103-576: Dhaka District ( Bengali : ঢাকা জেলা , romanized : Ḍhākā jēlā ) is a district in central Bangladesh , and is the densest district in the nation. It is a part of the Dhaka Division . Dhaka , the capital of Bangladesh, and rests on the eastern banks of the Buriganga River which flows from the Turag to the southern part of the district. The former Dhaka city corporation occupied only about
206-492: A bid to lessen this burden on young learners, efforts have been made by educational institutions in the two main Bengali-speaking regions (West Bengal and Bangladesh) to address the opaque nature of many consonant clusters, and as a result, modern Bengali textbooks are beginning to contain more and more "transparent" graphical forms of consonant clusters, in which the constituent consonants of a cluster are readily apparent from
309-590: A different word from a speaker of Standard Bengali in Bangladesh, even though both words are of native Bengali descent. For example, the word salt is লবণ lôbôṇ in the east which corresponds to নুন nun in the west. Bengali exhibits diglossia , though some scholars have proposed triglossia or even n-glossia or heteroglossia between the written and spoken forms of the language. Two styles of writing have emerged, involving somewhat different vocabularies and syntax : Linguist Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar categorises
412-480: A diphthong. The total number of diphthongs is not established, with bounds at 17 and 31. An incomplete chart is given by Sarkar (1985) of the following: In standard Bengali, stress is predominantly initial. Bengali words are virtually all trochaic ; the primary stress falls on the initial syllable of the word, while secondary stress often falls on all odd-numbered syllables thereafter, giving strings such as in সহযোগিতা shô -hô- jo -gi- ta "cooperation", where
515-670: A few market centres like Lakshmi Bazar, Shankhari Bazar, Tanti Bazar, Patuatuli, Kumartuli, Bania Nagar and Goal Nagar. After the Sena dynasty, Dhaka was successively ruled by the Turkish and Afghan governors descending from the Delhi Sultanate before the arrival of the Mughals in 1608. The development of townships and significant growth in population came as the city was proclaimed the capital of Bengal under Mughal rule in 1608. During Mughal rule
618-483: A fifth of the area of Dhaka district until 2011 where the municipal corporation was fractionated and rearranged in North and South corporations due to being the economic, political and cultural centre of the district and also the country. Dhaka District consists of Dhaka , Keraniganj , Nawabganj , Dohar , Savar and Dhamrai upazila. Dhaka District is an administrative entity, and like many other cities, it does not cover
721-672: A large scale and were communally limited. Owing to Bengal's geographic location, Bengali areas bordering non-Bengali regions have been influenced by each other. Small numbers of people in Midnapore , which borders Odisha , have used the Odia script to write in Bengali. In the border areas between West Bengal and Bihar , some Bengali communities historically wrote Bengali in Devanagari , Kaithi and Tirhuta . In Sylhet and Bankura , modified versions of
824-660: A majority in Bangladesh speaks dialects notably different from SCB. Some dialects, particularly those of the Chittagong region, bear only a superficial resemblance to SCB. The dialect in the Chittagong region is least widely understood by the general body of Bengalis. The majority of Bengalis are able to communicate in more than one variety – often, speakers are fluent in Cholitobhasha (SCB) and one or more regional dialects. Even in SCB,
927-667: A part in the adoption of the English alphabet to write Bengali, with certain social media influencers publishing entire novels in Roman Bengali. Shaista Khan Mirza Abu Talib (b. 22 November 1600 – d. 1694), better known as Shaista Khan , was a general and the Subahdar of Mughal Bengal , he was maternal uncle to the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb , he acted as a key figure during his reign, Shaista Khan initially governed
1030-591: A population of nearly a million people. The city passed to the control of the British East India Company in 1757 after the Battle of Plassey and eventually to the Crown , British Empire , in 1765 at the Battle of Buxar . The city's population shrank dramatically during this period as the prominence of Kolkata rose, but substantive development and modernisation eventually followed. A modern civic water supply system
1133-653: A reputation as a successful military commander and grew close to his nephew, the prince Aurangzeb , when the duo fought against the kingdom of Golconda . After Aurangzeb's accession to the Mughal throne in 1659, he sent Shaista Khan as viceroy of the Deccan with a large army to enforce the treaty the Mughals had signed with the Adilshahi of Bijapur . Through the treaty the Adilshahi had ceded territory that it had previously captured from
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#17328515233371236-562: A rounded total of 280 million) worldwide. The Bengali language is native to the region of Bengal , which comprises the present-day nation of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal . Besides the native region it is also spoken by the Bengalis living in Tripura , southern Assam and the Bengali population in the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands . Bengali is also spoken in
1339-605: A shopping mall that is one of the largest in Southeast Asia, frequented daily by more than 25,000 people. The Export Processing Zone in Dhaka was set up to encourage the export of garments, textiles and other goods. The EPZ is home to 80 factories, which employ mostly women. The Dhaka Stock Exchange is based in the city, as are most of the large companies and banks of Bangladesh, including the Bangladesh Bank , HSBC , Citibank and
