Bengali creative expression is not limited to the written word. Today Bengali literature remains a creative domain as shown by the works of poets, novelists, essayists, and scholars living in India, Bangladesh and other countries in the world. It became the medium of many religious traditions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam) and it was in dialog with several other literary traditions (Sanskrit, Persian, HindiвЂ¦). Medieval Bengali literature is also one of the richest of the subcontinent. His art and philosophy deeply influenced artists and intellectuals worldwide. Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was the first non-western author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913. Bengali intellectuals were the first to import literary forms such as the novel and sonnet in India. In South Asia, Bengali literature became emblematic of Indian literature as a whole through the success of its poets and novelists. Therefore learning Bengali is an invitation to learn more about Asia, specifically about South AsiaвЂ™s encounter with the world.

It is at the crossroads of eastern, South, and Southeastern Asia, and Bengali culture was immensely enriched by those cosmopolitan encounters. The history of Bengali is marked by the diversity of the cultures that took part in its formation. It is linguistically related to Sanskrit and has had a rich history as a literary language since the close of the first millennium. Bengali (aka Bangla) is spoken in northeastern India and Bangladesh by over 200 million speakers, and thus ranks 6thВ in number of native speakers in the world.

Where is bengali