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[This one was a html document. Bengali fonts did not come through. In
stead you see "?." Sorry for that. Also links of suggested readings do
not work, the website is not ready yet.]
Deshi People
This article describes mostly the so-called Aryan one-third of the
Bengali legacy. Some information on the Turanian half, a term in which
we included Turko-Mongoloid as well as Munda-Khemar-Malay-Samoan
legacies of ancient Bengali heritage, can be found in the following
1. "Literally Children of a Tiger."
2. "Bangali as the last part of a Muslim's name."
That from Kurdistan to Hindustan after all these stans comes a desh,
is partly due to strong Deshi legacy in ancient Bangladesh. I say
partly because the very need of the suffix desh and inspiration that
motivated such usage is not clearly understood.
The history of the usage of Bangala muluk or its later variant Bangala
vuban, that of the effort to shorten the g sound in ng, and that of
the participation of real Bangals in the standardization process of
Bengali grammar and orthography are too complicated to describe in few
lines.
In fact more than one-third of total Bengali died when the process
started in full swing.
I shall use a somewhat artificially constructed name Dehi in place of
Deshi. The sound of Dehi can be considered a sort of average that also
captures Daha, a village pronunciation of Dhaka. For example Dahapara
near Murshidabad was the place where Nawab's officers from Dhaka used
to live. The village has been renamed.
In a sense, neglecting Assam, Bangladesh is the last country of the
Prakrit-speaking people. I want to call these people Purukh because
that way we can stay away from all the negative derivations of the
word prakrit created by the hateful pundits.
Purukh ????? is an archaic variant of purush in the Bengali
dictionary. That is the reason I choose this form, and not Borosh,
Porokh or Borokh or Purokh.
It is easy to find Bengali dictionary by pundits in which Prakrit
means mean, low or base (nich, adham, itar). The sense is almost
opposite to that associated with purush in the Vedic literature.
How in the past Purukhs and Dehis were related is not known. From the
consideration of their history in Anatolia and Turan respectively, and
possible presence of Purukhs in South Iran, it appears that even
before 2100BC they were separate legacies.
I am using the name Purukh to denote a supergroup encompassing both
tribes only because the name of the language of the so-called Old
Aryans in this subcontinent is given as Prakrit.
It could be that some of the so-called Old Aryan tribes claimed
Prakrit (that is Purukh) legacy just as in later time Vedics
considered Purush and Puru as their own, and Darius claimed himself to
be a Parsa.
For the nomadic Aryans (actually primitive Sakas) trying to be
civilized, Purukhs gave the concept of a pur (town). Purukhs were
people worth relating to.
It seems that real Purukhs were Dene-Cacausian speaking people
possibly absorbing elements of Old Aryan legacy. East of Persia they
had no significance beyond Baluchistan, Peshawar, and Hunza.
It is believed that the Dehis were responsible for the civilization of
Turan. They were reduced and pushed eastward by the invading Vedics.
The district of Dihistan in Iran kept their legacy.
In modern Persian deh means a village. The word dihi for a collection
of villages or towns (a small unit of revenue) in Bangladesh of the
sultanate period is also from the same legacy.
Vedics called the Dehis dasyus (robbers) and das (slaves). These were
negative meanings given by enemies except when das is used in the
sense of a servant devoted (bhakta) to a god or goddess.
In 8th century BC there was a country called Diaukhi or Diau-ni (land
of Diau) situated in Azerbaijan. Dihistan is situated on the east of
the Caspian Sea.
I suspect, although many modern scholars may not agree, that the name
Dacia in the west is also a Dehi legacy. Dacians were among the
ancestors of Romanians. Dacians were related to Thracians.
People, the name they get, the language they speak, their genetic
relations, results of mixing and naturalization, immigration, defeats
and victories are all variables. The exact nature of the relation
between Dehis and Dacians is not clear yet.
Dacians did not get their name from Thrace. The r of the
trk-tkr-tgl-tlg (dragon, Old Semitic terqa, earth) legacy so important
from Spain to Mexico cannot disappear in a region close to Thrace and
Turkey unless there is a strong reason for that.
Although originally, at a much earlier period, the word Dacian could
also be related to earth because names such as Dagan (Hittite Spirit
of Earth) were important in Turkey.
We can imagine that these earth related words originated from the
contempt of civilization builders against people who lived like snakes
underground or in caves, and created havoc in their towns. Eventually
the name became a mutually acknowledged identity and a source of
chivalric pride.
However when we find the Dehis we find them as civilization builders
(compare IE root for tech in technology). And before leaving Turan, as
we see in medieval Persian, Dehis created in their name a sense of
being masters of the land (earth), or leaders of the people who live
on it.
So Dehis does not seem to be a Turk-Dragon legacy.
Among the meanings suggested in the literature only two are worth
mentioning: man (compare purukh) for Dehis, and wolf for Dacians.
Recent advancement in our knowledge of Turan, and of Dehi achievements
must be considered while evaluating the correct relation between the
Persian dihqan meaning headman of the village, Latin original for
duke, dagger (r at the end is an augmentative not important for our
concern), a Dacian knife, and Bengali dakait (Hindi daku) for a
robber. The reason for the reversal of meaning in the last case is
hinted before.
Many modern discussions on etymology of these words are simply
clueless about the importance of the Dehis of Turan, and the depth of
the age of the Dehis in the past relative to the timescale these
discussions pertain.
We believe that Dacia-Romania is the western counterpart of
Bangladeshi Das-Domb and Doyai-Domb interaction.
We possibly see the same ancient interaction frozen in Dhaka and
Demra.
Bengalis use the word desh also in the sense of their home village.
The word desh as a district is commonplace in many parts of India.
However Middle West India had stronger Dehi legacy.
Till up to the early days of Islam, Arabs called the western coast of
peninsular India and Deccan tableland Dahia of India. Locally Dahia
was Desh.
In some Islamic traditions Dahia of India occurs as a possible place
for the Arafah where according to the Muslim belief God will collect
all the people during the last judgement.
In fact the name Deccan is also a suspect. It may not originally had
anything to do with right (=south), but its name was changed to the
present pronunciation by later people who evicted the Dehis, that is,
the Dasas. Evicted Dasas possibly moved to Orissa and Dhaka.
About 150CE present Orissa was called Dosarene in the west. In
Ptolemy's Geography believed to be written about this time we also
find a group of people called Dobassai. In J. E. Schwartzberg ed. "A
Historical Atlas of South Asia," 1992, the position of this later
group is shown in Assam.
If this position is assigned correctly, and if we identify Dobassai as
Dehis, we may see how the Dehis were persued by Chutiyas who were
later overpowered by Ahoms.