1442-468: A short taxi ride into the suburbs. Once famed for its Muslin , Dhaka is now renowned for pink pearls and a rich tradition of handicrafts . The Botanical garden is a park at Mirpur in Dhaka. It contains various species of plants. It is also a major tourist spot. Built in 1678 by the Viceroy of Bengal, it contains a three-domed mosque, the tomb of Pari Bibi, the reputed daughter of Nawab Shaista Khan,
1545-408: A special diacritic, called the hôsôntô (্) , may be added below the basic consonant grapheme (as in ম্ [m] ). This diacritic, however, is not common and is chiefly employed as a guide to pronunciation. The abugida nature of Bengali consonant graphemes is not consistent, however. Often, syllable-final consonant graphemes, though not marked by a hôsôntô , may carry no inherent vowel sound (as in
1648-575: A state language of the then Dominion of Pakistan . On 21 February 1952, five students and political activists were killed during protests near the campus of the University of Dhaka ; they were the first ever martyrs to die for their right to speak their mother tongue. In 1956, Bengali was made a state language of Pakistan. 21 February has since been observed as Language Movement Day in Bangladesh and has also been commemorated as International Mother Language Day by UNESCO every year since 2000. In 2010,
1751-468: A synagogue. For a long time, Islam has been the majority religion in Dhaka, with only 1300 mosques, but more mosques were recently built, and the district is now called the City of Mosques. Dhaka is the commercial heart of Bangladesh. The city has a large middle class population, increasing the market for modern consumer and luxury goods. Many skilled workers are employed in the businesses and industries located in
1854-424: A thriving and prosperous city from a small township. It is said that he made currency of Bangladesh 'Taka' so strong that eight 'mon' (around 295 kilogram) processed rice or 'chaal' could be bought with one taka. The Shaista Khan Mosque is a massive standing monument to Shaista Khan, built on his palace grounds. Incorporating unique elements of Bengali and Mughal architecture, it is a major tourist attraction and
1957-463: A vowel in isolation from any preceding or following consonant, the independent form of the vowel is used. For example, in মই [moj] "ladder" and in ইলিশ [iliʃ] "Hilsa fish", the independent form of the vowel ই is used (cf. the dependent form ি) . A vowel at the beginning of a word is always realised using its independent form. In addition to the inherent-vowel-suppressing hôsôntô , three more diacritics are commonly used in Bengali. These are
2060-672: A year. He made diplomatic efforts to gain the support of the Dutch East India Company as well as Portugal , With the direct support of the Dutch army, Shaista Khan led the Mughals in an attack on the Arakanese-held Sandwip under the command of Ibn Husain, which lay in Arakanese control. The previous Siege of Hooghly by Shaishta Khan were considered by Saugata Bhaduri, professor from Jawaharlal Nehru University , as an attempt by
2163-494: Is Bangladesh's national march, written by The National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam in Bengali in 1928. It was adopted as the national marching song by the Bangladeshi government in 1972. Additionally, the first two verses of Vande Mataram , a patriotic song written in Bengali by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee , was adopted as the "national song" of India in both the colonial period and later in 1950 in independent India. Furthermore, it
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#17328515233372266-536: Is a classical Indo-Aryan language from the Indo-European language family native to the Bengal region of South Asia. With over 237 million native speakers and another 41 million as second language speakers as of 2024, Bengali is the fifth most spoken native language and the seventh most spoken language by the total number of speakers in the world. It is the fifth most spoken Indo-European language . Bengali
2369-468: Is a cursive script with eleven graphemes or signs denoting nine vowels and two diphthongs , and thirty-nine graphemes representing consonants and other modifiers. There are no distinct upper and lower case letter forms. The letters run from left to right and spaces are used to separate orthographic words . Bengali script has a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the graphemes that links them together called মাত্রা matra . Since
2472-400: Is an abugida , a script with letters for consonants, with diacritics for vowels, and in which an inherent vowel (অ ô ) is assumed for consonants if no vowel is marked. The Bengali alphabet is used throughout Bangladesh and eastern India (Assam, West Bengal, Tripura). The Bengali alphabet is believed to have evolved from a modified Brahmic script around 1000 CE (or 10th–11th century). It
2575-668: Is believed by many that the national anthem of Sri Lanka ( Sri Lanka Matha ) was inspired by a Bengali poem written by Rabindranath Tagore , while some even believe the anthem was originally written in Bengali and then translated into Sinhala . After the contribution made by the Bangladesh UN Peacekeeping Force in the Sierra Leone Civil War under the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone ,
2678-699: Is considered a separate language, although it shares similarities to Northern Bengali dialects. During the standardisation of Bengali in the 19th century and early 20th century, the cultural centre of Bengal was in Kolkata , a city founded by the British. What is accepted as the standard form today in both West Bengal and Bangladesh is based on the West-Central dialect of Nadia and Kushtia District . There are cases where speakers of Standard Bengali in West Bengal will use
