire width of todays Bengal, crossing most major rivers. Dhaka evolved a vibrant cuisine based heavily on the influence of the Mughal courts, popularly called Mughlai cuisine and characterised by rich sauces and these food traditions continued in the courts of the Nawabs of Bengal. Though defeated by the British in 1757, they continued as puppet rulers of Bengal until 1880, with their courts, manners and cuisine maintained by doles from the English. Another key influence to the food came much later, when Wajid Ali Shah, concerning Awadhi cuisine, the Nawab is said to have brought with him hundreds of baburchis, khansamas and moshlachis. While deriving from Mughlai cuisine, Awadh preferred mutton to beef and was liberal in the use of attor of aromatics such rose or ketoki and this is the other reason a shift occurred from using beef to using mutton instead. The recipes that have a Mughal Bengali influence do not use mustard, the reason mustard was not used is that it was not appreciated much by the Mughals and was avoided. The Christian influence came to Bengal a few hundred years after its arrival on the Western borders of India, while the religion spread among the population, the region remained isolated from the political and religious centres of Christian India. This meant that people retained many of their customs, especially food habits. Though the Dutch and the French also had colonies in West Bengal and that came from the British, and other Western immigrants such as the Baghdadi Jews who set up Kolkatas famous Jewish bakeries. West Bengals flourishing community of Anglo-Indians formed a once-influential cuisine, the key culinary influence of the Christian community was the ritual of tea. Baking, which was pretty much unknown until the British came along, the popularity of baked confectioneries was a direct result of the British popularising the celebration of Christmas
7.
Durga Puja
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Durga Puja, also called Durgotsava and Navaratri, is an annual Hindu festival in the Indian subcontinent that reveres the goddess Durga. It is observed in the Hindu calendar month of Ashvin, typically September or October of the Gregorian calendar and it is a major festival in the Shaktism tradition of Hinduism across India and Shakta Hindu diaspora. Durga Puja festival marks the battle of goddess Durga with the shape-shifting, deceptive and powerful buffalo demon Mahishasura, and her emerging victorious. Thus, the festival epitomises the victory of Good over Evil, the primary goddess revered during Durga Puja is Durga, but her stage and celebrations feature other major deities of Hinduism such as goddess Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesha and Kartikeya. The latter two are considered to be children of Durga, the Hindu god Shiva, as Durgas husband, is also revered during this festival. The festival begins on the first day with Mahalaya, marking Durgas advent in her battle against evil, starting with the sixth day, the goddess is welcomed, festive Durga worship and celebrations begin in elaborately decorated temples and pandals hosting the statues. Lakshmi and Saraswati are revered on the following days, the festival is an old tradition of Hinduism, though it is unclear how and in which century the festival began. The prominence of Durga Puja increased during the British Raj in its provinces of Bengal, Durga Puja has been a ten day festival, of which the last five are typically special and an annual holiday in regions such as West Bengal and Tripura where it is particularly popular. In the contemporary era, the importance of Durga Puja is as much as a festival as a religious one wherever it is observed. In Bengal, Assam, Odisha, Durga Puja is also called Akalbodhan, Sharadiya Pujo, Sharodotsab, Maha Pujo, Maayer Pujo, Durga Pujo, in Bangladesh, Durga Puja used to be celebrated as Bhagabati Puja. It is also called Durga Puja in West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Odisha, Delhi, Durga is an ancient deity of Hinduism, according to archeological and textual evidence available. However, the origins of Durga puja are unclear and undocumented. The word Durga, and related terms appear in the Vedic literature, such as in the Rigveda hymns 4.28,5.34,8.27,8.47,8.93 and 10.127, and in sections 10.1 and 12.4 of the Atharvaveda. A deity named Durgi appears in section 10.1.7 of the Taittiriya Aranyaka, while the Vedic literature uses the word Durga, the description therein lacks the legendary details about her or about Durga puja that is found in later Hindu literature. A key text associated with Durga puja observations is Devi Mahatmya, Durga was likely well established before the time this Hindu text was composed, which scholars variously estimate to between 400 to 600 CE. Durga calmly understands and counters the evil in order to achieve her solemn goals, Durga, in her various forms, appears as an independent deity in the Epics period of ancient India, that is the centuries around the start of the common era. Both Yudhisthira and Arjuna characters of the Mahabharata invoke hymns to Durga and she appears in Harivamsa in the form of Vishnus eulogy, and in Pradyumna prayer. The prominent mention of Durga in this popular epics may have led to her worship, the Indian texts that mention the Durga Puja festival are inconsistent
8.