We can vaguely infer the existence in ancient Bangladesh of a very
tiny group of people having a name that sounds like "sāt" or
"chāt." I like to use the artificial name Satga(n)i or
Satga(n)iya ??????? (?????????, ??????? ) for these people when
restricting them to Bangladesh, for they left a series of towns named
Satgaon, Satkania, Chatkhali, Chatgaon and so forth.
This "sāt" does not mean seven. Although people erroneously
translate it as such.
There is difference of opinions about what the word Satsatee mean. It
is a name of an ancient group of Brahmans. Some authors believed it to
be a corrupt for Saraswata. Others believed it to mean seven hundred.
I believe that these "sat" or "chat" sound referring to people and the
places they lived in this part of the world ultimately originated from
the name of a tribe called Sattagydians by Herodotus.
Ancient Iranian records and Herodotus mentioned a people called
Sattagydians or Thatagush or Saatagudu living apparently in South
Afghanistan (see W. J. Vogelsang, "The Rise and Organization of the
Achaemenid Empire: The Eastern Iranian Evidence", 1992).
Let us compare Sattagydians with Massagetae, another group of people
cited in Herodotus. Several modern Indian authors translated
Massagetae as Mahasaka. If Massa is great (maha, bandya) then Satta
could mean its opposite, that is, less (chatto).
The names therefore could mean Great(er) Vehicle and Less(er) Vehicle
(Satavahana). These tribes were reduced in Sistan, Turkmenistan and
Uzbekistan by Cyrus the Great and Darius. That is the reason, I
believe, the refugees from these tribes in India hate Cyrus as
Jarasandha Asur.
In Sogdiana, possibly a Massagetae country, there was a city called
Cyreschata which some authors believed to be founded by Cyrus. Cyrus
received a mortal wound from an "Indian."
This readily matches with the suspicion that Baladev (Balaram) is
nobody but a memory of Bardiya (Smerdis), a son of Cyrus. Darius
claimed certain Gaomata posed as Bardiya. This Gaomata was a Magian
(Magha) whom the Indian could call a Bhoja.
Balaram's mother was Rohini. Roxana was a sister and sister-in-law of
Bardiya. Incidentally an ox connection can be seen in Balad and Gao.
Whether the person killed by Darius was real Bardiya or not, one thing
is clear that these fights between Iranians and tribes that migrated
to Sind and Punjab left a deep impression among local people of
Pakistan.
The memories in Muslim folk-stories of Sind and Punjab differ from the
crystallized versions of the Hindus as we find now. Articles listed
below tried to explain how Jesus-Kesta-Krishna story got involved with
3. "Parthian Connection" (unfortunately the website where it was
posted removed this valuable article. It will be available again
soon).
4. "Sarathi, Chhutaar, Bar Pantiri, Carpenter."
5. "Mrigavati and Mary Magdalini" (under preparation).
For old references on the scientific comparison between Christ and
Krishna one can consult Benjamin Walker's "The Hindu World" (1968).
The information found in old references need to be revised and updated
in view of the tremendous progress in the study of history, religion,
immigration and area studies during the last twenty-five years.
Earlier studies were based on comparative mythology and classical
linguistics, and did not know much about the Hittites. Their liking
for Sanskrit was as great as their dislike for Muslims who lived
between their IE extremities, and in general for Bani Sem that has
influenced the Japhetians in the middle and on the trading posts.
Pakistan can remember the Sattagydians and the related Dadike
mentioned by Herodotus as people of Thatta and Dadu. As for the
Sattagydian legacy in India I already indicated my suspicion of the
Satavahana connection. Note the difference between the prevailing
Pakistani version and the bookish Indian version.
Kosambi called Chedi a Vedic tribe. From Jain and Pali literature it
appears that Chutiya is only a variant of Chedi (B. C. Law's, "Tribes
in Ancient India", 1943, 2nd ed. 1973).
Satga(n)i is therefore a so-called New Aryan legacy unlike the case of
Dehis. Of course the statement should be interpreted with usual
caution. One can be called a Chedi simply because one was a subject of
a Chedi king.
Only a hand-counted number of Satga(n)i came to Bangladesh. They were
possibly associated with a Parthian trading enterprize and a
Qandahar-Qandabil-Ghandhar-Kendubillogram legacy under the patronage
first of the Sur kings of Southwest Bengal, then of the Sen kings.
Like these Satga(n)i, Hindus (Indians=Hindustanis) who came to Bengal
with the Kambojas, Sens, Varmas (their account is still poorly
established but they often get mentioned with much exaggeration), and
the Mughals, were only handful in number.
These people brought Indic elements to Bangladesh which did not mix
smoothly with local elements, and the difference has been exploited
during the colonial rule by the missionaries to create alternate
identities and confusion among Bengali people.
We suspect that large immigration of Hindus (Indians) in this sense,
as opposed to the case of ancient Aryan-speaking drifters who came
without Hindu scriptures to Bangladesh, occurred after the Portuguese
occupied Pipli.
There are many evidence of Hindu migration to Bengal during the
colonial period also. Soldiers, clerical assistants and agents were
brought from parts of India where the colonists established good
relation in the previous centuries.
Indians brought to meet the acute labor-shortage after the great
killings of 1769-70, in which over one-third people of Bengal
perished, and many fled to Assam, and after the disaster of 1786-1787,
were assigned low Hindu caste.
Dehis - Doyai and Das - were made Hindu after the padrees hostile to
Muslims organized Hinduism to check the spread of Islam.
Doyai were the people who I suspect gave the name Dhaka. They were the
earliest Dehi immigrants to Bangladesh. Dases came after the Doyai.
Doyai did not have any idol, and they were outside Hindu society. They
worshiped an unseen spirit whom the organizers of Hinduism called
Doyaidevi or Banadurga and identified it with a form of Durga.
Majority of Doyai most probably became Muslim before the padrees came.
Doyais were the original people of the neighborhood Sonargaon which
had more Muslim saints that any other city in British India. About
Sonargaon read
6. "Why do we know so little about Isa Khan and his family."
In connection to the Dases and the Doyai, two more Bengali names
attract our attention. One is De which is commonplace, and in some
cases may not be related to Dehis.
The other is Danuj which was very important in Sonargaon. Danuj kings
ruled Sonargaon.
One suspects that the title Danujmardan resulted from the destruction
they suffered. Unfortunately I cannot write more about them unless I
gather and analyze some information about two Muslim noblemen with
names Donah living or struggling not far from Sonargaon between 1608
to 1765.
Connection of Danuj with the Dehis is suspected from the account of
the Dacians living near the river Danube part of which lies in
Romania.
After most of the Dehis were evicted from Turan eventually
non-Iranians living in their country got the name Taji. At some point
Taji came to mean an Arab.
Sufi critics censured Fakhruddin Raji of Herat for reportedly
referring to the Prophet (Sm) as Muhammad Taji to rhyme with his own
name Mohammad Raji.