2781-404: Is known as Apabhraṃśa , by the end of the first millennium. The Bengali language evolved as a distinct language over the course of time. Though some archaeologists claim that some 10th-century texts were in Bengali, it is not certain whether they represent a differentiated language or whether they represent a stage when Eastern Indo-Aryan languages were differentiating. The local Apabhraṃśa of
2884-477: Is set out below in the International Phonetic Alphabet (upper grapheme in each box) and romanisation (lower grapheme). Bengali is known for its wide variety of diphthongs , combinations of vowels occurring within the same syllable . Two of these, /oi̯/ and /ou̯/ , are the only ones with representation in script, as ঐ and ঔ respectively. /e̯ i̯ o̯ u̯/ may all form the glide part of
2987-545: Is the official , national , and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh , with 98% of Bangladeshis using Bengali as their first language. It is the second-most widely spoken language in India . It is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura and the Barak Valley region of the state of Assam . It is also the second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011. It
3090-768: Is the Aurangabad Fort, commonly known as Lalbagh Fort . Also in this area of Dhaka is the Ahsan Manzil Plance Museum, the Bara Katra , the Cotta Katra and several mosques of note. The old European quarter lies just north of Dhaka's old town, which houses the presidential place and the National Museum, Dhaka's commercial and diplomatic regions are northeast of this zone. Dhaka Zoo and the Botanical Gardens are
3193-500: Is the most widely spoken language in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal , and is spoken by significant populations in other states including Bihar , Arunachal Pradesh , Delhi , Chhattisgarh , Meghalaya , Mizoram , Nagaland , Odisha and Uttarakhand . Bengali is also spoken by the Bengali diasporas ( Bangladeshi diaspora and Indian Bengalis) across Europe, North America,
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3296-480: Is under the jurisdiction of the Dhaka North City Corporation and Dhaka South City Corporation ; for administrative purposes, the municipal area is divided into 92 wards. Tejgaon Development Circle is merged with the two city corporations. According to the 2022 Census of Bangladesh , Dhaka District had 4,035,241 households and a population of 14,734,701 with an average 3.62 people per household. Among
3399-500: The Aesop's Fables in Bengali was printed using Roman letters based on English phonology by the Scottish linguist John Gilchrist . Consecutive attempts to establish a Roman Bengali have continued across every century since these times, and have been supported by the likes of Suniti Kumar Chatterji , Muhammad Qudrat-i-Khuda , and Muhammad Enamul Haq . The Digital Revolution has also played
3502-499: The Ahmadnagar Sultanate , to the Mughals. However, the territory was also fiercely contested by Maratha ruler, Shivaji who had acquired a reputation after his killing of Adilshahi general, Afzal Khan in 1659. In January 1660, Shaista Khan arrived at Aurangabad and quickly advanced, seizing Pune , the centre of Shivaji's realm. He also captured the fort of Chakan and Kalyan and north Konkan after heavy fighting with
3605-660: The Arabic , Persian , and Turkic languages . The arrival of merchants and traders from the Middle East and Turkestan into the Buddhist -ruling Pala Empire , from as early as the 7th century, gave birth to Islamic influence in the region. In the 13th century, subsequent Arab Muslim and Turco-Persian expeditions to Bengal heavily influenced the local vernacular by settling among the native population. Bengali absorbed Arabic and Persian influences in its vocabulary and dialect, including
3708-468: The Constitution of Bangladesh states Bengali to be the sole official language of Bangladesh. The Bengali Language Implementation Act, 1987 , made it mandatory to use Bengali in all records and correspondences, laws, proceedings of court and other legal actions in all courts, government or semi-government offices, and autonomous institutions in Bangladesh. It is also the de facto national language of
3811-455: The Grameen Bank . Urban developments have sparked a widespread construction boom, causing new high-rise buildings and skyscrapers to change the city landscape. Growth has been especially strong in the finance, banking, manufacturing, telecommunications and services sectors, while tourism, hotels and restaurants continue as important elements of the Dhaka economy. The historic city of Dhaka is
3914-564: The Kaithi script had some historical prominence, mainly among Muslim communities. The variant in Sylhet was identical to the Baitali Kaithi script of Hindustani with the exception of Sylhet Nagri possessing matra . Sylhet Nagri was standardised for printing in c. 1869 . Up until the 19th century, numerous variations of the Arabic script had been used across Bengal from Chittagong in
4017-520: The Nadia region . Bengali shows a high degree of diglossia , with the literary and standard form differing greatly from the colloquial speech of the regions that identify with the language. Modern Bengali vocabulary is based on words inherited from Magadhi Prakrit and Pali, along with tatsamas and reborrowings from Sanskrit and borrowings from Persian , Arabic , Austroasiatic languages and other languages with which it has historically been in contact. In
4120-590: The University of Karachi (established by East Pakistani politicians before Independence of Bangladesh ) also offers regular programs of studies at the Bachelors and at the Masters levels for Bengali Literature. The national anthems of both Bangladesh ( Amar Sonar Bangla ) and India ( Jana Gana Mana ) were written in Bengali by the Bengali Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore . Notuner Gaan known as " Chol Chol Chol"
