122-671: Gangasagar Mela ( Bengali : গঙ্গাসাগর মেলা ) is a mela and festival in Hinduism , held every year at Gangasagar , West Bengal , India. The confluence of the Ganges and the Bay of Bengal is called the Gangasagar , the fair is held every year on Makar Sankranti at Kapilmuni's ashram located on the Gangasagar. The mela is celebrated on 14 or 15 January every year. Gangasagar Mela
244-508: A beloved guest, and the murti is welcomed, taken care of, and then requested to retire. An image in Hinduism cannot be equated with a deity and the object of worship is the divine whose power is inside the image, and the image is not the object of worship itself, Hindus believe everything is worthy of worship as it contains divine energy emanating from the one god. According to the Agamas ,
366-500: A bid to lessen this burden on young learners, efforts have been made by educational institutions in the two main Bengali-speaking regions (West Bengal and Bangladesh) to address the opaque nature of many consonant clusters, and as a result, modern Bengali textbooks are beginning to contain more and more "transparent" graphical forms of consonant clusters, in which the constituent consonants of a cluster are readily apparent from
488-569: A definite shape or limits produced from material elements. It contrasts with the mind, thought, and immaterial in ancient Indian literature. The term also refers to any embodiment, manifestation, incarnation, personification, appearance, image, idol, or statue of a deity. The earliest mention of the term murti occurs in primary Upanishads composed in the 1st millennium BCE, particularly in verse 3.2 of Aitareya Upanishad , verse 1.13 of Shvetashvatara Upanishad , verse 6.14 of Maitrayaniya Upanishad and verse 1.5 of Prashna Upanishad . For example,
610-420: A deity, of any human being, animal or any art. Pratima includes murti as well as painting of any non-anthropomorphic object. In contrast, Bera or Bimba meant "idol of god" only, and Vigraha was synonymous with Bimba . A murti in contemporary usage is any image or statue. It may be found inside or outside a temple or home, installed to be moved with a festive procession ( utsava murti ), or just be
732-455: A different material symbol than one's own. In the history of Hinduism and India, states Pennington, Hindu deity images ( murti ) have been a religious lens for focusing this anti-Hindu polemic and was the basis for distortions, accusations and attacks by non-Indian religious powers and missionaries. Ancient Indian texts assert the significance of murti in spiritual terms. The Vāstusūtra Upaniṣad , whose palm-leaf manuscripts were discovered in
854-596: A different word from a speaker of Standard Bengali in Bangladesh, even though both words are of native Bengali descent. For example, the word salt is লবণ lôbôṇ in the east which corresponds to নুন nun in the west. Bengali exhibits diglossia , though some scholars have proposed triglossia or even n-glossia or heteroglossia between the written and spoken forms of the language. Two styles of writing have emerged, involving somewhat different vocabularies and syntax : Linguist Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar categorises
976-480: A diphthong. The total number of diphthongs is not established, with bounds at 17 and 31. An incomplete chart is given by Sarkar (1985) of the following: In standard Bengali, stress is predominantly initial. Bengali words are virtually all trochaic ; the primary stress falls on the initial syllable of the word, while secondary stress often falls on all odd-numbered syllables thereafter, giving strings such as in সহযোগিতা shô -hô- jo -gi- ta "cooperation", where
1098-411: A landmark. It is a significant part of Hindu iconography, and is implemented in many ways. Two major categories include: Beyond anthropomorphic forms of religious murti, some traditions of Hinduism cherish aniconism , where alternate symbols are shaped into a murti, such as the linga for Shiva, yoni for Devi, and the saligrama for Vishnu. Murti, when produced properly, are made according to
1220-692: A large scale and were communally limited. Owing to Bengal's geographic location, Bengali areas bordering non-Bengali regions have been influenced by each other. Small numbers of people in Midnapore , which borders Odisha , have used the Odia script to write in Bengali. In the border areas between West Bengal and Bihar , some Bengali communities historically wrote Bengali in Devanagari , Kaithi and Tirhuta . In Sylhet and Bankura , modified versions of
1342-682: A majority in Bangladesh speaks dialects notably different from SCB. Some dialects, particularly those of the Chittagong region, bear only a superficial resemblance to SCB. The dialect in the Chittagong region is least widely understood by the general body of Bengalis. The majority of Bengalis are able to communicate in more than one variety – often, speakers are fluent in Cholitobhasha (SCB) and one or more regional dialects. Even in SCB,
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#17327731923391464-455: A mental image than we can live without breathing. By the law of association, the material image calls up the mental idea and vice versa. Religious intolerance and polemics, state Halbertal and Margalit, have historically targeted idols and material symbols cherished by other religions, while encouraging the worship of material symbols of one's religion, characterizing the material symbols of others as grotesque and wrong, in some cases dehumanizing
1586-491: A murti is installed by priests through the Prana pratishta ceremony, where mantras are recited sometimes with yantras (mystic diagrams), whereby state Harold Coward and David Goa, the "divine vital energy of the cosmos is infused into the sculpture" and then the divine is welcomed as one would welcome a friend. The esoteric Hindu tantric traditions through texts such as Tantra-tattva follow elaborate rituals to infuse life into
1708-462: A murti, or the meditation on a Tirthankara in the case of Jainism, thus making the material of construction or the specific shape of the murti not spiritually important. According to John Keay , "Only after achieving remarkable expertise in the portrayal of the Buddha figure and of animal and human, did Indian stonemasons turn to produce images of the orthodox 'Hindu' deities". This view, however,
1830-467: A murti. Some tantra texts such as the Pancaratraraksa state that anyone who considers an icon of Vishnu as nothing but "an ordinary object" made of iron "goes to hell". The use of murti and particularly the prana protist consecration ceremony, states Buhnemann, has been criticized by Hindu groups. These groups state that this practice came from more recent "false tantra books", and there is not
