History of Bengali Language and Literature c13.53

c13.53

"Vangabhasa O Sahitya" is perhaps the most noteworthy book of the year. It is the outcome, as the author says, of six years' patient labour and research. In it the history of the Bengali language and literature has been traced from the earliest times down to 1838 A. D. The writer has, for the first time, brought to light a number of minor Bengali poems, the discovery whereof will greatly help the cause of linguistic research in Bengal. He has remarkably succeeded in utilising the materials at his command. The book is perhaps the first systematic and accurate treatise on the subject, showing a great improvement in this respect over its predecessor, the late Pandit Ramgati Nayaratna's book. The chapters of the book on case-suffixes and verbal inflexions in Bengali may be regarded as perhaps the first systematic and the most successful attempt at the solution of a very knotty problem."