4223-499: The boldface represents primary and secondary stress. Native Bengali words do not allow initial consonant clusters ; the maximum syllabic structure is CVC (i.e., one vowel flanked by a consonant on each side). Many speakers of Bengali restrict their phonology to this pattern, even when using Sanskrit or English borrowings, such as গেরাম geram (CV.CVC) for গ্রাম gram (CCVC) "village" or ইস্কুল iskul (VC.CVC) for স্কুল skul (CCVC) "school". The Bengali-Assamese script
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4326-557: The phonology of Eastern Bengali is seen through the lack of nasalised vowels and an alveolar articulation of what are categorised as the "cerebral" consonants (as opposed to the postalveolar articulation of western Bengal). Some varieties of Bengali, particularly Sylheti , Chittagonian and Chakma , have contrastive tone ; differences in the pitch of the speaker's voice can distinguish words. Kharia Thar and Mal Paharia are closely related to Western Bengali dialects, but are typically classified as separate languages. Similarly, Hajong
4429-608: The 16th century, Portuguese missionaries began a tradition of using the Roman alphabet to transcribe the Bengali language. Though the Portuguese standard did not receive much growth, a few Roman Bengali works relating to Christianity and Bengali grammar were printed as far as Lisbon in 1743. The Portuguese were followed by the English and French respectively, whose works were mostly related to Bengali grammar and transliteration. The first version of
4532-637: The 19th and 20th centuries, there were two standard forms of written Bengali: In 1948, the government of Pakistan tried to impose Urdu as the sole state language in Pakistan, giving rise to the Bengali language movement . This was a popular ethnolinguistic movement in the former East Bengal (today Bangladesh ), which arose as a result of the strong linguistic consciousness of the Bengalis and their desire to promote and protect spoken and written Bengali's recognition as
4635-576: The 6th century, which competed with the ancestor of Bengali for some time. The ancestor of Bengali was the language of the Pala Empire and the Sena dynasty . During the medieval period, Middle Bengali was characterised by the elision of the word-final অ ô and the spread of compound verbs, which originated from the Sanskrit Schwa . Slowly, the word-final ô disappeared from many words influenced by
4738-650: The Audience Hall and the hammam of the Governor. Four Kilometres from the hotel. A majestic place, it was once home to the Nawab of Dhaka , and houses 23 galleries displaying portraits, furniture and household articles. Jatiyo Smriti Soudho or National Martyrs' Memorial is a monument in Bangladesh. It is the symbol of the valour and the sacrifice of the martyrs of the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, which brought
4841-451: The Bengali equivalent of a full stop – have been adopted from Western scripts and their usage is similar. Unlike in Western scripts (Latin, Cyrillic, etc.) where the letter forms stand on an invisible baseline, the Bengali letter-forms instead hang from a visible horizontal left-to-right headstroke called মাত্রা matra . The presence and absence of this matra can be important. For example,
4944-426: The Bengali script is an abugida, its consonant graphemes usually do not represent phonetic segments , but carry an "inherent" vowel and thus are syllabic in nature. The inherent vowel is usually a back vowel , either [ɔ] as in মত [m ɔ t] "opinion" or [o] , as in মন [m o n] "mind", with variants like the more open [ɒ] . To emphatically represent a consonant sound without any inherent vowel attached to it,
5047-582: The Deccan , where he clashed with the Maratha ruler Shivaji , However, he was most notable for his tenure as the governor of Bengal from 1664 to 1688, Under Shaista Khan's authority, the city of Dhaka and Mughal power in the province attained its greatest heights. His achievements include constructions of notable mosques such as the Sat Gambuj Mosque and masterminding the conquest of Chittagong . Shaista Khan
5150-468: The Dhaka district with 94.65% of the population. Hinduism was the second-largest religion with 4.70% of the population. 0.52% of the population were Christians, while Buddhists were only 0.11% of the population. Although all communities are predominantly urban, a greater percentage of Hindus live in rural areas than in other communities. The district of Dhaka has more than 12 000 mosques, 3012 Hindu mandirs, 530 churches, 174 Buddhist temples , three pagodas and
5253-574: The Dhaka metropolitan area. The city has historically attracted many migrant workers. Hawkers , peddlers, small shops, rickshaws transport, roadside vendors and stalls employ a large segment of the population – rickshaw-drivers alone number as many as 400,000. Half the workforce is employed in household and unorganised labour, while about 800,000 work in the textile industry. Even so, unemployment remains high at 23%. According to CityMayors Statistics , Dhaka's GDP registered at $ 52 billion in 2005 with an annual growth rate of 6.1%. Its estimated GDP in
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#17328515233375356-483: The Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim periods. One kilometre from the hotel. Bara Katra was built between 1644 and 1646 CE to be the official residence of Mughal prince Shah Shuja , the second son of the emperor Shah Jahan . The prince endowed it to his diwan and the builder of the serai, Abul Qasim. Bengali language Bengali , also known by its endonym Bangla ( বাংলা , Bāṅlā , [ˈbaŋla] ),
