The document provides information on Bengali culture, including its history, festivals, food, art, folklore, and crafts. It discusses how Bengal has a long recorded history and was an economically powerful region. It describes important Bengali festivals like Durga Puja, foods such as machher jhol and mishti doi, art forms including terracotta sculptures and mukhosh masks, the Baul musical tradition, and the textile craft of kantha embroidery. The document aims to give an overview of key aspects of Bengali cultural heritage.

1. BENGALI CULTURE
PSHYCOLOGY ASSIGNMENT BY – SHUBHAM RAI

2. CONTENTS
 Bengali Culture
 History Of Bengal
 Partition Of Bengal
 Capital Of Bengal – Kolkata
 Bengali Food - Machher Jhol & Mishti doi
 Bengali Festivals – Durga Puja
 Bengali Art Work – Fine Arts, Mukhosh, Terracotta Art
 Bengali Folklore - Bauls
 Bengali Craft - Kantha

3. CULTURE OF BENGAL
 The culture of Bengal defines the cultural heritage of the Bengali
people native to eastern regions of the Indian subcontinent, mainly
what is today Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal,
Tripura and Assam's Barak Valley, where the Bengali language is the
official and primary language.

4. CULTURE OF BENGAL

5. HISTORY
 Bengal has a recorded history of 1,400 years. The Bengali people are its dominant
ethno linguistic tribe. The region has been a historical melting point, blending indigenous
traditions with cosmopolitan influences from pan-Indian sub continental empires. Bengal
was considered to be the richest part of Islamic medieval India and during the era of the
Bengal Sultanate it was described to be a world major trading nation, while during Mughal
times, having triggered the proto-industrialization, its economy was worth 12% of global
GDP. As a part of the Bengal Presidency, it also hosted the region's most advanced
political and cultural centres during the British rule.

6. PARTITION OF BENGAL
 The partition of Bengal left its own cultural legacy. Bangladesh is
the scene of a dominant Bengali Muslim culture, whereas Indian
Bengali-speaking regions have a Bengali Hindu majority. Muslim-
majority Bangladesh is home to a significant Hindu minority, whereas
West Bengal has a large Muslim minority. Apart from these, there are
also numerous ethnic and religious minorities.

7. KOLKATA – THE CAPITAL
 Kolkata, also known as Calcutta
the official name until 2001 is the
capital of the Indian state of West
Bengal.
 Kolkata is a cosmopolitan city
which houses a sizeable number of
ethnic communities.

8. 1- FOOD
 Bengali cuisine is a culinary style originating in Bengal region in the
eastern part of the Indian subcontinent, which is divided between
Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam's
Barak Valley. There is an emphasis on fish, vegetables, and lentils served
with the staple rice. Bengali cuisine is known for its varied use of flavours,
as well as the spread of its confectioneries and desserts.

9. MACHHER JHOL & MISHTI DOI

10. MACHHER JHOL
 Machher jhol or machha jhola is a traditional spicy fish stew in Bengali and Odia cuisines in the eastern part
of the Indian subcontinent. It is in the form of a very spicy stew that is served with rice. Machher jhol is liberally
seasoned with turmeric, garlic, onions, and grated ginger. Potatoes are added to the stew as a thickening agent.
Tomatoes are also added to impart the dish with a reddish color which is preferred by the people of Bengal.
 Sweetmeats, or mishti (Bengali: মিমি) occupy an important place in the diet of Bengalis and at their social
ceremonies. It is an ancient custom among both Hindu and Muslim Bengalis to distribute sweets during
festivities. The confectionery industry has flourished because of its close association with social and religious
ceremonies. Competition and changing tastes have helped to create many new sweets, and today this industry has
grown within the country as well as across the world

11. 2- FESTIVALS
 West Bengal is a land of festivals. There is a popular saying in Bengali ‘‘Baro
Mase Tero Parban’: it literally means thirteen festivals in twelve months. Almost all
festivals of all religions are celebrated here with equal religious sentiment and
fervor.
 The people of West Bengal strive hard to maintain the tradition and culture of
its land in the festivals they celebrate. A great number of fairs are also organized.
The most popular festival celebrated in West Bengal is Durga Puja where all the
people come out in the streets and celebrate this four day festival.

12. DURGA PUJA

13. DURGA PUJA
 Durga Puja is the most important Hindu festival of the Bengalis. This festival is celebrated in the month of
October, throughout the West Bengal. During this festival, the people from all over India and world visit West
Bengal to enjoy the festival. All the government offices, educational institutions and law courts are closed during
the festival. Durga Puja is the most important festival in the city of Kolkata. The festival celebrates the victory of
good over evil. This festival is celebrated for five days and marked by prayers to goddess Durga, feasts, rejoicing,
music, dance and drama. On this day, the people wear new clothes and visit all the community Pujas and worship
the ten-armed. Goddess Durga, Saraswati, Lakshmi, Ganesh and Kartikeya in beautifully illuminated and
decorated pandals. The priests perform the prayers at appointed times while the devotees visit these pandals
throughout the day. In towns and villages, in the evening, drama, song, music, dance programmes, sports, physical
and cultural competitions etc are held in which everyone participates. Community feasts are also held.

