Sanskrit, Prakrit, and various indigenous languages were once written in the same script or scripts in our country However, the scripts had different forms depending on the country Sanskrit was written in Nagari, or Devanagari script, as it is written today, but in ancient times it was not There was no separate script used for writing Sanskrit alone, but there was a common script for all languages.

So, the Devanagari or Nagari script is not ancient, but the Bengali script is much older than the Nagari script What is now known as the Bengali script is the Sriharsha script The Bengali script, found in the signature of Samanyeswararaja (Thaneswar) Harshavardhana, is the Sriharsha script However, the script was in use before Harshavardhana.

The present Bengali form of this Sriharsha script is about 1200 years old The script found in the Shushunia hill of Chhatna thana near Bankura is very similar to the ancient Bengali script of Raja Chandravarman The script's form and language suggest that the Puranic religion or Brahmanism was prevalent in Bengal at that time.

Thus, the script was inscribed in the Gupta era or later.

The Bengali alphabet is derived from the Brahmi alphabet, which was common in eastern India Until the Gupta period, there was little difference between the scripts or alphabets used in different parts of India The scripts varied slightly according to taste, but people of one place could read the writings of another.

The differences between the provincial alphabets increased during the Gupta period The alphabets of eastern and western India adopted two different systems during the sixth-seventh centuries CE The alphabets of the Indus Valley in western India were gradually transformed into the Nagari script, while the Bengali script evolved from the Brahmi alphabet, which was common in eastern India.

The pattern of this alphabet in eastern India can be traced to the Kotalipara copperplate of Samacharadeva The script underwent many changes thereafter, from the 7th to the 9th century CE It was influenced by the Western Indian alphabet, which was in use by Mahipala I in the 10th century CE.

However, by the end of that century, this influence was removed and the Bengali alphabet was found to be the dominant one in eastern India The letters A, U, A, B, C, D, N, M, L, and K, used in the Bangarh script of Mahipala I, are very close to the Bengali letters.

The letter "J" is almost the same as the Bengali letter The 22 letters in Senraj Vijayasena's Deopara Prasiddhi, used in the 12th century CE, are the same as the Bengali alphabet.

The Bhula-Pabanpur village in Patamda thana of Singhbhum district, and Bangurda village in Kamalpur thana adjacent to it and Zaida village in Chandil thana to its southwest, have been found with several traces of the Jain era, along with the evidence of a Bengali script over seventeen hundred years old.

This script is older than the Shushunya script and the Sriharsha script The late 12th and early 13th century CE copperplate inscriptions are almost identical to the present Bengali script.

The Bengali alphabet naturally underwent some changes during the following three hundred to four hundred years However, the Bengali alphabet did not change during the 17th-18th centuries CE Thus, it appears that a special alphabet was introduced in eastern India from the Gupta period onwards when independent powerful kingdoms were created in Bengal, and that the alphabet evolved over time to form Bengal's own alphabet.

It is worth mentioning here that Sanskrit, Prakrit, and various indigenous languages have been written in the traditional Bengali script forever The use of the Nagari script for Sanskrit is relatively modern The Bengali script is much older than the Nagari script Hence, all copperplates and manuscripts written in Sanskrit in ancient Bengal are in the Bengali script used at that time.

The 10th-century Bengali scripts are the earliest sources of Bengali literature Later influences from these scripts include Sahajya songs, Vaishnava and Shakta verses, and Baul songs.

So far, 47 charayagans written by 22 poets have been found However, apart from the Charyapada, there were other categories of literature written in Old Bengali at that time The work "Manasollasa" written during the time of the Chalukya king Someshvara III (< ID1 > AD) is an example The "Git-Binoda" chapter of this work mentions songs written in various vernacular languages, including some Bengali songs about the incarnation of Vishnu and Krishna's lila with gopis.

Shauraseni Apabhramsa was the most common language of literature in Bengal and outside Bengal at that time Many poets also wrote poems in both Bengali and Shauraseni Apabhramsa This Shauraseni Apabhramsa was once a saintly language in the eastern part of Aryavarta Later, it was taken over by the Bengali language.

The four hundred years from the 9th to the 12th century CE was the primeval period of Bengali language and literature The style of the later poet Jayadeva's "Gitagovinda" is consistent with the ancient Bengali language and Apabhramsa-based Geeti poetry The invention of printing presses in the 19th century CE gave Bengali letters a specific form, which is still in use today.