5459-762: The Marathas escaped the palace and Pune, despite the widespread camping of Mughal forces. Shocked by the sudden and bold attack in the city, Aurangzeb angrily transferred Shaista Khan to Bengal, even refusing to give him audience at the time of transfer as was the custom. On the death of Mir Jumla II in 1663, Shaista Khan was appointed the Subedar of Bengal. As governor, he encouraged trade with Europe, Southeast Asia and other parts of India. He consolidated his power by signing trade agreements with European powers. Despite his powerful position he remained loyal to Aurangzeb, often mediating trade disputes and rivalries. In 1666, Shaista Khan led
5562-573: The Marathas. The Maratha were banned from entering the city of Pune and Mughal distance from the locals turned out to be an error.Shaista was responsible to heavily mass destruct pune city and its innocent civilians. On the evening of 5 April 1663, a wedding party had obtained special permission for holding a procession. Shivaji and many of his nearly 400 men disguised as the bridegroom's procession members entered Pune. Others entered in small parties dressed as labourers and soldiers of Maratha generals serving under Shaista Khan. After midnight, they raided
5665-520: The Middle East and other regions. Bengali was accorded the status of a classical language by the government of India on 3 October 2024. It is the second most spoken and fourth fastest growing language in India , following Hindi in the first place, Kashmiri in the second place, and Meitei ( Manipuri ), along with Gujarati , in the third place, according to the 2011 census of India . Bengali has developed over more than 1,400 years. Bengali literature , with its millennium-old literary history,
5768-419: The Nawab's compound and then entered the palace in an attempt to assassinate him. The Marathas broke into the courtyard of the palace and slaughtered the palace guards. According to a tale, the Nawab lost three fingers while running from Shivray while his son was killed in an encounter with the Marathas in the palace courtyard. Several of his wives also perished. Taking advantage of the confusion and darkness,
5871-413: The aid of the Portuguese against the Arakanese. In December 1665, Shaista Khan launched a major military campaign against Chittagong , which was the mainstay of the Arakanese kingdom. The imperial fleet consisted of 288 vessels of their own and about 40 vessels of the Firingis (Portuguese) as auxiliaries. Ibn Hussain, Shaista Khan's admiral, was asked to lead the navy, while the subahdar himself took up
5974-499: The areas currently under Dhaka district were famous for their textile products – especially the Muslin . Mughal subahdar Islam Khan was the first administrator of the city. Khan named the town "Jahangir Nagar" ( City of Jahangir ) in honour of the Mughal emperor Jahangir , although this name was dropped soon after Jahangir's death. The main expansion of the city took place under the Mughal general Shaista Khan . The city then measured 19 by 13 kilometres (11.8 by 8.1 mi), with
6077-536: The basis of modern standard colloquial Bengali. In the dialects prevalent in much of eastern and south-eastern Bangladesh ( Barisal , Chittagong , Dhaka and Sylhet Divisions of Bangladesh), many of the stops and affricates heard in West Bengal and western Bangladesh are pronounced as fricatives . Western alveolo-palatal affricates চ [ tɕɔ ] , ছ [ tɕʰɔ ] , জ [ dʑɔ ] correspond to eastern চ [tsɔ] , ছ [tsʰɔ~sɔ] , জ [dzɔ~zɔ] . The influence of Tibeto-Burman languages on
6180-412: The campaign to Chittagong and expelled the Portuguese and Magh defender with 300 flotillas. The Mughal forces even forced the Portuguese in Sandwip to relinquish their bases to be used as Mughal naval operation. Later He banned the English East India Company from Bengal in 1686, beginning the Anglo-Mughal War. In 1678, Prince Muhammad Azam Shah was appointed the Subedar of Bengal. In 1680, Shaista Khan
6283-437: The capital of Bangladesh and lies on the banks of the Buriganga River in the central area of Bangladesh. The old town of Dhaka, south of the city centre, is the site of most of the tourist attractions, including the Lalbagh Fort , the Stat Mosque, and the Ahsan Manzil Palace Museum. Dhaka was predominantly a city of the Mughals , whose governors and viceroys built several palace, mosques and katrias. One example of this time
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#17328515233376386-665: The city population, attracting migrant workers from rural areas across Bangladesh. A real estate boom followed with urban sprawl and the development of new settlements such as Gulshan , Banani and Motijheel . The district does not cover all parts of Greater Dhaka, and Greater Dhaka does not include all parts of the district, which includes rural areas. The district consists of 57 thana (50 in city corporations, 7 in upazilas), 5 upazilas, 86 unions, 974 mauzas, 1999 villages, 2 City Corporations, 129 City Wards, 855 City Mahallas, 3 paurashavas, 27 wards and 133 mahallas. The five upazilas in Dhaka district are: The municipal area of Dhaka City
6489-416: The city's Hindu population departed for India , while the city received hundreds of thousands of Muslim immigrants from Calcutta, India. The city's population rose dramatically in a very short period of time, which created severe shortages and infrastructural problems. As the centre of regional politics, Dhaka saw an increasing number of political strikes and incidents of violence. The adoption of Urdu as
6592-469: The consonant which comes first is put on top of or to the left of the one that immediately follows. In these ligatures, the shapes of the constituent consonant signs are often contracted and sometimes even distorted beyond recognition. In the Bengali writing system, there are nearly 285 such ligatures denoting consonant clusters. Although there exist a few visual formulas to construct some of these ligatures, many of them have to be learned by rote. Recently, in
