Iranian Influence on BANGLADESH: Language, Literature and Culture

Iranian influence on Language, literature and culture of Bangladesh is indeed very apparent in every sphere of life of the people in the country. The history of the civilization and culture of Iran and Bangladesh suggests that the people of both the lands have been maintaining a good relationship with each other since time immemorial. The relationship began to grow since the period of Achaemenid dynasty (550 BC) in Iran and gradually expanded through the periods of the Parthian(249-226 BC) and the Sassanid(226 BC - 652 AD) which got a new dimension and was consolidated further by the establishment of the Ghaznavid dynasty in Punjab, Ghurid Dynasty in Delhi, and finally Bakhtiyar Khilji in Bengal. Primarily it commenced through the traders who used to travel to the land from Persia and other middle-eastern regions following the sea route - Persian Gulf. Sonargaon, Bengalla(Dhaka), Satgaon, Hugli, Tamralipti were the important sea-ports in the region since the seventh century BC. Many of the traders and merchants used to travel frequently and a good number of them got married to local girls and settled here which finally resulted in socio-cultural assimilation, especially in the influence of Persian language in local vernacular languages, especially the Bengali language. Beside traders, wandering saints and preachers had been visiting Bengal long before the Muslim conquest of the land in 1203 AD. Furthermore, the mystic movement in Bengal, by the end of the fourteenth century, had an enormous impact on indigenous culture and society - irre-spective of both the Hindus and the Muslims. The presence of huge lexicographic elements, numerous Persian words in both original and distorted forms in Bengali language as well as the emergence of mystic and romantic dimensions in mediaeval Bengali literature and culture, comprising elements from Persian literature and Sufi tradition can be realized as the best examples to understand the range and intensity of Iranian influence on the field. After the fall of Bengal to the East India Company however, the splendor of Persian gradually begun to diminish. English, Urdu as well as Hindi languages became more influential not only in Bengal but in the whole sub-continent. This study attempts to address the issues related to the topic using both primary and secondary elements and analyze the reasons behind the decline of Persian literary, cultural and Sufi traditions in the region.