Verse 1.14.49

Bengali text, Devanagari and Unicode transliteration of verse 1.14.49:

তবে কত-দিনে ইচ্ছা-ময ভগবান্ বঙ্গ-দেশ দেখিতে হৈল ইচ্ছা তা’ন ॥ ৪৯ ॥

तबे कत-दिने इच्छा-मय भगवान् बङ्ग-देश देखिते हैल इच्छा ता’न ॥ ४९ ॥

tabe kata-dine icchā-maya bhagavān baṅga-deśa dekhite haila icchā tā’na || 49 ||

tabe kata-dine iccha-maya bhagavan banga-desa dekhite haila iccha ta’na (49)

English translation:

(49) After a few days the independent Lord desired to visit East Bengal [Bangladesh].

Commentary: Gauḍīya-bhāṣya by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura:

The word baṅga-deśa is explained as follows: Śrī Gaurasundara exhibited His pastimes in Gauḍapura, Navadvīpa-Māyāpur. The eastern portion of Gauḍa-deśa (now Bangladesh) is separately addressed as Baṅga-deśa by the residents of Gauḍa-deśa. The celestial Bhāgīrathī River flows through Gauḍa-deśa. The northern and eastern provinces of Gauḍa Navadvīpa, which consist of the east and south banks of the Brahmaputra River, through which flows the main branch of the Ganges, the Padmāvatī, which merges in the Bay of Bengal—these entire tracts of land were known at that time as Baṅga-deśa.

In the book Śakti-saṅgam-tantra the border of Baṅga-deśa has been described as follows: “The entire tract of land from the bay of Bengal up to the Brahmaputra River is known as Baṅga-deśa. O Pārvatī, this land bestows on one all perfection.”

Even after the reign of the ancient Pāla dynasty and the shifting of the capitol to Navadvīpa and Vikramapura, north Bengal was still known as Varendra, provinces to the northwest of north Bengal were known as Karṇa-suvarṇa, west Bengal was known as Gauḍa and Rāḍha, the present East Bengal was known as Baṅga-deśa, and South Bengal was known as Samataṭa and Tāmralipta. Even in Sanskrit literatures the east and middle areas of Bengal were referred to as Baṅga-deśa. Abul Phajal, the prime minister of Akbar, the Mugal emperor of Delhi, has written in his history book, Āin-I-Akbari, or “The Rule of Akbar”, that the former Hindu kings of Baṅga surrounded their kingdoms with an āla, or mud dike, and therefore the area has become known as Baṅgāla.