Is Taji a variant of Dehi? Tashi is the old Chinese name for Arabs and
Muslims. We can suspect the Dehi connection of these words by
comparing various variants of the name of Azi Dahaka or Dahaka or
Dahak or Zahak or Azdaha of Ferdousi's Shahname.
Dahak was called Biwarasb in late Persian. Raverty, translator of
Tabakat-i-Nasiri, thought Dahak is Biwarasp because dah=ten (dash) and
biwar=ten thousands. Azi Dahaka has been compared (?possible
reference: Georges Dumézil) with Trisiras or Visvarupa of Indian
literature.
The first s in Trisiras is the altered form of earlier k sound. Thus
it is a form of "dragon," and dragon is much hated in the Bani Sem
world.
In the Iranian scheme Arabs and Dahak were descendants of Taji. Taji
was a brother, variantly a relation having the same ancestry, of
Hushang. Hushang was the ancestor of the legendary "Persian" kings.
How Arabs got associated with the name Taji before the advent of Islam
in the Iranian thinking can be partly understood from the following
1. PreIslamic Arab (Bani Aram) Sabiun and Sethian presence in Turan,
2. Bani Ismaili incense (aguru) traders, and trade between Indian and
Iraqi borders of the Parthian empire, and
3. Arab Kindah tribes connecting between two Cissia: Susa of
Khujistan, and Tus of Greater Khurasan.
The name Tashi is important in Tibet also. For the Arabs, Tibet
started after the Tajik country. Tajiks got their name because they
were believed to descend from Central Asian Arabs. In the history of
Sikkim and Chumbi valley we get a Guru Tashi whose time is put in the
13th century.
In the beginning of that century Bakhtiyar met descendants of Gushtasp
on his way to Tibet from Bangladesh.
It has been claimed that the name Tajika occurs in an inscription of a
king of Assam belonging to the first half of the 11 century CE (see
also Muhammad Yusuf Siddiq's "The Rise of Islam in Bengal ...," JASB
Humanities, vol.45, no.1, 2000). The king was Ratnapal.
There is some difference of opinions regarding the meaning of the
names Bahikas and Taikas in this inscription. A. F. R. Hoernle
identified them with people of Balkh and Tajiks (JASB lxvii, I). Some
authors think them to be Turks.
As in the traditions of Iran, Afghanistan and Armenia, in Indian
stories too we sometime see, although in an unclear form, reference to
the interaction between Bani Sem and Dehis.
Once Indra, a Vedic god, asked Sambara about the source of the
latter's glory and prosperity. Sambara replied that it was due to his
whole-hearted worship of Brahmans ("Puranic Encyclopaedia," Sri Vettam
Mani, 1979 reprint, under Indra and Sambara).
Considering this Sambara as a Dasa (Page 151 Asko Parpola's
"Deciphering the Indus script," 1994; Asko Parpola, "The Coming of the
Aryans to Iran and India and the Cultural and Ethnic Identity of the
Dasas", Studia Orientalia vol 64, Helsinki, 1988), Dasa Brahmans
cannot be Vedic Brahmans, because Vedics were fighting the Dasas.
Actually Indra is a memory of an once globally famous Bani Sem prophet
named Handa or Kantala whom the Greeks called Hercules. Some tafsirs
of the Koran say that Handa was a prophet sent to warn the dwellers of
ar-Rass (The Criterion 38, Qaf 12).
It is natural to expect a clash of interest between the Sabiun
followers of Handa, and followers and descendants of Abraham.
Among the neighbors of Dehis were Pannis whom the Vedic fought also. I
think in Bangladesh Pannis got the name Pundras. Pundras were not the
ancestors of Pods. We discussed about Pods elsewhere.
Pannis were ultimately a Bani Sem legacy whose later immigrants to
India were given the name Banik. Although in time a banik came to mean
any treader, originally it is a variant of Phoenician (Bani Kinana).
D.D. Kosambi found the origin of the words panya (commodities) and
bania in Pani (our Panni).
A detailed description of the ancient connection between the
subcontinent and West Asia can be found in P. R. Deshmukh's "Indus
Civilization, Rigveda and Hindu Culture," 1982.
Ashkani (Arsaces I, Arsak) founder of the Parthian dynasty in Iran was
leading the Parni tribe. According to Strabo Parni was a Daha tribe.
In the history of Armenia by Drasxanaketci, Arsak was a descendant of
Abraham by Keturah.
In the name Keturah, or rather in the amost identical Hebrew word
qetura for incense we see Bengali aguru (agar) ?????, ??? or ???
meaning sandalwood or sweet-smelling aloes and resin. Those who
believed Keturah was Bibi Hajera (Hagar) are vindicated once again.
Aguru is considered of "Dravidian" origin. This again brings the
Brahuis, who speak a Dravidian language and claim themselves to be
descendants of Abraham, into focus. In the records of ancient
Mesopotamian king Naram-Sin, we see a rebellious chief of ancient
Pakistan. His name is given as [...]ibra (page 14, Asko Parpola's
"Deciphering the Indus script," 1994).
Mystery of this once missing piece and the jeers the claim of the
Brahuis recieved from hatemonger posing as archeologists speak for the
sorry state of modern politics and its effect on scholarship.
Scholars must have compared the battle of ten kings (Dasarajna) in the
Rig-Veda with the battle reported in the problematic Genesis 14.
Without seeing their work I made a table of comparison myself. I
suspect that both sources are talking about the same war.
Bible mentioned king Shem-eber and king Birsha. Rig-Veda mentioned
king Sambara and Brsaya.
The story of Indra and Sambara given above can be interpreted as
follows. The so-called New Aryan tribes were absorbing the concept of
Brahmans from the Dehis in Turan.
The name Sambara (samvar=storehouse) has parallel in Savar near Dhaka.
It could be that the words pur and nagar for towns respectively coined
due to Purukhs and Nagas did not carry much weight in Dehi vocabulary
as Sambara did.
We can guess that other neighbours of Dehis on the east of the Caspian
also came to ancient Bangladesh in large numbers in pre-Islamic times.
Among them were Bagerhatis (tiger people from Vaekerata), Kakars
(possibly gave the name Kustia), Nunias (Nandas, Lut related people
having the same ancestry as Lodis and Lohanis) and Bagdis (Bactrians,
Bakhtiyaris).
These were not the only people who brought what has been called
Indo-Aryan speech in Bangladesh. Utimately from Anatolia came the
Majhis and Kaibarta (Phrygians and Kurdis) and possibly also Eastern
Mallas allied to the Majhis.
Some of the so-called Aryan tribes stopped their eastword journey in
North Central India.
Others including the defeated ones, and ones who established a
partership with agents of West Asian and Malay-Khemar trading,
sea-faring and mining interests migrated to Bengal, thus making Aryan
legacy of Bengal different from that of North Central India India as
early as fourth century BC.
