91-628: Rajshahi ( Bengali : রাজশাহী , [radʒ.ʃaɦi] ) is a metropolitan city and a major urban , administrative, commercial and educational centre of Bangladesh . It is also the administrative seat of the eponymous division and district . Located on the north bank of the Padma River , near the Bangladesh–India border , the city is surrounded by the satellite towns of Nowhata and Katakhali , which together build an urban agglomeration of about 1 million population. Modern Rajshahi lies in
182-523: A tropical wet and dry climate . The climate of Rajshahi is generally marked with monsoons , high temperature, considerable humidity and moderate rainfall. The hot season commences early in March and continues till the middle of July. The maximum mean temperature observed is about 32 to 36 °C (90 to 97 °F) during the months of April, May, June and July and the minimum temperature recorded in January
273-572: A Christian missionary hospital within the city area. Rajshahi, commonly referred to as Education City (Sikkha Nogori), is home to many government and private educational institutions. The city is home to the Rajshahi College - which is the third oldest college in Bangladesh after Dhaka College , and Chittagong College . Rajshahi Medical College is the second oldest medical college in erstwhile East Pakistan. The University of Rajshahi
364-419: A Commissioner, controls law and order as well as traffic movements within the metropolitan area. Rajshahi Unnayan Kortripokhkho/Rajshahi Development Authority (RDA) plans and coordinates the development-related works within the metropolitan area. Rajshahi WASA is responsible for the water supply and drainage system within the city area. As of the 2022 census, Rajshahi City Corporation had 133,887 households and
455-500: 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
546-537: 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
637-480: 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
728-692: 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
819-682: 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,
910-870: A part in the adoption of the English alphabet to write Bengali, with certain social media influencers publishing entire novels in Roman Bengali. Barind Tract Barind Tract (alternately called the Varendra Tract in English and Borendro Bhumi in Bengali ) is the largest Pleistocene era physiographic unit in the Bengal Basin . It covers most of Dinajpur , Rangpur , Pabna , Rajshahi , Bogra , and Joypurhat districts of Rajshahi Division and Rangpur Division in Bangladesh . It
1001-421: A population of 553,288. 13.27% of the population was under 10 years of age. Rajshahi had a literacy rate of 88.88% for those 7 years and older and a sex ratio of 106.11 males per 100 females. Bengali is the main language for the citizens of the city. Many distinctive Bengali dialects and regional languages are also spoken. There is a minority Urdu-speaking population, who are descendants of displaced Muslims from
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#17327649238571092-576: 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
1183-408: 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
1274-581: 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,
1365-463: 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
1456-456: Is "Mintu Chottor" at Lokkhipur Mor, Rajshahi. Rajshahi is connected to most other parts of the country via the N6 national highway. There are two intercity bus terminals in the city. It takes about 5 to 6 hours by road to reach the capital city Dhaka . Several bus services, including air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned buses, are available to and from Dhaka. Bus services to other major cities and
1547-500: 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
1638-547: 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 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
1729-468: 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
1820-535: Is a historic center of silk production. Varendra Research Museum , the oldest of its kind in Bangladesh, is located in the city. Sometimes the city is referred as the City of Education . The city is home to many renowned educational institutions of Bangladesh. The head office of Rajshahi Agricultural Development Bank and Barind Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA) is situated in the city. The Shah Makhdum Airport serves Rajshahi. According to The Guardian , Rajshahi
1911-733: Is about 7 to 16 °C (45 to 61 °F). The highest rainfall is observed during the months of monsoon. The annual rainfall in the district is about 1,448 millimetres (57.0 in). Although once noted for its air pollution, since 2014 the levels of particulates have been dramatically reduced by various efforts to switch to cleaner fuels and to battery-powered vehicles, to pave earth streets, to encourage walking and bicycle transport, and to plant vegetation. The levels of PM10 dropped by 67% and PM2.5 which are particularly harmful to human health, dropped from 70 to 37 micrograms per cubic metre between 2014 and 2016..Lowest recorded temperature in Rajshahi
