Books on first Bangla Grammar and master artist Zainul Abedin launched

The turnout of art lovers is on the rise at Dhaka Art Summit 2018. Apart from 10 rich curated exhibits showcasing both classical and contemporary arts and architectural designs including drawings, paintings, photographs, prints, sculptures, videos, installations, performance arts and text-based sound works inside the National Art Gallery of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, the grandest art fiesta has many other aspects as well. Artists' interactive talks, symposiums, workshops, guided tours, performing arts- especially renditions of folk songs at Nandanmancha- and launching of books at the BMW lounge of the summit venue are underway.

The fourth day (February 5) of the nine-day extravaganza launched two important books at the lounge- the first ever volume on Bangla grammar with thesaurus and one on master artist Zainul Abedin. 

The Portuguese influence on the Bengali language is immense and particularly significant. Fr. Manoel da Assamção, a Portuguese missionary, who wrote the first book on Bangla Grammar titled “Vocabulario em idioma Bengalla e Portuguez” in 1743. He also initiated the prose style in Bengali. Fr. Manoel was born in Evora that is now considered as a world heritage by The UNESCO (1983) in Portugal. He came to this part of the world in Nagori-Bhawal estate of the then East Bengal at the end of the 17th century.

he 592-page book was unveiled by Emeritus Professor Anisuzzaman as chief guest. Hon. Consul of Portugal in Dhaka arranged the launching ceremony.

“Fr. Manoel da Assamção's famous book on Bangla Grammar and Bangla Portuguese dictionary is, I think, a researched based work through which he got ideas and found the Portuguese and Bangla words arranged in it. This is more or less vocabulary. Fr. Manoel was also the second Portuguese missionary, who wrote prose in Bengali. Almost a century ago Dom Antonio D'Rozario wrote 'Brahmin Roman Catholic Sangbad' illustrating a dialogue between a Brahmin and a Roman Catholic priest, in which he tried to enunciate the basic principles of Christianity and in comparison with those of Hinduism and naturally the greatness of Christianity was advocated in it,” said Professor Anisuzzaman.             

Shakhawat Hossain, Hon. Consul of Portugal, presided over the programme while the first Bangali Cardinal Patrick D'Rozario attended the event as guest of honour. Fabianne Brant Silva, wife of the Charge d'affaires of Brazilian Embassy in Dhaka, introduced the book while an expert of Portuguese language Air Vice-Marshal Sanaul Haque elaborated on the book.

Chairman of Bengal Foundation Abul Khair; Pro Vice-Chancellor of Dhaka University Professor Nasreen Ahmad; Anita Haque Shangita, wife of Hon. Consul of Portugal; Cosmos Gallery Chairman Enayetullah Khan and the organisers of the summit Nadia and Rajeeb Samdani were present at the launching ceremony.   

The first forty pages of the book contain the grammar and the rest is the thesaurus. Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterjee reprinted the book in 1931 with Bengali translation. Dr. Chatterjee, whom Tagore has honoured with the title of Bhashacharya (Master of Languages), frankly admitted that he was unable to copy the entire Vocabulario. It is heard that he had copied this huge volume via his own hand during 1922 from the British Museum (now the British Library) and published it from the University of Calcutta.

A short film featuring the shared history of Portugal and Bangladesh was screened at the end.

Prior to the launching ceremony, renowned artist Hashem Khan unveiled a book titled “Master Artist of Bangladesh: Zainul Abedin”. The book features a selection of 100 paintings' images from Bangladesh National Museum's (BNM) vast collection of Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin's paintings. Faizul Latif Chowdhury, Director General of BNM, presided over the programme while eminent artist Syed Jahangir and noted art critic Mustafa Zaman were present at the ceremony.

In another discussion session at the BMW lounge, Abul Khair, Enayetullah Khan and Faizul Latif Chowdhury shared their experiences on Public-Private Partnership on Art and Culture. “The Government should allocate a monetary budget to build a proper forum so that the precise form of art and culture is benefitted. We are grateful to have received much help from the Government on our different initiatives,” said Abul Khair.