Social Affairs. Vol.1 No.6, 44-59, Spring 2017 Social Affairs: A Journal for the Social Sciences ISSN 2478-107X (online) www.socialaffairsjournal.com AN INSIGHT INTO THE VERY FIRST BENGALI LANGUAGE TEXT BOOKS: A VISUAL AND HISTORIOGRAPHICAL UNDERSTANDING Lopamudra Maitra Bajpai* Visual Anthropologist ABSTRACT Bengali children’s literature has experienced considerable evolution in its journey from oral traditions of the past to the modern age of technology. From various fables, riddles and poems found in the rich oral tradition of Bengal, to the latest publications in the format of DVD’s and CD’s, the medium of this body of literature has also transformed the content down the ages. Bengali text books that introduce the alphabet to young readers have also been richly informed by this knowledge corpus. The authors of these text books were amongst the most important social cognoscenti, contributing significantly to further the cause of education in contemporary Bengal. However, several of their efforts (mostly print publications) have been often criticized by historians and sociologists in recent times to have been only limited to the Presidency town of Kolkata during colonial times. Nevertheless, more than a hundred years after the printing of the first textbook in Bengali by Pundit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, the modern market including the internet, is flooded with various Bengali text books, which are all based on these initial efforts. It is also important to note that despite, or perhaps due to, the above criticisms, these textbooks have reached out to a much wider audience over the years in rural as well as urban India. Online availability of such works has further expanded this reach. In the process, text books have also acted as repositories of fables, chharas or poems, and stories from the oral traditions of Bengal. Even the new Bengali text books by various authors often tend to borrow themes, characters, poems, and stories from the old ones, rendering an aspect of continuity amidst changing environments. This paper is an attempt to understand the significant efforts of literate pundits of Sanskrit and Bengali in West Bengal towards the spread of the Bengali language through these text books, and the use of oral traditions in these efforts. The present paper has been aided by extensive fieldwork across one and a half decades in various districts of the state of West Bengal, conducted to understand the reach and use of these textbooks across urban as well as rural spaces. Keywords: Bengali alphabet, text books, oral tradition, survival, continuity * Author e-mail ©2017 Social Affairs Journal. This work is [email protected] licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial 4.0 International License. -44- The First Attempts at Creating Textbooks in the Bengali Language: A Visual and Lopamudra Maitra Bajpai Historiographical Understanding INTRODUCTION and Bengali in West Bengal towards the spread of the Bengali language through these Khukurani khukurani korchho tumi ki text books, and the use of oral traditions in Ei dekhona kemon ami chhobi ekenchhi these efforts. (O little girl, what are you up to? TRACING THE PATH Come and see what a lovely drawing I have The first Bengali text book was produced made)1 more than a century ago, through the efforts of In the typical high-pitched childish tone, the Sanskrit Pundit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. widely known words poured out of a village Hailing from the village of Birshingha (in the primary school in the interiors of Bankura district of West Mednipur in West Bengal), district (West Bengal) as children memorized Vidyasagar was born on September 26, the Bengali alphabet. With the bell finally 1820. An intelligent and ardent student, his signaling lunch-hour, the hubbub suddenly persistent quest for knowledge resulted in came to a halt as the scurrying bunch of many reform movements in Bengal,2 including students hastily put away their Hanshi ones for widow remarriage and expansion of Khushi by Jogindranath Sarkar and ran out education. He continued the efforts towards into the portico to have the mid-day meal expanding education in West Bengal started provided by the school. The sudden silence by Raja Rammohan Roy. One of his most in the classroom echoed with the presence major contribution to the Bengali language of a tradition that has a history of more than was Barna Parichay (Know Your Alphabet), a hundred years. Several months later, as a picture textbook explaining the basics of my five year old niece started her Bengali Bengali language with visual aids for better education at her English medium school in understanding. The maestro’s intellect and the heart of the metropolitan city of Kolkata persona have been captured in a simple (West Bengal) in her first standard, I was a sentence of the famous poet and author witness once again to a similar