EARLY BENGALI PROSE CAREY TO VIBYASXg-ER By Sisirlcumar Baa Thesi s submit ted for the Ph.D. degree in the University of London* June 1963 ProQuest Number: 10731585 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10731585 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract Acknowledgment Transliteration Abbreviations; Chapter I. Introduction 1-32 Chapter II. The beginnings of Bengali prose 33-76 Chapter III. William Carey 77-110 Chapter IV. Ramram Basu 110-154 Chapter V. M?ityun;ja^ Bidyalaqikar 154-186 Chapter VI. Rammohan Ray 189-242 Chapter VII. Early Newspapers (1818-1830) 243-268 Chapter VUI.Sarpbad Prabhakar: Ii^varcandra Gupta 269-277 Chapter IX. Tattvabodhi#! Patrika 278-320 Chapter X. Vidyasagar 321-367 Bibli ography 36 8-377 —oOo** ABSTRACT The present thesis examines the growth of Bengali prose from its experimental Beginnings with Carey to its growth into full literary stature in the hands of Vidyasagar. The subject is presented chronologically and covers roughly the first half of the 1 9 th century. Prior to the 1 9 th century there was no literary prose in Bengali. The T^eriod falls into certain clearly definable phases* the first phase Begins in 1801. It seeds the cultivation of prose for the purpose of writing text-Books and trans­ lations including the Biblical translations. This phase is associated with Serampore which was the headquarter of the Bapist Missionaries at the time and Fort William College where Carey worked as a teacher of Bengali and Sanskrit. The third and fourth phases Belong to the newspaper which came into Being in 1818 But there is an intervening phase which overlaps with the first and third and deals with the work of only one author* Rammohan Rafs The newspaper phases are divided into two Because the first phase concerns the journalistic activities of many writers who are today unknown. Whereas the second phase of newspaper treats of jairnalists who are also writers of quality in their own right. The whole period from 1800 to roughly I856 is the period of text hootcs and of newspaper writing. Some authors wrote text hooks only* others were journalists hut a number including the last and greatest Vidyasagar was both. The divisions into Chapters follows the phase framework outlined above. The first chapter sketches the history of Bengali literature prior to 1757? the social and literary conditions prevailing in Bengal during the 18th century? and the linguistic situation in Calcutta at the time the first experiments were being made in literary prose. It also presents a few specimens of the rudimentary prose prior to 13 th century* The second chapter outlines the linguistic problems which confronted Carey and his colleagues. This chapter introduces the method of analysis which is applied to the work of individual authors in the later part of the thesis The third, fourth and fifth chapters contain an analysis of the pilose works produced by Carey, Ramram Basu, M^ityufija^ respectively. The sixth chapter is devoted to Rammohan*s contribution to the development of Bengali £jrose. The chapter seven treats of the beginnings of the newspaper and examines journalistic prose produced up to about l830o The eighth chapter is devoted to the Sambad Prabhakar (1830) and treats particularly of the work of its editor T&varcandra Gupta. The ninth chapter*** deals with, the Tattvabodhinl <i ii n ii m ht»ti rm ir mrn<in* • am Patriki, (181-1-3) o The works of its editor Ak§a^ kurnar Datta and of Debendranath* father of-Rabindranath Tagore are examined in details. The final Chapter* deals with the works of I^varcandra Bandy op adliyajf (popularly known as Vidyasagar) only. Contemporaries of Vidyasagar whose works belong to a later phase in the history of Bengali prose are omitted from the present examination. The analysis of prose presented in Chapters II to X treats of both their linguistic form and literary quality.' The criteria adopted in the analysis are defined chapter by chapter as their application becomes relevant. I prepared this thesis while working in the School of Oriental and African Studies and I should like to take this opportunity of thanking the authorities of the School for their help and encouragement* I wish to record my debt of gratitude to Mr, ToW« Clark who supervised my work with never-failing patience* generosity and keen personal