Eastern Mallas could provide an example of the defeated ones. We can
imagine that their survivors came to Malda, Paba and Pabna and down
the old course of the river Paua(n) into Kustia, Jessore, Faridpur and
possibly into Barisal.
In Faridpur on the bank of the river Chandana we find the medieval
Muslim town of Banmaldih (Bonmaldiah).
In the sound of Paba and so forth, Eastern Mallas might have seen the
same sense of creepers pu(n)i as we see in malati. We discussed about
Pava in the second reference cited at the top.
If the Eastern Mallas came from the banks of the river Mala (Upper
Furat?), then creeping vines were once important for them. Turkish
city of Malatya (Roman Melitene, later Melid) near the Furat was an
important Hittite city.
One can find a website which says that in Late Hittite period Malatya
was called Maldya or Milidia using search engine.
In Hittite mahlas meant a branch of a grapevine (for the correct
transliteration, and for several related meanings and usage see Hans
Gueterbock and Harry Hoffner ed. The Hittite Dictionary, 1983).
Now both parts of Bengali malatī signify a creeper as balli
(????? ) and lata mean the same thing. The flower malatī is
commonly called beliphul in Bengali. Madhumalatī is jasmine. In
the latter word Bengali madhu for honey is interesting in view of the
Hittite word for honey (melitya).
Once Malatī had the same basic element of meaning as Melissa
(honeybee).
For more Hittite connection with the subcontinent please read,
7. "Behind the statue of Ganesh, Under the seat of Vishwanath."
Incidentally Malda can also be called the town of Bibi Malati.
I believe that in the Bengali word majhimalla we see the most
interesting interaction of Majhis, Mallas and Islam in Bangladesh. At
present malla is from an Arabic word for a sailor, and majhi is a
boatman. It seems that in the past Majhi-Malla was the Bengali variant
of Vajji-Malla (Phrygian-Malla).
This is what is called conversion on the sea in "Boats of Bangladesh
and the Bay of Bangladesh."
There was an idea, possibly from the colonial period, that Majhis were
the Muslim section of the Kaibartas in Bangladesh. This view is too
simplistic. They were close because Phrygians and Kurdis were close.
Gordius was a king of Phrygia.
Malla was also a royal title in the Bengal periphery and sometime in
Bangladesh too. This malla meant a wrestler. It could be either an
ethnic or a professional last name. It seems to be a Western Malla
legacy.
As a tribe Eastern Mallas were different from the tribes of Western
Malla and Middle Madra in Indian history. The latter two tribes show
strong so-called New-Aryan affiliation. Their accounts are as
confusing.
It is believed that in Punjab the name Madra assumed several different
forms. Suspected variations are Malla, Bhalla, Valla, Bhadra and
Mitra. Some people suspected that the Bhadra family of Samatata
(Barisal) were Madras.
According to Walker (who cited B. C. Law) Madras migrated towards
Bengal and were allied to Pal kings. As stated before, this type of
immigration to Bengal was insignificant in view of numerical
consideration.
Rajas of Bishnupur (Bakura) used the last name Malla before changing
to Singh. From the account of the Pandit of W. W. Hunter it appears
that the subject people of this Malabhumi were Bagdis. They elected a
deserted son of a visiting Indian couple to be their king who founded
the dynasty.
To recognize agendas in the reconstruction of a history that would
support the scheme of Indianization of Bengal. And to see if any
ancient elemental material of importance can be found in the recycled
products.
In this case we see a possible Jesus-Krishna element.
Is it simply a repetition, an usual characteristic of folklore? Or, is
it a coincidence not worth linking to similar stories? Is it due to
Bagdis coming from the West (Raghu Nath = Lord of Luts)? Or, is it an
influence of the port region which had both Sabiun and Gujarati
(Vaishnav) connection?
It is noteworthy that the Birs (heroes, possibly included Bagdis, not
clear) of Birbhooms wore balla (ornamental rings) and Hunter's Pandit
could not but mention it.
Strong presence of several Hittite related legacies, namely, Palaians,
Pulastians and Laks (Rakkhash?) can be suspected on the Northwestern,
Northern and Eastern periphery of Bangladesh. I want to inlcude the
well-known Pals of Bengal in this catagory.
Lak was clearly a Lut related people the name possibly originating
from a faulty pronunciation of Lut as a word having the meaning of a
lake (compare Lut with hrad ???? ). Kassites, Khallag-Khilgi and the
ancestors of the Celts in the West are the suspect.
This type of reinterpretation was commonplace because Lut interacted
with tribes scattered far and wide. Please read
8. "The Desert of Lut" and
9. "Aum Mani Padme Hum: O the Jewel of Lut!"
Interacting with the Chinese and Vietnamese and other Eastern tribes,
Eastern Laks lost completely their Aryan characteristics.
Much later the Kushans got mixed up with Bengalis. Then came the
Goalas (Ghosh). Although some Goalas (Gops) were present in Gaur
during the Sen period, their concentration was in Bihar and its West.
Dispersion of the Goalas to East Bengal seems to be a fairly recent
event. See Schwartzberg ed. "A Historical Atlas of South Asia," and
the article on Ahirs in the "Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics."
In reference to the list given above of possible Aryan-speaking
immigrants, none except the Bagerhatis and Bagdis, seem to show any
connection with the people who gave the name of the country Bangala.
These later people were more from Turko-Mongoloid than Aryan
background.
Predominantly Turko-Mongoloid ancient Bangal legacy now exists as a
collection of tribes called Akhar Pangra.
It seems a thread of them also came from the east of Fargana through
Panchala-Punjab. Often later colonists rename a place changing
slightly the previous pronunciation and giving the name a meaning they
understand.
We get a glimpse of the pre-colonial reality of Bengal in the story of
two Dases. Both had the name Krishnahari Das.
Both were Fakirs, disciples of Fakirs.
One wrote, "Bara Satyapīr o Sandhyabatī Kanya." We learn
about him in "Bangla Pīr-sahityer Katha" by Girindra Nath Das
(1976). It is not clear when this Krishnahari Das was present. His
mentor was Taher Mahmud.
" ... There are no ranks among you
Black snakes are all the same.
Show some respect towards Sannyasis and Fakirs
You are the reading shaitans." "????? ???????? ??? ??? ?? ?? ???
??????? ???? ???? ... ???? ???? ????? ?????"
The other was the favorite disciple of Fakir Aul Chand. Details of
both he and Aul Chand are obscure, and would have been interesting in
our effort to recover the lost information of the most critical period
in the history of Bengal. Fakir Aul Chand and his disciple Krishnahari
Das died in 1769-1770.
It is during these years one-third population of Bengal disappeared.
