According to this interpretation, Bangladesh literally refers to a wetland. Another school is of the opinion that the term “Vangla” is derived from Bodo (aborigines of Assam) words “Bang” and “la” which connote “wide plains.” The exact origin of the word Bangla or Bengal is unknown, though it is believed to be derived from the Dravidian-speaking tribe Bang/Banga that settled in the area around the year 1000 BCE. Other accounts speculate that the name is derived from Vanga (bôngo), which came from the Austric word "Bonga" meaning the Sun-god. According to Mahabharata, Purana, Harivamsha Vanga was one of the adopted sons of king Vali who founded the Vanga kingdom. The Muslim Accounts refer that "Bong", a son of Hind (son of Hām who was a son of Prophet Noah/Nooh) colonized the area for the first time. The earliest reference to "Vangala"(bôngal) has been traced in the Nesari plates (805 AD) of Rashtrakuta Govinda III which speak of Dharmapala as the king of Vangala. Shams-ud-din Ilyas Shah took the title "Shah-e-Bangalah" and united the whole region under one government for the first time. The West Bengal assembly has passed a resolution saying the Indian state of West Bengal will, henceforth, be called Pashchim Banga. Will Bangladesh follow too? No one will tell you what ‘Bang’ in Bangladesh means, except some bold joiners of the dots in ancient history. Bangladesh is old Banga or Bangla with a history as old as 1,000 BC. Does it originate in the Tibetan word ‘bans’ which means wet or moist? Banga (Bengal) is a wet country, crisscrossed by a thousand rivers and washed by monsoons and floods from the Himalayas. The Chinese text Wei-lueh (3rd century AD) referred to Pan-yueh (ie Vanga) as the country of Han-yueh (Xan-gywat) or the Ganga. Some others believe that the name originated in the Bodo (original Assamese in North Eastern India) ‘Bang La’, which means wide plains. One of the tribes which emerged from the Indus Civilizations after its demise had entered the plains of Bengal, while others went elsewhere. They were called the Bong tribe and spoke Dravidian. We know from many ancient Aryan texts of a tribe called Banga. Anciently, Sri Lanka was Singhal, home of lions, which changed to Sihala (sic!) in 543 BC. The Portuguese called it Cilaon probably from Sanskrit Sri Lanka, which the Sri Lankans prefer today. The Portuguese are funny. They changed Arabic ‘mausim’ to ‘monsaon’, which has given us the word ‘monsoon’. In Punjabi, the word ‘aal’ is found in two words: ‘aalna’ (diminutive) for nest and ‘aalay-dawalay’ for ‘that which surrounds’. ‘Him’ in Sanskrit means ‘frozen’, from where we have the word Himal or Himala. ‘Shivala’, used by Allama Iqbal in Urdu, means home of Shiva. From the sense of ‘surrounding’ we get the Hindi word ‘aali’ which is the root of our Urdu word ‘sahaili’ meaning ‘friend of the bride’ because girlfriends sit ‘around’ the bride. ‘Sa’ is the prefix for ‘good’. This could be cognate with ‘saali’ (sister-in-law) and ‘saala’. The home of the father-in-law (sassur) is called ‘sassur-aal’. Lovers too are included, as in the bhajan ‘angana main ayay aali’. Here ‘aali’ is master (of home). In Sanskrit there are dozens of words for home, many of them indirect like ‘aal’. In the Urdu word ‘ghonsala’ (nest) there is ‘ghun’ (concealed) and ‘shala’ (home). A whole lot of them come from the sense of being ‘cut off’. Of that next time. Remnants of civilisation in the greater Bengal region date back four thousand years, when the region was settled by Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman, and Austro – Asiatic peoples. The exact origin of the word “Bangla” or “Bengal” is not known, though it is believed to be derived from Bang, the Dravidian-speaking tribe that settled in the area around the year 1000 BCE. The same is applies to the naming of Bangala desh or Bangadesh. There are various logic presented by various people of various disciplines. The Banga-desh is a land of the two mighty rivers of India, one flows from east and other one from west. The area covered jointly by these two rivers were probably known as “Ganga Lohit Desha”, which gradually became Gangalo Desh and Gangal Desh and then to Bangal Desh or Bangla desh or Bangadesha. Bangalo in place of Gangal is probably used to differentiate from the land of Ganga, i.e, from Hardwar onwards along the route of Ganga. ”Banga” means a place located near to river in Sanskrit, which fits with both the parts of Bengal. “Alaya” (As in Himalaya) in Sanskrit means “house” Bangla is also known as Vanga. The movement against break up of Bagladesh by British was famously known as “Vang Bhang” movement. Bhang in Hindi means -to break. You are right about “aal” as home. Actually, “aalay” means home itself. “Devalay” home of Gods, that is Temple, Mrigalay is home of animals (mrig), that is Zoe. Vanga has thus been a distinct geographical identity and the restoration of the old name can be one option. And Bengal is nothing but the Vanga, and the easiest way to maintain the legacy is to drop the 'West' from West Bengal. Vanga is synonymous with Banga because the alphabets V and B are interchangeable in Sanskrit. Banga in its etymological sense means Vanga or Vanka — marshy land. It denotes the entire stretch of lower Bengal when the sea receded and the landmass became fit for human habitation. One more thought BANGA – BA stands for river Brahmaputra and NGA for Ganga, as both the river meets here.
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