6695-455: The country. In India, Bengali is one of the 23 official languages . It is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal , Tripura and in Barak Valley of Assam . Bengali has been a second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011. In Pakistan , Bengali is a recognised secondary language in the city of Karachi mainly spoken by stranded Bengalis of Pakistan . The Department of Bengali in
6798-430: The development of Dobhashi . Bengali acquired prominence, over Persian, in the court of the Sultans of Bengal with the ascent of Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah . Subsequent Muslim rulers actively promoted the literary development of Bengali, allowing it to become the most spoken vernacular language in the Sultanate. Bengali adopted many words from Arabic and Persian , which was a manifestation of Islamic culture on
6901-402: The district is maximum 41.1 °C, minimum 11.5 °C; the average annual rainfall 1931mm. The administrative Dhaka District was first established in 1772, but the existence of urbanised settlements in the area that is now Dhaka city – dates from the 7th century. The present-day Savar was the capital of the Sanbagh Kingdom during the seventh and eighth centuries. The city area of Dhaka
7004-410: The east to Meherpur in the west. The 14th-century court scholar of Bengal, Nur Qutb Alam , composed Bengali poetry using the Persian alphabet . After the Partition of India in the 20th century, the Pakistani government attempted to institute the Perso-Arabic script as the standard for Bengali in East Pakistan ; this was met with resistance and contributed to the Bengali language movement. In
7107-443: The eastern subcontinent, Purbi Apabhraṃśa or Abahatta (lit. 'meaningless sounds'), eventually evolved into regional dialects, which in turn formed three groups, the Bengali–Assamese languages , the Bihari languages , and the Odia language . The language was not static: different varieties coexisted and authors often wrote in multiple dialects in this period. For example, Ardhamagadhi is believed to have evolved into Abahatta around
7210-516: The empire to threaten the Portuguese settlers in Bengal to assist them in conquest of Chittagong. Mughal forces succeeded in capturing the island in November 1665. Shaista Khan gained a considerable advantage when a conflict erupted between the Arakanese and the Portuguese. The Portuguese, led by Captain Moor, set fire to Arakanese fleets and fled to Bhulua where Thanadar Farhad Khan gave them refuge. Farhad then sent them off to Shaista. By promptly offering protection and support, Shaista secured
7313-466: The final ন in মন [m o n] or the medial ম in গামলা [ɡamla] ). A consonant sound followed by some vowel sound other than the inherent [ɔ] is orthographically realised by using a variety of vowel allographs above, below, before, after, or around the consonant sign, thus forming the ubiquitous consonant-vowel typographic ligatures . These allographs, called কার kar , are diacritical vowel forms and cannot stand on their own. For example,
7416-584: The finest in Indo-Sarcenic and Mughal architecture . Khan greatly expanded Lalbagh Fort , Chowk Bazaar Mosque , Saat Masjid and Choto Katra . He also supervised the construction of the mausoleum for his daughter Bibi Pari . Upon his arrival in Bengal, Shaista Khan was faced with putting down the Arakanese pirates. He began by rebuilding the Mughal navy, increasing its Bengal fleet to 300 battle-ready ships within
7519-545: The gathering, leading to Ziaur Rahman 's 26 March declaration of Bangladesh's independence. In response, the Pakistan Army launched Operation Searchlight , which led to the arrests, torture and killing of hundreds of thousands of people, mainly Hindus and Bengali intellectuals. During the Bangladesh Liberation War the Pakistan army arrested and killed fourteen Muktijoddhas from Dhamrai Bazar. A mass grave created during
7622-714: The government of Ahmad Tejan Kabbah declared Bengali as an honorary official language in December 2002. In 2009, elected representatives in both Bangladesh and West Bengal called for Bengali to be made an official language of the United Nations . Regional varieties in spoken Bengali constitute a dialect continuum . Linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji grouped the dialects of Bengali language into four large clusters: Rarhi , Vangiya , Kamrupi and Varendri ; but many alternative grouping schemes have also been proposed. The south-western dialects ( Rarhi or Nadia dialect) form
7725-499: The graph মি [mi] represents the consonant [m] followed by the vowel [i] , where [i] is represented as the diacritical allograph ি (called ই-কার i-kar ) and is placed before the default consonant sign. Similarly, the graphs মা [ma] , মী [mi] , মু [mu] , মূ [mu] , মৃ [mri] , মে [me~mɛ] , মৈ [moj] , মো [mo] and মৌ [mow] represent the same consonant ম combined with seven other vowels and two diphthongs. In these consonant-vowel ligatures,
7828-412: The graphical form. However, since this change is not as widespread and is not being followed as uniformly in the rest of the Bengali printed literature, today's Bengali-learning children will possibly have to learn to recognise both the new "transparent" and the old "opaque" forms, which ultimately amounts to an increase in learning burden. Bengali punctuation marks, apart from the downstroke । daṛi –
7931-408: The imperial dynasty, having been a paternal nephew of the empress Nur Jahan and the brother of the empress Mumtaz Mahal . Jahangir awarded the title of Mirza to Shaista Khan in recognition of his family's service and position in the Mughal court. Khan trained and served with the Mughal army and court, winning multiple promotions and being appointed governor of various provinces. He also developed
