Digital Rare Book:
History of Ancient Bengal
By Ramesh Chandra Majumdar
Published by G. Bharadwaj & Co., Calcutta - 1971

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Extract from the Preface:

It is a well-known fact that though the ancient Indians excelled in almost all the departments of literature, there was one important exception, namely, History. With the solitary exception of Rajatarangini, a history of Kashmir written by Kalhana in the twelfth century a.d., no other book in Sanskrit or in any language derived from it, deserves the name of History. Some of the Puranas give a brief account of the ancient ruling dynasties, and there are a few local chronicles like those of Nepal and Gujarat, but they more than mere lists of kings and dynasties. So far as ancient Bengal is concerned, there is no book even of this type, not to speak of any regular history. The extent of our ignorance regarding the history of ancient
Bengal may be judged from the first attempt to write one by Mrityunjay Sarma a Pandit of the Fort William College, Calcutta. His book Raja-taranga or Rajavali, published in 1808, is nothing but a string of fables woven round a number of historical, mythical and imaginary names, and it will suffice to indicate its nature when it is stated that Ballalasena is described as sitting on the throne of Delhi.

With the progress of our knowledge in the nineteenth century regarding the history of ancient India, the idea of writing a proper history of this great sub-continent, and, separately, of the various geographical or linguistic units comprised in it, dawned upon the minds of scholars, both Indian and European. The early successful attempts in this direction were made, among others, by R. C. Dutt (A History of Civilization in Ancient India, 1889), R. G. Bhandarkar (Early History of the Deccan, 1895), and J. F. Fleet (The Dynasties of Kanarese Districts, 1896). The twentieth century, which opened with the publication of V. A. Smith’s Early History of India, gave a great impetus to the writing of the critical history of ancient India, as a whole, or of its various regions.

The first idea of writing a history of ancient Bengal on modern scientific lines may be tracked back to Lord Carmichael, the first governor of the newly created Presidency of Bengal, took the initiative in the matter, and invited M M. Haraprasad Sastri to prepare a scheme, but nothing came out of it. A similar attempt was made a few years later at the instance of Raja Prafulla Nath Tagore of Calcutta. He undertook to bear the entire financial burden of the project and requested Mr. R. D. Banerji and a few others, including myself, to undertake it. But this attempt also proved equally abortive.

The failure of these two successive attempts were not, however, without some fruitful results. Almost immediately after the first, Ramaprasad Chanda published Gaudarajamala in 1319 B.S. (1913 A.D.), and shortly after the second, R. D. Banerji published his Bangla Itihasa, Part I (1321 B.S.). But these two individual works, highly valuable though they were, did not remove, and rather accentuated, the need of a comprehensive political and cultural history of ancient Bengal written by the joint efforts of specialists in different branches of the subject. For, it may be noted that the two books mentioned above dealt only with the political history.

The first successful attempt in this direction was made by the University of Dacca. In 1935 it sanctioned the plan to publish a history of Bengal in three volumes, covering, respectively, the political and cultural history during the Hindu, Muslim and British periods. I was appointed the Editor of the first volume, and Sir Jadunath Sarkar, of the second. The first volume dealing with both political and cultural history was completed and sent to the press during my period of office as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Dacca, and published in 1943, a few months after my retirement from that post. Only the political history of the Muslim period, edited by Sir Jadunath, was published as Vol. II.

The History of Bengal, Vol. I, edited by me and published by the Dacca University in 1943, may claim to be the first comprehensive political and cultural history of Bengal written jointly by a number of specialists. The book was very well received by scholars and all the published copies were sold out within three or four years. Unfortunately, no attempt was made by the University of Dacca for a long time to bring out a new edition. This was, no doubt, primarily due to the political upheaval caused by the creation of Pakistan. For nearly twenty years or more, the book was out of print and not easily available, but the demand for it was so great that second-hand copy of the book is known to have been sold in the Calcutta market for Rs.120, Rs. 100 more than the original price.

Some years ago I received a letter from the Registrar, Dacca University, asking for my help and co-operation in re-printing the book. I cannot trace the correspondence, but to the best of my recollection I wrote back saying that as many years have elapsed since its publication and many new facts of history have come to light, the book requires a thorough revision, and it may even be necessary to re-write some parts. In any case I agreed to edit the revised edition, but pointed out that it would possibly involve a small expenditure by way of paying remuneration to the writers, both old and new (in place of those who died). To this letter I never received any reply. I was approached by many publishers in Calcutta to bring out a revised new edition of the book, but I did not agree, for reasons I need not discuss here.

Image:
One of a set of views in Gaur and Rajmahal
Print made by: W Baillie (1752-1799)

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