Other Personalities of Ráŕh

Mathematics received its inspiration from the celestial bodies.

The ancient calculations of the Suryasiddhánta(6) could not keep pace with the passage of time. Calculations were becoming prone to error.

It was under the auspices of Shalibahan, the king of Dańd́abhukti (of southern Ráŕh, i.e., of the Midnapur area) that Jayanta Panigrahi, an outstanding son of Ráŕh, introduced a new system of calculation.

This resulted in a new system of calculation based on the solar year. In those days Márgashiirśa, that is, Agraháyań, was considered to be the first month of the Bengali year.

Later, however, Vaeshákh came to be the first month in the calculation of the Bengali year.

Though the word sál, meaning “year”, originated in Farsi, the Bengali word shál did not derive from the Farsi word sál. It came from the name of Shalibahan, the king of Dańd́abhukti.

The celestial bodies influence every pore of the surface of the earth, all atoms, molecules and dust particles.

They also influence human psychology, trade, agriculture, thought processes, in short, all the dimensions of life.

And so astrology arose, beautifully nurtured by Kshana, a beloved daughter of Ráŕh, the offspring of the Ráŕhii Vaidyas [a caste] of Bankura (Senbhum).

Dr. Mohammed Kudrat-i-Khuda, an outstanding son of Birbhum in Ráŕh, was one of the pioneers in the use of Bengali in mathematics and physics.

The famous scientists Dr. Gyan Chandra Ghosh, Professor Satyendranath Bose (famous for the Bose-Einstein theory), Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy (inventor of mercurous sulphide), etc, were Ráŕhii either by birth or lineage.

Rashbehari Bose, a flame of revolution, laid the foundation of the Indian freedom struggle outside India and who founded the Indian National Army (Azad Hind Fauz)

He was also a son of Ráŕh (Burdwan).

Subhash Chandra Bose, to whom Rashbehari Bose, in his old age, confidently turned over all the responsibility of the Azad Hind Government [Indian National Government], this thunder like jewel of manliness, this blazing comet of politics, this flaming meteor, was Ráŕhii by lineage.

When the people of India were floundering in a quagmire in social and spiritual realms and had strayed from the path of progress, there came

Raja Rammohan Roy was an eminent Western-educated scholar and an eminent revolutionary in the realm of knowledge. He was an inhabitant of Radhanagar Village under Goghat Police Station, Hooghly District. (At that time Goghat Police Station was in the Burdwan District.)

Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, who brought about a revolution in the field of education, who fought throughout his life against social injustice and social dogma and who brought to a peak the spirit of generosity and sense of dutifulness, was a son of Birsingha village in this very Ráŕh.

(When Vidyasagar was born, Birsingha was in the district of Hooghly. Later it became included in the newly-formed sub-division Ghatal in Midnapur.)

When India first began to receive Western education, a crisis of conscience arose. The people of India were caught in a dilemma as to what path to the future they would follow.

They tended to consider whatever was Indian as bad, and whatever was foreign as good. In that transitional period of illusion and emotionality, the rustic man who appeared before his countrymen with an earthen lamp of enlightenment was Gadadhar Chattopadhaya (Ramakrishna Paramahansa).

He was a son of Kamarpukur village of Arambag Subdivision, Hooghly District, of Ráŕh.

The monk who epitomized manliness, spiritedness and valour, and struck at the root of the timidity of the youth of India of that time, Narendranath Dutta (Swami Vivekananda), was also a Ráŕhii Kayastha. (He came from Dattadeŕet́an Village of Kalna Subdivision of Burdwan District.)

Shrii Aurobindo Ghosh (the son of Dr. Krishnadhan Ghosh of Konnagar), a pathfinder in the realms of revolution, intellect, philosophy and spirituality, was a Ráŕhii Kayastha.

All manifestations are rhythmic. These establish their existence in the greatness of the new through crests and troughs of rhythm.

If the old, having once entered the realm of the manifestation of the new, wants to survive, it will have to change its rhythm in order to do so. And the old order which lacks this capacity, that is, lacks the inner power that comes from elasticity, sinks into eternal sleep in the cavern of primeval darkness. It is lost in the dust of oblivion.

When India was wavering between the past and the present and spinning in a vortex of hesitancy about its future, Raja Rammohan Roy [introduced above] created, using newer rhythms, new trends and new techniques, a rhythmic environment of knowledge about the past, the future, and that which lies between.

Everybody knows that to welcome the new requires courage. To accept the old in a new way, not to speak of accepting the new, demands not a little courage.

The new trend set in motion by Raja Rammohan Ray was courageously welcomed by Dwarakanath Tagore, Devendranath Tagore, Akshay Kumar Dutta and Brahmananda Keshab Chandra Sen, who were all great sons of Ráŕh either by birth or by lineage.

Human beings like to think of their aim in life.

They rush to attain their Iśt́a [Goal] with a full-hearted devotional urge; they wish to surround their Iśt́a with every expression of their existence; they heartily embrace their Iśt́a with the all-encompassing rhythmic manifestations of life.