1952-712: A part in the adoption of the English alphabet to write Bengali, with certain social media influencers publishing entire novels in Roman Bengali. Murti In the Hindu tradition, a murti ( Sanskrit : मूर्ति , romanized : mūrti , lit. ' form, embodiment, or solid object ' ) is a devotional image, such as a statue or icon, of a deity or saint used during puja and/or in other customary forms of actively expressing devotion or reverence - whether at Hindu temples or shrines. A mūrti
2074-404: A person is not the real person, a murti is an image in Hinduism but not the real thing, but in both cases the image reminds of something of emotional and real value to the viewer. When a person worships a murti, it is assumed to be a manifestation of the essence or spirit of the deity, the worshipper's spiritual ideas and needs are meditated through it, yet the idea of ultimate reality or Brahman
2196-576: A rounded total of 280 million) worldwide. The Bengali language is native to the region of Bengal , which comprises the present-day nation of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal . Besides the native region it is also spoken by the Bengalis living in Tripura , southern Assam and the Bengali population in the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands . Bengali is also spoken in
2318-656: A shrine, and the latter meaning images that were carried from place to place. Panini also mentions Devalaka , meaning custodians of images of worship who show the images but do not sell them, as well as Jivika as people whose source of livelihood was the gifts they received from devotees. In ancient Sanskrit texts that follow Panini's work, numerous references are found to divine images with terms such as Devagrha , Devagara , Devakula , Devayatana and others. These texts, states Noel Salmond, strongly suggest that temples and murti were in existence in ancient India by about 4th century BCE. Recent archaeological evidence confirms that
2440-551: A single word in the Vedas about such a ceremony. A Hindu prayer before cutting a tree for a murti Oh, Tree! you have been selected for the worship of a deity, Salutations to you! I worship you per rules, kindly accept it. May all who live in this tree, find residence elsewhere, May they forgive us now, we bow to them. — Brihat Samhita 59.10 - 59.11 The artists who make any art or craft, including murti, were known as shilpins . The formally trained Shilpins shape
2562-408: A special diacritic, called the hôsôntô (্) , may be added below the basic consonant grapheme (as in ম্ [m] ). This diacritic, however, is not common and is chiefly employed as a guide to pronunciation. The abugida nature of Bengali consonant graphemes is not consistent, however. Often, syllable-final consonant graphemes, though not marked by a hôsôntô , may carry no inherent vowel sound (as in
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#17327731923392684-581: A state language of the then Dominion of Pakistan . On 21 February 1952, five students and political activists were killed during protests near the campus of the University of Dhaka ; they were the first ever martyrs to die for their right to speak their mother tongue. In 1956, Bengali was made a state language of Pakistan. 21 February has since been observed as Language Movement Day in Bangladesh and has also been commemorated as International Mother Language Day by UNESCO every year since 2000. In 2010,
2806-635: A symbol of depravity and primitiveness, arguing that it was, states Tanisha Ramachandran, "the White Man's Burden to create a moral society" in India. This literature by the Christian missionaries constructed the foundation of a "Hindu image" in Europe, during the colonial era, and it blamed murti idolatry as "the cause for the ills of Indian society". By 19th-century, ideas such as pantheism (the universe
2928-463: A vowel in isolation from any preceding or following consonant, the independent form of the vowel is used. For example, in মই [moj] "ladder" and in ইলিশ [iliʃ] "Hilsa fish", the independent form of the vowel ই is used (cf. the dependent form ি) . A vowel at the beginning of a word is always realised using its independent form. In addition to the inherent-vowel-suppressing hôsôntô , three more diacritics are commonly used in Bengali. These are
3050-500: Is Bangladesh's national march, written by The National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam in Bengali in 1928. It was adopted as the national marching song by the Bangladeshi government in 1972. Additionally, the first two verses of Vande Mataram , a patriotic song written in Bengali by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee , was adopted as the "national song" of India in both the colonial period and later in 1950 in independent India. Furthermore, it
3172-468: Is a cursive script with eleven graphemes or signs denoting nine vowels and two diphthongs , and thirty-nine graphemes representing consonants and other modifiers. There are no distinct upper and lower case letter forms. The letters run from left to right and spaces are used to separate orthographic words . Bengali script has a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the graphemes that links them together called মাত্রা matra . Since
3294-652: Is a symbolic icon representing divinity for the purpose of devotional activities. Thus, not all icons of gods and saints are mūrti ; for example, purely decorative depictions of divine figures often adorn Hindu temple architecture in intricately carved doorframes, on colourfully painted walls, and ornately sculpted rooftop domes. A mūrti itself is not God, but it is merely a representative shape, symbolic embodiment, or iconic manifestation of God. Murti are also found in some nontheistic Jain traditions, where they serve as symbols of revered mortals inside Jain temples, and are worshiped in murtipujaka rituals. A murti
3416-580: Is also mentioned in Raghuvaṃśa , a Sanskrit epic poem written by the great poet Kalidasa in the fifth century AD. There is disagreement over the exact age of Kapil Muni's ashram. The temple of Kapil Muni is mentioned in the 16th century ancient Puthi Tirthaattvapradayini ( Bengali : তীর্থতত্ত্বপ্রদায়িনী ). An article about the Gangasagar Mela was printed on February 4, 1837, in the once popular Bengali newspaper Harkara ( Bengali : হরকরা ). It
3538-520: Is also spoken by the Bengali diasporas ( Bangladeshi diaspora and Indian Bengalis) across Europe, North America, the Middle East and other regions. Bengali was accorded the status of a classical language by the government of India on 3 October 2024. It is the second most spoken and fourth fastest growing language in India , following Hindi in the first place, Kashmiri in the second place, and Meitei ( Manipuri ), along with Gujarati , in
3660-400: Is an abugida , a script with letters for consonants, with diacritics for vowels, and in which an inherent vowel (অ ô ) is assumed for consonants if no vowel is marked. The Bengali alphabet is used throughout Bangladesh and eastern India (Assam, West Bengal, Tripura). The Bengali alphabet is believed to have evolved from a modified Brahmic script around 1000 CE (or 10th–11th century). It