Kali Puja
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It coincides with the pan-Indian Lakshmi Puja day of Diwali. While the Bengalis, Odias, Assamese and Maithils adore goddess Kali on this day the rest of India worships goddess Lakshmi on Diwali, mahanisha puja is performed by the Maithili people of Mithila region in India and Nepal. The festival of Kali Puja is not an ancient one, Kali Puja was practically unknown before the 18th century, however a late 17th century devotional text Kalika mangalkavya –by Balram mentions an annual festival dedicated to Kali. It was introduced in Bengal during the 18th century, by King Krishnachandra of Navadvipa, Kali Puja gained popularity in the 19th century, with Krishanachandra’s grandson Ishvarchandra and the Bengali elite, wealthy landowners began patronizing the festival on a grand scale. Along with Durga Puja, now - Kali Puja is the biggest goddess festival in Bengal, Kali puja worshipers honor goddess Kali in their homes in the form of clay sculptures and in pandals. She is worshipped at night with Tantric rites and mantras and she is prescribed offerings of red hibiscus flowers, animal blood in a skull, sweets, rice and lentils, fish and meat. It is prescribed that a worshiper should meditate throughout the night until dawn, homes may also practice rites in the Brahmanical tradition with ritual dressing of Kali in her form as Adya Shakti Kali. Animals are ritually sacrificed on Kali Puja day and offered to the goddess, a celebration of Kali Puja in Kolkata and in Guwahati is also held in a large cremation ground where she is believed to dwell. The Mahavidyas is a group of ten Tantric goddesses headed by Kali, people visit these pandals throughout the night. Kali Puja is also the time for magic shows and theatre, recent custom has ncorporated wine consumption. In the Kalighat Temple in Kolkata and in Kamakhya Temple in Guwahati, the temple is visited by thousands of devotees who offer animal sacrifices to the goddess. Another famous temple dedicated to Kali in Kolkata is Dakshineswar Kali Temple, the famous Kali devotee Ramakrishna was a priest at this temple. The celebrations have changed little from his time, two other major Kali Puja observations are Ratanti Kali Puja and Phalaharini Kali Puja. Ratanti puja is celebrated on Magha Krishna Chaturdashi and Phalaharini puja is celebrated on Jyeshta Amavashya of Bengali calendar, the Phalaharini Kali Puja is specially important in the life Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Sarada Devi, since on this day in 1872 Sri Ramakrishna worshipped Sri Sarada Devi as Shodashi. In many Bengali and Assamese households, Kali is worshipped daily, image=shodasi_puja_500. jpg McDermott, Rachel Fell, Kripal, Jeffrey John. Encountering Kālī, in the margins, at the center, in the West, offering flowers, feeding skulls, popular goddess worship in West Bengal. Kali, the goddess of Dakshineswar. Mother of my heart, daughter of my dreams, kinsley, David R. Tantric visions of the divine feminine, the ten mahāvidyās
9.
