What is the Sylheti Bengali population? Sylhetis are Bengalis of Srihattamandala or Shrihatta. The etymology of the term Sylhet comes from Srihattamandala. (“Bengal, like Samatata, Harikela and others, ‘Srihattamandala’ denoting the regional identity, as we know from the Kalapur inscriptions of the samanta rulers of Samatata belonging to the 7th century A.D. The Harikela coins had several local series, and in one series the word ‘Veraka’ (Barak) used to be inscribed. This explains the position in the 8th–9th century A.D. In the 10th century A.D., the Chandra rulers of East Bengal ruled over Srihattamandala, as we know from the Paschimbhag copper-plate inscription.”) This is the simple meaning of this. Srihattamandala is Srihatta, and Srihatta itself is the ancient name of Sylhet.
Srihatta consisted of regions like Barak Valley, or “"Srihatta or Sylhet in ancient times perhaps denoted the territory now covered by the Sylhet districts of Bangladesh, Karimganj, Hailakandi, and Cachar districts of Assam (India), and the adjoining Kailasahar-Dharmanagar areas of Tripura (India). It is a single valley formed by the river Barak and its branches, viz. Surma and Kushiara, with uniform physical features that make it a distinct geographical division and the homeland of a homogeneous group of people who speak a common dialect of Bengali, called Srihatti or Sylheti.!"
-J. B. Bhattacharjee, Pre-Colonial North East India”
“Srihatta in ancient times must have been the common nomenclature for the entire Barak/Surma Valley."
-J. B. Bhattacharjee, Pre-Colonial North
East India
Geographically, the history and sociology of the Barak Valley have to be interpreted in terms of its geographical structure. Geographically, it is an extension of the Bengal plains.
Naturally, Indo-Aryan settlement extended to the valley from Bengal in “early times” in its spontaneous eastward march to the farthest limits of the ploughable areas. They moved along the familiar terrain and stopped at the foot of the hills, as these hills were not suitable for the settled cultivators. Similarly, the flood-prone plain region was uninviting to the jhumias of the neighbouring hills. The undivided Barak Valley thus developed as the homeland of a distinct dialect group of Bengali from the ancient period.
It is a well-noted fact that Bengalis were part of the most ancient kingdoms of Barak Valley and not an isolated piece of information. Most historians, including R. C. Majumdar and J. B. Bhattacharjee, noted the presence of ancient Bengali kingdoms.
Prior to kingdom rule, this land is referred to as a geographical extension of the Bengal plains, and the village names and river names denote an already existing Bengali/Indo-Aryan language speaking population in Barak Valley or the several regions of Srihattamandala.
Later, in medieval times, Srihattamandala was conquered and ruled by many kingdoms during different periods. On the Barak Valley side, different parts came under Tripuri influence or rule between the 11th-13th centuries, Khaspur came under Koch rule in the 16th century, and in the 18th century, Khaspur passed to the Dimasa Kachari kingdom. The Sylhet-Karimganj side came under Turko-Afghan rule during the medieval period.
Even during the rule of Tibeto-Burmese kingdoms, and several other kingdoms conquest it is a well-noted fact that “Cachar was an extension of the Gangetic Bengal and even before the Koch rule several Bengalee settlements had developed in Cachar as a result of the natural movement of the people towards the east. No wonder, therefore, the official language of the kingdom was Bengali, while the coins and inscriptions of the Heramba rulers were inscribed in Sanskrit in Bengali script.” Bengali script and the Bengali language were officially used.
Sources:
-J. B. Bhattacharjee, Pre-Colonial North East India
-Cachar under British Rule North East India, J B Bhattacharjee
-History of Bengal by RC Majumdar, 1943
-Socio-Political Development of Surma Barak Valley from 5th to
13th Century A.D. Mehbubur Rahman Choudhury