3782-707: Is believed by many that the national anthem of Sri Lanka ( Sri Lanka Matha ) was inspired by a Bengali poem written by Rabindranath Tagore , while some even believe the anthem was originally written in Bengali and then translated into Sinhala . After the contribution made by the Bangladesh UN Peacekeeping Force in the Sierra Leone Civil War under the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone ,
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3904-721: Is considered a separate language, although it shares similarities to Northern Bengali dialects. During the standardisation of Bengali in the 19th century and early 20th century, the cultural centre of Bengal was in Kolkata , a city founded by the British. What is accepted as the standard form today in both West Bengal and Bangladesh is based on the West-Central dialect of Nadia and Kushtia District . There are cases where speakers of Standard Bengali in West Bengal will use
4026-586: Is held at Gangasagar , Sagar Dwip . The place belongs to South 24 Parganas district, West Bengal . The Mela is organized around Kapil Muni's ashram . The site of the Mela is on the banks of the confluence of the Ganges and the Bay of Bengal . Pilgrims from different states of India arrive on the occasion of Ganga bath and the Gangasagar Mela. Most of the pilgrims first arrive at Kolkata to visit Gangasagar. Transit camps are established in Kolkata every year for
4148-612: Is identical with God or Brahman ), contained in newly translated Sanskrit texts were linked to the idolatry of murti and declared as additional evidence of superstitions and evil by Christian missionaries and colonial authorities in British India. The polemics of Christian missionaries in colonial India triggered a debate among Hindus, yielding divergent responses. It ranged from activists such as Dayananda Saraswati who denounced all murti , to Vivekananda who refused to denounce murti and asked Hindus in India and Christians in
4270-404: Is known as Apabhraṃśa , by the end of the first millennium. The Bengali language evolved as a distinct language over the course of time. Though some archaeologists claim that some 10th-century texts were in Bengali, it is not certain whether they represent a differentiated language or whether they represent a stage when Eastern Indo-Aryan languages were differentiating. The local Apabhraṃśa of
4392-417: Is not confined in it. Devotional ( bhakti movement ) practices centered on cultivating a deep and personal bond of love with God, often expressed and facilitated with one or more murti, and includes individual or community hymns, japa or singing ( bhajan , kirtan or aarti ). Acts of devotion, in major temples particularly, are structured on treating the murti as the manifestation of a revered guest, and
4514-533: Is not shared by other scholars. Trudy King et al. state that stone images of reverential figures and guardian spirits ( yaksha ) were first produced in Jainism and Hinduism, by about 2 century BCE, as suggested by Mathura region excavations, and this knowledge grew into iconographic traditions and stone monuments in India including those for Buddhism. Neither the Hybrid Sanskrit of Mahayana Buddhism, nor
4636-656: Is organized on the occasion of the holy dip on Makar Sankranti , usually on January 14 or 15. Makar Sankranti is set by the solar cycle and corresponds to the exact time astronomical event of the Sun entering Capricorn and is observed on a day that usually falls on 14 January of the Gregorian calendar, but on 15 January in leap years. Makar Sankranti's date and time is analogous to Sidereal time of Zodiac sign of Capricorn (when sun enters). In 2023, holy dip started on January 14, 6:30 PM and ended on January 15, 6:53 PM. Gangasagar Mela
4758-406: Is performed to invoke the presence of the god or goddess into the physical form of the murti. In temples, this ceremony is a one-time event for a specific murti . In domestic rituals, the deity is invited to reside in the murti through avahana (invocation) each time a puja is conducted and then dispersed back at the end of the puja. Adorning a murti is mode that allows devotees to express love for
4880-490: Is set out below in the International Phonetic Alphabet (upper grapheme in each box) and romanisation (lower grapheme). Bengali is known for its wide variety of diphthongs , combinations of vowels occurring within the same syllable . Two of these, /oi̯/ and /ou̯/ , are the only ones with representation in script, as ঐ and ঔ respectively. /e̯ i̯ o̯ u̯/ may all form the glide part of
5002-405: Is the fifth most spoken native language and the seventh most spoken language by the total number of speakers in the world. It is the fifth most spoken Indo-European language . Bengali is the official , national , and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh , with 98% of Bangladeshis using Bengali as their first language. It is the second-most widely spoken language in India . It
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5124-638: Is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura and the Barak Valley region of the state of Assam . It is also the second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011. It is the most widely spoken language in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal , and is spoken by significant populations in other states including Bihar , Arunachal Pradesh , Delhi , Chhattisgarh , Meghalaya , Mizoram , Nagaland , Odisha and Uttarakhand . Bengali
5246-415: Is the royal road to moksha . Without the guidance of images, the mind of the devotee may go astray and form the wrong imagination. Images dispel false imaginations. [... ] It resides within the consciousness of "Rishis" (sages), who possess the ability to perceive the essence of all created things in their manifested forms. They observe the various attributes, the divine and the demoniac, the creative and
5368-476: Is the second largest Hindu fair (after Kumbh Mela ). Many people from different states of India come here every year to take a holy bath on Makar Sankranti day. In 2023, State minister Aroop Biswas said about 51 lakhs devotees gathered in the mela . The Gangasagar is mentioned in the Mahabharata's Vana Parva , which provides proof of the existence of the pilgrimage site in 1500–2000 BC. According to
5490-677: Is typically made by carving stone, wood working, metal casting or through pottery. Ancient era texts describing their proper proportions, positions and gestures include the Puranas , Agamas , and Samhitas . The expressions in a murti vary in diverse Hindu traditions, ranging from ugra ( transl. Angry ) symbolism to express destruction, fear, and violence ( Durga , Kali ) to saumya ( transl. Calm ) symbolism to express joy, knowledge, and harmony ( Saraswati , Lakshmi , and Ganesha ). Saumya images are most common in Hindu temples . Other murti forms found in Hinduism include