Why do Bengalis need to investigate this calamity? Please read,
"Boyale Qalandar, Boyalias and Boyalmaris: A Note on Bauls before
1831"
stead you see "?." Sorry for that. Also links of suggested readings do
not work, the website is not ready yet.]
Deshi People
This article describes mostly the so-called Aryan one-third of the
Bengali legacy. Some information on the Turanian half, a term in which
we included Turko-Mongoloid as well as Munda-Khemar-Malay-Samoan
legacies of ancient Bengali heritage, can be found in the following
1. "Literally Children of a Tiger."
2. "Bangali as the last part of a Muslim's name."
That from Kurdistan to Hindustan after all these stans comes a desh,
is partly due to strong Deshi legacy in ancient Bangladesh. I say
partly because the very need of the suffix desh and inspiration that
motivated such usage is not clearly understood.
The history of the usage of Bangala muluk or its later variant Bangala
vuban, that of the effort to shorten the g sound in ng, and that of
the participation of real Bangals in the standardization process of
Bengali grammar and orthography are too complicated to describe in few
lines.
In fact more than one-third of total Bengali died when the process
started in full swing.
I shall use a somewhat artificially constructed name Dehi in place of
Deshi. The sound of Dehi can be considered a sort of average that also
captures Daha, a village pronunciation of Dhaka. For example Dahapara
near Murshidabad was the place where Nawab's officers from Dhaka used
to live. The village has been renamed.
In a sense, neglecting Assam, Bangladesh is the last country of the
Prakrit-speaking people. I want to call these people Purukh because
that way we can stay away from all the negative derivations of the
word prakrit created by the hateful pundits.
Purukh ????? is an archaic variant of purush in the Bengali
dictionary. That is the reason I choose this form, and not Borosh,
Porokh or Borokh or Purokh.
It is easy to find Bengali dictionary by pundits in which Prakrit
means mean, low or base (nich, adham, itar). The sense is almost
opposite to that associated with purush in the Vedic literature.
How in the past Purukhs and Dehis were related is not known. From the
consideration of their history in Anatolia and Turan respectively, and
possible presence of Purukhs in South Iran, it appears that even
before 2100BC they were separate legacies.
I am using the name Purukh to denote a supergroup encompassing both
tribes only because the name of the language of the so-called Old
Aryans in this subcontinent is given as Prakrit.
It could be that some of the so-called Old Aryan tribes claimed
Prakrit (that is Purukh) legacy just as in later time Vedics
considered Purush and Puru as their own, and Darius claimed himself to
be a Parsa.
For the nomadic Aryans (actually primitive Sakas) trying to be
civilized, Purukhs gave the concept of a pur (town). Purukhs were
people worth relating to.
It seems that real Purukhs were Dene-Cacausian speaking people
possibly absorbing elements of Old Aryan legacy. East of Persia they
had no significance beyond Baluchistan, Peshawar, and Hunza.
It is believed that the Dehis were responsible for the civilization of
Turan. They were reduced and pushed eastward by the invading Vedics.
The district of Dihistan in Iran kept their legacy.
In modern Persian deh means a village. The word dihi for a collection
of villages or towns (a small unit of revenue) in Bangladesh of the
sultanate period is also from the same legacy.
Vedics called the Dehis dasyus (robbers) and das (slaves). These were
negative meanings given by enemies except when das is used in the
sense of a servant devoted (bhakta) to a god or goddess.
In 8th century BC there was a country called Diaukhi or Diau-ni (land
of Diau) situated in Azerbaijan. Dihistan is situated on the east of
the Caspian Sea.
I suspect, although many modern scholars may not agree, that the name
Dacia in the west is also a Dehi legacy. Dacians were among the
ancestors of Romanians. Dacians were related to Thracians.
People, the name they get, the language they speak, their genetic
relations, results of mixing and naturalization, immigration, defeats
and victories are all variables. The exact nature of the relation
between Dehis and Dacians is not clear yet.
Dacians did not get their name from Thrace. The r of the
trk-tkr-tgl-tlg (dragon, Old Semitic terqa, earth) legacy so important
from Spain to Mexico cannot disappear in a region close to Thrace and
Turkey unless there is a strong reason for that.
Although originally, at a much earlier period, the word Dacian could
also be related to earth because names such as Dagan (Hittite Spirit
of Earth) were important in Turkey.
We can imagine that these earth related words originated from the
contempt of civilization builders against people who lived like snakes
underground or in caves, and created havoc in their towns. Eventually
the name became a mutually acknowledged identity and a source of
chivalric pride.
However when we find the Dehis we find them as civilization builders
(compare IE root for tech in technology). And before leaving Turan, as
we see in medieval Persian, Dehis created in their name a sense of
being masters of the land (earth), or leaders of the people who live
on it.
So Dehis does not seem to be a Turk-Dragon legacy.
Among the meanings suggested in the literature only two are worth
mentioning: man (compare purukh) for Dehis, and wolf for Dacians.
Recent advancement in our knowledge of Turan, and of Dehi achievements
must be considered while evaluating the correct relation between the
Persian dihqan meaning headman of the village, Latin original for
duke, dagger (r at the end is an augmentative not important for our
concern), a Dacian knife, and Bengali dakait (Hindi daku) for a
robber. The reason for the reversal of meaning in the last case is
hinted before.
Many modern discussions on etymology of these words are simply
clueless about the importance of the Dehis of Turan, and the depth of
the age of the Dehis in the past relative to the timescale these
discussions pertain.
We believe that Dacia-Romania is the western counterpart of
Bangladeshi Das-Domb and Doyai-Domb interaction.
We possibly see the same ancient interaction frozen in Dhaka and
Demra.
Bengalis use the word desh also in the sense of their home village.
The word desh as a district is commonplace in many parts of India.
However Middle West India had stronger Dehi legacy.
Till up to the early days of Islam, Arabs called the western coast of
peninsular India and Deccan tableland Dahia of India. Locally Dahia
was Desh.
In some Islamic traditions Dahia of India occurs as a possible place
for the Arafah where according to the Muslim belief God will collect
all the people during the last judgement.
In fact the name Deccan is also a suspect. It may not originally had
anything to do with right (=south), but its name was changed to the
present pronunciation by later people who evicted the Dehis, that is,
the Dasas. Evicted Dasas possibly moved to Orissa and Dhaka.
About 150CE present Orissa was called Dosarene in the west. In
Ptolemy's Geography believed to be written about this time we also
find a group of people called Dobassai. In J. E. Schwartzberg ed. "A
Historical Atlas of South Asia," 1992, the position of this later
group is shown in Assam.
If this position is assigned correctly, and if we identify Dobassai as
Dehis, we may see how the Dehis were persued by Chutiyas who were
later overpowered by Ahoms.
