AMRA BANGALI: June 2011

Bengali culture .

Bengali saints, authors, scientists, researchers, thinkers, music composers, painters and film-makers have played a significant role in the development of Bengali culture . The Bengal Renaissance of the 19th and early 20th centuries was brought about after the British introduced Western education and ideas. Among the various Indian cultures, the Bengalis were relatively quick to adapt to the British rule and actually use its principles (such as the judiciary and the legislature) in the subsequent political struggle for independence. The Bengal Renaissance contained the seeds of a nascent political Indian nationalism and was the precursor in many ways to modern Indian artistic and cultural expression.

The Bengali poet and novelist, Rabindranath Tagore, became the first Nobel laureate from Asia when he won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature. Other Bengali Nobel laureates include Amartya Sen (1999 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences) and Muhammad Yunus (2006 Nobel Peace Prize). Other famous figures in Bengali literature include Ram Mohan Roy, Kazi Nazrul Islam, and Bangla science fiction writers such as Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, Humayun Ahmed, Jagadananda Roy and Roquia Sakhawat Hussain (Begum Rokeya). Famous Bengali musicians include Ravi Shankar, Sachin Dev Burman, Rahul Dev Burman and Norah Jones; Famous Bengali singers include Kishore Kumar, Abbas Uddin, Runa Laila, Heamanta Mukherjee, Manna Dey, Shyamal Mitra, Geeta Dutt, Nachiketa, Shreya Ghoshal, Shaan, Bappi Lahiri, Abhijeet, Kabir Suman and Rezwana Chowdhury Banya. Famous Bengali scientists include Megh Nad Saha, Prafulla Chandra Roy, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri, Jagadish Chandra Boseand Satyendra Nath Bose; famous Bengali engineers include Fazlur Khan and Amar Bose; famous Bengali filmmakers include Satyajit Ray, Bimal Roy, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak,Zahir Raihan, Aparna Sen and Tareque Masud; and famous Bengali entrepreneurs include Sake Dean Mahomed, Amar Bose, Jawed Karim and Subrata Roy.

History of Bangali

Mahasthangarh is the oldest archaeological site inBangladesh. It dates back to 700 BCE and was the ancient capital of the Pundra Kingdom.

Remnants of civilisation in the greater Bengal region date back 4,000 years when the region was settled by Dravidian,Tibeto-Burman and Austro-Asiatic peoples. The exact origin of the word Bangla or Bengal is unknown, though it is believed to be derived from the Dravidian-speaking tribe Bang that settled in the area around the year 1000 BCE.

After the arrival of Indo-Aryans, the kingdoms of Anga, Vanga and Magadha were formed in and around Bengal and were first described in the Atharvaveda around 1000 BCE. From the 6th century BCE, Magadha expanded to include most of the Biharand Bengal regions. It was one of the four main kingdoms of India at the time of Buddha and was one of the sixteenMahajanapadas. Under the Maurya Empire founded by Chandragupta Maurya, Magadha extended over nearly all of South Asia, including parts of Persia and Afghanistan, reaching its greatest extent under the Buddhist emperor Ashoka the Great in the 3rd century BCE. One of the earliest foreign references to Bengal is the mention of a land ruled by the king Xandrammes named Gangaridai by the Greeks around 100 BCE. The word is speculated to have come from Gangahrd (Land with theGanges in its heart) in reference to an area in Bengal Later from the 3rd to the 6th centuriesCE, the kingdom of Magadha served as the seat of the Gupta Empire.

Pala Empire under Dharmapala

Middle age:

Pala Empire under DevapalaOne of the first recorded independent king of Bengal was Shashanka, reigning around the early 7th century. After a period of anarchy, Gopala came to power in 750 bydemocratic election.[25] He founded the Bengali Buddhist Pala Empire which ruled the region for four hundred years, and expanded across much of Southern Asia, from Assam in the northeast, to Kabul in the west, to Andhra Pradesh in the south. Atisha was a renowned Bengali Buddhist teacher who was instrumental in revival of Buddhism in Tibet and also held the position of Abbot at the Vikramshila university. Tilopa was also from Bengal region.

The Pala dynasty was later followed by a shorter reign of the Hindu Sena Empire. Islam was introduced to Bengal in the twelfth century by Sufi missionaries. Subsequent Muslim conquests helped spread Islam throughout the region. Bakhtiar Khilji, an Afghan general of the Slave dynasty of Delhi Sultanate, defeated Lakshman Sen of the Sena dynasty and conquered large parts of Bengal. Consequently, the region was ruled by dynasties of sultans and feudal lords under the Delhi Sultanate for the next few hundred years. Islam was introduced to the Sylhet region by the Muslim saint Shah Jalal in the early 14th century. In the early 17th century, Mughal general Islam Khan conquered Bengal. However, administration by governors appointed by the court of the Mughal Empire gave way to semi-independence of the area under the Nawabs of Murshidabad, who nominally respected the sovereignty of the Mughals in Delhi. After the weakening of the Mughal Empire with the death of Emperor Aurangzeb in 1707, Bengal was ruled independently by the Nawabs until 1757, when the region was annexed by the East India Company after the Battle of Plassey.