5612-492: Is unknown but probably from late 1st millennium CE, discusses the significance of images as, state Alice Boner and others, "inspiring, elevating and purifying influence" on the viewer and "means of communicating a vision of supreme truth and for giving a taste of the infinite that lies beyond". It adds (abridged): From the contemplation of images grows delight, from delight faith, from faith steadfast devotion, through such devotion arises that higher understanding ( parāvidyā ) that
5734-510: Is written, "The one temple in this place ( Sagar Dwip ) has been known to people for 1400 years. In this temple there is established a Siddhapurusha named Kapil Muni . Also, King Devapala of the Pala dynasty mentions in an inscription that he performed rituals at the confluence of the Gangasagar. During medieval times, pilgrims from every corner of the subcontinent defied many obstacles and dangers to reach Gangasagar on Makar Sankranti . During
5856-860: The Mahabharata , the Pandavas traveled from the banks of the river Kaushik and reached the Gangesagarasangam , Confluence of Ganges and Sagara (Sea). According to Hinduism , the "Gangasagarasangam" mentioned in the Mahabharata is Gangasagar in Sagardwip , situated at the estuary of the Bhagirathi-Hooghly rivers – one of the two main branches of the Ganges– on the sea coast of West Bengal . Legend has it that Kapilmuni ,
5978-491: The lingam . A murti is an embodiment of the divine, the ultimate reality or Brahman , to some Hindus. In a religious context, they are found in Hindu temples or homes, where they may be treated as a beloved guest and serve as a participant of puja . On other occasions, they serve as the centre of attention in annual festive processions; these are called utsava murti . The earliest murti are mentioned by Pāṇini in
6100-509: The Aesop's Fables in Bengali was printed using Roman letters based on English phonology by the Scottish linguist John Gilchrist . Consecutive attempts to establish a Roman Bengali have continued across every century since these times, and have been supported by the likes of Suniti Kumar Chatterji , Muhammad Qudrat-i-Khuda , and Muhammad Enamul Haq . The Digital Revolution has also played
6222-615: The Arabic , Persian , and Turkic languages . The arrival of merchants and traders from the Middle East and Turkestan into the Buddhist -ruling Pala Empire , from as early as the 7th century, gave birth to Islamic influence in the region. In the 13th century, subsequent Arab Muslim and Turco-Persian expeditions to Bengal heavily influenced the local vernacular by settling among the native population. Bengali absorbed Arabic and Persian influences in its vocabulary and dialect, including
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#17327731923396344-474: The Constitution of Bangladesh states Bengali to be the sole official language of Bangladesh. The Bengali Language Implementation Act, 1987 , made it mandatory to use Bengali in all records and correspondences, laws, proceedings of court and other legal actions in all courts, government or semi-government offices, and autonomous institutions in Bangladesh. It is also the de facto national language of
6466-579: The Kaithi script had some historical prominence, mainly among Muslim communities. The variant in Sylhet was identical to the Baitali Kaithi script of Hindustani with the exception of Sylhet Nagri possessing matra . Sylhet Nagri was standardised for printing in c. 1869 . Up until the 19th century, numerous variations of the Arabic script had been used across Bengal from Chittagong in
6588-723: The Middle Indo-Aryan dialects were influential in the first millennium when Bengal was a part of the Greater Magadhan realm. The local varieties had no official status during the Gupta Empire , and with Bengal increasingly becoming a hub of Sanskrit literature for Hindu priests, the vernacular of Bengal gained a lot of influence from Sanskrit. Magadhi Prakrit was also spoken in modern-day Bihar and Assam , and this vernacular eventually evolved into Ardha Magadhi . Ardha Magadhi began to give way to what
6710-524: The Nadia region . Bengali shows a high degree of diglossia , with the literary and standard form differing greatly from the colloquial speech of the regions that identify with the language. Modern Bengali vocabulary is based on words inherited from Magadhi Prakrit and Pali, along with tatsamas and reborrowings from Sanskrit and borrowings from Persian , Arabic , Austroasiatic languages and other languages with which it has historically been in contact. In
6832-607: The University of Karachi (established by East Pakistani politicians before Independence of Bangladesh ) also offers regular programs of studies at the Bachelors and at the Masters levels for Bengali Literature. The national anthems of both Bangladesh ( Amar Sonar Bangla ) and India ( Jana Gana Mana ) were written in Bengali by the Bengali Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore . Notuner Gaan known as " Chol Chol Chol"
6954-421: The bimba murti ( स्थूलमूर्ति / बिम्बमूर्ति ) is different from the mantra murti ( मन्त्रमूर्ति ) from the perspective of rituals, gestures, hymns and offerings. Some Hindu denominations like Arya Samaj and Satya Mahima Dharma reject idol worship . Worship of a murti involves various modes and rituals. Before a murti is worshipped, a ritual known as prana pratishta is conducted. This ritual
7076-499: The boldface represents primary and secondary stress. Native Bengali words do not allow initial consonant clusters ; the maximum syllabic structure is CVC (i.e., one vowel flanked by a consonant on each side). Many speakers of Bengali restrict their phonology to this pattern, even when using Sanskrit or English borrowings, such as গেরাম geram (CV.CVC) for গ্রাম gram (CCVC) "village" or ইস্কুল iskul (VC.CVC) for স্কুল skul (CCVC) "school". The Bengali-Assamese script
7198-557: The phonology of Eastern Bengali is seen through the lack of nasalised vowels and an alveolar articulation of what are categorised as the "cerebral" consonants (as opposed to the postalveolar articulation of western Bengal). Some varieties of Bengali, particularly Sylheti , Chittagonian and Chakma , have contrastive tone ; differences in the pitch of the speaker's voice can distinguish words. Kharia Thar and Mal Paharia are closely related to Western Bengali dialects, but are typically classified as separate languages. Similarly, Hajong
7320-623: The 16th century, Portuguese missionaries began a tradition of using the Roman alphabet to transcribe the Bengali language. Though the Portuguese standard did not receive much growth, a few Roman Bengali works relating to Christianity and Bengali grammar were printed as far as Lisbon in 1743. The Portuguese were followed by the English and French respectively, whose works were mostly related to Bengali grammar and transliteration. The first version of
