... historic sense, of its relations to the Bengali language and potency over the Bengali race. Of this it is not easy to suggest any image without speaking in superlatives. I had almost said in one place that he created the language, and if one couples his name with Madhu Sudan Dutt's, the statement is hardly too daring. Before their advent the Bengali language, though very sweet and melodious, was an... echo and rumour of the sea. All the stormiest passions of man's soul he expressed in gigantic language. We seem to hear Milton's Satan speaking in every line he wrote. But in Bankim's hands the Bengali language, before stammering and inarticulate, became a rich, musical and flexible organ vibrating to every human emotion and expressive of every beautiful or noble thought. I do not mean that there were... audience and before the full consummation of his fame. Bankim came into that heritage of peace which Madhu Sudan had earned. There is, indeed, a curious contrast between these two builders of the Bengali language, so alike in their mission, but in their fortunes so dissimilar. Both were equipped with enormous stores of reading, both were geniuses of a vast originality, both had creative power, a fine sense ...
... matter. It is not only that your ra and cha and even ka and dha are often almost as identical as Siamese twins, but when you go out of your way to introduce some Telugu letters into the Bengali language, you drive at least one poor reader to a despair of unsatisfied curiosity. However I deciphered all but that one mysterious thing—at least I believe so. You seem to be unlucky in your outrage... of music and language and of skilful weaving of sound and work. The comparison with Swinburne15 imposes itself and the resemblance is very striking—it is as if Swinburne had migrated into the Bengali language. The danger of such writing is a too great facility and an excess of sound and language over significance. In order to equal or surpass Tagore he has to develop a power of deep feeling and... joke—but this is no mere imitation, I feel. It is simply exquisite (to me anyhow). How do you feel about it ? Yes, it is very beautiful. Shall one be right if one says that Bengali language is richest in songs and that such songs (or rather such a wealth of it, si vous voulez) does not exist in English or French or German ? At least I was peculiarly struck while in Europe by ...
... 27-August-1894 But profound as have been its effects, this revolution is yet in its infancy. Visible on every side, in the waning influence of the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj, in the triumph of the Bengali language, in the return to Hinduism, in the pride of birth, the angry national feeling and the sensitiveness to insult, which are growing more and more common among our young men, it has nevertheless only... world three noble things. They have given it Bengali literature, a literature whose princelier creations can bear comparison with the proudest classics of modern Europe. They have given it the Bengali language. The dialect of Bengal is no longer a dialect, but has become the speech of Gods, a language unfading and indestructible, which cannot die except with the death of the Bengali nation, and not ...
... eleventh centuries. The story of the discovery of these writings is a fascinating one. Just a little over half a century ago, Pandit Haraprasad Shastri, a, truly gifted scholar and lover of the Bengali language and literature, had been doing some researches into the ancient history of Bengal and was earnestly engaged in the collection of old manuscripts in the villages and the libraries. In this connection... Page 113 But afterwards, when out of curiosity he read through the manuscript with care, he made the startling discovery that here was the earliest and a beautifully poetic form of the Bengali language. The manuscript contained fifty poems or songs; they were the work of a Tantric Buddhist group known as Siddhacharyas. Later on, he made the further discovery that there was a Sanskrit commentary ...
... modes and rhythms. The capacity of a language lies in its power of expression, that is to say, how many subjects can it express itself on and how appropriately? In the gradual progression of the Bengali language Bankimchandra was one of the main and foremost stepping-stones. But in Bankim's time Bengali was only in its adolescence – at best, its early youth – its formation and movement were rather narrow... is a beauty requiring no outer grandeur, no wrought-out gold and satin of volubility and rhetoric. It bears in its own limbs, as it were, the glow of an inherent grace and charm. To-day the Bengali language is eager and zealous to go forward for an ever new creation. It is quite natural that it may go astray at times in the hands of many of its adorers. In this connection it is good to bear in mind ...
... by some curse." These three quotations are from Aurobindo Prasanga by Dinendra Kumar Roy,¹ a Bengali writer who stayed with Sri Aurobindo during 1898-99 in order to familiarise him with the Bengali language. Life at Baroda was full, though the political career that followed was like a tornado. Sri Aurobindo's activity during this period can be divided into five parts: (1) service in various departments... im riots in Bengal after Pakistan came into being. Afterwards Sri Aurobindo learnt enough Bengali to conduct the weekly Dharma in it. He even wrote some Bengali poetry. His mastery over the Bengali language was not equal to his mastery over the English. When Professor Littledale went on leave in 1898 Sri Aurobindo was appointed professor of English. In 1899 he spoke on Oxford and Cambridge on ...
