Bhang

“ Wilson writes the word bānglā, giving it as a Bengālī word, and as probably derived from Banga, Bengal. This is fundamentally the etymology mentioned by Bp. Heber in his Journal (see below) , and that etymology is corroborated by our first quotation, from a native historian, as well as by that from F. Buchanan. It is to be remembered that in Hindustan proper the adjective 'of or belonging to Bengal' is constantly pronounced as bangălā or banglā. Thus one of the eras used in E. India is distinguished as the Banglā era. ”

“ It is not only to the voyager fresh from home that the ascent of the Ganges is novel and interesting. These things are as new to the resident of Madras as are the scenes of Italy to the Englishman. The people of Bengal differ from those of Southern India in language, dress, and looks, as well as in other respects. In frame, they are more slightly built, and less manly; indeed, they have the reputation of being the most effeminate of the Hindu races. ”

“ A native of Bengal [Baboo] . In the following early occurrence in Portuguese, Bengala is used:
1552.—"In the defence of the bridge died three of the King's captains and Tuam Bandam, to whose charge it was committed, a Bengali (Bengala) by nation, and a man sagacious and crafty in stratagems rather than a soldier (cavalheiro) ."—Barros, II., vi. iii. [1610.—"Bangasalys." See quotation from Teixeira under BANKSHALL.]
A note to the Seir Mutaqherin quotes a Hindustani proverb: Bangālī jangālī, Kashmīrī bepīrī, i.e. ”

“ Banga, the Hindu name for the Delta of the Ganges.
Ban`galore (180) , the largest town in Mysore, and the capital; stands high; is manufacturing and trading.
Banghis, a low-caste people in the Ganges valley.
Bangk`ok (500) , the capital of Siam, on the Menam; a very striking city; styled, from the canals which intersect it, the “Venice of the East”; 20 m. from the sea; the centre of the foreign trade, carried on by Europeans and Chinese; with the royal palace standing on an island, in the courtyard of which several white elephants are kept. ”

“ As a fruit of that meeting, a statue of the first Principal of the Sanskrit College has been set up in the College-building as a tribute of respect to the great man.
But is this sufficient? Who is to answer the question? The natives of Bengal must consider themselves fortunate that they have been able to do so much. Most surely, they have won a very bad name that they are great in words, but small in deeds. How often have they assembled in large gatherings rending the walls of the room with loud vociferations of their thundering eloquence, and how often have they failed in deeds! ”

“ But if Bengal were ever to realise this noble destiny, she must have a language strong enough for such a titanic mission and she must evolve a literature dynamic enough to enlighten and to inspire the imagination of the entire people of India. ”

“ Currently Bangla seems to be the more politically correct term (compare Negro and African American) . As for unicode glyphs, the ones proposed by me are unicode only, is it not? Hrishikes (talk) 12:03, 19 April 2015 (UTC) More details: For the land: Bangla or Banga in native, Bengal in English (general term; specifically, East Bengal now known as Bangladesh; West Bengal known as such in English and as Paschim Banga/Bangla in native. For the language: Bangla in native, Bengali in English. For the people: Bangali in native, Bengalee in English (these days spelled as the language) . ”

“ Then, that as we must live in the house and in the dark, it was good economy of Providence to make Bengal so hideous. If it were beautiful nobody could see it, and, as it is a frightful plain, it is perhaps advantageous to see so little of it. ”

“ In Bengal, where the people are chiefly of the peasant class, these sayings are accepted as a guide by millions;—the wisdom they display is the result of acute observation of nature and has a special significance in regard to the soil and climate of Bengal. ”

“ Through the stark, swollen, heat-scorched yellowness of Bengal, with fleeting glimpses of blue-garbed natives tilling the fields and patient buffaloes turning the water wheels and once in a while a squat, shimmering city seen vaguely through the delicate tracery of the trees! ”

“ He had gained admission to the caste of Whigs, whose battle-cry was "Knowledge for the People," and his brilliant rhetoric overpowered the arguments of champions of oriental learning. Every one with a smattering of Sanskrit, Arabic or Persian, regrets the fact that those glorious languages have not been adequately cultivated in modern India. Bengali is a true daughter of the Sanskrit; it has Italian sweetness and German capacity for expressing abstract ideas. No degree of proficiency in an alien tongue can compensate for the neglect of the vernacular. ”