Pahela Baishakh
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Pahela Baishakh, also called Pohela Boishakh, is the traditional new year day of the Bengali people. The festival date is set according to the lunisolar Bengali calendar as the first day of its first month Baishakh and it therefore almost always falls on or about 14 April every year on the Gregorian calendar. The festival is celebrated with processions, fairs and family time, the traditional greeting for Bengali New Year is শুভ নববর্ষ Shubho Nabobarsho which is literally Happy New Year. The festive Mangal Shobhajatra is organized in Bangladesh, in 2016, the UNESCO declared this festivity organized by the Dhaka University as a cultural heritage of humanity. In Bengali, Pahela stands for ‘first’ and Baishakh is the first month of the Bengali calendar, Bengali New Year is referred to in Bengali as Nababarsha. During the Mughal rule, land taxes were collected from Bengali people according to the Islamic Hijri calendar and this calendar was a lunar calendar, and its new year did not coincide with the solar agricultural cycles. Akbar asked the royal astronomer Fathullah Shirazi to create a new calendar by combining the lunar Islamic calendar and solar Hindu calendar already in use, according to some historians, this started the Bengali calendar. According to Shamsuzzaman Khan, and Nitish Sengupta, the origin of the Bengali calendar is unclear, some historians attribute it to the 7th century king Shashanka. The term Bangabda is found too in two Shiva temples much older than Akbar era, suggesting that Bengali calendar existed before Akbars time and it is also unclear, whether it was adopted by Hussain Shah or Akbar. The tradition to use the Bengali calendar may have started by Hussain Shah before Akbar. Vaishakhi is an ancient harvest festival of India, particularly the Punjab region, Vaisakhi, also spelled Baisakhi, is observed by both Hindus and Sikhs. The current Bengali calendar in use in the Indian states is based on the Sanskrit text Surya Siddhanta and it retains the historic Sanskrit names of the months, with the first month as Baishakh. Their calendar remains tied to the Hindu calendar system and is used to set the various Bengali Hindu festivals, for Bengalis of West Bengal and other Indian states, the festival falls either on 14 or 15 April every year. This was officially adopted by Bangladesh in 1987, since then, the national calendar starts with and the new year festival always falls on 14 April in Bangladesh. The Bengali New Year is observed as a holiday in Bangladesh. It is celebrated across religious boundaries by its Muslim majority and Hindu minority, the day is marked with singing, processions, and fairs. Traditionally, businesses start this day with a new ledger, clearing out the old, singers perform traditional songs welcoming the new year. People wear festive dress with women desking their hair with flowers, white-red color combinations are particularly popular
10.
Kolkata Book Fair
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It is a unique book fair in the sense of not being a trade fair – the book fair is primarily for the general public rather than whole-sale distributors. It is the worlds largest non-trade book fair, Asias largest book fair and it is the worlds third largest annual conglomeration of books after the Frankfurt Book Fair and the London Book Fair. Many Kolkatans consider the book fair an inherent part of Kolkata, the fair offers a typical fairground experience with a book flavour – with picnickers, singer-songwriters, and candy floss vendors. With a total footfall of over 2 million people, it is worlds largest book fair by attendance. The success of the Kolkata Book Fair has resulted in many fairs in smaller cities in West Bengal like Siliguri. The popularity of the Kolkata Book Fair was seminal in India being nominated the Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2006, the book fair has been celebrated in theatre, literature, songs and limericks in Kolkata. The book fair was started on a scale in 1976 by the Kolkata Publishers and Booksellers Guild. The book fair was started to meet the public demand for books. The fair traditionally starts on the last Wednesday of January, and it was initially a week-long event but popular demand forced authorities to extend the duration to 12 days in 2005. Even though there is usually a holiday in Calcutta during the period of 23 January to 26 January. The fair typically overlaps with the Hindu festival of Saraswati Puja, Saraswati is the Goddess of Learning, and hence many Hindu households observe the day by worshiping books on that day and not touching books for any other purpose. This practice causes a lower footfall on the day in the book fair. Since year 2009, the fair has been held in its new location at Milan Mela near Science City on E. M. Bypass, the initial apprehension about reduced attendance at the new site has been proven wrong. Millions visited the fair in 2009. The fair used to be held on the Maidan, Kolkatas large urban park and it was being held at the Park Street end of the Maidan, due to a better road and rail network, having moved there from the other end of Maidan in 1991. During the 1980s and early 1990s, Kolkata played host to two book fairs, one by the Kolkata Publishers and Booksellers Guild, and one by the Government of West Bengal − the Grontho Mela. Grontho Mela was held from late December until early January, and was the showcase for books published by Government-run publishing houses. While this was initially a commercial venture, the unprecedented growth of the Kolkata Book Fair caused the Government of West Bengal to merge the two book fairs in 1992
11.