... French occurred to me because it seemed to me that there was a marked analogy in this respect between French and Bengali. Certainly it would not be quite' correct to say that the evolution of the Bengali language was slow and steady like that of French. At least one upheaval, a revolution, has taken place on its coming into contact with Europe; under its influence our language and literature have taken... and Goethe imparted a fresh life and bloom, a fuller awakening of the soul of poetry, to Latin and to German, so too is Tagore the paramount and versatile poetic genius of Bengal who made the Bengali language transcend its parochial character. I think that Tagore has in many ways the title and position of a Racine amongst us. There is a special quality, a music and rhythm, a fine sensibility of the ...
... such letter coinciding with your absence from Calcutta! The Andamans, Professor, the Andamans! Professor —I will scrupulously avoid both in future. Jurist —There are other words in the Bengali language. In any case, if you escaped any special charge, you would be sure to be rearrested on the general charge of conspiracy. Professor ( exasperated )—Proofs, sir, the proofs! Jurist —Quite ...
... chosen from the Ramayan. The place of Krittibas in our literature is well established. He is one of the most considerable of our old classics and one of the writers who most helped to create the Bengali language as a literary instrument. The sweetness, simplicity, lucidity, melody of the old language is present in every line that Krittibas wrote, but, in this recension at least, we miss the racy vigour ...
... me a scare! Hither to I have seen many of your writings which are supposed to belong to the category of verse. But they made me feel that you had missed your way to the heart of melody of our Bengali language and that you were a cripple in rhythm.... "But what is this? You seem to have acquired rhythm overnight! You have left me no scope to correct with a vengeance. How did you manage to train ...
... and French literatures. He founded the magazine Sabuj Patra and wrote under the Pseudonym Birbal. A powerful group of new writers gathered around Sabuj Patra and gave a new direction to the Bengali language. Page 91 September 1931 ? It is good news that the energy has returned—let it be soon complete. About your uncle and predestination, my difficulty is that it is almost impossible ...
... October 1920, at the age of 67. Page 298 Their correspondence—in Bengali and English—throws much light on the nature of Bengali prosody. Indeed, this "foreigner" was a lover of Bengali language. He loved French too. "Bengali rythmn is a different kind of rythmn from that of all other languages, so far as I know, except French." "... my claim on behalf of French and Bengali verse is that— ...
... differentiating between b and v. I had a Bengali friend who used to take lessons in English from me. He could not for the life of him pronounce "above". It became either "abub" or else "avuv". The Bengali language has, in fact, no v-sound. And that brings me to my "veranda". You know that at one time I was in charge of the Ashram furniture. Once I had to get a cot removed from the house of an Ashramite ...
... give me a scare! Hitherto I have seen many of your writings which are supposed to belong to the category of verse. But they made me feel that you had missed your way to the heart of melody of our Bengali language, that you were a cripple in rhythm.... 'But what is this? You seem to have acquired rhythm overnight! You have left me no scope to correct with a vengeance. How did you manage to train your ...
... mere grace or charm but the sweetness, the honeyed essence that he has lavished in unstinted measure has no parallel in literature. It is this quality of sweetness that has made the fame of Bengali language and literature, from Vidyapati and Chandidas right down to Rabindranath. But the possibilities of this language and literature, not only for sweetness or grace but also for strength and nobility ...
... script. He had started reading Sanskrit. Nolini Kanta Gupta was his tutor. Whenever Ramaswami spoke about his tutor, he spoke with love and respect. Nolini Kanta Gupta gave him lessons in the Bengali language also. In the new house Ramaswami rendered into Tamil Bankim Chandra Chatterji's short story "Jugal Anguria" and got it published in some periodical—I have forgotten the name, it might be " ...
... Aurobindo by Dinendra Kumar Roy, which we have promised. 56 Dinendra Kumar was a distinguished man of letters in Bengal. He was sent by the maternal uncle of Sri Aurobindo to help him learn the Bengali language, particularly its colloquial form and pronunciation. Dinendra Kumar stayed with Sri Aurobindo in the same house for a little over two years from 1898, and had the opportunity of making a close ...
... meditation in the evening and in the early hours before dawn. On days when there was no court to attend, he would often spend the time with us, sometimes we played word making games for learning the Bengali language; sometimes there would be a mock court in which Ullaskar would be the judge and Sri Aurobindo himself would become the Public Prosecutor imitating the arguments of Norton. He would expound on ...
... two Dutts, Okhay Kumar and Michael Madhu Sudan, began a new Prose and a new Poetry. Vidyasagara, scholar, sage and intellectual dictator, laboured hugely like the Titan he was, to create a new Bengali language and a new Bengali society, while in vast and original learning Rajendra Lal Mitra has not met his match. Around these arose a class of men who formed a sort of seed-bed for the creative geniuses ...