“ When I am speaking of the Hindus of Bengal, I am at once reminded of the Mahomedans of Bengal. They have also lived in Bengal; they have lived with us, by our side and have been surrounded by the same environments and whatever our religious differences may be, there can hardly be any question that their interests and our interests, in point of education, in point of culture, and in point of nationality are the same. ”

“ The ancient Banga formed one of the five outlying kingdoms of Aryan India, and was practically conterminous with the delta of Bengal. It derived its name, according to the etymology of the Pundits, from a prince of the Mahabharata, to whose portion it fell on the primitive partition of the country among the Lunar race of Delhi. But a city called Bangala, near Chittagong, which, although now washed away, is supposed to have existed in the Mahommedan period, appears to have given the name to the European world. ”

“ In Bengal there are at least trees, and everything is green, and there is the river, which leads to the sea, which leads home. Here there is nothing but dust and ruins, and no way out of it if one is ever so ill; even natives cannot travel in the hot winds.
We have left Captain —— and Giles at Agra to hurry on buildings, make up beds, mosquito houses, &c., and we have come out to visit Neighbour Dholepore and Neighbour Gwalior—only six marches—but then we stay four or five days pleasantly with each, so that we shall be away more than three weeks. ”

“ Janghera, thus happily placed between the rugged scenery of the upper provinces, and the smiling landscapes of Bengal, partakes of the nature of both: the Ganges spreads itself like a sea at the foot of the rock, which on the land-side overlooks a wide expanse of fertile country, having for a back-ground the low ranges of hills which separate Behar from Bengal. ”

“ What language being acquired, shall I be able to do the business of this country? Sir, this is Bengal. The Bengal writing, reading, and language, are current here. There will be no objection to your studying other languages afterwards; but first there is a necessity for the Bengalee language, and a knowledge of reading and writing it.
Continuation.
Hear! In how long time shall I be able to do business, if I attend to learning?
Gentlemen are of fertile genius and good understanding; therefore by learning for two years, they may be able to do business. ”

“ Hastings, Burke, vii. 111.
⁠"⁠ "A practice has gradually crept in among the Banians and other rich men of Calcutta, of dressing some of their servants ... nearly in the uniform of the Honourable Company's Sepoys and Lascars...."—Notification, in Seton Karr, i. 122.
1788.—"Banyan—A Gentoo servant employed in the management of commercial affairs. Every English gentleman at Bengal has a Banyan who either acts of himself, or as the substitute of some great man or black merchant."—Indian Vocabulary (Stockdale) . ”

“ The ready memorizing people of tropical Bengal are as exuberant as the vegetation around them, and like the vegetation, they are watery, without strength or firmness. How different from the sturdy hardwood forests of the north and its hardy, brave people! Take a Hindu, a Bengali, with his slender 297worm-like fingers, and transplant him to Norway. ”

“ There is a depth of feeling and breadth of peace in a Bengal sunset behind the trees which fringe the endless solitary fields, spreading away to the horizon.
Lovingly, yet sadly withal, does our evening sky bend over and meet the earth in the distance. It casts a mournful light on the earth it leaves behind—a light which gives us a taste of the divine grief of the Eternal Separation{1} and eloquent is the silence which then broods over earth, sky, and waters. ”

“ Several facts, easily verifiable, have to be first of all noticed:— (1) Manu in his many enumerations of Indian races, kingdoms and places, never once mentions Bengal; the Aryan Brahmans had not yet reached, in the days when his Code was compiled, the banks of the Ganges nor the plains of Bengal. It was Arjuna who went first to Banga (Bengal) with his sacrificial horse. [Yavanas are mentioned in Rajdharma Anasasanika Parva as part of the tribes peopling it.] (2) In the Ayun a list of the Hindu kings of Bengal is given. ”

“ Allowance being made for the loss which an original author cannot but sustain by the transfer of his style and method into another language and system of thought, it will be confessed, I think, that the reputation of "Bankim Babu" is well deserved, and that Bengal has here produced a writer of true genius, whose vivacious invention, dramatic force, and purity of aim, promise well for the new age of Indian vernacular literature. ”

