Sen History of Bengali literature

Bengali belongs to the easternmost branch, called Aryan or Indo-Iranian, of the Indo-European family of languages. Its direct ancestor is a form of Prakrit or Middle Indo-Aryan which had descended from Sanskrit or Old Indo-Aryan. Sanskrit was the spoken as well as the literary language of Aryandom until circa 500 B.c., after which it remained for nearly two thousand years the dominant literary language as well as the lingua franca among the cultured and the erudite throughout the subcontinent. Sanskrit has always been a potent influence in the evolution of Indo-Aryan through all its stages of linguistic and literary history.

old Bengali poetry and mysticism - Chaitanya and his movement - Vaishnav lyric songs - the Arrakan poets and the later muslim writers - Tagore

Sahitya Akademi, 1971, revised edition, 394p, hardcover, goede staat