... famous chronicler of the great Messiah. I cannot here possibly enlarge any more on my father's great though some-what enigmatic personality — since he composed some of the greatest hymns in the Bengali language (to Krishna, Shiva, Kali, Ganga, Sri Chaitanya, etc.) which he sang often with tears of ecstasy in his eyes. But one thing I must make clear at this stage — to obviate misunderstanding. In ...
... translations by government servants for the perusal of the authorities. In the beginning Aurobindo contributed some articles which set the course of the new weekly, but he was not yet fluent in the Bengali language and would, moreover, soon become a very busy man. First he went on a tour of East Bengal to probe the mood of the population there, after which he returned briefly to Baroda to make some arrangements ...
... that Barinda is on the cot?" He firmly replied: "No, no. The cot is on Barinda." Puzzled I went to the house and what did I find? The cot was on the veranda! Whatever be the tricks the Bengali language plays on me, I am deeply grateful to it for the majesty it has given to our Guru's name by transforming the rather colourless Sanskrit "Aravinda". How impressive and full-rhythmed is the Bengali ...
... script. He had started reading Sanskrit. Nolini Kanta Gupta was his tutor. Whenever Ramaswami spoke about his tutor, he spoke with love and respect. Nolini Kanta Gupta gave him lessons in the Bengali language also. In the new house Ramaswami rendered into Tamil Bankim Chandra Chatterji's short story "Jugal Anguria" and got it published in some periodical — I have forgotten the name, it might be "S ...
... had started reading Sanskrit. Nolini Kanta Gupta was his tutor. Whenever Ramaswami spoke about his tutor, he spoke with love and respect. Nolini Kanta Gupta gave him lessons in the Bengali language also. In the new house Ramaswami rendered into Tamil Bankim Chandra Chatterji's short story "Jugal Anguria" and got it published in some periodical — I have forgotten the name, it might ...
... script. He had started reading Sanskrit. Nolini Kanta Gupta was his tutor. Whenever Ramaswami spoke about his tutor, he spoke with love and respect. Nolini Kanta Gupta gave him lessons in the Bengali language also. In the new house Ramaswami rendered into Tamil Bankim Chandra Chatterji’s short story “Jugal Anguria” and got it published in some periodical — I have forgotten the name, it might be S ...
... Additional Secretary,- Department of Education, Ministry of HRD Speakers (15 minutes each) : Professor S.K. Das, Former Tagore Professor of Bengali Language and Literature, University of Delhi, on "Educational Philosophy of Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagore" Professor (Ms.) Deepti , Sri Aurobindo ...
... English. In Gujarat sh seems difficult: it lapses into s. 'English' is called 'Inglis' and 'ocean' becomes 'osun'. Bengalis get all twisted up in differentiating between b and v. The Bengali language has, in fact, no i>-sound. And that brings me to my "veranda". You know at one time I was in charge of the Ashram furniture. Once I had to get a cot removed from the house of an Ashramite ...
... whilst the trial was going on in Kingsford's Court, that a Bengali poem by Rabindranath Tagore entitled "Namaskar" (Salutation) appeared in the *Bande * Mataram. This is a famous poem in the Bengali language; here are the opening lines from an English translation by Khitish Chandra Sen: Rabindranth, O Aurobindo, bows to thee! O friend, my country's friend, 0 voice incarnate, free, Of India's ...
... puts it, "As Savitri was Sri Aurobindo's last composition, its translation was Nolinida's last composition. And I can affirm that the masterly translation has added a large dimension to the Bengali language." (Tributes to Nolini Kanta Gupta, p. 14) I am happy that the Sri Aurobindo Aurobindo Ashram is bringing out, in this slender volume, six of his essays on Savitri. These are by no ...
... national language cultivated and enriched by its nationals can force itself on the world's attention and fairly become a world language. Tagore was able to give that kind of world importance to the Bengali language. It may be questioned whether too many languages are not imposed on us in this way and whether it will not mean in the end a Babel and inefficiency. It need not be so and it is not going to ...
... resthesis par excellence. Such a great name is Rabindranath Tagore in Bengali literature. We need not forget Bankim Chandra, nor even Madhusudan: still one can safely declare that if Bengali language and literature belonged to any single person as its supreme liberator and fosterer savita and pusa – it is Rabindranath. It was he who lifted that language and literature from what ...
