The History of Bengal- Hindu Period/Muslim Period (Set of 2 Volumes)

THE genesis of the present work has been explained in the Foreword. The editor feels that he owes an explanation for the very long interval between the inception of the work and its publication. In view of the importance of the subject a few relevant facts may be mentioned which will also incidentally explain the changes made in the personnel of the writers referred to in the Foreword.

Shortly after the work was taken up we were denied the co operation of Dr. N. K. Bhattasali, M.A., PH.D., who was the Secretary of the Publication Committee and had agreed to write the chapter on Art. It is unnecessary to discuss here the reasons which led Dr. Bhattasali to come to this decision, but the change of Secretary and the loss of a valuable contributor naturally caused dislocation of work and involved considerable delay in completing the preli minary steps. The chapter on Art was entrusted to the late Mr. N. G. Majumdar, who naturally desired to collect photos of select specimens of architecture and sculpture before commencing to write. This took up a long time as the specimens to be photographed were spread over a wide area. At last the photos were prepared and he took them with him in his ill-fated journey to the Indus Valley, as he hoped to be able to write the chapter in his leisure hours while on tour. The tragic circumstances under which he met his end in Sind are known to all. His death dealt a severe blow to our scheme, as most of the photos together with the notes prepared by him were irretrievably lost. In this predicament the editor invited two young scholars-Dr. Niharranjan Ray and Mr. Sarasi Kumar Saraswati-to write the chapter on Art, and they readily agreed to take up the work. But the preparation of a new set of photographs took up much time and caused considerable delay. We take this opportunity to pay our tribute of respect to the gifted archaeologist who had readily volunteered his valuable co-operation which, alas, was denied us by his sudden and tragic death.

When the chapter on Art was assigned to the late Mr. N. G. Majumdar he had to be relieved of the work already allotted to him and this involved re-allocation of a number of chapters. The new arrangement did not prove at all satisfactory, and most of these chapters had to be written by the editor himself. The sudden departure of one of the contributors for Europe, without any previous intimation, also involved more work for the editor, as no competent scholar was found willing to take up the work at a short notice.

The idea of writing a comprehensive History of Bengal on modern scientific lines may be traced back to 1912 when Lord Carmichael, the first Governor of the Bengal Presidency, took the initiative and invited MM. Haraprasad Sastri to prepare a scheme. It was pro posed to publish the history in three volumes dealing respectively with the Hindu, Muslim and British periods. were held in the Government House, Calcutta, but what became Several meetings of this plan and how far it was matured are not definitely known. Some years later, the late Raja Prafulla Nath Tagore, the grandson of the famous Kali Krishna Tagore, volunteered to pay the entire cost of such a publication, and invited the late Mr. Rakhaldas Banerji to draw up a plan along with some other well-known scholars of his time. Several meetings were held in the house of the Raja, but ultimately nothing came out of it.

Ever since the foundation of the University of Dacca, it was felt that the University should take up the task of preparing a History of Bengal as early as practicable. This idea received an impetus from Sir Jadunath Sarkar, who, in the course of a lecture delivered at the University about the middle of July 1933, emphasised that a History of Bengal on modern scientific lines was long overdue, and that this University, standing as it does in the very heart of an ancient and important seat of Bengal culture, should in the fitness of things take up the work. Sir Jadunath promised his whole-hearted support and active co-operation in this enterprise.

The scheme received a new impetus from Mr. (now Sir) A. F. Rahman, when he joined the University as Vice-Chancellor in July 1934. In his first convocation address next month he emphasised the need of commencing the work, and in his second convocation speech, in July 1935, he announced that some preliminary work had. already been done.

By the end of August 1935, the scheme took a more definite shape, as Professor R. C. Majumdar, Head of the Department of History, who had so long been pre-occupied with his own research work on the history of Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East, was now free to take up the work.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages