HISTORY
The history of Bangladesh has been one of extremes: of turmoil and peace, prosperity and destitution. It ahs thrived in the glow of cultural splendor and suffered under the ravages of war. Throughout its tumultuous history it has known internal warfare, suffered invasion, witnessed the rise and fall of mighty empires and several religions, and benefited from the trade and culture brought from foreign lands.
Some medieval European geographers located paradise at the mouth of the Ganges, and although paradise was not found here, amazingly enough, Bengal was probably the wealthiest part of the subcontinent the 16th century.
Stretching from the lower reaches of the Ganges River on the Bay of Bengal and north almost to the foothills of the Himalaya, the Bengal region of the subcontinent is the gateway to Myanmar (Burma) and South-East Asia, Making control over it vital to successive Indian empires a place in the political cultural and religious conflicts and developments of the subcontinent through the millennia.
EARLY HISTORY
Perhaps
the earliest mention of the region is in the Hindu epic the Mahabharata, which
tells of Prince Bhima’s conquest of eastern India, including Varendra, an
ancient kingdom in what is now Bangladesh. References are made to several ethnic
groups inhabiting the area (eg the Pundras, Vangas, Suhmas). By the 5th and
6th centuries BC, Aryan culture had spread eastward from the
Indus River in Pakistan to dominate most of northern India. Although culturally
homogeneous, the Bengali region comprised small, squabbling states until the
formation of the powerful kingdom of Magadha, with its capital at Patna on the
Ganges.
Paharpur
Bangladesh.
|
The
region’s of history becomes less obscure from 325 BC, when Alexander the Great
set upon India after his conquest of Persia. Alerted to this formidable threat,
troops from the lower Ganges, known to the Greeks as Gangaridae, united under a
non-Aryan native king of the Nanda dynasty. This huge army of infantry
supported by 4000 trained war elephants and horses was too much for Alexander’s
troops who were already struggling with the oppressive heat and lack of
supplies. Without giving battle Alexander retreated from India, never to
return. Chandragupta
Maurya, fired by tales of the exploits of Alexander the Great, ascended the
Magadhan throne and set about creating an empire, then known as Pundravardhan
Bhukti. He succeedd, and it eventually spread right across northern India.
Under his grandson, the Emperor Ashoka, one of the classic figures
of Indian history. Ashoka’s conversion to Buddhism in 262 BC had a long-lasting
effect on the religious life of the area. Even as late as the 7th century
AD, Chinese pilgrims still found Buddhism prevalent in Bengal, though in fierce
conflict with Hinduism. The
Mauryan Empire, under Ashoka, controlled more of India than any subsequent
ruler prior to the British. Following his death the empire went into a rapid
decline and finally collapsed in 184 BC. It was not until the 4th century AD
that northern India, including Bengal, was one again untied under imperial
rule, this time by the Guptas, during whose reign the arts flourished and
Buddhism reached its zenith. Except for the kingdom of Sumatata, the various
independent principalities in Bengal came to an end with the rise of the Gupta
dynasty. The
Guptas succumbed to a wave of White Hun invasions, and in the 6th century
Ad Sasanaka founded the Gauda Empire in Bengal. It was eventually overthrown by
the warrior-king Sri Harsa, whose empire ruled the Bengal area until it was
toppled, into anarchy and chaos, in the 8th century Ad.
Buddhism was in decline and Hinduism was experiencing resurgence; over the next
couple of centuries, while northern India broke into a number of separate
kingdoms, the Bengal area established a separate political identity, but was
without any central authority to control the disrupting elements within the
realm. Out
of the intolerably chaotic political and social conditions, a Kshatriya tribal
chief, Gopala, from Varendra ultimately emerged as an elected
leader. He introduced a settled government and became the founding figure of
the Pala dynasty ( 8th to 12th centuries AD). The Palas were
Buddhists who claimed two have descended from the sea and the sun. they
continued their royal patronage of Buddhism while politically tolerating the
Hindus. Dharmapala succeeded his father Gopala and established the
gigantic Somapura ViHara in Varendra, known today as the ruins of
Paharpur Monastery.During
the 9th century the pala dynasty was considerably weakened by a
line of imbecile kings, and in the 11th century the Hindu Senas
from south India replaced the Palas as rulers in Bengal. But in less than a
century both Palas and Senas, Buddhists and Hindus, were swamped by the tide of
Islam.