We can vaguely infer the existence in ancient Bangladesh of a very
tiny group of people having a name that sounds like "sāt" or
"chāt." I like to use the artificial name Satga(n)i or
Satga(n)iya ??????? (?????????, ??????? ) for these people when
restricting them to Bangladesh, for they left a series of towns named
Satgaon, Satkania, Chatkhali, Chatgaon and so forth.
This "sāt" does not mean seven. Although people erroneously
translate it as such.
There is difference of opinions about what the word Satsatee mean. It
is a name of an ancient group of Brahmans. Some authors believed it to
be a corrupt for Saraswata. Others believed it to mean seven hundred.
I believe that these "sat" or "chat" sound referring to people and the
places they lived in this part of the world ultimately originated from
the name of a tribe called Sattagydians by Herodotus.
Ancient Iranian records and Herodotus mentioned a people called
Sattagydians or Thatagush or Saatagudu living apparently in South
Afghanistan (see W. J. Vogelsang, "The Rise and Organization of the
Achaemenid Empire: The Eastern Iranian Evidence", 1992).
Let us compare Sattagydians with Massagetae, another group of people
cited in Herodotus. Several modern Indian authors translated
Massagetae as Mahasaka. If Massa is great (maha, bandya) then Satta
could mean its opposite, that is, less (chatto).
The names therefore could mean Great(er) Vehicle and Less(er) Vehicle
(Satavahana). These tribes were reduced in Sistan, Turkmenistan and
Uzbekistan by Cyrus the Great and Darius. That is the reason, I
believe, the refugees from these tribes in India hate Cyrus as
Jarasandha Asur.
In Sogdiana, possibly a Massagetae country, there was a city called
Cyreschata which some authors believed to be founded by Cyrus. Cyrus
received a mortal wound from an "Indian."
This readily matches with the suspicion that Baladev (Balaram) is
nobody but a memory of Bardiya (Smerdis), a son of Cyrus. Darius
claimed certain Gaomata posed as Bardiya. This Gaomata was a Magian
(Magha) whom the Indian could call a Bhoja.
Balaram's mother was Rohini. Roxana was a sister and sister-in-law of
Bardiya. Incidentally an ox connection can be seen in Balad and Gao.
Whether the person killed by Darius was real Bardiya or not, one thing
is clear that these fights between Iranians and tribes that migrated
to Sind and Punjab left a deep impression among local people of
Pakistan.
The memories in Muslim folk-stories of Sind and Punjab differ from the
crystallized versions of the Hindus as we find now. Articles listed
below tried to explain how Jesus-Kesta-Krishna story got involved with
3. "Parthian Connection" (unfortunately the website where it was
posted removed this valuable article. It will be available again
soon).
4. "Sarathi, Chhutaar, Bar Pantiri, Carpenter."
5. "Mrigavati and Mary Magdalini" (under preparation).
For old references on the scientific comparison between Christ and
Krishna one can consult Benjamin Walker's "The Hindu World" (1968).
The information found in old references need to be revised and updated
in view of the tremendous progress in the study of history, religion,
immigration and area studies during the last twenty-five years.
Earlier studies were based on comparative mythology and classical
linguistics, and did not know much about the Hittites. Their liking
for Sanskrit was as great as their dislike for Muslims who lived
between their IE extremities, and in general for Bani Sem that has
influenced the Japhetians in the middle and on the trading posts.
Pakistan can remember the Sattagydians and the related Dadike
mentioned by Herodotus as people of Thatta and Dadu. As for the
Sattagydian legacy in India I already indicated my suspicion of the
Satavahana connection. Note the difference between the prevailing
Pakistani version and the bookish Indian version.
Kosambi called Chedi a Vedic tribe. From Jain and Pali literature it
appears that Chutiya is only a variant of Chedi (B. C. Law's, "Tribes
in Ancient India", 1943, 2nd ed. 1973).
Satga(n)i is therefore a so-called New Aryan legacy unlike the case of
Dehis. Of course the statement should be interpreted with usual
caution. One can be called a Chedi simply because one was a subject of
a Chedi king.
Only a hand-counted number of Satga(n)i came to Bangladesh. They were
possibly associated with a Parthian trading enterprize and a
Qandahar-Qandabil-Ghandhar-Kendubillogram legacy under the patronage
first of the Sur kings of Southwest Bengal, then of the Sen kings.
Like these Satga(n)i, Hindus (Indians=Hindustanis) who came to Bengal
with the Kambojas, Sens, Varmas (their account is still poorly
established but they often get mentioned with much exaggeration), and
the Mughals, were only handful in number.
These people brought Indic elements to Bangladesh which did not mix
smoothly with local elements, and the difference has been exploited
during the colonial rule by the missionaries to create alternate
identities and confusion among Bengali people.
We suspect that large immigration of Hindus (Indians) in this sense,
as opposed to the case of ancient Aryan-speaking drifters who came
without Hindu scriptures to Bangladesh, occurred after the Portuguese
occupied Pipli.
There are many evidence of Hindu migration to Bengal during the
colonial period also. Soldiers, clerical assistants and agents were
brought from parts of India where the colonists established good
relation in the previous centuries.
Indians brought to meet the acute labor-shortage after the great
killings of 1769-70, in which over one-third people of Bengal
perished, and many fled to Assam, and after the disaster of 1786-1787,
were assigned low Hindu caste.
Dehis - Doyai and Das - were made Hindu after the padrees hostile to
Muslims organized Hinduism to check the spread of Islam.
Doyai were the people who I suspect gave the name Dhaka. They were the
earliest Dehi immigrants to Bangladesh. Dases came after the Doyai.
Doyai did not have any idol, and they were outside Hindu society. They
worshiped an unseen spirit whom the organizers of Hinduism called
Doyaidevi or Banadurga and identified it with a form of Durga.
Majority of Doyai most probably became Muslim before the padrees came.
Doyais were the original people of the neighborhood Sonargaon which
had more Muslim saints that any other city in British India. About
Sonargaon read
6. "Why do we know so little about Isa Khan and his family."
In connection to the Dases and the Doyai, two more Bengali names
attract our attention. One is De which is commonplace, and in some
cases may not be related to Dehis.
The other is Danuj which was very important in Sonargaon. Danuj kings
ruled Sonargaon.
One suspects that the title Danujmardan resulted from the destruction
they suffered. Unfortunately I cannot write more about them unless I
gather and analyze some information about two Muslim noblemen with
names Donah living or struggling not far from Sonargaon between 1608
to 1765.
Connection of Danuj with the Dehis is suspected from the account of
the Dacians living near the river Danube part of which lies in
Romania.
After most of the Dehis were evicted from Turan eventually
non-Iranians living in their country got the name Taji. At some point
Taji came to mean an Arab.
Sufi critics censured Fakhruddin Raji of Herat for reportedly
referring to the Prophet (Sm) as Muhammad Taji to rhyme with his own
name Mohammad Raji.
