The Making Of Regional Cultures — Social Studies STD 7 — Question
CBSE BoardEnglish MediumSTD 7Social StudiesThe Making Of Regional Cultures5 Marks
Question
Trace the growth of Bangla as a regional language.
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Answer
The Growth of Bengali, a Regional Language:
We often tend to identify regions in terms of the language spoken by the people.
We assume that people in Bengal always spoke Bengali. However, what is interesting is that while Bengali is now recognised as a language derived from Sanskrit, early Sanskrit texts (mid-first millennium BCE) suggest that the people of Bengal did not speak Sanskritic languages.
From the fourth-third centuries BCE, commercialities began to develop between Bengal and Magadha.
It led to the growing influence of Sanskrit.
During the fourth century the Gupta rulers established-political control’over north Bengal.
They began to settle Brahinanas in this area. Thus, the linguistic and cultural influence from the mid-Ganga valley became stronger.
In the seventh century the Chinese traveller Xuan Zang observed that languages related to Sanskrit were in use all over Bengal.
From the eighth century, Bengal became the centre of a regional kingdom under the palas.
Between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, Bengal was ruled by sultans who were independent of the rulers in Delhi.
In 1586, when Akbar conquered Bengal, it formed the nucleus of the Bengal suba.
While Persian was the language of administration, Bengali developed as a regional language.
Actually, in the fifteenth century the Bengali group of dialects came to be united by a common literary language.
Bengali is derived from Sanskrit, it passed through several stages of evolution.
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