14. 3- FINE ARTS
 Theatre - Bengali theater traces its roots to Sanskrit drama under the Gupta Empire in the
4th century CE. It includes narrative forms, song and dance forms, supra-personae forms,
performance with scroll paintings, puppet theatre and the processional forms like the Jatra.
 Dance - Bengal has an extremely rich heritage of dancing dating back to antiquity. It
includes classical, folk and martial dance traditions. Gaudiya Nritya and Chhau dance
 Sculpture - Ancient Bengal was home to the Pala-Sena school of Sculptural Art.. Ivory
sculptural art flourished across the region under the Nawabs of Bengal. Notable modernist
sculptors include Novera Ahmed and Nitun Kundu.

15. ARTS OF WEST BENGAL
 West Bengal has a rich cultural and artistic heritage. Due to the reign of many different
rulers in the past, arts and crafts in West Bengal underwent many changes giving an artistic
diversity today in the forms of traditional handicrafts, masks, painting and carving, dance, music
etc.
 Mukhosh of West Bengal, as it known has a mysterious history. Mostly it uses for the Mask
Dance, the folk dance of West Bengal. The wearing of these masks is connected with early types
of folklore and religion. There is various type of masks made up of clay, wood, sponge wood or
shola, pith, paper, metal etc. Generally, half masks are made up of clay, pith and paper and
wooden masks are very rare.

16. MUKHOSH
 Some of the masks came from the Tribal
of West Bengal. Geographically, West Bengal
comes well within this mask using culture
zone. Mask in West Bengal is mostly used in
folk dance. UNESCO selected The Rural
Craft Hub of Bengal to showcase their
artwork in Paris in 2015.
 Examples - Chhau Mask, Gambhira Mask

17. TERRACOTTA ART
 Architecture - There are significant
examples of fine arts in Bengal from earlier
times such as terracotta art of Hindu temples.
The roofing style of Bengali Hindu temple
architecture is unique and closely related to the
paddy roofed traditional building style of rural
Bengal. Roofing styles include the jor-bangla,
do-chala, char-chala, at-chala, deul, ek-ratna,
pancharatna and navaratna. he temple
structures contain gabled roofs which are
colloquially called the chala

18. TERRACOTTA ART
 Terracotta dolls - In West Bengal, terracotta traditions are found from the earliest times. They are symbols of
fulfilment of aspirations of village folk. In order to cater to the commercial requirements of the modern global market,
the village potter is often combining the traditional rural abstractions with refined urban tastes to show pieces of
terracotta art.
 Bankura Horse - In Bankura, potters create terracotta horses and elephants. Over the centuries they have moved
away from a realistic presentation to a representational presentation. Potter-artists of different regions focused on
different parts of the animal body in such a manner that representation of the same became more important than
representation of the entire body of the animal
 Manasa chali- Manasa chali is the idol of Debi Manasa. It is a unique terracotta sculpture of Panchmura, West
Bengal. Manasa chali has a small figure or a group of three figures in the middle, with rows of snake hoods fanning out
in a half moon shape.

19. TERRACOTTA ART

20. 4- FOLKLORE
 Bengal has produced leading figures of Indian classical music, including
Alauddin Khan, Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan. Common musical
instruments include the sitar, tabla and sarod. The Baul tradition is a unique
regional folk heritage. The most prominent practitioner was Lalon Shah. Other folk
music forms include Gombhira, Bhatiali and Bhawaiya (Jhumur). Folk music in
Bengal is often accompanied by the ektara, a one-stringed instrument. Other
instruments include the dotara, dhol, bamboo flute, and tabla. Songs written by
Rabindranath Tagore (Rabindra Sangeet) and Kazi Nazrul Islam (Nazrul geeti) are
highly popular.

21. T h e B a u l o r B a u l s ( b e n g a l i : বা উ ল ) a r e a g r o u p o f m y s t i c
m i n s t r e l s o f m i x e d e l e m e n t s o f t a n t r a , S u f i s m , v a i s h n a v i s m a n d
B u d d h i s m , f r o m t h e B e n g a l r e g i o n

22. BAULS
 Bauls constitute both a syncretic religious sect and a musical tradition. Bauls are a
very heterogeneous group, with many sects, but their membership mainly consists of
Vaishnava Hindus and Sufi Muslims.
 They can often be identified by their distinctive clothes and musical instruments.
Lalon Shah is regarded as the most celebrated Baul saint in history
 Although Bauls comprise only a small fraction of the Bengali population, their
influence on the culture of Bengal is considerable. In 2005, the Baul tradition of
Bangladesh was included in the list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage
of Humanity by UNESCO

23. BAULS
 The music of the Bauls, Baul Sangeet, is a
particular type of folk song. Its lyrics carry
influences of the Hindu bhakti movements
and the suphi, a form of Sufi song exemplified
by the songs of Kabir. Their music represents
a long heritage of preaching mysticism
through songs in Bengal. Lalon is the most
celebrated Baul saint in history.
 SONG CLIP -
https://youtu.be/1K6gOuD9uZs

24. 5- CRAFT - TEXTILES
 Kantha - Kantha (also spelled Kanta, and Qanta) is a type of
embroidery craft in the eastern regions of the Indian subcontinent,
specifically in Bangladesh and in the Indian states of West Bengal,
Tripura and Odisha.
 This is normally used above a bed cushion or instead of a cushion.
"Kantha saris" are traditionally worn by women in Bengal region.

25. KANTHA
 Kantha stitching is also used to
make simple quilts, commonly
known as Nakshi Kantha. Women
in Bengal typically use old saris and
cloth and layer them with kantha
stitching to make a light blanket,
throw, or bedspread, especially for
children.