Is Taji a variant of Dehi? Tashi is the old Chinese name for Arabs and
Muslims. We can suspect the Dehi connection of these words by
comparing various variants of the name of Azi Dahaka or Dahaka or
Dahak or Zahak or Azdaha of Ferdousi's Shahname.
Dahak was called Biwarasb in late Persian. Raverty, translator of
Tabakat-i-Nasiri, thought Dahak is Biwarasp because dah=ten (dash) and
biwar=ten thousands. Azi Dahaka has been compared (?possible
reference: Georges Dumézil) with Trisiras or Visvarupa of Indian
literature.
The first s in Trisiras is the altered form of earlier k sound. Thus
it is a form of "dragon," and dragon is much hated in the Bani Sem
world.
In the Iranian scheme Arabs and Dahak were descendants of Taji. Taji
was a brother, variantly a relation having the same ancestry, of
Hushang. Hushang was the ancestor of the legendary "Persian" kings.
How Arabs got associated with the name Taji before the advent of Islam
in the Iranian thinking can be partly understood from the following
1. PreIslamic Arab (Bani Aram) Sabiun and Sethian presence in Turan,
2. Bani Ismaili incense (aguru) traders, and trade between Indian and
Iraqi borders of the Parthian empire, and
3. Arab Kindah tribes connecting between two Cissia: Susa of
Khujistan, and Tus of Greater Khurasan.
The name Tashi is important in Tibet also. For the Arabs, Tibet
started after the Tajik country. Tajiks got their name because they
were believed to descend from Central Asian Arabs. In the history of
Sikkim and Chumbi valley we get a Guru Tashi whose time is put in the
13th century.
In the beginning of that century Bakhtiyar met descendants of Gushtasp
on his way to Tibet from Bangladesh.
It has been claimed that the name Tajika occurs in an inscription of a
king of Assam belonging to the first half of the 11 century CE (see
also Muhammad Yusuf Siddiq's "The Rise of Islam in Bengal ...," JASB
Humanities, vol.45, no.1, 2000). The king was Ratnapal.
There is some difference of opinions regarding the meaning of the
names Bahikas and Taikas in this inscription. A. F. R. Hoernle
identified them with people of Balkh and Tajiks (JASB lxvii, I). Some
authors think them to be Turks.
As in the traditions of Iran, Afghanistan and Armenia, in Indian
stories too we sometime see, although in an unclear form, reference to
the interaction between Bani Sem and Dehis.
Once Indra, a Vedic god, asked Sambara about the source of the
latter's glory and prosperity. Sambara replied that it was due to his
whole-hearted worship of Brahmans ("Puranic Encyclopaedia," Sri Vettam
Mani, 1979 reprint, under Indra and Sambara).
Considering this Sambara as a Dasa (Page 151 Asko Parpola's
"Deciphering the Indus script," 1994; Asko Parpola, "The Coming of the
Aryans to Iran and India and the Cultural and Ethnic Identity of the
Dasas", Studia Orientalia vol 64, Helsinki, 1988), Dasa Brahmans
cannot be Vedic Brahmans, because Vedics were fighting the Dasas.
Actually Indra is a memory of an once globally famous Bani Sem prophet
named Handa or Kantala whom the Greeks called Hercules. Some tafsirs
of the Koran say that Handa was a prophet sent to warn the dwellers of
ar-Rass (The Criterion 38, Qaf 12).
It is natural to expect a clash of interest between the Sabiun
followers of Handa, and followers and descendants of Abraham.
Among the neighbors of Dehis were Pannis whom the Vedic fought also. I
think in Bangladesh Pannis got the name Pundras. Pundras were not the
ancestors of Pods. We discussed about Pods elsewhere.
Pannis were ultimately a Bani Sem legacy whose later immigrants to
India were given the name Banik. Although in time a banik came to mean
any treader, originally it is a variant of Phoenician (Bani Kinana).
D.D. Kosambi found the origin of the words panya (commodities) and
bania in Pani (our Panni).
A detailed description of the ancient connection between the
subcontinent and West Asia can be found in P. R. Deshmukh's "Indus
Civilization, Rigveda and Hindu Culture," 1982.
Ashkani (Arsaces I, Arsak) founder of the Parthian dynasty in Iran was
leading the Parni tribe. According to Strabo Parni was a Daha tribe.
In the history of Armenia by Drasxanaketci, Arsak was a descendant of
Abraham by Keturah.
In the name Keturah, or rather in the amost identical Hebrew word
qetura for incense we see Bengali aguru (agar) ?????, ??? or ???
meaning sandalwood or sweet-smelling aloes and resin. Those who
believed Keturah was Bibi Hajera (Hagar) are vindicated once again.
Aguru is considered of "Dravidian" origin. This again brings the
Brahuis, who speak a Dravidian language and claim themselves to be
descendants of Abraham, into focus. In the records of ancient
Mesopotamian king Naram-Sin, we see a rebellious chief of ancient
Pakistan. His name is given as [...]ibra (page 14, Asko Parpola's
"Deciphering the Indus script," 1994).
Mystery of this once missing piece and the jeers the claim of the
Brahuis recieved from hatemonger posing as archeologists speak for the
sorry state of modern politics and its effect on scholarship.
Scholars must have compared the battle of ten kings (Dasarajna) in the
Rig-Veda with the battle reported in the problematic Genesis 14.
Without seeing their work I made a table of comparison myself. I
suspect that both sources are talking about the same war.
Bible mentioned king Shem-eber and king Birsha. Rig-Veda mentioned
king Sambara and Brsaya.
The story of Indra and Sambara given above can be interpreted as
follows. The so-called New Aryan tribes were absorbing the concept of
Brahmans from the Dehis in Turan.
The name Sambara (samvar=storehouse) has parallel in Savar near Dhaka.
It could be that the words pur and nagar for towns respectively coined
due to Purukhs and Nagas did not carry much weight in Dehi vocabulary
as Sambara did.
We can guess that other neighbours of Dehis on the east of the Caspian
also came to ancient Bangladesh in large numbers in pre-Islamic times.
Among them were Bagerhatis (tiger people from Vaekerata), Kakars
(possibly gave the name Kustia), Nunias (Nandas, Lut related people
having the same ancestry as Lodis and Lohanis) and Bagdis (Bactrians,
Bakhtiyaris).
These were not the only people who brought what has been called
Indo-Aryan speech in Bangladesh. Utimately from Anatolia came the
Majhis and Kaibarta (Phrygians and Kurdis) and possibly also Eastern
Mallas allied to the Majhis.
Some of the so-called Aryan tribes stopped their eastword journey in
North Central India.
Others including the defeated ones, and ones who established a
partership with agents of West Asian and Malay-Khemar trading,
sea-faring and mining interests migrated to Bengal, thus making Aryan
legacy of Bengal different from that of North Central India India as
early as fourth century BC.
