Cultural History of Bengali Proverbs

Preface

“Anybody with any experience of life must be aware of how these (proverbs) play an important role in character formation, in providing guidelines to everyday activities like agriculture and the influence of natural phenomenon like the rainfall. It will not be an exaggeration to suggest that it was the proverbs and the messages these sent out that helped a predominantly unlettered rural population with advice as to how to conduct daily affairs and lead a peaceful life”.

Harekrishna These words of Sahityaratna Mukhopadhyay, whose name will ever be associated with Dr. Sushil Kumar De’s collection of proverbs, indicate the inseparable nature of relationship between the Bengali and the proverb. They are an integral part of our literary and cultural tradition, the preservation of which had been greatly emphasised by Rabindranath Tagore. The poet had insisted that such preservation and study would open the doors towards self-discovery and an effort towards reaching that goal has been made in this volume. The purpose was not just to collect proverbs but to unveil their nature and variety, to identify their role in society both as a mirror and guide.

Proverbs of course had no specific space in Tagore’s scheme of discovering folk traditions but there is ample evidence of his great interest in the collection and study of Bengali idiom. Manuscripts at Visva Bharati’s Rabindra Bhavan contain, in the poet’s handwriting, 78 specimens of such idiom. The 19th century also saw scholars from abroad collecting proverbs of whom special mention must be made of William Morton and James Long. Indians like Nilratna Haldar, Rangalal Bandyopadhyay, Kanailal Ghosal, Dwarkanath Bosu, Madhumadhab Chattopadhyay and also came forward and collected thousands of Bengali later Sushil Kumar De and Harekrishna Mukhopadhyay proverbs.

The work by no means is over. From Caryapada, Sri Krishna Kirtan to Bharatchandra and the writers of today, proverbs and sayings have been widely used and the volume has dealt with them as also proverbs in some poems. So far there has been no effort at a full investigation into the subject and this is what I have sought to attempt.

I must take the opportunity to thank many individuals and institutions both in India and Bangladesh without whose help this work would not have been completed. Those who deserve special mention are Professor Ashraf Siddiqui, Professor Wakil Ahmed, Professor Biswanath Roy, Professor Manas Mazumdar, Dr. Dulal Chowdhury and Sunil Chandra Basak. I am grateful to Professor Anisuzzaman for carefully going through the manuscript despite his busy schedule. My relationship is so close with Sumit Kumar Basak, who constantly encouraged me, that a formal thank you is not needed. Of the institutes mention must be made of Bangla Academy, Dhaka, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan, National Library, Kolkata, libraries of the Dhaka University and Sishu Academy, Bangiya Sahitya Parishad and also the central and Bengali department libraries of Kolkata University. Lastly who can ignore the constant encouragement from Ishtiaq Hasan, Dr. Asma Begum, Parichay (Sunny) and Abhinandan (Ani), Sri Nivas and Bindiya of Bengaluru and my two sons Subhechha (Prince) and Rebanta (Raj).

My special thanks are due to Hindol Bhattacharyya for reading the proofs and much more.

The Gyan Publishing House has kindly taken all measures to bring out this book in a befitting form for which I remain grateful.

August, 2009

Dehradun 248006

Sudeshna Basak