7442-686: The 18th century. During the colonial era, Christian missionaries aiming to convert Hindus to Christianity wrote memoirs and books that were widely distributed in Europe, which Mitter, Pennington, and other scholars call fictionalized stereotypes, where murti were claimed as the evidence of lack of spiritual heritage in primitive Hindus, of "idolatry and savage worship of stones", practices akin to Biblical demons, calling murti monstrous devils or eroticized bizarre beings carved in stone. The British Missionary Society with colonial government's assistance bought and sometimes seized, then transferred murti from India and displayed it in their "trophies" room in
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#17327731923397564-560: The 1970s among remote villages of Orissa – four in Oriya language and one in crude Sanskrit , asserts that the doctrine of murti art making is founded on the principles of origin and evolution of universe, is a "form of every form of cosmic creator" that empirically exists in nature, and it functions to inspire a devotee towards contemplating the Ultimate Supreme Principle ( Brahman ). This text, whose composition date
7686-652: The 19th and 20th centuries, there were two standard forms of written Bengali: In 1948, the government of Pakistan tried to impose Urdu as the sole state language in Pakistan, giving rise to the Bengali language movement . This was a popular ethnolinguistic movement in the former East Bengal (today Bangladesh ), which arose as a result of the strong linguistic consciousness of the Bengalis and their desire to promote and protect spoken and written Bengali's recognition as
7808-457: The 4th century BCE. Prior to that, the agnicayana ritual ground seemed to serve as a template for the temple. A murti may also be referred to as a vigraha , pratima or simply deity . Hindu devotees go to the mandirs to take darshan , bringing prepared offerings of naivedya to be blessed at the altar before the deity , and to perform puja and aarti . Traditional Murti literally means any solid body or form with
7930-593: The 6th century, which competed with the ancestor of Bengali for some time. The ancestor of Bengali was the language of the Pala Empire and the Sena dynasty . During the medieval period, Middle Bengali was characterised by the elision of the word-final অ ô and the spread of compound verbs, which originated from the Sanskrit Schwa . Slowly, the word-final ô disappeared from many words influenced by
8052-449: The Bay of Bengal on the occasion of Makar Sankranti . Almost five-hundred thousand pilgrims thronged Gangasagar in 2008. For the rest of the year about 500,000 people come to the island. According to reports on 14 January 2018, 18-2 million people had visited Gangasagar in 2018, against 1.5 million in 2017. In 2023, about 51 lakhs pilgrims gathered in the Gangasagar Mela. The Gangasagar Mela
8174-456: The Bengali equivalent of a full stop – have been adopted from Western scripts and their usage is similar. Unlike in Western scripts (Latin, Cyrillic, etc.) where the letter forms stand on an invisible baseline, the Bengali letter-forms instead hang from a visible horizontal left-to-right headstroke called মাত্রা matra . The presence and absence of this matra can be important. For example,
8296-426: The Bengali script is an abugida, its consonant graphemes usually do not represent phonetic segments , but carry an "inherent" vowel and thus are syllabic in nature. The inherent vowel is usually a back vowel , either [ɔ] as in মত [m ɔ t] "opinion" or [o] , as in মন [m o n] "mind", with variants like the more open [ɒ] . To emphatically represent a consonant sound without any inherent vowel attached to it,
8418-566: The District Gazetteer. According to the person's writings, Kapilmuni's temple was temporary structure surrounded by a bamboo fence. In front of the temple was a huge banyan tree, under which were murti s (idols) of Rama and Hanuman. Gangasagar Mela is mentioned in the Bhāratēra Tīrthayātrā (in en: India's Pilgrimage) by Shri Madhavachandra Varman published in 1336 Baṅgābda . This text mentions "three days of bathing in
8540-487: The Gangasagar during Makara Sankranti in Poush or Magh month, the fair lasts for five days". After India's independence, the pilgrimage site began to flourish. Pictures of the temple were published in the Bengali book Gangasagar Mela O Pracina Aitihya by Tarundev Bhattacharya. According to the text, the permanent temple emerged in the form of a mature temple between 1964 and 1974. The Government of West Bengal assisted in
8662-482: The Maitrayaniya Upanishad uses the term to mean a "form, manifestation of time". The section sets out to prove Time exists, acknowledges the difficulty in proving Time exists by Pramana (epistemology in Indian philosophy), then inserts a theory of inductive inference for epistemological proof as follows, On account of the subtleness of Time, this is the proof of its reality; On account of this,
8784-538: The Pali of Theravada Buddhism has the word 'murti'. Major Hindu traditions such as Vaishnavism , Shaivism , Shaktism and Smartaism favour the use of murti. These traditions suggest that it is easier to dedicate time and focus on spirituality through anthropomorphic or non-anthropomorphic icons . Hindu scriptures such as the Bhagavad Gita , states in verse 12.5, It is much more difficult to focus on God as
8906-465: The Time is demonstrated. Because without proof, the assumption which is to be proved is not permissible; But, when one comprehends it in its parts, that which is itself to be proved or demonstrated becomes the ground of proof, through which it brings itself into consciousness (in an inductive way). The section includes the concept of Time and non-Time, stating that non-Time existed before the creation of
9028-480: The United Kingdom with the note claiming that these were given up by Hindus who now accept the "folly and sin of idolatry". In other instances, the colonial British authorities, seeking additional government revenue, introduced Pilgrim Tax on Hindus to view murti inside major temples. The missionaries and orientalist scholars attempted to justify the need for colonial rule of India by attacking murti as
9150-482: The Universal Principle (Brahman, god) within himself, there is no need for any temple or divine image for worship. For those who have yet to reach this height of realization, various symbolic manifestations through images, idols, and icons as well as mental modes of worship are offered as one of the spiritual paths in the Hindu way of life. This belief is repeated in ancient Hindu scriptures . For example,
9272-619: The Vedic era who had Deva in the form of murti, and the context of these hymns suggests that the term could be referring to practices of the tribal communities outside of the Vedic fold. One of the earliest firm textual evidence of Deva images, in the sense of murti , is found in Jivikarthe Capanye by the Sanskrit grammarian Pāṇini who lived about 4th-century BCE. He mentions Acala and Cala , with former referring to images in
