Monday, August 4, 2014

Shondeho Shobshomoy - Lack of unity in indentity



"When you have two Bangali, you have one political party. When you have three Bangali, you have two political parties."

Bangali cannot get along with each other - there's mutual suspicion, mistrust and lack of social skills as a race. To understand the roots of this problem, we have to visit the ancient history and bring it to the modern history of Banga (Bongo).

As indicated by my previous post, omitting "Va" from the written and spoken script of Bongo was the first nail in the coffin. Now, everything that was "Va" became "Ba" giving birth to the separative Vayu energy in the land.

For much of its history, Bongo was split up into several independent kingdoms, completely unifying only several times. In ancient times, Bongo consisted of the kingdoms of Pundra, Suhma, Anga, Vanga, Samatata and Harikela. Along with Bihar, parts of northwestern Bongo were also incorporated into the kingdom of Magadha. Under the Mauryas, much of Bongo was conquered save for the far eastern Bengali kingdoms which continued to exist as tributary states before succumbing to the Guptas. With the fall of the Gupta Empire, Bongo was united under a single local ruler, Shashanka, for the first time. With the collapse of his kingdom, Bangla split up into petty kingdoms once more. With the rise of Gopala, Bongo was united once more under the Pala Empire, Chandra dynasty, Sena dynasty and Deva dynasty. After them, Bengal was ruled by the Muslim dynasties followed by the British. In 1947, Bengal was partitioned, making West Bengal part of India and the East Bengal part of Pakistan. East Bengal then became an independent country, Bangladesh, following the Bangladesh Liberation War.

In the short written passage above what is missing is the underlying feelings of Bangali from ancient to modern times - feeling of mistrust, uncertainty and belonging. Bongo bhumi was not partitioned once but it was partitioned multiple times. It was neither an Arya rasthra nor a Dravidian rashtra. It never had a strong identity like North India or South India. It didn't even develop a strong rashtra feeling because to do that you need a boundary and the boundaries of Bongo desh was ever changing and broken up every time a new king laid claim on all or parts of its territories.

In the history of rulers of the Bongo land, only one ruler was successful in giving Bongobashi a strong sense of identity, a sense of ownership of land, its calender, script, culture - শশাঙ্ক Shôshangko. Shashanka is attributed with creating the first separate political entity in a unified Bongo desh called Gauda and as such is a major figure in Bongo history. He reigned in 7th century AD, and some historians place his rule approximately between 590 AD and 625 AD. He is the contemporary of Harshavardana and Bhaskar Varman of Kamarupa. His capital was called Karnasuvarna (কর্ণসুবর্ণ Kôrnoshubôrno or কানসোনা Kanshona) and is located in modern Murshidabad. The development of the Bengali calendar is also often attributed to Shashanka as the starting date falls squarely within his reign.

The legendary feud between Shoshangko and Harshavardhana is the most prominent feature in the rule of the kings. Following Shashanka's death, he was succeeded by his son, Manava, who ruled the kingdom for 8 months. However Gauda was soon divided among Harshavardhana and Bhaskarvarmana of Kamroop, the latter even managing to conquer Karnasuvarna.

After Shasanka, Bongo was ruled by Kahdga, Pala, Chandra, Sena and Deva dynasties. They maintained their boundaries but were insignificant in their contributions to the greater destiny of Bharata. Raja Dasarathadeva Danujmadhava (Raja Danuaja Rai) was the last known Hindu king of East Bengal. He was the Deva king of Chandradvipa (present-day Barisal).

After him, Bongo and Bharata was under the rule of the invading Persian rulers - the Khilji dynasty. No ruler or general of Bongo could defend the land from the influx of the Persian rulers. 

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Bhashai Bhimruti - Missing the name letter



Rick Brigs [RIACS, NASA Ames Research Centeu, Moffet Field, California 94305] wrote this article in AI magazine Volume 6 Number 1 [1985] to show that Sanskrit is the most suitable language for AI. NASA the most advanced research center in the world for cutting edge technology has discovered that Sanskrit, the world's oldest spiritual language is the only unambiguous spoken language on the planet.

Sanskrit language is classified into groups and these groups are based on elemental qualities present in its phonetics. The four alphabets "Ya, Ra, La, Va" are special alphabets which emit the radiance of the four primary elements of nature - Air, Fire, Earth and Water. This is also indicated in the chakras of the body. Va radiates the energy of Apa or Water.

The piece of land where all rivers across the land mass of Bharata, particularly the holy Ganga met the ocean was given the name "Va-anga" (Water part of water) or "Vanga". 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.

The alphabet "Va" is not to be confused with the alphabet "Ba" which occurs in the 3rd entry in the 5th series of the consonants. Va has nothing in common with Ba. Ba forms in the Vayu (Saturn) group whereas Va is a Manas akshara (Moon). Ba's sub category is Prithvi (Mercury) where as Va's sub category is Jala (Venus). The irony of the development of the race is such that Vangali completely omitted "Va" from its vocubulary replacing Va with Ba in all matters and thus is born the Airy Banga (part of Ba) instead of the Watery Vanga (part of Va).

Turning Vanga is Banga completely changed the energy of the land from Water to Air. This energy of unsettled air (also called storm) eventually will stick with the race till time immemorial. Bangali's doom had begun with this gesture of nirbuddhita (stupidity).

Saturday, August 2, 2014

Gorai Golot - On the wrong side



Arjun went for a 12 year old pilgrimage around India during the exile of the Pandavas. The three kingdoms of Anga, Vanga and Kalinga were mentioned as territories crossed by Arjuna as close kingdoms in Bharata. The regions were mentioned as the land of sacred waters and holy palaces. Arjun is said to have mentioned all these places. The founders of five eastern kingdoms, which included: Anga, Vanga, Kalinga, Pundra and Suhma shared a common ancestry. They were all adopted sons of a king named Vali (Bali), born by a sage named Gautama Dirghatamas, who lived in Magadha close to the city of Girivraja. Arjuna defeated the countries of the Vanga, the Pundra, and the Kosala in his military campaign after Kurukshetra War.

Vanga army was skilled in handling war elephants. They sided with the Kauravas. Vangas sided with Duryodhana in the Kurukshetra War along with the Kalingas. Many foremost of combatants skilled in elephant-fight, belonging to the Easterners, the Southerners, the Angas, the Vangas, the Pundras, the Magadhas, the Tamraliptakas, the Mekalas, the Koshalas, the Madras, the Dasharnas, the Nishadas united with the Kalingas.

Bhagadatta was mentioned as the ruler of the Vanga kingdom that took part in the Kurukshetra War. He sided with Duryodhana with his elephant army and died at the hands of Ghatotkacha, the son of Bhima.

In other passages in Mahabharata, we find mention of some other rulers of Vanga. We find that Bhagadatta (sided with Duryodhana; killed by Ghatotkacha) was the ruler of Pragjyotisha Kingdom to the north of Vanga, Paundraka Vasudeva (killed by Vasudev Krishna) ruled Pundra Kingdom to the east of Vanga and Karna (sided with Duryodhana; killed by Arjuna) ruled Anga Kingdom to the west of Vanga.

From the very beginning (3000 BCE), we see that Bangali sided with the villains, the losers and the defeated - be it Bhagadatta, Paundraka or Karna. These defeats play a very important role in the further development of the psychology of the race.