Sportsperson

Lists of famous and notable Bengali people, from West Bengal, India or Bangladesh, or people with Bengali ancestry.

Brojen Das was the first Asian to swim across the English Channel

 Brojen Das ব্রজেন দাস)- Swimmer: first Asian to swim across the English Channel and the first person to cross it four times
 Niaz Morshed chess player from Bangladesh, the first Chess Grandmaster to emerge from South Asia.
 Mohammad Rafique মোহাম্মদ রফিক - Cricketer
 Ziaur Rahman, Bangladeshi Grandmaster
 Abdullah Al Rakib, Bangladeshi Grandmaster
 Sourav Ganguly, Former Indian cricket team captain, Padma Shri awardee.
 Subroto Banerjee, Former Test and ODI player for India, Fast bowler.
 Krishna Das, former Indian archer
 P.K. Banerjee প্রদীপ কুমার ব্যানার্জি - Footballer: was named Indian Footballer of the 20th Century by FIFA and received the Padma ShriAward in 1990
 Saif Ahmad
 Dibyendu Barua, Indian chess grandmaster
 Ritwik Bhattacharya, squash player
 Gopal Bose, Former ODI Player for India
 Utpal Chatterjee, Former India Cricketer.
 Nirode Chowdhury, Former Test Cricketer for India/ Pace bowler.
 Bula Choudhury,বুলা চৌধুরী - Swimmer
 Mouma Das,মৌমা দাস - Table Tennis player
 Deepak Kumar Mondal, football player.
 Deep Dasgupta, Former Indian National Cricket Team Wicket-Keeper, played 8 Tests with a Century against England
 Rumeli Dhar, The cricketer of Indian woman Cricket Team
 Ashok Dinda, Indian cricket team player
 Chuni Goswami, Former Great India Footballer, Padma Shri awardee.
 Poulomi Ghatak, পৌলমী ঘটক - Table Tennis player
 Jhulan Goswami,ঝুলন গোস্বামী - ICC Women's Cricketer of the year 2007
 Aftab Ahmed Chowdhuryআফতা আহমেদ চৌধুরী
 Mohammad Ashraful, Bangladeshi cricketer, youngest centurion in test cricket.
 Isa Guha,ইশা গুহ English Women Cricketer
 Subrata Guha, Former Indian Test Cricketer.
 Rani Hamid রাণী হামিদ) - Chess player: was awarded the FIDE Woman International Master (WIM) title in 1985 and won British Women's
 Saradindu Mukherjee, Former India Cricketer
 Enamul Hossain, Bangladeshi Grandmaster
 Shailen Manna, Footballer
 Gostho Pal,গোষ্ঠ পাল - Footballer. Member of the 1st Indian Team(MohunBagan)those who won the IFA shield against a British team in the pre independence period.
 Pankaj Roy, Former Indian Cricket Captain, he is best known for establishing the world record opening partnership of 413 runs, together with Vinoo Mankad, against New Zealand at Chennai, Padma Shri awardee.
 Pranab Roy, Former Test Cricketer for India Championship (1983, 1985, 1989)
 Priyanka Roy, The cricketer of Indian woman cricket team.
 Reefat Bin-Sattar, Bangladeshi Grandmaster
 Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Former ODI player for India.
 Wriddhiman Saha, Player for KKR and Bengal
 Mihir Sen, Swimmer
 Arati Saha, Swimmer
 Probir Sen, Former Indian Test Cricketer/Wicket-Keeper.
 Jyotirmoyee Sikdar, athletics: Double gold-medallist in track at Asian games, was awarded Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award and Padma Shri award
 Jayanta Talukdar, archer
 Dipu Ghosh -former badminton player
 Raman Ghosh, former badminton player
 Manoj Tiwary, Player for KKR and Bengal
 Poulomi Ghatak, table tennis player
 Jaideep Mukherjea, former Indian tennis player
 Somdev Devvarman, Indian tennis player
 Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Indian grandmaster
 Subrata Paul, Footballer playing for the Indian team
 Saurav Ghosal, Indian squash player
 Dola Banerjee, Indian female archer
 Hari Shankar Roy, Indian track field athlete
 Rahul Banerjee, Indian archer
 Mohammed Ali Qamar, Indian boxer
 Subhajit Saha, Indian table tennis player
 Sachin Nag, former swimming champion
 Subhash Bhowmick, former football player
 Saraswati Saha, Indian sprint athlete
 Soma Biswas, Indian hepathlete
 Alok Kapali, Bangladeshi cricketer
 Tapash Baisya, Bangladeshi cricketer

Lists of famous and notable Bengali people, from West Bengal, India or Bangladesh, or people with Bengali ancestry.