8034-536: The independence of Bangladesh from Pakistani rule. The monument is located in Savar, about 35 Kilometres north-west of the capital, Dhaka. A 200-year-old mosque with five domes, with hundreds of twinkling stars on its surface. This mosque in the Mohammadpur area of Dhaka is known for its seven domes. In the old European quarter of Dhaka, the museum contains many interesting collections, including sculptures and paintings of
8137-483: The language as: While most writing is in Standard Colloquial Bengali (SCB), spoken dialects exhibit a greater variety. People in southeastern West Bengal, including Kolkata, speak in SCB. Other dialects, with minor variations from Standard Colloquial, are used in other parts of West Bengal and western Bangladesh, such as the Midnapore dialect, characterised by some unique words and constructions. However,
8240-510: The language movement. Although Sanskrit has been spoken by Hindu Brahmins in Bengal since the 3rd century BC, the local Buddhist population spoke varieties of the Prakrit . These varieties are generally referred to as "eastern Magadhi Prakrit ", as coined by linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji , as the Middle Indo-Aryan dialects were influential in the first millennium when Bengal
8343-535: The language. Major texts of Middle Bengali (1400–1800) include Yusuf-Zulekha by Shah Muhammad Sagir and Srikrishna Kirtana by the Chandidas poets. Court support for Bengali culture and language waned when the Mughal Empire conquered Bengal in the late 16th and early 17th century. The modern literary form of Bengali was developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries based on the west-central dialect spoken in
8446-428: The letter ত tô and the numeral ৩ "3" are distinguishable only by the presence or absence of the matra , as is the case between the consonant cluster ত্র trô and the independent vowel এ e , also the letter হ hô and Bengali Ôbogroho ঽ (~ô) and letter ও o and consonant cluster ত্ত ttô . The letter-forms also employ the concepts of letter-width and letter-height (the vertical space between
8549-753: The modern conurbation which is Greater Dhaka , which has spilled into neighbouring districts, nor does the conurbation cover the whole district, as there are rural areas within the district. Dhaka District shares borders with Gazipur and Tangail to the north, Munshiganj and Rajbari to the south, Narayanganj to the east and Manikganj to the west. The main rivers flowing through this district are Padma , Kaliganga , Dhaleshwari , Ichamati , Shitalakshya , Buriganga and numerous smaller rivers including Bangshi , Turag , Balu , Elamjani, Alam, Bherujkha, Ramkrishnadi, Elisamari, Tulsikhali. Major lakes ("beels") include Belai, Saldaher, Labandaher, Churain, Damsharan and Kiranjir Beel. The annual average temperature of
8652-585: The neighbouring states of Odisha , Bihar , and Jharkhand , and sizeable minorities of Bengali speakers reside in Indian cities outside Bengal, including Delhi , Mumbai , Thane , Varanasi , and Vrindavan . There are also significant Bengali-speaking communities in the Middle East , the United States , Singapore , Malaysia , Australia , Canada , the United Kingdom , and Italy . The 3rd article of
8755-514: The parliament of Bangladesh and the legislative assembly of West Bengal proposed that Bengali be made an official UN language. As of January 2023, no further action has been yet taken on this matter. However, in 2022, the UN did adopt Bangla as an unofficial language, after a resolution tabled by India. In 2024, the government of India conferred Bengali with the status of classical language . Approximate distribution of native Bengali speakers (assuming
8858-420: The population, 2,231,856 (15.15%) inhabitants were under 10 years of age. The population density was 10,067 people per km. Dhaka District had a literacy rate (age 7 and over) of 84.88%, compared to the national average of 74.80%, and a sex ratio of 865 females per 1000 males. Approximately, 76.26% of the population lived in urban areas. The ethnic population was 27,137. In 2011 , Islam was the largest religion in
8961-493: The production of indigo . Following the partition of Bengal in (1947) appending the partition of British India in 1947, Dhaka became the capital of East Bengal as a part of the new Muslim state of Pakistan , while the western part of Bengal with a majority Hindu population had become a part of the new and independent India, designated as West Bengal with Calcutta as state capital. Calcutta witnessed communal violence that left thousands of people dead. A large proportion of
9064-462: The region, killing an estimated 500,000 people. More than half the city of Dhaka was flooded and millions of people were marooned. With public anger growing against ethnic discrimination and poor cyclone relief efforts from the central government, Bengali politician Sheikh Mujibur Rahman held a nationalist rally on 7 March 1971 at the Race Course Ground . An estimated one million people attended
9167-428: The responsibility of supplying provisions for the campaign. He also ordered Farhad Khan and Mir Murtaza to take the land route. The overall command was given to Buzurg Ummed Khan, a son of Shaista Khan. The Mughals and the Portuguese held sway in the following naval battle. The conquered territory to the western bank of Kashyapnadi ( Kaladan river ) was placed under direct imperial administration. The name of Chittagong
9270-427: The so-called "inherent" vowel [ɔ] is first expunged from the consonant before adding the vowel, but this intermediate expulsion of the inherent vowel is not indicated in any visual manner on the basic consonant sign ম [mɔ] . The vowel graphemes in Bengali can take two forms: the independent form found in the basic inventory of the script and the dependent, abridged, allograph form (as discussed above). To represent