picture, as she Michael Madhusudan Dutta: “The genius sat loudly revising her Bengali alphabet from and wisdom of an ancient sage, the energy Sahaj Path of Rabindranath Tagore. of an Englishman, and the heart of a Bengali mother” (as cited in Datta 2006, p. 693). Times have changed and over a hundred and Vidyasagar gave his countrymen a language ten years have passed since the introduction that was “easy and beautiful, backed by a of the first Bengali text book to introduce faultless Bengali grammatical structure which the alphabets to children. What was initially did not need Sanskritic props” mentioned restricted largely to efforts of enlightenment Amaresh Datta (2006, p. 693), who also amidst educated and intellectual circles of spoke about the “lucidity in explanation and West Bengal, has gradually trickled down the expression through patriotic flavour” to every segment of society, touching the which rendered the textbooks an exceptional lives of thousands over the past century. At character. Vidyasagar mostly wrote text books present, the same set of text books feature for children, including Barna Parichay (Know amongst the highest selling text books in both Your Alphabet), Kathamala (Book of Fables- hard and soft copy formats. It is significant from Aesop’s fables), Bodhodaya (Dawn of to note that most of the new text books also Knowledge), and Akhyanmanjari (Collection borrow heavily from traditional text books- of Stories). lauding once again the efforts of yesteryears. This paper is an attempt to understand the Barna Parichay starts with explaining significant efforts of literate pundits of Sanskrit the Bengali alphabet – both Swar Barna -45- Social Affairs. Vol.1 No.6, 44-59, Spring 2017 (consonants) and Byanjan Barna (vowels), the mark “~”). Of the most popular characters through introducing simple words with in the book is that of Bhuvan who still stands two, three, four and five letters, along with as an example of the consequences of Juktakkhor3 (conjugants to further modify undisciplined behavior, conveying a strong each letter into various other forms of letters). message about the terrible habit of stealing. The popularity of this age-old text book is Bhuvan, the main character of the story, gets evident from the various characters and into the habit of stealing items from friends at essays which are still frequently used as school. With both parents being deceased, he popular Bengali proverbs. This is especially used to reside with his maternal aunt. Though true for two stories written about two boys in the aunt knew about it, she never taught him Barna Parichay part 1, in simple words without the simple lesson of life: ‘stealing is bad’. complicated pronunciation and conjugants. Bhuvan grew up to be a notorious thief and The two boys are Gopal and Rakhal who have, finally was arrested. On the day he was about down the years, almost become synonymous to be hanged for his crimes, he called his aunt with disciplined and undisciplined children in and in an act of whispering into her ear, bit it Bengal. The beginning sentences of both the off. The message was that if she had stopped essays have laid the foundation for this: him on time, he would have been a different person and not standing on the death roll. The Gopal baro subodh. Tar baap ma jakhon ja story is still repeated in urban and rural Bengal bolen, se tai korey. Ja pai tai khai, ja pai tai amidst the young and old alike, emphasizing porey…. the importance of truthfulness, sincerity and (Gopal is a good boy. He always listens to honesty, and acts of punishment in time and his father and mother. He eats and wears whenever needed. whatever is given to him…) The moral significance of Barna Parichay Gopal jemon subodh, Rakhal temon noi. Se also resonates in the writings of Rabindranath baap maar kotha shoney na, ja kushi tai korey, Tagore as his first association with formal sara din utpat korey, chhoto bhai bhaginigulir Bengali education was through Vidyasagar’s sahit jhagra o maramari korey…. text book, following a short series of oral lessons on Ramayana, Mahabharata, (Rakhal is not as good as Gopal. He never Thakurmar Jhuli,4 etc., under the auspices of listens to his father and mother, he always his home tutor Madhab Pundit (Tagore 2005). does what he wants to, he acts naughty all Tagore explains that Barna Parichay and his day long, he fights with his younger siblings vivid childhood imagination also helped him to and beats them up…). perceive Vidyasagar’s writings as “Adi kobir Barna Parichay part 2 explains conjugants adi kobita” (the ancient writings of an ancient in detail with their various usages. The poet) (Ibid), which he took pride in exploring textbook maintains its tradition of borrowing on his own. messages from oral traditions of Bengal and Vidyasagar’s efforts showed the way for other in the process, imparts a strong civic and works which attempted to create a means social message.