9394-488: The Vedic era. The Vedic Hinduism rituals were directed at nature and abstract deities called during yajna with hymns. However, there isn't a universal consensus, with scholars such as AC Das, pointing to the word Mūradeva in Rig Veda verses 7.104.24, 10.87.2 and 10.87.14. This word may refer to " Deva who is fixed" or "Deva who is foolish". The former interpretation, if accurate, may imply that there were communities in
9516-586: The West to introspect, that images are used everywhere to help think and as a road to ideas, in the following words, Superstition is a great enemy of man, but bigotry is worse. Why does a Christian go to church? Why is the cross holy? Why is the face turned toward the sky in prayer? Why are there so many images in the Catholic Church? Why are there so many images in the minds of Protestants when they pray? My brethren, we can no more think about anything without
9638-486: The area near the murti. The texts recommend that the material of construction and relative scale of murti be correlated to the scale of the temple dimensions, using twelve types of comparative measurements. Neither the Hybrid Sanskrit of Mahayana Buddhism, nor the Pali of Theravada Buddhism has the word 'murti'. PK Acharya imputed the Hinduïstic word murti on Buddhist iconography, in which he erred. In Southern India,
9760-536: The basis of modern standard colloquial Bengali. In the dialects prevalent in much of eastern and south-eastern Bangladesh ( Barisal , Chittagong , Dhaka and Sylhet Divisions of Bangladesh), many of the stops and affricates heard in West Bengal and western Bangladesh are pronounced as fricatives . Western alveolo-palatal affricates চ [ tɕɔ ] , ছ [ tɕʰɔ ] , জ [ dʑɔ ] correspond to eastern চ [tsɔ] , ছ [tsʰɔ~sɔ] , জ [dzɔ~zɔ] . The influence of Tibeto-Burman languages on
9882-469: The consonant which comes first is put on top of or to the left of the one that immediately follows. In these ligatures, the shapes of the constituent consonant signs are often contracted and sometimes even distorted beyond recognition. In the Bengali writing system, there are nearly 285 such ligatures denoting consonant clusters. Although there exist a few visual formulas to construct some of these ligatures, many of them have to be learned by rote. Recently, in
10004-419: The construction of a permanent temple in the 1970s. In the following decades, the number of pilgrims to the fair increased. At present, millions of people congregate every year on the auspicious day of Makara Sankranti or Poush-Sankranti (mid-January) in the month of Poush to celebrate the Gangasagar fair and the pilgrimage site. In 2007, about 300,000 pilgrims took the holy dip where the Ganges (Hooghly) meets
10126-552: The convenience of pilgrims. All kinds of civic facilities are provided to these camps. The biggest obstacle to reaching Sagar Dwip is the Muri Ganga River; Pilgrims have to cross this river on their journey. However, due to the low navigability of the river, it is not possible to cross the river without tide . Every year, dredging is carried out in the river for uninterrupted ferry operation. Ferry services are operated between Kakdwip and Kachuberia, Sagar Dwip on
10248-507: The country. In India, Bengali is one of the 23 official languages . It is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal , Tripura and in Barak Valley of Assam . Bengali has been a second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011. In Pakistan , Bengali is a recognised secondary language in the city of Karachi mainly spoken by stranded Bengalis of Pakistan . The Department of Bengali in
10370-495: The daily routine can include awakening the murti in the morning and making sure that it "is washed, dressed, and garlanded." In Vaishnavism, the building of a temple for the murti is considered an act of devotion, but non-murti symbolism is also common wherein the aromatic tulsi plant or Saligrama is an aniconic reminder of the spiritualism in Vishnu. These puja rituals with the murti correspond to ancient cultural practices for
10492-720: The day of Ganga Bathing, Hindu devotees gather early in the morning and take a holy dip in the Ganges River . They offer offerings to Lord Surya and chant Lord Surya Mantra. After completing the rituals, people worship Kapil Muni and light a pradeep (Diya) with desi ghee . Some also perform Yajna and Homa on the day of Ganga bathing. Some devotees even observe a strict fast on Gangasana days. On this auspicious day of Ganga bathing, devotees express their gratitude to Goddess Ganga and seek forgiveness for their misdeeds knowingly or unknowingly. The District Administration of South 24 Parganas handed over special certificates to all
10614-537: The deity and visually and experientially connect with the nature of the god or goddess. In worship at a temple, the significant moment is when the adorned murti is revealed, and worshippers take darshan by witnessing the fully adorned murti . Murti and temples were well established in South Asia, before the start of Delhi Sultanate in the late 12th century CE. They became a target of destruction during raids and religious wars between Islam and Hinduism through
10736-486: The design rules of the Shilpa Shastras . They recommend materials, measurements, proportions, decoration, and symbolism of the murti. Explanation of the metaphysical significance of each stage of manufacture and the prescription of specific mantras to sanctify the process and evoke and invoke the power of the deity in the image are found in the liturgical handbooks the Agamas and Tantras . In Tantric traditions,
10858-477: The destructive forces, engaged in their eternal interplay. It is this vision of Rishis, of the gigantic drama of cosmic powers in eternal conflict, from which the Sthapakas [Silpins, murti , and temple artists] drew the subject matter for their work. In the fifth chapter of Vāstusūtra Upaniṣad, Pippalada asserts, "from tattva -rupa (essence of a form, underlying principle) come the pratirupani [images]". In
10980-604: The development of Dobhashi . Bengali acquired prominence, over Persian, in the court of the Sultans of Bengal with the ascent of Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah . Subsequent Muslim rulers actively promoted the literary development of Bengali, allowing it to become the most spoken vernacular language in the Sultanate. Bengali adopted many words from Arabic and Persian , which was a manifestation of Islamic culture on
11102-700: The east to Meherpur in the west. The 14th-century court scholar of Bengal, Nur Qutb Alam , composed Bengali poetry using the Persian alphabet . After the Partition of India in the 20th century, the Pakistani government attempted to institute the Perso-Arabic script as the standard for Bengali in East Pakistan ; this was met with resistance and contributed to the Bengali language movement. In
