A Bengali Kissa ( bn, বাংলা কিসসা/কিচ্ছা, Bangla Kissa/Kiccha), also known as Keccha ( bn, কেচ্ছা), is a genre of

Bengali poetry Bengali poetry is a rich tradition of poetry in the Bengali language and has many different forms. Originating in the Bengal region of South Asia, the history of Bengali poetry underwent three successive stages of development: poetry of the ear ...

and prose as well as a tradition in the

Bengali language Bengali ( ), generally known by its endonym Bangla (, ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language native to the Bengal region of South Asia. It is the official, national, and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh and the second m ...

of oral story-telling. It started flourishing in Bengal with the fusion of local Bengali folklore and stories from the

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

and

Turco-Persian The composite Turko-Persian, Turco-Persian
''Turko-Persia in historical perspective'', Cambridge University Press, ...

immigrants. The art form remains popular amongst the rural Muslim communities of

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. Where ''Kissa'' reflect an

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

ic and/or

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

heritage of transmitting popular tales of love, valour, honour and moral integrity amongst

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

s, they matured out of the bounds of religion into a more secular form when it reached Bengal and added the existing pre-Islamic

Bengali culture The culture of Bengal defines the cultural heritage of the Bengali people native to eastern regions of the Indian subcontinent, mainly what is today Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura, where the Bengali language is th ...

and

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

to its entity.

Etymology and pronunciation

The word ''Kissa'' originates from the

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

word ''Qissa'' (قصه) meaning ‘''epic legend''’ or ‘''folk tale''’. It has influenced many languages of the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

and occurs as a regular

common noun A proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity (''Africa'', ''Jupiter'', ''Sarah'', ''Microsoft)'' as distinguished from a common noun, which is a noun that refers to a class of entities (''continent, ...

Indo-Aryan languages The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily ...

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

. If used informally, the word means an ‘''interesting tale''’ or ‘''fable''’.

History

Kissa is said to have gained immense popularity in

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

from the 15th century onward.

Bengali Muslim Bengali Muslims ( bn, বাঙালি মুসলমান; ) are adherents of Islam who ethnically, linguistically and genealogically identify as Bengalis. Comprising about two-thirds of the global Bengali population, they are the sec ...

writers would mix Perso-Arab themes of love, war, religion and valour into their Kissas. The ''

Dobhashi Dobhashi ( bn, দোভাষী, Dobhāṣī, bilingual) is a neologism used to refer to a historical Register (sociolinguistics), register of the Bengali language which borrowed extensively, in all aspects, from Arabic and Persian. It became ...

'' dialect of Bengali was a popular standard for writing. It was heavily influenced in vocabulary by

, the official language of

Mughal Bengal The Bengal Subah ( bn, সুবাহ বাংলা; fa, ), also referred to as Mughal Bengal ( bn, মোগল বাংলা), was the largest subdivision of the Mughal Empire (and later an independent state under the Nawabs of Beng ...

and the

Bengal Sultanate The Sultanate of Bengal ( Middle Bengali: শাহী বাঙ্গালা ''Shahī Baṅgala'', Classical Persian: ''Saltanat-e-Bangālah'') was an empire based in Bengal for much of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. It was the dominan ...

(which preceded British colonial Bengal). The nineteenth century hosted the establishment of many Kissa publishing companies across

, in particular the printing presses at

Battala Battala is a highly populated residential and semi-industrial area in the central part of Serampore City in Hooghly district in West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of In ...

. Literary societies were being founded such as the ''Mussalmani Kissa Sahitya'' in

Howrah Howrah (, , alternatively spelled as Haora) is a city in the Indian state of West Bengal. Howrah is located on the western bank of the Hooghly River opposite its twin city of Kolkata. Administratively it lies within Howrah district, and is th ...

. Towards the start of the twentieth century however, Kissa had lost its popularity. It is considered to have lost popularity alongside the Dobhashi dialect as the Standard variant of Bengali (

Shadhu-bhasha Sadhu bhasha ( bn, সাধু ভাষা, Sādhu bhāṣā, Chaste language) was a historical literary register of the Bengali language most prominently used in the 19th to 20th centuries during the Bengali Renaissance. Sadhu-bhasha was use ...

), which was highly

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

ised, became more institutionalised. This is evident in later Kissas such as

Mir Mosharraf Hossain Mir Mosharraf Hossain ( bn, মীর মশাররফ হোসেন; 1847–1912) was a Bengali writer, novelist, playwright and essayist. He is considered to be the first major writer to emerge from the Muslim society of Bengal, and one ...

Bishad Shindhu ''Bishad Shindhu'' (Bengali language, Bengali: ''বিষাদ-সিন্ধু'', English: ''Ocean of Sorrow'') is a Bengali epic novel by Mir Mosarraf Hussain, the first modern Bengali language, Bengali Muslim writer and novelist. Regarded as ...

, based on the traditional Bengali kissa about the

Battle of Karbala The Battle of Karbala ( ar, مَعْرَكَة كَرْبَلَاء) was fought on 10 October 680 (10 Muharram in the year 61 AH of the Islamic calendar) between the army of the second Umayyad Caliph Yazid I and a small army led by Husayn ...

, which he wrote in the late 19th century in Sanskritised

instead of Persianised

Notability

Written Bengali ''kissa''s became household items in

families. Shah Muhammad Sagir's

Yusuf-Zulekha ''Yusuf-Zulekha'' ( bn, ইউসুফ-জুলেখা) is a 15th-century Bengali romantic story in verse written by Shah Muhammad Sagir, which is considered one of the greatest literary works of medieval "golden era" of Bengali literature ...

from the 15th century was considered to be the greatest work of medieval Bengali literature. Bahram Khan of Chittagong made his own version of

Laila and Majnun ''Layla & Majnun'' ( ar, مجنون ليلى ; Layla's Mad Lover) is an old story of Arab origin, about the 7th-century Bedouin poet Qays ibn al-Mulawwah and his ladylove Layla bint Mahdi (later known as Layla al-Aamiriya). "The Layl ...

which he called "Laily-Majnu". In nearby Satkania, the poet Nawazish Khan, son of Muhammad Yar Khandakar, wrote Gule Bakawali which was also about love and included creatures such as

fairies A fairy (also fay, fae, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, English, and French folklore), a form of spirit, o ...

. Many different versions of the stories mentioned were written by the poets of Bengal. Other famous Kissas include Amir Hamza, Madhumalati,

Farhad and Shirin Khosrow and Shirin ( fa, خسرو و شیرین) is the title of a famous tragic romance by the Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi (1141–1209), who also wrote Layla and Majnun. It tells a highly elaborated fictional version of the story of the love ...

, Tutinama, Hatemtai, Sakhi Sona, Jangnama, Alif-Laila wa Laila and Gule Tarmuz. Notable writers, other than those listed above, included Syed Hamza, Naser Ali, Roushan Ali and Fakir Shah Garibullah.

References

{{Bangladesh topics Bengali-language literature Bengali folklore Bangladeshi folklore Bangladeshi literature Bengali poetry Storytelling

Etymology and pronunciation

History

Notability

See also

References