We should keep it in mind that an age of literature, whether would be named after a ruling class or a person or ideals of the era, must be relevant to the artistic trend of the time. In fact, a history of literature should be written emphasizing the art-history. Unfortunately, in periodization of the history of our literature, none of our scholars has properly estimated the gradual development of art. However, Sanskrit poets like Abhinanda, Sandhakar Nundi, Sree Harsha, Gobardhan Acharya, Dhoyee and Umapatidhar caused Bengal’s glory. The great Sanskrit poet Kalidasa’s being a Bengali is an assumption under trial of the researchers. In fact, since the reign of the Gupta dynasty, Sanskrit literature was being widely practiced in Bengal. Many poets and religious thinkers, who were renowned throughout India, appeared as contributors to those languages. In the early Middle Ages, our literary realm was mainly dominated by Sanskrit, Prakrit and Abahatta languages. But actually those two languages were very close to Bangla.

Despite the birth of a new language, the writers favored Sanskrit and Abahatta till the 12 th century. The infant Bangla language, an Indo-Aryan language like Sanskrit itself, was born from Magadhi Prakrit via Magadhi Abahatta around 1000 A.D. Yet the early Bengali literature was in Sanskrit. But their time is to be included in the far distant past and our own distinctive literature started much later. So Valmiki, Vyasa, Vaas, Kalidasa too are our own poets. The thousand years long history of Sanskrit (not only Bengali Sanskrit) literature is a part of our heritage. However, the periodization of its history is not so easy. Only the history of her literature has a glimpse of her dark past. Bengal has hardly a chronology of her ordinary people but of her aristocrats and (commonly alien) rulers.

A nation’s history is correlated with the history of its literature. So it is worthwhile to review the gradual development and present status of Bangla literature for the benefit of our present and future generation. It goes without saying that Bangla literature is one of the richest ones of the world.

The culmination of this process is the Language Movement and the birth of a nation state based on language of the people of the land although Bangla is spoken by about 300 million people all over the world. The literary, cultural and political development of this land possibly advanced side by side to complement each other. The two most remarkable achievements of the last millennium are on the one hand, the growth of Bangla language and literature and on the other hand, a glorious achievement of sovereign Bangladesh. Bangla Literature: A Critical Overview Apratim Rajib 1 It is generally accepted that Bengali civilization stretches back for more than thousand years.

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