11224-553: The eastern subcontinent, Purbi Apabhraṃśa or Abahatta (lit. 'meaningless sounds'), eventually evolved into regional dialects, which in turn formed three groups, the Bengali–Assamese languages , the Bihari languages , and the Odia language . The language was not static: different varieties coexisted and authors often wrote in multiple dialects in this period. For example, Ardhamagadhi is believed to have evolved into Abahatta around
11346-557: The emergence of Bangladesh in 1971. In 1999, UNESCO recognised 21 February as International Mother Language Day in recognition of the language movement. Although Sanskrit has been spoken by Hindu Brahmins in Bengal since the 3rd century BC, the local Buddhist population spoke varieties of the Prakrit . These varieties are generally referred to as "eastern Magadhi Prakrit ", as coined by linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji , as
11468-484: The field – scientific, commercial, religious – there can be no knowledge without an icon", images are part of how human beings learn and focus their thoughts, icons are necessary and inseparable from spiritual endeavors in Jainism . While murti are an easily and commonly visible aspect of Hinduism, they are not necessary for Hindu worship. Among Hindus, states Gopinath Rao, one who has realized Self (Soul, Atman ) and
11590-466: The final ন in মন [m o n] or the medial ম in গামলা [ɡamla] ). A consonant sound followed by some vowel sound other than the inherent [ɔ] is orthographically realised by using a variety of vowel allographs above, below, before, after, or around the consonant sign, thus forming the ubiquitous consonant-vowel typographic ligatures . These allographs, called কার kar , are diacritical vowel forms and cannot stand on their own. For example,
11712-726: The government of Ahmad Tejan Kabbah declared Bengali as an honorary official language in December 2002. In 2009, elected representatives in both Bangladesh and West Bengal called for Bengali to be made an official language of the United Nations . Regional varieties in spoken Bengali constitute a dialect continuum . Linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji grouped the dialects of Bengali language into four large clusters: Rarhi , Vangiya , Kamrupi and Varendri ; but many alternative grouping schemes have also been proposed. The south-western dialects ( Rarhi or Nadia dialect) form
11834-499: The graph মি [mi] represents the consonant [m] followed by the vowel [i] , where [i] is represented as the diacritical allograph ি (called ই-কার i-kar ) and is placed before the default consonant sign. Similarly, the graphs মা [ma] , মী [mi] , মু [mu] , মূ [mu] , মৃ [mri] , মে [me~mɛ] , মৈ [moj] , মো [mo] and মৌ [mow] represent the same consonant ম combined with seven other vowels and two diphthongs. In these consonant-vowel ligatures,
11956-412: The graphical form. However, since this change is not as widespread and is not being followed as uniformly in the rest of the Bengali printed literature, today's Bengali-learning children will possibly have to learn to recognise both the new "transparent" and the old "opaque" forms, which ultimately amounts to an increase in learning burden. Bengali punctuation marks, apart from the downstroke । daṛi –
12078-485: The knowledge and art of sculpture was established in India by the Maurya Empire period (~3rd century BCE). By the early 1st millennium BCE, the term murti meant idols, images, or statues in various Indian texts such as Bhavishya Purana verse 132.5.7, Brihat Samhita 1.8.29, and inscriptions in different parts of India. The term murti has been a more generic term referring to an idol or statue of anyone, either
12200-494: The language as: While most writing is in Standard Colloquial Bengali (SCB), spoken dialects exhibit a greater variety. People in southeastern West Bengal, including Kolkata, speak in SCB. Other dialects, with minor variations from Standard Colloquial, are used in other parts of West Bengal and western Bangladesh, such as the Midnapore dialect, characterised by some unique words and constructions. However,
12322-547: The language. Major texts of Middle Bengali (1400–1800) include Yusuf-Zulekha by Shah Muhammad Sagir and Srikrishna Kirtana by the Chandidas poets. Court support for Bengali culture and language waned when the Mughal Empire conquered Bengal in the late 16th and early 17th century. The modern literary form of Bengali was developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries based on the west-central dialect spoken in
12444-428: The letter ত tô and the numeral ৩ "3" are distinguishable only by the presence or absence of the matra , as is the case between the consonant cluster ত্র trô and the independent vowel এ e , also the letter হ hô and Bengali Ôbogroho ঽ (~ô) and letter ও o and consonant cluster ত্ত ttô . The letter-forms also employ the concepts of letter-width and letter-height (the vertical space between
12566-466: The material used predominantly for murti is black granite , while the material in North India is white marble . However, for some Hindus, it is not the materials used that matter, but the faith and meditation on the universal Absolute Brahman. More particularly, devotees meditate or worship on the formless God (nirguna Brahman ) through murti symbolism of God (saguna Brahman) during a puja before
12688-526: The murti are the artistic tradition. The texts recommend materials of construction, proportions, postures, and mudra, symbolic items the murti holds in its hands, colors, garments, and ornaments to go with the murti of each god or goddess, vehicles of deities such as Garuda , bull and lion, and other details. The texts also include chapters on the design of Jaina and Buddhist murti, as well as reliefs of sages, apsaras, different types of devotees (based on bhakti yoga, jnana yoga, karma yoga, ascetics) to decorate
12810-660: The murti not following fancy but following canonical manuals such as the Agamas and the Shilpa Shastras texts such as Vishvakarma. The material of construction range from clay to wood to marble to metal alloys such as panchaloha . The sixth century Brihat Samhita and eighth-century text Manasara-Silpasastra (literally: "treatise on art using the method of measurement"), identify nine materials for murti construction – gold, silver, copper, stone, wood, Sudha (a type of stucco, mortar plaster), sarkara (gravel, grit), Bahasa (marble types), and earth (clay, terracotta). For Bahasa ,
12932-605: The neighbouring states of Odisha , Bihar , and Jharkhand , and sizeable minorities of Bengali speakers reside in Indian cities outside Bengal, including Delhi , Mumbai , Thane , Varanasi , and Vrindavan . There are also significant Bengali-speaking communities in the Middle East , the United States , Singapore , Malaysia , Australia , Canada , the United Kingdom , and Italy . The 3rd article of
13054-420: The occasion of fairs and Ganga bath. Several temporary jetties were constructed for faster and more pilgrim transport. All vessels and buses can be monitored from a central control room. GPS and NAVIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation) technology is used in all the transport vehicles of Sagar Dwip for surveillance. Vessels are also provided with navigation lights to prevent visibility problems due to fog. On