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#17327649238572002-415: Is also the home of Bangladesh Premier League team Rajshahi Kings . The city has two cricket academies Banglatrack and Clemon, to grow and train upcoming cricketers. Rajshahi is also known for hockey. Many local hockey practice clubs allow playing at national, inter-university, college, and school levels. There are National Team hockey players from Rajshahi. Late Mintu was one of them and by his name, there
2093-400: 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
2184-707: 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 ,
2275-721: 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
2366-568: Is headquartered in the Kazihata neighborhood and has been operating since 2001. A local FM radio station, Radio Padma , transmits at 99.2 MHz frequency and Radio Foorti transmits at 88.0 MHz . There is also five press clubs in Rajshahi City. Known as Rajshahi City Press Club, Rajshahi Press Club, Rajshahi Metropolitan Press Club, Rajshahi Varendra Press Club and Rajshahi Padma Press Club. There are three 15,000+ capacity stadiums in
2457-404: 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
2548-417: Is made up of several separate sections in the northwestern part of Bangladesh covering a total area of approximately 10,000 square kilometres (3,900 sq mi) of mostly old alluvium . On the eastern edge of the tract is a lower fault escarpment . Through the fault troughs run the little Jamuna , Atrai and Lower Punarbhaba rivers. To the west, the main area is tilted up, and to the east this area
2639-490: 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
2730-470: Is specially designed for children's amusement. The bank of the Padma River along the city is also a destination for recreation. The bank is a planned zone in many parts of the city to accommodate city dwellers for recreation purposes. In 2015, Munsguard Park near the old Dutch Boro Kuthi building and Lalonshah Park near Shahmukhdum Eidgah was built bordering the bank to provide residents a place to enjoy
2821-555: 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 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
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2912-581: Is the cleanest city of Bangladesh. Rajshahi district was a part of the Pundra region of ancient Bengal ruled by the Pundra Kingdom . The capital of Prince Vijaya , the king who led military operations in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia was located 14 kilometres (9 mi) to the west of Rajshahi town. Rajshahi was dominated by various Maharajas , Rajas and Zamindars . During Deo Raja' s period,
3003-457: Is the home of several national-level club teams like Diganta Proshari Sangha and Sonali Otit Club. There are also a few football training academies including one in Rajshahi's central eidgah (large open ground used on special occasions for Muslim prayers) and in the Zilla stadium. The city is an important place for cricket in Bangladesh. As a regular supplier of cricketers in the national team, it
3094-508: 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 is also spoken by the Bengali diasporas ( Bangladeshi diaspora and Indian Bengalis) across Europe, North America,
3185-814: Is the second oldest and one of the largest public universities in the country. Rajshahi Engineering College, now known as RUET , was the second engineering college established in the then East Pakistan in 1964. For Technical Education Rajshahi Polytechnic Institute was Established in 1963, This Institute is under the Bangladesh Technical Education Board Major educational institutes include: Universities: Medical Colleges: Polytechnic Institutes: Higher Secondary Institutions : Secondary Institutions: Rajshahi's twin town and sister city is: Bengali language Bengali , also known by its endonym Bangla ( বাংলা , Bāṅlā , [ˈbaŋla] ),
3276-654: Is tilted downwards. The climate of the tract differs from that of much of India , in that more extreme temperature variations (ranging from 45 degrees Celsius down to five degrees Celsius) are encountered there. It is divided into three units: The Recent Alluvial Fan, the Barind Pleistocene, and the Recent Floodplain. These are divided by long, narrow bands of recent alluvium . 24°48′N 88°42′E / 24.8°N 88.7°E / 24.8; 88.7 This Bangladesh location article
3367-492: Is underway on a leather industry area. There will also be a 1,200-acre industrial zone under the Bangladesh Economic Zone (BEPZA). Bangabandhu Hi-Tech Park will play an important role in the development of IT in Rajshahi. When completed, it will revolutionize information and communication technology in the region, which will employ about 50,000 people. There is also a char on the banks of the river Padma near
3458-509: 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
3549-675: 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
3640-602: The Bangladesh Liberation War , Pakistan Army created an ad hoc Rajshahi brigade, deployed in September. Rajshahi was made a city corporation in 1991. Geographically Rajshahi is situated within Barind Tract , 23 m (75 ft) above sea level, and lies at 24°22′26″N 88°36′04″E / 24.37389°N 88.60111°E / 24.37389; 88.60111 . The city is located on