Scientists & Engineers

Jagdish Chandra Bose Physicist, radio and wireless transmission pioneer, invented the radio before Marconi. Also did substantial work on botany.
Satyendra Nath Bose, Physicist, founded Bose–Einstein statistics, which helped to produce Bose-Einstein condensate (2001 Nobel Prize in Physics was given for this discovery); Boson, a study of Elementary particle, is named to honor him
Megh Nad Saha, Physicist, produced the famous "Thermo-Ionization Equation" or Saha Equation
Gopal Chandra Bhattacharya -was a Bengali entomologist and naturalist known for his pioneering work on social insects and the role of bacteria in metamorphosis.
Prafulla Chandra Roy, Pioneer in the field of pharmaceutical and chemical works (discovered mercurous nitrite)
Sharmila Bhattacharya, head of the Biomodel Performance and Behavior laboratory at NASA Ames Research Center
Upendranath Brahmachari, Biologist: synthesized Urea Stibamine (carbostibamide) and used it in the treatment of Kala-azar (leishmaniasis), was a nominee for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
 Mani Lal Bhaumik, Physicist: helped develop the first excimer laser at the University of California
 Kumar Bhattacharyya, Baron Bhattacharyya, As an academic he has played a prominent role in raising the status of engineering and manufacturing in UK. He was appointed CBE in 1997 and knighted in 2003, Padma Bhushan awardee.
 Asima Chatterjee, noted for her work in the fields of organic chemistry and phytomedicine. Her most notable work includes those on vinca alkaloids, and the development of anti-epileptic and anti-malarial drugs.
 Sandip Chakrabarti, A leading Indian astrophysicist, He wrote the first monograph on “Theory of Transonic Astrophysical Flows” (World Scientific Pub. Co., Singapore; 1990). Now a Senior professor at S.N. Bose National Centre where he is a Senior Professor
 Anirvan Ghosh, A Renowned neuroscientist, His research has contributed to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that regulate development of the mammalian brain
 Qazi Motahar Hossain, mathematician and statistician.
 Abul Hussam, Chemist: Inventor of Sono arsenic filter and the gold winner of the 2007 Grainger Challenge Prize for Sustainability
 Jamal Nazrul Islam, famous physicist and mathematician
 Abdus Suttar Khan, Chemist, inventor of alloys for use in commercial jets, U.S. fighter planes, gas turbines, train engines, and space shuttles
 Fazlur Khan, One of the foremost structural engineers of the 20th century: Structural engineer and designer of Sears Tower, the tallest building in the USA
 Muhammad Qudrat-i-Khuda, scientist and educator.
 Dilip Mahalanabis, Biologist: under his leadership International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh medical centre, discovered Oral rehydration therapy, which saved more than 40 millions lives from Diarrhoea
 Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, Statistician: Inventor of Mahalanobis Distance and founder of Indian Statistical Institute
 Sisir Kumar Mitra, Physicist: pioneer in the investigations of ionosphere and worked with Marie Curie, was awarded Fellowship of the Royal Society and Mitra crater on the Moon is named after him
 Subhash Mukhopadhyay, Physicist: became the first physician in India and second in the world to perform the In vitro fertilization
 Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri, Physicist: well known for his contributions to relativistic cosmology produced the famous Raychaudhuri's equation, a key ingredient for other major scientific concepts
 Bikash Sinha, former director of SINP and Padmabhusan
 Srikumar Banerjee, director of BARC and AEC
 Ashoke Sen, Physicist: known for his contributions to string theory and co-discovered S-duality

ACTORS AND ACTRESSES

Lists of famous and notable Bengali people, from West Bengal, India or Bangladesh, or people with Bengali ancestry.