... fault with his Pronunciation. I had to take great pains to convince Barin that it was the Bengali teacher who was wrong. (Sri Aurobindo related the story with much relish and enjoyment.) The Bengali language, I mean the written language, is very easy. SATYENDRA: How? SRI AUROBINDO: It has very little grammar, no complication about gender, number, etc., as in Sanskrit or French. PURANI: In ...
... capital of British India, became the centre of the new-found culture of the country. - Bankim Chandra Chatterjee 1 (1838-98), the first graduate of Calcutta University, remoulded the Bengali language. "It was Bankim's first great service to India that he gave the race which stood in its vanguard such a perfect and satisfying medium of expression." Thus commented Sri Aurobindo in 1907. Bankim's ...
... revaluation of life. For instance, before he attains it man is ignorant, when he attains it he knows. Ramakrishna Parama-hansa, an unlettered villager who could not sign his name even in Bengali language, when he attains That he has a knowledge which is far more than any university scholar. So that which is attainable is proved by instances where one who attains undergoes a radical transformation ...
... workman does not know how to use it. The English language is not naturally melodious like the Italian or Bengali—no language with a Teutonic base can be—but it is capable of remarkable harmonic effects and also it can by a skilful handling be made to give out the most beautiful melodies. Bengali and Italian are soft, easy and mellifluous languages—English is difficult and has to be struggled with... here is marred by the personal or national habit. One is always inclined to make this claim for one's own language because one can catch every shade and element of it while in another language, however well-learned, the ear is not so clair-audient. I cannot agree that the examples you give of Bengali melody beat hollow the melody of the greatest English lyrists. Shakespeare, Swinburne's best work in Atalanta... bases was not conspicuous at that time in Bengali poetry. Nowadays this variety is there and undoubtedly opens possibilities such as perhaps do not exist in other languages. I do not see, however, how the metrical aspect by itself can really be taken apart from other more subtle elements. I do not mean the spirit and feeling or the sense of the language only, though without depth or adequacy there ...
... stresses into Bengali.) In the course of such researches I once claimed that Bengali was richer in melody and variety of metrical structures if not in suggestiveness and substance. Whereupon he, after warning me that my "estimate was marred by the personal or national habit" and conceding that the English language is not naturally melodious like the Italian Page 300 and Bengali — no language... face! When I sent Gurudev my Bengali translation he wrote, commenting: "Amal's 1 lines are not easily translatable, least all into Bengali. There is in them a union or rather fusion of high severity of speech with exaltation and both with a pervading intense sweetness which it is almost impossible to transfer bodily without loss into another language. There is no word in excess, none... at the time Sri Aurobindo was graciously experimenting, at my request, with some Bengali poems of mine and giving me, day after marvellous day, exquisite English counterparts to the samples I sent up. The poems he composed showed an astonishing correspondence, in lilt and accent, with the samples I sent him of our Bengali bases. (I was just then experimenting in the converse direction — which he encouraged ...
... May 1934 The English language is not naturally melodious like the Italian or Bengali—no language with a Teutonic base can Page 52 but it is capable of remarkable harmonic effects and also it can by a skilful handling be made to give out the most beautiful melodies. Bengali and Italian are soft, easy and mellifluous languages—English is difficult and has to be struggled... to do the same with Harm's poems, for it is there more complex. In Bengali or any other language the difficulty increases; for the familiarity with the texture of the language is more of the mind and less of the inmost ear which at once catches these things. I should have to make a sort of comparative scrutiny of different Bengali styles to catch the different forms the influence of these different... here is marred by the personal or national habit. One is always inclined to make this claim for one's own language because one can catch every shade and element of it while in another language, however well- learned, the ear is not so clairaudient. I cannot agree that the examples you give of Bengali melody beat hollow the melody of the greatest English lyricists. Shakespeare, Swinburne's best work in ...
... can even speak Hindi and Bengali!" "Bengali? Isn't it a difficult language?" All the children said together, "No, no, of course it is not! We all speak Bengali. Nowdays, though, there's Hindi too." "So, then, you see how easy it is to learn languages! The English people, however, find it very difficult to pronounce other languages correctly. Their own hard language tends to make their tongues... family and friends in English, they answered me in Bengali. I would advise my sister and my cousins to hurry up and learn English so that they might not find it difficult to follow what I said. Later I learned to speak Bengali from a tutor in Baroda." "You paid a teacher just to learn to speak Bengali?" "One cannot learn to speak a language all by oneself, can one? And where in Baroda would I... held me in some esteem. With time, my work increased and even those few weeks of respite were sometimes shortened or cancelled." "Since you hardly knew any Bengali, what language did you speak during your holidays at home?" "I knew Bengali, but I was not accustomed to speak it. In the beginning, therefore, I spoke English, but a simple, easy English so that everybody there could follow me. English ...
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