Bengalis ( ), also rendered as endonym Bangalee, are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the Bengal region of South Asia. The current population is divided between the sovereign country Bangladesh and the Indian regions of West Bengal, Tripura, Barak Valley of Assam, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and parts of Meghalaya, Manipur and Jharkhand. Most speak Bengali, a classical language from the Indo-Aryan language family.
Bengalis are the third-largest ethnic group in the world, after the Han Chinese and Arabs.roughly 163 million in Bangladesh and 100 million in India (CIA Factbook 2014 estimates, numbers subject to rapid population growth); about 3 million Bangladeshis in the Middle East, 2 million Bengalis in Pakistan, 0.4 million British Bangladeshi. They are the largest ethnic group within the Indo–European linguistic family and the largest ethnic group in South Asia. Apart from Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura, Manipur, and Assam's Barak Valley, Bengali-majority populations also reside in India's union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, with significant populations in the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Nagaland and Uttarakhand as well as Nepal's Koshi Province. The global Bengali diaspora have well-established communities in the Middle East, Pakistan, Myanmar, the United Kingdom, the United States, Malaysia, Italy, Maldives, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore.
Bengalis are a diverse group in terms of religious affiliations and practices. Approximately 70% are adherents of Islam with a large Hindu minority and sizeable communities of Christians and Buddhists. Bengali Muslims, who live mainly in Bangladesh, primarily belong to the Sunni denomination. Bengali Hindus, who live primarily in West Bengal, Tripura, Assam's Barak Valley, Jharkhand and Andaman and Nicobar Islands, generally follow Shaktism or Vaishnavism, in addition to worshipping regional deities.
The total number of native speakers of the Bengali language worldwide is generally estimated at 300-310 million, a figure based on a synthesis of linguistic research and census-derived estimates. According to the consolidated findings of available data, two-thirds of Bengali speakers originate from present-day Bangladesh, meaning they are either of Bangladeshi descent or were born within the territory of Bangladesh. In contrast, about one-third of Bengali speakers are Indian citizens or of Indian origin, with the majority residing in the regions of West Bengal, Tripura, and Assam.
Bengalis have influenced and contributed to diverse fields, notably the arts and architecture, language, folklore, literature, politics, military, business, science and technology.
Etymology
The term Bengali is generally used to refer to someone whose linguistic, cultural or ancestral origins are from Bengal. The Indo-Aryan Bengalis are ethnically differentiated from the non-Indo-Aryan tribes inhabiting Bengal. Their ethnonym, Bangali, along with the native name of the Bengali language and Bengal region, Bangla, are both derived from Bangālah, the Persian word for the region. Prior to Muslim expansion, there was no unitary territory by this name as the region was instead divided into numerous geopolitical divisions. The most prominent of these were Vaṅga or Vaṅgāla (from which Bangālah is thought to ultimately derive from) in the south, Rāṛha in the west, Puṇḍravardhana and Varendra in the north, and Samataṭa and Harikela in the east. The historic land of Vaṅga (bôngô in Bengali) is situated in present-day Barisal.
An inscription issued in 409 CE from present-day Cumilla by Maheshwar Nāthachandra, king of ancient Bengal's Samatata, for the purpose of constructing a temple of Lord Manibhadra, mentions local landlords bearing the suffix "Vangala" in their names who donated land for the temple's construction. This provides some of the earliest evidence of ancient Vangāla people in history.Ryosuke Furui, ‘Ajivikas, Manibhadra and Early History of Eastern Bengal: A New Copperplate Inscription of Vainygupta’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Series 3, 26, 4 (2016), pp. 657-681 The land of Vaṅga later came to be known as Vaṅgāla (Bangāla) and one of its earliest reference is in the Comilla copperplates (720 CE) of earlier Buddhist Deva King Anandadeva where he was mentioned in the title of Sri Vaṅgāla Mrigānka, means the moon of Bengal. Another reference is the Nesari plates (805 CE) of Govinda III which speak of Dharmapāla as its king. In Maharaja Srichandra's 935 CE Paschimbhag copperplate inscription of Sylhet, the locals are referred to as 'Vangāla people' (the Bengalis) and the immigrants are called 'deshāntariya' (foreigner). It is also mentioned that separate monasteries were to be given to them. The records of Rajendra Chola I of the Chola dynasty, who invaded Bengal in the 11th century, speak of Govindachandra as the ruler of Vaṅgāladeśa (a Sanskrit cognate to the word Bangladesh, which was historically a synonymous endonym of Bengal). In Charyapada, in a song composed approximately in the 9th-10th century by the poet Bhusuku Pa, the poet refers to himself as 'Bangāli'.Shastri Haraprasad (ed.), Hajar Bacharer Purano Bangala Bhasay Bauddhagan O Doha (in Bengali), Bangiya Sahitya Parishad, 3rd edition, Kolkata, 1413 Bangabda (2006), p. 23. The 16th-century historian Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak mentions in his ʿAin-i-Akbarī that the addition of the suffix "al" came from the fact that the ancient rajahs of the land raised mounds of earth 10 feet high and 20 in breadth in lowlands at the foot of the hills which were called "al".Land of Two Rivers, Nitish Sengupta This is also mentioned in Ghulam Husain Salim's Riyāz us-Salāṭīn. However, this writing of Abul Fazl is criticized by modern historians and linguists, since the use of the word 'Bangāla' can be seen in multiple ancient Indian inscriptions and literature from centuries before the Islamic invasions in Bengal. The word 'Bangāla' is considered to be a Tadbhava form of a compound word ending with "Pāla", like Santal, Rakhal (shepherd), Goāl (cow-shed). That is, the word Bangala originated from "Bangapāla" (protector, king or inhabitant of Banga Desha).