13176-458: The others and encouraging the destruction of idols of the others. The outsider conflates and stereotypes the "strange worship" of the other religions as "false worship" first, then calls "false worship" as "improper worship and false belief" of pagan or an equivalent term, thereafter constructing an identity of the others as "primitive and barbarians" that need to be saved, followed by justified intolerance and often violence against those who cherish
13298-517: The parliament of Bangladesh and the legislative assembly of West Bengal proposed that Bengali be made an official UN language. As of January 2023, no further action has been yet taken on this matter. However, in 2022, the UN did adopt Bangla as an unofficial language, after a resolution tabled by India. In 2024, the government of India conferred Bengali with the status of classical language . Approximate distribution of native Bengali speakers (assuming
13420-405: The perilous journey, the pilgrims faced diseases like cholera and small pox . Due to the danger and death faced by the pilgrims the phrase originated — saba tīrtha bāra bāra, gaṅgāsāgara ēkabāra . Kapalkundala , a Bengali novel written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay , depicts a perilous journey to reach the Gangasagar. In 1914 AD, a man named Wilson mentions the temple of Kapilmuni in
13542-608: The pilgrims who came to Gangasagar Mela. Apart from the photo and phone number of the pilgrims, the certificates also contain a greeting message from the state government . Bengali language Bengali , also known by its endonym Bangla ( বাংলা , Bāṅlā , [ˈbaŋla] ), is a classical Indo-Aryan language from the Indo-European language family native to the Bengal region of South Asia. With over 237 million native speakers and another 41 million as second language speakers as of 2024, Bengali
13664-511: The progenitor of Samkhya philosophy, had an ashram at Gangasagara . Sixty thousand sons of Sagara King were consumed by Kapilmuni's wrath and their Ātman s (souls) were thrown into Naraka (hell) . Bhagiratha , the grandson of the Sagara king, brought the Ganga from Svarga (heaven) to wash the remains of the Sagara's sons and free their Ātman s (souls). The Gangasagar pilgrimage
13786-563: The sanctum sanctorum's door height, the Pratima height and the sanctum sanctorum room's width be in the ratio of 0.292, it stands on a pedestal that is 0.146 of sanctum room width, thereafter the text describes 20 types of temples with their dimensions. Chapter 58 of the text describes the ratios of various anatomical parts of a murti, from head to toe, along with the recommendation in verse 59.29 that generally accepted variations in dress, decoration, and dimensions of local regional traditions for
13908-513: The sixth chapter, Pippalada repeats his message that the artist portrays the particular and universal concepts, with the statement "the work of the Sthapaka is a creation similar to that of the Prajapati " (that which created the universe). Non-theistic Jaina scholars such as Jnansundar, states John Cort, have argued the significance of murti along the same lines, asserting that "no matter what
14030-427: The so-called "inherent" vowel [ɔ] is first expunged from the consonant before adding the vowel, but this intermediate expulsion of the inherent vowel is not indicated in any visual manner on the basic consonant sign ম [mɔ] . The vowel graphemes in Bengali can take two forms: the independent form found in the basic inventory of the script and the dependent, abridged, allograph form (as discussed above). To represent
14152-536: The superposed chôndrôbindu (ঁ) , denoting a suprasegmental for nasalisation of vowels (as in চাঁদ [tʃãd] "moon"), the postposed ônusbar (ং) indicating the velar nasal [ŋ] (as in বাংলা [baŋla] "Bengali") and the postposed bisôrgô (ঃ) indicating the voiceless glottal fricative [h] (as in উঃ! [uh] "ouch!") or the gemination of the following consonant (as in দুঃখ [dukʰːɔ] "sorrow"). The Bengali consonant clusters ( যুক্তব্যঞ্জন juktôbênjôn ) are usually realised as ligatures, where
14274-498: The texts describe working methods for various types of marble, specialized stones, colors, and a range of opacity (transparent, translucent and crystal). Brihat Samhita , a 6th-century encyclopedia of a range of topics from horticulture to astrology to gemology to murti and temple design, specifies in Chapter 56 that the pratima (murti) height should be 7 8 {\displaystyle {\tfrac {7}{8}}} of
14396-654: The third place, according to the 2011 census of India . Bengali has developed over more than 1,400 years. Bengali literature , with its millennium-old literary history, was extensively developed during the Bengali Renaissance and is one of the most prolific and diverse literary traditions in Asia. The Bengali language movement from 1948 to 1956 demanding that Bengali be an official language of Pakistan fostered Bengali nationalism in East Bengal leading to
14518-498: The universe, and time came into existence with the creation of the universe. Non-time is indivisible, time is divisible, and the Maitri Upanishad then asserts that the "year is the mūrti of time". Robert Hume translates the discussion of " mūrti of time", in verse 6.14 of the Maitri Upanishad, as "form". Western scholarship on Hinduism emphasizes that there was neither murti nor temples nor idol-facilitated worship in
14640-405: The unmanifested than God with form, due to human beings needing to perceive via the senses. In Hinduism, a murti itself is not god, it is an image of god and thus a symbol and representation. A murti is a form and manifestation of the formless Absolute. Thus a literal translation of murti as 'idol' is incorrect, when idol is understood as superstitious end in itself. Just like the photograph of
14762-484: The visible matra and an invisible baseline). There is yet to be a uniform standard collating sequence (sorting order of graphemes to be used in dictionaries, indices, computer sorting programs, etc.) of Bengali graphemes. Experts in both Bangladesh and India are currently working towards a common solution for this problem. Throughout history, there have been instances of the Bengali language being written in different scripts, though these employments were never popular on
14884-435: The vocabulary may differ according to the speaker's religion: Muslims are more likely to use words of Persian and Arabic origin, along with more words naturally derived from Sanskrit ( tadbhava ), whereas Hindus are more likely to use tatsama (words directly borrowed from Sanskrit). For example: The phonemic inventory of standard Bengali consists of 29 consonants and 7 vowels, as well as 7 nasalised vowels . The inventory
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