It was these very manifestations that gave birth to Bauls, kiirtana,(8) Brahma Saḿgiita and Shyáma Saḿgiita on the soil of Ráŕh. He who stirred the realm of Shyáma Saḿgiita(9) with his full-hearted longing was the sádhaka [spiritual aspirant] Ramprasad Sen,(10) the jewel of a Ráŕhii Vaidya family – a precious treasure of Ráŕh.

When there occurs a great stir in any particular sphere of human life, the person who is the práńapuruśa [life and soul] behind that stir finds some great personalities, some elevated personalities, to assist him. These great souls work with unwavering earnestness and establish that life-and-soul entity in the psychic world of the people. Herein lies their greatest credit, the greatest glory of their existence.

Mahaprabhu Shrii Chaitanya brought about a great stir in the realm of ideas, in the practical realm and in the social realm. And one great soul who emerged and stood by Mahaprabhu was Thakur Shri Nityananda. He was a beloved son of Ráŕh and was born in Ekchakra village of Birbhum. (His parents were Mukunda Batabyal and Rama Devi.)

The Sháuṋkar Darshan [philosophy of Shankaracharya] made people apathetic about the world. Too much apathy makes people cynical. The psychology of the people of Ráŕh could not entirely escape those ill effects either. The sweetness, softness and tenderness of Gaoŕiiya(11) Vaeśńava Dharma rescued the people of Ráŕh when they were about to be lost in those melancholic and cyclonic dark nights of cynicism. Indians are reluctant to write history.

The people of Ráŕh were no exception. But the man who tore asunder the darkness of ignorance and strove with firm, forceful steps for the first time to write history, out of zeal to set down the biography of Mahaphrabhu Shri Chaitanyadev, that first historian [of Ráŕh], was Thakur Krishnadas Kaviraj.(12) He was also a son of Ráŕh, a dweller of Jhamatpur village of Ketugram Police Station of Katwa Subdivision, Burdwan District.

The seeds of ideas germinate in the psychic sphere. Then they generate pulsations ceaselessly in each manifestation of the mental set-up. When the world of ideas takes shape in the external world [in the form of art], those ideas undergo that transformation not only through language but also through [the display of] emotions, through different techniques, rhythms, mudrás [symbolic gestures] and beautiful visual forms. Painting is a subtle expression of this type. Not only did the traditional screen painting artists of Ráŕh earn fame for themselves; many of them also exalted their art from the sphere of the objective world sphere of the noumenal world. Thanks to their lofty ideas and dexterous hands, the classical art of Ráŕh developed. Gaganendranath Tagore, Abanindranath Tagore (“He writes pictures!”), Nandalal Basu and Surendranath Kar were all Ráŕhii either by birth or lineage. Yamini Ray and Ramkinkar Bej were also great personalities of Bankura District in Ráŕh.

Any attempt to say a word or two about Kalidas(13) is likely to give rise to a controversy [about his place of habitation]. But argument for the sake of argument will not go far towards victory in a debate. Victory rests on a strong basis of logic. The description of a sea coast that Kalidas has given is the exact description of the sea coast of Contai. Had he been an inhabitant of a mountainous coast region, his description would have been different. Again, had he lived at a barren, grey, desert-like sea coast, his description would have been different yet. So it will be by no means a travesty of truth to guess that Kalidas dwelt in the Contai region of southern Ráŕh. The sea at the Contai coast is to the south. So in order to enjoy the wind blowing from the sea, people build south-facing houses. This is also a strong point of logic in this matter.

1981, Kolkata Footnotes

(11) “Gaoŕiiya” means “related to Gaoŕa”. Gaoŕa was also known as Paiṋcagaoŕa, Báḿlá or Báḿládesh – “Bengal”, as the British called it. “Shashanka.… founded Paiṋcagaoŕa.… That is, during his time Bengal was divided into five political divisions: 1) Ráŕh, 2) Mithila, 3) Samatat, 4) Barendra, and 5) Vauṋga-D́abák.…” (Shrii Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, Shabda Cayaniká Part 1, section on “Átar”) “This land of ours was famous as Paiṋcagaoŕa.… This Gaoŕadesha [Land of Gaoŕa] of ours can as a whole be called Gaoŕadesha, Paiṋcagaoŕa, Báḿlá or Báḿládesh. It can be given any of these names.” (Shrii Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, Shabda Cayaniká Part 12, section on “Khagoŕ/Khagaoŕ”) “Gaoŕa” was first applied to the Samatat area where guŕ [raw sugar] is abundant, but later was used sometimes to mean that area, or kingdom, at other times to mean Paiṋcagaoŕa as a whole. Paiṋca means “five”. What was Barendra is now basically northern Bengal and part of modern Bangladesh. “Báḿládesh”, or “Bangladesh”, is now normally used to mean only that modern country – which is basically coextensive with the ancient Vauṋga-D́abák plus the eastern half of the ancient Samatat. Vauṋga-D́abák was sometimes called only Vauṋga. “Vauṋga” could also be used to refer to all of Báḿlá. So the word “Vauṋga” is similar to the word “Gaoŕa” in that it refers sometimes to the entire land, sometimes to only one of the five components of the land. –Trans.

(12) The Rájtaraḿginii of Kahlan is not history worthy of the name. The veracity of history has been trampled under the feet of the royalty. The accuracy of the Rájmálá has also deviated from that of a normal account due to eulogizing the kings.