Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar’s Contribution in the Development of Bengali Language and Literature and Its Relevance in Present Context

Abstract

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was a great person and great human being. He is known not only for his contribution in the field of educational and social reformation, but also for his literary works and contribution in the development of modern Bengali language. He is the pioneer who understood the problem of the then readers in understanding the complicated Bengali language, whose origin was purely Sanskrit. Thus, he took initiatives for simplifying and modernizing this language. Before him there was no such simple, easy and systematic text books for the learners. So, the researcher aims to find out the literary works of Ishwar Chandra, his contributions in the development of modern Bengali language and its present day relevancy in education. To fulfill these aims and objectives the researcher has framed some research questions. This is a Historical and Bibliographical research. Necessary data are collected from the primary and secondary data sources. For the analysis and interpretation of collected data, researcher used documentary analysis method. According to the researcher this research has significance from many aspects. One of them is, it will reveal the contribution of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar as the first writer of Bengal in creating the simple and modern Bengali language. But the study is delimited by the researcher from the time period, i.e. only the time between 1820-1891 is considered as the period under study. After collecting necessary data, the researcher has found that, large number of books has been written by Ishwar Chandra and he has memorable contribution in the development of modern Bengali language. One of his popular creations is “Barna Porichay”. It is also found that he had done many activities like, writing of text books, grammar books, bio-graphical books and was actively involved in the writings of some magazines. Following the third research question, the research has found that Ishwar Chandra’s all activities are not somehow done by him, but those were much planned works. His report regarding the reformation of the educational system of Sanskrit college is considered as the first Educational Plan by the Indians. His works and activities regarding language development and literature support the principles of educational philosophy and psychology even after a long period of three centuries.