Bengali passed through several stages of evolution due to many linguistic and cultural influence on Bengal. These were
→ During the 4th century, the Gupta rulers established political control over North Bengal and began to settle Brahmanas in this area. Thus, the linguistic and cultural influence from the mid-Ganga valley became stronger.
→ In the 7th century the Chinese traveller Xuan Zang observed that languages related to Sanskrit were in use all over Bengal.
→ From the 8th century, Bengal became the centre of a regional kingdom under the Palas. Between the 14th and 16th centuries. Bengal was ruled by independent rulers.
→ In 1586, when Akbar conquered Bengal, Persian was used as the language of administration, but Bengali developed as a regional language.
→ By the 15th century, the Bengali group of dialects were united by a common literary language which was based on the spoken language of the Western part of the region (now known as West Bengal).