9373-434: The sole official language of Pakistan led to protest marches involving large crowds. Known as the language movement of 1952 , the protests resulted in police firing which killed students who were demonstrating peacefully. Throughout the 1950s and '60s, Dhaka remained a hotbed of political activity, and the demands for autonomy for the Bengali population gradually gained momentum. The 1970 Bhola cyclone devastated much of
9476-536: The superposed chôndrôbindu (ঁ) , denoting a suprasegmental for nasalisation of vowels (as in চাঁদ [tʃãd] "moon"), the postposed ônusbar (ং) indicating the velar nasal [ŋ] (as in বাংলা [baŋla] "Bengali") and the postposed bisôrgô (ঃ) indicating the voiceless glottal fricative [h] (as in উঃ! [uh] "ouch!") or the gemination of the following consonant (as in দুঃখ [dukʰːɔ] "sorrow"). The Bengali consonant clusters ( যুক্তব্যঞ্জন juktôbênjôn ) are usually realised as ligatures, where
9579-484: The visible matra and an invisible baseline). There is yet to be a uniform standard collating sequence (sorting order of graphemes to be used in dictionaries, indices, computer sorting programs, etc.) of Bengali graphemes. Experts in both Bangladesh and India are currently working towards a common solution for this problem. Throughout history, there have been instances of the Bengali language being written in different scripts, though these employments were never popular on
9682-435: The vocabulary may differ according to the speaker's religion: Muslims are more likely to use words of Persian and Arabic origin, along with more words naturally derived from Sanskrit ( tadbhava ), whereas Hindus are more likely to use tatsama (words directly borrowed from Sanskrit). For example: The phonemic inventory of standard Bengali consists of 29 consonants and 7 vowels, as well as 7 nasalised vowels . The inventory
9785-508: The war still exists in the western side of Kalampur Bazar. The Pak army also burnt down many houses in Konakhola, Basta, Brahmankirtha, Goalkhali and Khagail Kholamora villages of Keraniganj Upazila . The fall of Dhaka city to the allied forces led by Jagjit Singh Aurora on 16 December marked the surrender of the Pakistani army. The post-independence period has seen a rapid and massive growth of
9888-418: The year 2020 is $ 126 billion. The annual per capita income of Dhaka is estimated at $ 550, although a large segment of the population lives below the poverty line, with many surviving on less than $ 3 a day. The main business districts of the city include Motijheel , Panthapath and Gulshan . Bashundhara City is a recently developed economic area that houses many high-tech industries and corporations and
9991-554: Was a part of the Greater Magadhan realm. The local varieties had no official status during the Gupta Empire , and with Bengal increasingly becoming a hub of Sanskrit literature for Hindu priests, the vernacular of Bengal gained a lot of influence from Sanskrit. Magadhi Prakrit was also spoken in modern-day Bihar and Assam , and this vernacular eventually evolved into Ardha Magadhi . Ardha Magadhi began to give way to what
10094-432: Was again appointed as the Subedar of Bengal. He served his first term from 1663 to 1678 and his second term from 1680 to 1688. Shaista Khan encouraged the construction of modern townships and public works in Dhaka, leading to a massive urban and economic expansion. He was a patron of the arts and encouraged the construction of majestic monuments across the province, including mosques, mausoleums and palaces that represented
10197-726: Was also responsible for sparking the outbreak of the Anglo-Mughal War with the English East India Company . According to the diary of William Hedges , the first governor of the East India Company in Bengal, the birthday of Shaista Khan was on 22 November. Khan was of Persian origin. His grandfather Mirza Ghiyas Beg and father Abu'l-Hasan Asaf Khan were the wazirs of the Mughal emperors Jahangir and Shah Jahan , respectively. He also had familial connections with
10300-445: Was changed to Islamabad and it became the headquarters of a Mughal faujdar . Khan also re-asserted Mughal control over Cooch Behar and Kamarupa . According to Shaista Khan's vasiat-nama (a document registered before his death) that he had seven sons and five daughters. In his late years, Shaista Khan left Dhaka and returned to Delhi . His legacy was the expansion of Dhaka into a regional centre of trade, politics and culture;
10403-597: Was extensively developed during the Bengali Renaissance and is one of the most prolific and diverse literary traditions in Asia. The Bengali language movement from 1948 to 1956 demanding that Bengali be an official language of Pakistan fostered Bengali nationalism in East Bengal leading to the emergence of Bangladesh in 1971. In 1999, UNESCO recognised 21 February as International Mother Language Day in recognition of
10506-459: Was introduced in 1874 and an electricity supply was launched in 1878. The Dhaka Cantonment was established near the city, serving as a base for British Indian military personnel. During the abortive Partition of Bengal in 1905, Dhaka was declared to be the capital of the newly established state of Eastern Bengal and Assam , but Bengal was reunited in 1911. The rural areas under the present Dhaka district, especially Dohar Upazila were used for
10609-526: Was ruled by the Buddhist kingdom of Kamarupa and the Pala Empire before passing to the control of the Hindu Sena dynasty in the 9th century. Many believe that the name of the city was derived after the establishment of the Goddess Dhakeshwari 's temple by Ballal Sena in the 12th century. Dhaka and its surrounding area were identified as Bengalla around that period. The town itself consisted of
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