3731-474: 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
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3822-579: 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
3913-524: 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
4004-607: 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"
4095-499: 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
4186-557: 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
4277-623: 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
4368-598: 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
4459-593: 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
4550-456: 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,
4641-426: 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,
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#17327649238574732-771: The Buddhist festival of Buddha Purnima ; and the Christian festival of Christmas across the city. There are many Bengali daily newspapers published in the city, including Sonali Sangbad , Uttorbongo Protidin, Sunshine , Dainik Barta , Sonar Desh , Natun Provat , and Amader Rajshahi . There are also many online news portal such as Uttarkal, Padmatimes24, AjkerRajshahi, rajshahinews24.com, silkcitynews.com, Shadhin Janapad, News Rajshahi 24 and others. State-owned Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar have transmission centres in Rajshahi. The BTV relay station in Rajshahi
4823-520: 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 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,
4914-491: The alluvial plains of the Padma River , which runs through southern side of the city. It is bounded on the east, north and west by Paba Upazila (subdivision of a district) of the district. Rajshahi District is bounded by Naogaon District to the north, Natore District to the east, and Chapai Nawabganj District and the river Padma & Kushtia District to the south. Under the Köppen climate classification , Rajshahi has
5005-546: The ancient region of Pundravardhana . The foundation of the city dates to 1634, according to epigraphic records at the mausoleum of Sufi saint Shah Makhdum . The area hosted a Dutch settlement in the 18th century. The Rajshahi municipality was constituted during the British Raj in 1876. It was the divisional capital of the greater Rajshahi division which was the largest division in Bengal Province . Rajshahi
5096-536: 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
5187-454: The city and metro area. Once there was plenty of Tomtom (horse-driven cart) in the city, which are still found, but fewer in numbers. There are bus and minibus services in a limited number of routes, connecting suburban areas of the city. Plenty of rental car agencies operate within the city and metro area, where sedans, SUVs, and micro-buses are available to hire hourly or daily. Ride-sharing services like Uber and Obhai are also available in
5278-401: The city of Rajshahi. Rajshahi City Corporation has plans to build another economic zone on the char. When the construction of the char is completed, it will become the commercial center of North Bengal Rajshahi is famous for Rajshahi silk , which has a special status as clothing material in the Indian subcontinent. Rajshahi is the home of the region's best mangoes and lichis. Rajshahi is also
5369-455: The city, Rajshahi Court and Rajshahi University . The city is served by Shah Makhdum Airport , named after the Islamic preacher Shah Makhdum Rupos , situated at Nowhata, a commuter town of the city. Biman Bangladesh Airlines , Novoair , and US-Bangla Airlines operate domestic flights to and from Dhaka . Auto rickshaws and charging rickshaws are the main modes of transport within
5460-439: The city. The city has many government, private and NGO-run hospitals. Rajshahi Medical College Hospital (RMCH) is a tertiary-level public hospital with a teaching facility for graduate and postgraduate medical education. There are two private medical college hospitals, and another two are under construction in the city. There is also a government-run children's hospital, one chest hospital, a district-level government hospital and
5551-420: The city. District judges as well as Metropolitan magistrates have their offices within the city. Rajshahi is one of seven metropolitan cities in Bangladesh. One mayor and 30 ward commissioners are elected for five-year terms by direct votes. Rajshahi City Corporation is responsible for all the administrative work related to city governance under its jurisdiction. Rajshahi Metropolitan Police (RMP), headed by
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#17327649238575642-787: The city. One is at the centre of the city which is normally called the Rajshahi District Stadium , another is inside the Rajshahi University and the last one used for cricket is located at Terokhadia called Shaheed Qamaruzzaman Stadium . There is also an international standard tennis complex and a few sports training academies in the city. Many national-level footballers groomed in the city such as former Bangladesh national team captain Mohammed Mohsin and recently midfielder Manik Hossain Molla . The city
5733-469: 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