interest* I must say how sincerely grateful I am to my friend Mr* JoVo Boulton* for all the help he so willingly gave me* I should also like to thank Mr* T.Fq Mitchell* who answered many queries and checked some chapters on points of linguistic analysis* and to Mr* JoG® Burton-Page who has kindly transliterated the Persian phrases used in the Chapter II and I must also thank Mrs* Bo Garland and Miss P, Currie for so carefully typing the manuscriptc \s_V T Pfing 3. iteration The following system of ipanali taxation of the Bengali and Bevanigwl aopipta has Imen adopted in tills theais* lengali Devsjiegai’i Romas a to vRt *TT a * | i 1 v3 u •3i Q •4T JR. *ri 5 0 d 8,1 \3 O au -f 2v •sr Mi sr Tl B sr £T gkt « & n i ■=T a 1 S Oil viT 3 •sr 3h o T a t5~ 3 $ V 3 *h <F x5 IT 3 #b. TJf 9 gall Bevanigarl R o m a n vsr t *r t h IT a Sr er d h «T n or P p h * <sr b <5 fch ST JT IB *T •3T y r oT <* 1 or b ( V{ ^T 5T & *T Ef sr *r © £ h *r C5- • t • f*li 0 « \ 3$ 0 0 0 0 & sU Both the h arairfo and the antaath^ % of Bengali have Boon trans­ literated m$ S!tn except in the c a m of a few proper names* where anthastha haa Been transliterated ae fVf e*g* fTOPTpT?" haa Been transliterated ae ¥idjSsSgar? owing to its familiarity to EnglishW readings' in this form. The <1baphala ^ Ml Ullliw mi of both Bengali and Sanskrit is transliterated as fv* throughout, e*g* fef I Q ^ becomes bisva/Vi£va* The same system has been maintained with slight modifications for Hindustani e.g* the gutterals ^3 and "9" as kh and gh respectivelyq As regards phonetic transcriptions, the system followed throughout is that of the International Phonetic Alphabet (Revised to 1951)* Abbreviations used Adj o Adjective. Adv. Adverb. Adv. Adj. Adverbial Agimct. Bengali Bengali Literature in tlie 1 9 th Century by Literature S.K. Leo BoS.O.A.S. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. M.C. Main Clause. 0. Object* O.D.B.L* The Origin and Development of the Bengali language by S.K. Chatterji. P.O. Pratapaditya Cariti^a by Bamram Basu. So Subject* S.A.C. Subordinate Adverbial Clause. S.N.C. Subordinate Noun Clause. S.S.Co Sahitya Sadhalc Caritmala.by Brajendranj|th B andyop adhyay• So SoKo Saqibad Pat3?e Sekaler Katha by Brajendranath B andy op adhy ajf * Tattvabodhinl Tattvabodhlnl Patrika Tb. Tadbhava. is* Tatsama* Vo Verb * CHAPTER I Introduction On the evidence of the many manuscripts still extant in the various libraries of Bengal# it is clear that Bengali literature has had a continuous history since the 15th century. It is true that the Carya oada manuscripts which was discovered by Haraprasad Sastrl in Nepal belongs to an earlier period# possibly the 11th or 12th century# but interesting as its text is from the linguistic and religious points of view# its language must be regarded as proto- Bengali# and its poems stand as isolated examples of an early tradition which is but little reflected in later authors. Prom the date of the composition of the Ramayap by Kyittibas Ojha in the 15th century there has been no lengthy hiatus in literary creation. For that it is necessary to make a brief review of the content and form of the earlier literature before taking up the examination of the prose literature of the early 19th century# which is the subject of this thesis. It is difficult to show what was new in the 19th century without taking note of the literature of the preceding centuries. Literary composition before 1800 can be conveniently described as falling into three streams# definable in terms of the subject matter of the poems they comprise. With the exception of certain works by two Muslim poets# Daulat Qazi and iLlaol, who lived at the court of Arakan in the 17th century, it can be maintained with reasonable justification that medieval Bengali literature consists of works on but three topics. The first of these is the epic or mahakavya topic, which treated of the traditional stories of the Ramayap and the Mahabharat. Though the Bengali poems on these subjects fall within the same, tradition as that of the great Sanskrit epic poems# they are not translations from the Sanskrit, but entirely original works which enrich the corpus of Indian epic literature with local innovations and interpretations, and in some cases with episodic material which is not found in the works associated with the names of Valmiki and Vyas.