 Jaya Bhaduri, Bollywood actress and wife of Amitabh Bachchan
 Victor Banerjee, Bengali and Bollywood actor
 Bipasha Basu, A Bengali Bollywood actress
 Khan Ataur Rahman A Bengali actor, director, producer, screenplay writer, music composer and singer.
 Seema Biswas, Bollywood actress
 Bobita, Bangladeshi film actress
 Rahul Bose, Bengali and Bollywood actor and rugby player
 Mithun Chakraborty, Bollywood and Bengali film actor
 Moushumi Chatterjee, Bollywood actress
 Chhabi Biswas, Bengali actor
 Biswajit Chatterjee, Bengali and Bollywood actor
 Priyanshu Chatterjee, Bollywood actor
 Sabitri Chatterjee, Bengali actor
 Shefali Chowdhury, Hollywood actor, seen in Harry Potter movies as Parvati Patil
 Soumitra Chatterjee, Bengali actor
 Sumita Devi, Bangladeshi film and television actress
 Tanushree Dutta, Former Miss India and Bollywood actress
 Utpal Dutt, Bengali actor
 Humayun Faridi, Bangladeshi film actor
 Mamata Shankar, Bollywood and bengali actress
 Preeti Ganguly, actress
 Rupa Ganguly, Bengali and Bollywood actress
 Rabi Ghosh, Bengali actor
 Shahana Goswami, Bollywood actress
 Raakhee Gulzar, Bollywood actress
 Konnie Huq, British television presenter
 Imran Khan, Bollywood actor
 Saif Ali Khan, Bollywood actor. Half Bengali.
 Soha Ali Khan, Bollywood actress. Half Bengali.
 Ashok Kumar, Bollywood actor
 Kishore Kumar -Bollywood singer, actor, music composer
 Uttam Kumar, Bollywood and Bengali film actor
 Pradeep Kumar, Bollywood actor
 Diya Mirza, Bollywood actress. Part Bengali.
 Koena Mitra, Former channel V VJ and Bollywood actress
 Rhona Mitra, Half-Bengali actress in Britain
 K.C. Dey -Bengali actor
 Sabyasachi Chakraborty, bollywood and bengali actor
 Dhritiman Chatterjee, bollywood and bengali actor
 Kajol Mukherjee, Bollywood actress.
 Kamalini Mukherjee, Bollywood & Tollywood actress
 Madhabi Mukherjee, actress notable works include charulata, mahanagar
 Tanisha Mukherjee, Bollywood actress.
 Rani Mukerji, Bollywood actress and superstar, Multiple Filmfare award winner.
 Lisa Ray, Model & actress. Half Bengali & Half Polish
 Subrata Routh, Bengali-American actor
 Reena Roy, Bollywood actress
 Debashree Roy, Bollywood actress
 Deep Roy, Hollywood Actor
 Abdur Razzak, Bengali actor
 Aparna Sen, Bengali film actress
 Nandana Sen, Bollywood actress, daughter of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen
 Raima Sen, Bengali Film and Bollywood actress
 Reema Sen, Bollywood & Kollywood actress
 Rimi Sen, Bollywood actress
 Riya Sen, Bollywood actress
 Suchitra Sen, Bollywood and Bengali film actress
 Sushmita Sen, Bollywood actress, India's first Miss Universe
 Konkona Sen Sharma, Bollywood Actress
 Shabnam, (Jharna Basak) , actress in Bangladeshi and Pakistani films
 Sharmila Tagore, Bollywood and Bengali film actress
 Ruma Guha Thakurta, actress notable works include Ganashatru, Abhijan, Palatak; wife of Kishore Kumar
 Rituparna Sengupta, Bollywood and Bengali actress
 Shayan Munshi, Bollywood and Bengali actor
 Tannishtha Chatterjee -Bollywood and Bengali actress
 Joy Mukherjee -Bollywood actor
 Amala, Bollywood actress
 Rohit Roy, Tv and Bollywood actor
 Koyel Mullick, Bengali actress. Daughter of Ranjit Mullick, renowned Bengali veteran actor.
 Samit Bhanja, bollywood and bengali actor
 Paoli Dam, actress
 Monikangana Dutta, model and actress
 Devika Rani, bollywood and bengali actress
 Shraddha Das, bollywood and tollywood actress
 Bhairavi Goswami, model and actress
 Richa Gangopadhyay, actress and miss India usa 2007
 Ronit Roy, bollywood and TV actor
 Tia Kar, bollywood actress
 Sandeepa Dhar, bollywood actress

Academic:

Lists of famous and notable Bengali people, from West Bengal, India or Bangladesh, or people with Bengali ancestry.

 Abdus Suttar Khan, chemist
 Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri, internationally-renowned theoretical physicist, widely respected educator
 Amartya Sen, economist and Nobel Laureate
 Andre Béteille, sociologist
 Ashis Nandy, political psychologist
 Ashoke Sen, physicist
 Dipesh Chakrabarty, historian
 Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, literary critic and theorist
 Kaushik Basu, economist
 Mir Masoom Ali, statistician
 Muhammad Shahidullah, educationist, writer, philologist and linguist
 Partha Chatterjee, political scientist
 Satyendranath Bose, physicist
 Sugata Bose, historian
 Sukumar Sen, Linguist
 Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, linguist, educationist, litterateur
 Sumit Sarkar, Historian
 Vina Mazumdar, Women studies

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Bengali culture .

History of Bangali

Sportsperson

Lists of famous and notable Bengali people, from West Bengal, India or Bangladesh, or people with Bengali ancestry.

ACTORS AND ACTRESSES

Academic: