Sadhu bhasha () or Standard literary Bengali was a historical literary register of the

Bengali language Bengali, also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Bangla (, , ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. ...

most prominently used in the 19th to 20th centuries during the

Bengali Renaissance Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

. Sadhu bhasha was used only in writing, unlike Cholito bhasha, the colloquial form of the language, which was used in both writing and speaking. These two literary forms are examples of

diglossia In linguistics, diglossia ( , ) is where two dialects or languages are used (in fairly strict compartmentalization) by a single language community. In addition to the community's everyday or vernacular language variety (labeled "L" or "low" v ...

. Sadhu bhasha was used in official documents and legal papers during the colonial period; however, it is mostly obsolete in the present day.

History

This

Sanskritised Sanskritisation (or Sanskritization) is a term in sociology which refers to the process by which castes or tribes placed lower in the caste hierarchy seek upward mobility by emulating the rituals and practices of the dominant castes or upper c ...

form of Bengali is notable for its variations in verb forms and the vocabulary which is mainly composed of

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

tatsama Tatsama ( , lit. 'same as that') are Sanskrit loanwords in modern Indo-Aryan languages like Assamese, Bengali, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Hindi, Gujarati, and Sinhala and in Dravidian languages like Tamil, Kannada and Telugu. They generally ...

words. It was mainly a vocabulary making it easier for literary works in

to be translated. Notable among them was Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, who standardised the

Bengali alphabet The Bengali script or Bangla alphabet (, romanized: ''Bāṅlā bôrṇômālā'') is the standard writing system used to write the Bengali language, and has historically been used to write Sanskrit within Bengal. An estimated 300 million ...

and paved the path for literary works. The colloquial usage of Bengali consisted mostly of its

Prakrit Prakrit ( ) is a group of vernacular classical Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent from around the 5th century BCE to the 12th century CE. The term Prakrit is usually applied to the middle period of Middle Ind ...

base as well as indigenous ('' deshi''), Persian and

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

words embedded into the vocabulary. As a result, the

Brahmins Brahmin (; ) is a ''Varna (Hinduism), varna'' (theoretical social classes) within Hindu society. The other three varnas are the ''Kshatriya'' (rulers and warriors), ''Vaishya'' (traders, merchants, and farmers), and ''Shudra'' (labourers). Th ...

, a

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

pundit caste, chose the path of Sanskritisation to make a "pure" language which would be used as a representative of classical languages into which the works of Sanskrit and Hindu literature can be translated. This shifted Bengali further towards Sanskrit thus archaizing its vocabulary. This in turn increased the commonality in Bengali vocabulary with other Indo-Aryan languages, such as

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

which has also consciously replaced Persian and Arabic elements with Sanskrit Tatsama, a process which separated it form the Khariboli source and Urdu. By the time of

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...

, the Sadhu-ness ("purity") of the literary form had largely waned into just a set of Sanskrit verb forms and in a decade,

Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...

himself would switch to writing in Cholito Bhasha. Dr. Radha Nag's book ''Atmaghati Nirad Choudhuri'' আত্মঘাতী নীরদ চৌধুরী (Suicidal Nirad Choudhuri) appears as the last Bengali book written in Sadhu Bhasha.

Bangladeshi Bangladeshis ( ) are the citizens and nationals of Bangladesh, a South Asian country centred on the transnational historical region of Bengal along the Bay of Bengal, eponymous bay. Bangladeshi nationality law, Bangladeshi citizenship was fo ...

writer, intellectual, academic Dr. Salimullah Khan has been writing in Sadhu Basha since 2005. The newspaper ''

Anandabazar Patrika ''Anandabazar Patrika'' is an Indian Bengali-language daily newspaper owned by the ABP Group. Its main competitors are ''Bartaman'', '' Ei Samay'', '' Sangbad Pratidin'', " Aajkal", " Jago Bangla", " ganashakti" and " dainik Statesman". Histo ...

'' uses Sadhu Bhasha on their editorial column, partially, even today.

Styles

The mid-19th century hosted two influential writers of Sadhu bhasha;

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar Ishwar Chandra Bandyopadhyay (26 September 1820 – 29 July 1891), popularly known as Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (), was an Indian educator and social reformer of the nineteenth century. His efforts to simplify and modernise Bengali language, Ben ...

and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. Vidyasagar's style was very conservative towards withholding only the use of

(Sanskrit) when writing. His style came to be known as ''Vidyasagari'' and Akshay Kumar Datta also wrote in this style. Chatterjee's writing style was somewhat more lenient to the use of

tadbhava (Sanskrit: तद्भव, , lit. "arising from that") is the Sanskrit word for one of three etymological classes defined by native grammarians of Middle Indo-Aryan languages, alongside tatsama and deśi words. at pp. 67-69. A "tadbhava" is ...

and deshi vocabulary. It came to be known as ''Bankimi'' – a more popular style, it was practised by the likes of

, Hara Prasad Shastri, Dinesh Chandra Sen, Mir Mosharraf Hossain and

Ismail Hossain Siraji Syed Ismail Hossain Siraji (; 1880–1931) was a Bengalis, Bengali royal as well as an author and poet from Sirajganj District, Sirajganj in present-day Bangladesh. He is considered to be one of the key authors of period of the Bengali Muslim reaw ...

Sample text

The following is a sample text in Sadhu bhasha of Article 1 of the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the Human rights, rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN Drafting of the Universal D ...

: Bengali in the

: Bengali in phonetic Romanization :Dhara êk: Sômôstô manush shadhinbhabe sôman môrjada ebông ôdhikar lôiya jônmôgrôhôṇ kôre. Tãhader bibek ebông buddhi achhe; sutôrang sôkôleri êke ôpôrer prôti bhratrittôsulôbh mônobhab lôiya achôrôṇ kôra uchit. Bengali in the

International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standard written representation ...

: Gloss :Clause 1: All human free-manner-in equal dignity and right taken birth-take do. Their reason and intelligence exist; therefore everyone-indeed one another's towards brotherhood-ly mind-spirit taken conduct do should. Translation :Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They possess conscience and reason. Therefore, everyone should act in a spirit of brotherhood towards each other.

Cholit bhasa

The following is a sample text in Cholit-Bhasha of Article 1 of the

: Bengali in the

: Bengali in phonetic Romanization :Dhara êk: Sôb manush shadhinbhabe sôman môrjada ar ôdhikar niye jônmo ney. Tãder bibek ar buddhi achhe; tai sôbari êke ôpôrer dike bhaijer môto môner bhab niye achôrôn kôra uchit. Bengali in the

: Gloss :Clause 1: All human free-manner-in equal dignity and right taken bear. Their reason and intelligence exist; so everyone-indeed one another's direction-to brother's like mind's spirit taken conduct do should. Translation :Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They possess conscience and reason. Therefore, everyone should act in a spirit of brotherhood towards each other.

Bibliography

References