“ Vāra Masī or 'twelve months' a favourite subject.The sky of Bengal, clear and transparent in the early spring, foggy in winter, and full of frowning clouds and angry flashes of lightnings in the rainy months, ever changing its aspects from month to month, cannot fail to strike a keen observer of nature with the clearly defined lines of its varied weather. The various seasons produce different results on the human system, on the paddy-fields, and on the variegated flowers and leaves of trees with which the villages abound. ”

“ This is the first time I am here, and never before knew Bengal was so beautiful. You ought to have seen the rivers here — regular rolling oceans of fresh water, and everything so green — continual production. The villages are the cleanest and prettiest in all India. ”

“ It is no doubt a speciality in Bengal that though the real portion of the name of a man does not require any additional word, such words, as চন্দ্র, নাথ, etc., are added to the names, but it is not on account of this alone, that the Bengali names indicate the nationality of the men bearing the names to the people of other provinces. ”

“ The inundation which overflows Bengal, especially in the districts of Nattore, Dacca, Jessore, the southern parts of Rungpore, and a part of Mahomed-Shi, is, perhaps, one of the most curious of nature’s phenomena! The wisdom of our Creator is most conspicuously shewn in the appropriation of sustenance, both for the human and for the brute species, suited to meet this annual visitation of the waters. ”

“ Benfey, Theodor, Orientalist, born near Göttingen, of Jewish birth; a great Sanskrit scholar, and professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology at his native place; author of "Lexicon of Greek Roots," "Sanskrit Grammar," &c. (1809-1881) .
Bengal (76,643) , one of the three Indian presidencies, but more particularly a province lying in the plain of the Lower Ganges and the delta of the Ganges-Brahmaputra, with the Himalayas on the N. At the base of the mountains are great forests; along the seaboard dense jungles. ”

“ I was no longer the lady of the Rajah's house, but the sole representative of Bengal's womanhood. And he was the champion of Bengal. As the sky had shed its light over him, so he must receive the consecration of a woman's benediction. ”

“ But life has its side which is vigorously destructive and full of uncertainties and contradictions. The signs of perturbation so evident in Bengal, in her social and religious life, in her intellectual adjustments, only show that creative ideas are at work in the centre of her being. I trust I do not merely prove my patriotic bias by saying that, of all countries in the East, Bengal is most earnestly engaged in the exploration of life's ideal. ”

“ Inspite of all these traditions, we are inclined to believe, that these sayings contain the accumulated wisdom of the Bengal peasantry,—they are the heritage of an agricultural race to which the unassuming rural folk of Bengal have unconsciously contributed through ages, and that no particular person or persons should be credited with their authorship. ”

“ The kingdom of Bengal has been long under the power of the Mahomedans, yet there are many Gentile inhabitants. Wherever I speak of Gentiles I am to be understood as signifying idolaters, and by Moors I mean the followers of Mahomet. The inhabitants of the inland country do greatly worship the river Ganges; for if any one is sick, he is brought from the country to the banks of the river, where they build for him a cottage of straw, and every day they bathe him in the river. ”

“ Early Bengali works by the Buddhists.The Çunya Purāṅa by Rāmāi Pandit, Chāryāchāryaviniçchay by Kānu Bhatta, the poems known as Dharma-mangal, and ballads and songs in honour of some of the Pāl Kings of Bengal bear distinct stamps of Buddhism on them. The ballads of the Pāl Kings, who were great patrons of Buddhism, indicate the marvellous power wielded by Gorakṣanāth and Hāḍisiddha, the great Buddhistic saints. ”

“ The aerial root of the Peepul tree (বট) is called বয়া in many parts of Bengal. (13) বশা, a calf almost mature enough to become a cow; in this very sense the word is in use in the district of Sambalpur, where it is pronounced as বছা. The word is in use in the Bengali-speaking district of Purulia. (14) বাশী occurs also in Pāli and our বাশ is exactly the instrument which is used by the carpenters. (15) শিম্বল—its synonym শাল্‌মলী is in use in Sanskrit, while our শিমুল comes directly from শিম্বল through the medium of Pāli. ”