The Linguistic Culture of North Bengal: Gopichandra and his Song’s/ উত্তরবঙ্গের ভাষা-সংস্কৃতি : প্রসঙ্গ গোপীচন্দ্রের গান

Abstract

Gopichandra’s songs form an important narrative in Bengali oral literary canon. The song of Gopichandra has been seen as one of the progressive literary genres from the ancient to modern age in the history of Bengali oral literature. Sir George Grierson was the first person to collect the songs of Gopichandra from local singers in 1878 and published them as ‘song of king Manik Chandra’ in Devanagari Script in the magazine of the Asiatic society. Latter, Sri Bisheshwar Bhattacharya adopted the Griearsonian approach around 1907-1908 and documented all the songs of Gopichandra by collecting it from the Yogi beggars. It was only in 1922 when the first edition of Gopichandra’s songs were published from Kolkata University. Acceptance of religious mendicancy by Gopichandra is the major subject matter of this narrative.

There is no doubt that the culture of North Bengal has corroborated Bengali language and literature. the culture of North Bengal has taken a of special place in the literary world of Bengal. Gopichandr’s songs are one among the many pieces of narrative poems available in Bengali literature. This songs reflect the society and culture of North Bengal. a significant subject of gopichandras songs is its language which is not considered to be of ancient times by many critics. it is thought that this language is perhaps of Modern Times. Some have claim this language to be of the 17th century. there has thus been a wide range of debate among critics regarding the language of these song.

according to Dr. Ashutosh Bhattacharya Gopichandras songs must have been written by them from collecting circulation among the illiterate Muslim peasants of rangpur district of the nineteenth century due to which elements of this time period has also influenced the language of these songs. a general debate however exists regarding the language of Gopichandras song. beyond all this uncertainties and debates regarding the linguistic complexity, subtle analysis of these songs shows that the language shares close affenty with the Bengali dialect of North Bengal in undivided Bengal. Thus, Gopichandras songs can give an idea of the language and culture of north Bengal. According to Dr. sri Ashutosh Bhattacharya the social information presented in it is almost all the information of the regional muslim society of North Bengal in the 19^th century. this paper is going to be an elaboration on the above maintaoned issues regarding the language of Gopichandras song and the reflection of North Bengal’s linguistic culture in it.