In 1352, Muslim nobleman Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah united the region into a single political entity known as the Bengal Sultanate. Proclaiming himself as Shāh-i-Bangālīyān, it was in this period that the Bengali language gained state patronage and corroborated literary development."What is more significant, a contemporary Chinese traveler reported that although Persian was understood by some in the court, the language in universal use there was Bengali. This points to the waning, although certainly not yet the disappearance, of the sort of foreign mentality that the Muslim ruling class in Bengal had exhibited since its arrival over two centuries earlier. It also points to the survival, and now the triumph, of local Bengali culture at the highest level of official society." Ilyas Shah had effectively unified the region into one country.
History
Ancient history
Archaeologists have discovered remnants of a 4,700-year-old Neolithic and Chalcolithic civilisation such as Dihar and Pandu Rajar Dhibi in the greater Bengal region, and believe the finds are one of the earliest signs of settlement in the region. However, evidence of much older Palaeolithic human habitations were found in the form of a stone implement and a hand axe in the upper Gandeshwari, Middle Dwarakeswar, Upper Kangsabati, Upper Tarafeni and Middle Subarnarekha valleys of the Indian state West Bengal, and Rangamati and Feni districts of Bangladesh. Evidence of 42,000 years old human habitation has been found at the foothills of the Ajodhya Hills in West Bengal. Hatpara on the west bank of Bhagirathi River has evidence of human settlements dating back to around 15,000-20,000 years.
Artefacts suggest that the Chandraketugarh, which flourished in present-day North 24 Parganas, date as far back as 600 BC to 300 BC, and Wari-Bateshwar civilisation, which flourished in present-day Narsingdi, date as far back as 400 BC to 100 BC. Not far from the rivers, the port city of Wari-Bateshwar, and the riverside port city of the Chandraketugarh, are believed to have been engaged in foreign trade with Ancient Rome, Southeast Asia and other regions. The people of this civilisation live in bricked homes, walked on wide roads, used silver coins and iron weaponry among many other things. The two cities are considered to be the oldest cities in Bengal.
It is thought that a man named Vanga settled in the area around 1000 BCE founding the Vanga kingdom in southern Bengal. The Atharvaveda and the Hindu epic Mahabharata mentions this kingdom, along with the Pundra kingdom in northern Bengal. The spread of Mauryan territory and promotion of Buddhism by its emperor Ashoka cultivated a growing Buddhist society among the people of present-day Bengal from the 2nd century BCE. Mauryan monuments as far as the Great Stupa of Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh mentioned the people of this region as adherents of Buddhism. The Buddhists of the Bengal region built and used dozens of monasteries, and were recognised for their religious commitments as far as Nagarjunakonda in South India.
One of the earliest foreign references to Bengal is the mention of a land ruled by the king Xandrammes named Gangaridai by the Greeks around 100 BCE. The word is speculated to have come from Gangahrd ('Land with the Ganges in its heart') in reference to an area in Bengal. Later from the 3rd to the 6th centuries CE, the kingdom of Magadha served as the seat of the Gupta Empire.
Middle Ages
One of the first recorded independent kings of Bengal was Shashanka, reigning around the early 7th century, who is generally thought to have originated from Magadha, Bihar, just west of Bengal. After a period of anarchy, a native ruler called Gopala came into power in 750 CE. He originated from Varendra in northern Bengal, and founded the Buddhist Pala Empire. Atiśa, a renowned Buddhist teacher from eastern Bengal, was instrumental in the revival of Buddhism in Tibet and also held the position of Abbot at the Vikramashila monastery in Bihar.
The Pala Empire enjoyed relations with the Srivijaya Empire, the Tibetan Empire, and the Arab Abbasid Caliphate. Islam first appeared in Bengal during Pala rule, as a result of increased trade between Bengal and the Middle East. The people of Samatata, in southeastern Bengal, during the 10th century were of various religious backgrounds. Tilopa was a prominent Buddhist from modern-day Chittagong, though Samatata was ruled by the Buddhist Chandra dynasty. During this time, the Arab geographer Al-Masudi and author of The Meadows of Gold, travelled to the region where he noticed a Muslim community of inhabitants residing in the region. In addition to trade, Islam was also being introduced to the people of Bengal through the migration of Sufi missionaries prior to conquest. The earliest known Sufi missionaries were Syed Shah Surkhul Antia and his students, most notably Shah Sultan Rumi, in the 11th century. Rumi settled in present-day Netrokona, Mymensingh where he influenced the local ruler and population to embrace Islam.