5824-507: 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
5915-604: 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
6006-435: The district's headquarters are also available from Rajshahi. Four inter-city train services are operated by Bangladesh Railway, named Silk City Express , Padma Express and Dhumketu Express , and Bonolota Express between Dhaka and Rajshahi railway station regularly. There are other inter-city, mail and local trains operated from Rajshahi to Khulna and other regions of the country. There are two other railway stations in
6097-700: 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
6188-400: The eastern part of British India who sought refuge during the separation of India and Pakistan in 1947. Rajshahi has been famous for its silk textiles since the British period. There are also several jute mills in Rajshahi. At present many glass-making factories have been set up in Rajshahi. Rajshahi City Corporation has constructed BSIC. Industrial City-02 in Paba Upazila of Rajshahi. And work
6279-443: 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
6370-466: 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,
6461-606: 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
6552-499: 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,
6643-412: 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 –
6734-494: 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,
6825-523: 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 the Middle Indo-Aryan dialects were influential in the first millennium when Bengal
6916-547: 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
7007-428: 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
7098-602: The location of Barendra Museum , which is known for its collection of local sculptures and other artifacts dating from medieval times. It also has some important structures made by the British like the T Dam. Pohela Baishakh , the Bengali New Year, and Pahela Falgun , the first day of spring of the Bengali month Falgun , in the Bengali calendar , is festively celebrated in the city. There are widespread celebrations of Muslim festivals of Eid ul-Fitr , Eid ul-Adha , and Muharram ; Hindu festivals of Durga Puja ,
7189-605: 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
7280-517: 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
7371-479: The public buildings were severely damaged by the earthquake of 12 June 1897 . Throughout much of the early part of the twentieth century there was a daily steamer service on the Ganges which connected it to rail-heads that led to the then provincial capital of Calcutta as well as other cities in the province of Bengal. Rajshahi witnessed great atrocities in the 1962 Rajshahi massacres of Bengali Hindus . During
7462-519: The region was known as Mohakalgarh . In 1288-89 the Raja was defeated by Shah Makhdum Rupos . The region came to be known as Rampur Boalia after the establishment of an administrative office in 1825. The origin of the present name of "Rajshahi" is debated among scholars. Most say that it takes its name from Hindu Kings Rajshahi Raj (or " Rajas ") as Raj and the persianised Shahi ; both of which mean " royal " or "kingdom". The administrative district
7553-427: 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
7644-536: 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
7735-570: The views of the Padma river. Rajshahi is the headquarters of one of the eight administrative divisions of Bangladesh . Divisional Commissioner, who is the administrative chief of Rajshahi Division, DIG for Rajshahi division and other divisional civil servants have their own offices in the city, which functions as part of the government administrative setup. Deputy Commissioner (DC) who is the administrative chief of Rajshahi District, Civil Surgeon and other district-level civil servants have their offices in
7826-484: 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
7917-435: 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
8008-484: Was 3.4°C in 9 january 2003 and highest recorded temperature was 45.1°C in 18 may 1972. Shaheed A.H.M Qamaruzzaman Central Park and Zoo is one of the popular public places in Rajshahi city. A wide area with green trees and grasses houses different animal species. It is located by the bank of the Padma River . Other parks in the city are Bhubon Mohon Park and Captain Monsur Ali Park. Shahid Zia's children's park
8099-568: 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
8190-579: Was established in 1772 and the municipal corporation in 1876. During the British raj , it was also known as "Beuleah" and was the administrative headquarters of the Rajshahi district in Eastern Bengal and Assam . It was originally chosen as a commercial factory for the silk trade, which was being officially encouraged by the agricultural department of that time. The town contained a government college and an industrial school for sericulture . Most of
8281-616: 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 the emergence of Bangladesh in 1971. In 1999, UNESCO recognised 21 February as International Mother Language Day in recognition of
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