Kalighat painting
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From the depiction of Hindu gods, god, and other mythological characters, the Kalighat paintings developed to reflect a variety of themes. In the nineteenth century, the school of painting that was flourishing in Bengal was the traditional art of scroll paintings that was popular in the rural areas. These paintings were done on cloth or patas and they depicted conventional images of gods and goddesses and scenes from epics like Tulsidas’ Rama charita manas. The artistes were villagers who travelled from place to place with their paintings and sang the scenes from the epics depicted in the paintings during village gatherings. These artists, called patuas or ‘painters on cloth’ were said to be half Hindu and half Muslim, meanwhile, the British, having established themselves in the country politically started to evince interest in art, literature, and music. They set up institutions that imparted a European style of training to Indian artists. The Calcutta School of Art was one school and attracted traditional artists–the patuas—to the city. Initially these artists were concentrated around the temple at Kalighat where there was a demand for religious art, gradually, they started to learn from the newer techniques and discovered that these could help them increase their earnings. They started creating new forms of art and the Kalighat painting was born, the Kalighat School was an agreeable and unique blend of two different styles of painting—the Oriental and the Occidental—and steadily gained popularity. Among the deities that the Kalighat artists painted, the goddess Kali was a favorite, Images of Durga, Lakshmi, and Annapurna were also popular, especially during the Durga Puja festival. The artists also portrayed themes like Sita-Rama, Radha-Krishna and the exploits of Hanuman, another theme depicted, dear to the Bengali ethos, was that of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his disciples. But the Kalighat artists did not restrict themselves to religious themes and their paintings depicting different professions and costumes were also popular with the tourists. Even contemporary events like crime were the subject of many paintings, the artists also chose to portray secular themes and personalities and in the process played a role in the Independence movement. They painted heroic characters like Tipu Sultan and Rani Lakshmibai, an important achievement of the Kalighat artistes was that they made simple paintings and drawings, which could easily be reproduced by lithography. Such prints were then hand coloured and this trend continued up to the early part of the twentieth century and these paintings ended up in museums and private collections. The charm of the Kalighat paintings lies in the fact that they captured the essence of daily life, a history of Indian painting, the modern period. Kalighat Paintings ISBN 81-7436-135-9, by Aditi Nath Sarkar and Christine Mackay Kalighat Painting, Images from a Changing World Kossak, new York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Indian painting Madhubani painting Mughal painting Rajput painting Tarakeswar affair, a theme in the paintings Kalighat Paintings of West Bengal Som
12.
Layla and Majnun
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Layla and Majnun is a love story between Qais ibn Al-Mulawah and Layla that took place in the 7th century Arabia. The Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi also wrote a poem praising their love story in the 10th century who also wrote Khosrow. It is the third of his five long poems, Panj Ganj. Lord Byron called it “the Romeo and Juliet of the East. ”Qays and Layla fall in love each other when they are young. Qays becomes obsessed with her, and the community gives him the epithet Majnun, long before Nizami, the legend circulated in anecdotal forms in Iranian akhbar. The early anecdotes and oral reports about Majnun are documented in Kitab al-Aghani, the anecdotes are mostly very short, only loosely connected, and show little or no plot development. Nizami collected both secular and mystical sources about Majnun and portrayed a vivid picture of the famous lovers, subsequently, many other Persian poets imitated him and wrote their own versions of the romance. Nizami drew influence from Udhrite love poetry, which is characterized by erotic abandon and attraction to the beloved, Other notable reworkings are by Maktabi Shirazi, Hatefi, and Fuzûlî, which became popular in Ottoman Turkey and India. Sir William Jones published Hatefis romance in Calcutta in 1788, the number and variety of anecdotes about the lovers also increased considerably from the twelfth century onwards. Mystics contrived many stories about Majnun to illustrate technical mystical concepts such as fanaa, divānagi, self-sacrifice, Nizamis work has been translated into many languages. Qays Ibn al-Mulawwah fell in love with Layla and he soon began composing poems about his love for her, mentioning her name often. His unselfconscious efforts to woo the girl caused some locals to call him Majnun, when he asked for her hand in marriage, her father refused because it would be a scandal for Layla to marry someone considered mentally unbalanced. Soon after, Layla was married to noble and rich merchant belonging to the Thaqif tribe in Taif. He was described as a man with reddish complexion whose name was Ward Althaqafi. The Arabs called him Ward, meaning rose in Arabic, when Majnun heard of her marriage, he fled the tribal camp and began wandering the surrounding desert. His family eventually gave up hope for his return and left food for him in the wilderness and he could sometimes be seen reciting poetry to himself or writing in the sand with a stick. Layla is generally depicted as having moved to a place in Northern Arabia with her husband, in some versions, Layla dies of heartbreak from not being able to see her would-be lover. Majnun was later found dead in the wilderness in 688 AD and he had carved three verses of poetry on a rock near the grave, which are the last three verses attributed to him
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