Bengali literary heritage originates from and is neatly intertwined with the classical Indo-Aryan Sanskrit language and literature. But the influence of other non-Aryan languages on Bengali cannot be ignored. It is now more or less accepted that Bengali and languages of neighboring states belong to the Austric (or Austro-Asiatic) family of languages. Whilst Bengali carries the distinct mark of the Indo-Aryan social and cultural values, expressions or syntactic and grammatical constraints, according to Professor Sunitikumar Chatterjee, "there is, of course, the preserve of Kol and Dravidian (the Santals, the Malers, the Oraons) in the western fringes of the Bengal area, and of the Boda and Mon-Khmer speakers in the northern and eastern frontiers." It then follows that literary works in Bengali would also bear some unmistakable affinities to non-Aryan "phonetics, morphology, syntax and vocabulary" including myriads of symbolisms defining the local customs and traditions foreign to the Aryan or Vedic literature.

Professor Nihar Ranjan Roy (in his Bangalir Itihas: Adiparba) concluded that "... in addition to Sanskrit, there were two other languages in vogue in Bengal in the 9th and 10th centuries: one was derived from Souraseni and the other derived from Magadhi. The latter is said to have evolved later into Bengali. Some writers would write pad, doha and verses in both languages and the readers [reciters and listeners] too would understand them equally well."

Folk and Puranic Verses

Bengali literature has its roots in poetry. Bengali poetry has its roots in its people. Long before the print medium was invented, folk tales had been told from one generation to the next by singing verses created by ordinary people. Stories were constructed in the course of their lives from materials collected from their own experiences and from famous stories or themes composed by past generations of "Kobials" (or folk poets) and bauls (or street singers). Kobials (folk poets) would often recite their compositions in front of appreciative audiences not only in their immediate neighborhood, but also often in far-away villages. The depth of logic, humor, wit, wisdom, emotive outpour and romanticism in their poetic pieces (created extemporaneously often in response to and as an anti-thesis of the points and arguments made by the rival poets sharing the same audience and performing stage) was informative and amazingly entertaining. Such was their melodious rendition that they would leave an indelible mark on the audience. The villagers would continue to recite these verses for a long time to come.

Modern Poetry

Joydev was one of the earliest and the most famous Bengali poets. His masterpiece Geetgovinda remains a fitting testament of the classical puranic traditions of the Vaishnav poetry. Seeds of early Bengali literature was sown in the folkloric fertile ground.

Madhusudan Dutta who appeared as a comet in the literary sky of Bengal following Naveen Chandra Sen, introduced blank verses and sonnets and presented to the world his masterpiece epic poetry Meghnad Badh Kabya. This is the true beginning of modern Bengali poetry. Shackles of the past thus destroyed by this rebel poet later helped Bengalis to reap a bumper harvest in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Bengali poetry reached its peak in the hands of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Even though he was most widely known as a poet, Tagore was simultaneously a novelist, playwrights, lyricist, music composer, painter and philosopher. His book of lyrics called Geetanjali translated into English by himself earned him the Nobel prize in 1913 despite reported objections from the English members of the Nobel award committee. If there was a bigger and better prize for Tagore - it was to be the hearts and souls of millions of Bengalis who lived during his lifetime or will ever walk on this earth since his passing away.

Bengali Prose

History of Bengali prose is relatively new. Bengali prose form was largely developed and introduced by the missionaries of Serampore and by the Fort William College. Both had pragmatic and utilitarian ends in mind.

New British officers of the East India Company were taught Bengali so that they could converse with the natives. To this end Nathaniel B. Halhead published the Bengali grammar in 1778 - the title page clearly stated this obvious purpose. After Fort William College was established in 1800, the pundits were charged with the development of Bengali prose for the benefit of the English Administration.

The first Bengali book of prose written by a Bengalee was the textbook Raja Pratapaditya Charita published in 1801. The author was Ramram Basu who later wrote another book Lipimala. In 1802, Batrisa Simhasana written by Mritunjaya Vidyalankar was published. It was certainly an improvement on Ramram Basu. The same writer also published three other textbooks: Hitopadesh, Rajabali and Prabodh Chandrika.

 Raja Rammohan Roy published his first book of prose called Vedanta Grantha that a break with the tradition was established. The influence of Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian words was minimized. In 15 years, from 1815 to 1830, Rammohun wrote thirty books in Bengali. According to Soumendranath Tagore, "the excellence that the Bengali prose achieved in literary form under Bankim Chandra and Rabindranath owes its beginning to the Bengali prose developed by Rammohan". The above observation appears quite valid except in one detail. It does not accord any recognition to the pioneering work done by such writer as Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, Pyarichand Mitra and Tekchand Thakur. Indeed, Rabindranath Tagore regarded Vidyasagar (inspite of the fact that he was not a pure literary figure) as the father of Bengali prose.

Evidently, English style short stories; novels and plays are of relatively modern origin in the Bengali literature. Despite its late beginning, Bengali prose soon went through a complete course of evolution since then, rather quickly. According to Professor Sukumar Sen, the evolution of Bengali novelist traditon can be separated into four well-defined periods.

The Glorious Period

Fable-centered literature of this period has been classified into two distinct streams. The first stream was purely romantic. 

The second stream, not unlike its predecessor, continued to be laden with religious preachings and moral edicts. However, these were less exotic and less fanciful. Soon these started to deal with tales of ordinary people and their ordinary lives.