Eastern Mallas could provide an example of the defeated ones. We can
imagine that their survivors came to Malda, Paba and Pabna and down
the old course of the river Paua(n) into Kustia, Jessore, Faridpur and
possibly into Barisal.
In Faridpur on the bank of the river Chandana we find the medieval
Muslim town of Banmaldih (Bonmaldiah).
In the sound of Paba and so forth, Eastern Mallas might have seen the
same sense of creepers pu(n)i as we see in malati. We discussed about
Pava in the second reference cited at the top.
If the Eastern Mallas came from the banks of the river Mala (Upper
Furat?), then creeping vines were once important for them. Turkish
city of Malatya (Roman Melitene, later Melid) near the Furat was an
important Hittite city.
One can find a website which says that in Late Hittite period Malatya
was called Maldya or Milidia using search engine.
In Hittite mahlas meant a branch of a grapevine (for the correct
transliteration, and for several related meanings and usage see Hans
Gueterbock and Harry Hoffner ed. The Hittite Dictionary, 1983).
Now both parts of Bengali malatī signify a creeper as balli
(????? ) and lata mean the same thing. The flower malatī is
commonly called beliphul in Bengali. Madhumalatī is jasmine. In
the latter word Bengali madhu for honey is interesting in view of the
Hittite word for honey (melitya).
Once Malatī had the same basic element of meaning as Melissa
(honeybee).
For more Hittite connection with the subcontinent please read,
7. "Behind the statue of Ganesh, Under the seat of Vishwanath."
Incidentally Malda can also be called the town of Bibi Malati.
I believe that in the Bengali word majhimalla we see the most
interesting interaction of Majhis, Mallas and Islam in Bangladesh. At
present malla is from an Arabic word for a sailor, and majhi is a
boatman. It seems that in the past Majhi-Malla was the Bengali variant
of Vajji-Malla (Phrygian-Malla).
This is what is called conversion on the sea in "Boats of Bangladesh
and the Bay of Bangladesh."
There was an idea, possibly from the colonial period, that Majhis were
the Muslim section of the Kaibartas in Bangladesh. This view is too
simplistic. They were close because Phrygians and Kurdis were close.
Gordius was a king of Phrygia.
Malla was also a royal title in the Bengal periphery and sometime in
Bangladesh too. This malla meant a wrestler. It could be either an
ethnic or a professional last name. It seems to be a Western Malla
legacy.
As a tribe Eastern Mallas were different from the tribes of Western
Malla and Middle Madra in Indian history. The latter two tribes show
strong so-called New-Aryan affiliation. Their accounts are as
confusing.
It is believed that in Punjab the name Madra assumed several different
forms. Suspected variations are Malla, Bhalla, Valla, Bhadra and
Mitra. Some people suspected that the Bhadra family of Samatata
(Barisal) were Madras.
According to Walker (who cited B. C. Law) Madras migrated towards
Bengal and were allied to Pal kings. As stated before, this type of
immigration to Bengal was insignificant in view of numerical
consideration.
Rajas of Bishnupur (Bakura) used the last name Malla before changing
to Singh. From the account of the Pandit of W. W. Hunter it appears
that the subject people of this Malabhumi were Bagdis. They elected a
deserted son of a visiting Indian couple to be their king who founded
the dynasty.
To recognize agendas in the reconstruction of a history that would
support the scheme of Indianization of Bengal. And to see if any
ancient elemental material of importance can be found in the recycled
products.
In this case we see a possible Jesus-Krishna element.
Is it simply a repetition, an usual characteristic of folklore? Or, is
it a coincidence not worth linking to similar stories? Is it due to
Bagdis coming from the West (Raghu Nath = Lord of Luts)? Or, is it an
influence of the port region which had both Sabiun and Gujarati
(Vaishnav) connection?
It is noteworthy that the Birs (heroes, possibly included Bagdis, not
clear) of Birbhooms wore balla (ornamental rings) and Hunter's Pandit
could not but mention it.
Strong presence of several Hittite related legacies, namely, Palaians,
Pulastians and Laks (Rakkhash?) can be suspected on the Northwestern,
Northern and Eastern periphery of Bangladesh. I want to inlcude the
well-known Pals of Bengal in this catagory.
Lak was clearly a Lut related people the name possibly originating
from a faulty pronunciation of Lut as a word having the meaning of a
lake (compare Lut with hrad ???? ). Kassites, Khallag-Khilgi and the
ancestors of the Celts in the West are the suspect.
This type of reinterpretation was commonplace because Lut interacted
with tribes scattered far and wide. Please read
8. "The Desert of Lut" and
9. "Aum Mani Padme Hum: O the Jewel of Lut!"
Interacting with the Chinese and Vietnamese and other Eastern tribes,
Eastern Laks lost completely their Aryan characteristics.
Much later the Kushans got mixed up with Bengalis. Then came the
Goalas (Ghosh). Although some Goalas (Gops) were present in Gaur
during the Sen period, their concentration was in Bihar and its West.
Dispersion of the Goalas to East Bengal seems to be a fairly recent
event. See Schwartzberg ed. "A Historical Atlas of South Asia," and
the article on Ahirs in the "Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics."
In reference to the list given above of possible Aryan-speaking
immigrants, none except the Bagerhatis and Bagdis, seem to show any
connection with the people who gave the name of the country Bangala.
These later people were more from Turko-Mongoloid than Aryan
background.
Predominantly Turko-Mongoloid ancient Bangal legacy now exists as a
collection of tribes called Akhar Pangra.
It seems a thread of them also came from the east of Fargana through
Panchala-Punjab. Often later colonists rename a place changing
slightly the previous pronunciation and giving the name a meaning they
understand.
We get a glimpse of the pre-colonial reality of Bengal in the story of
two Dases. Both had the name Krishnahari Das.
Both were Fakirs, disciples of Fakirs.
One wrote, "Bara Satyapīr o Sandhyabatī Kanya." We learn
about him in "Bangla Pīr-sahityer Katha" by Girindra Nath Das
(1976). It is not clear when this Krishnahari Das was present. His
mentor was Taher Mahmud.
" ... There are no ranks among you
Black snakes are all the same.
Show some respect towards Sannyasis and Fakirs
You are the reading shaitans." "????? ???????? ??? ??? ?? ?? ???
??????? ???? ???? ... ???? ???? ????? ?????"
The other was the favorite disciple of Fakir Aul Chand. Details of
both he and Aul Chand are obscure, and would have been interesting in
our effort to recover the lost information of the most critical period
in the history of Bengal. Fakir Aul Chand and his disciple Krishnahari
Das died in 1769-1770.
It is during these years one-third population of Bengal disappeared.
Why do Bengalis need to investigate this calamity? Please read,
"Boyale Qalandar, Boyalias and Boyalmaris: A Note on Bauls before
1831"