2. Foreword

    The travels of Bengalis in the past 

              ---- Sumana Dam

It is well known that Bengalis have always had a passion for travel. However, determining exactly when Bengalis began their journeys is challenging. The primary barrier to collecting historical data on Bengali travel is the lack of history-based or biographical literature in the Bengali language. Nevertheless, evidence from literature in other languages indicates that Bengalis have been traveling to distant lands for a very long time. For example, Sri Lankan Buddhist texts such as the Mahavamsa and the Dipavamsa record that a son of Bengal, Vijaya Sinha, established an empire in distant Sri Lanka around 500 years before the birth of Christ. Although we know about this ancient journey of the Bengalis, it might not be classified as travel in the modern sense.

According to Tibetan Buddhist scriptures, the renowned Bengali scholar Atisha Dipankara Srigynana (982-1054 AD) traveled to Sumatra and Tibet about a thousand years ago to spread Buddhism. During that time, the difficulty of traveling to Tibet was immense. Although these expeditions by Atisha Dipankara were for the purpose of religious propagation, whether they can be classified as travel is a matter of debate. Until recently, religion was so central to societal life that it was challenging to separate it from other activities. Even a century ago, travel was often synonymous with pilgrimage. Therefore, aside from political reasons like warfare, empire-building, or trade, it is better to consider all other journeys as travel. More information about Dipankara's travels would have greatly enriched our understanding.

The earliest biographical writings in Bengali literature date back to the Chaitanya era. Works by Vrindavan Das, Lochan Das, Jayananda, and others provide detailed descriptions of the various journeys of Sri Chaitanya Dev. The travel accounts of Sri Chaitanya Dev from nearly 500 years ago can be considered the first travel literature of the Bengalis. The next episode will briefly cover the travel narratives of the Chaitanya era.

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