Eons ago, the Aryans used to call the indigenous inhabitants of Bengal 'Birds', possibly in a derogatory sense. Even before that time, an extraordinary man, namely Palkapya, was born in the proto-historic 'Bangladesh' (henceforth mentioned as 'Bangla' to differentiate it from modern Bangladesh) which referred to a vast region encompassing modern West Bengal, Bangladesh and certain parts of Bihar, Odisha, and Assam. Palkapya was a strange human being. He spent most of his life amongst
wild animals and birds. His most favourite animal was the elephant. Elephants became an obsession for him. He was always busy taming, rearing, treating and training wild elephants. Gradually, he became an authority over anything related to elephants. He even penned down a magnum opus on elephants and named it 'Hastyayurveda'.
'Mahamahopadhyay' Haraprasad Shastri was the famous discoverer of the 'Charyapadas' (the Buddhist literature during the Pala period written in archaic Bengali language which is believed to be the first instance of written Bengali script). Mr Shastri wrote a book titled 'Pracheen Banglar Gourab' (Glory of Ancient Bengal). In that book, there was an important chapter titled 'Hastichikitsa' (Medical treatment of elephants). Mr Shastri believed that the Aryans were not familiar with elephants. Apparently, they used to think that elephants are nothing but oversized deer – Mriga iba Hastinah.
Interestingly, the Sanskrit words for elephants, e.g, Hasti, Kari, Kunjara, Gaja, Matanga, Dwipa, etc. are nowhere to be found in the Rig Vedic texts. Even there is no mention of the 'Airavata' (the great mythical elephant) in the Rig Veda either, implying that the Aryans of the Rig Vedic period were not acquainted with elephants,
nor were they aware of the multifarious utilities of elephants in the making of a rich civilisation. Mr Shastri further stated that elephants were found in places like Bangladesh, Borneo, Sumatra, etc. while there were no elephants on the western side of India.
Through this article, Mr Shastri proved that Palkapya was not of the Aryan stock, rather he belonged to any non-Aryan or indigenous tribe. Palkapya was probably born, brought up and educated somewhere near the bank of Brahmaputra. It has to be kept in mind that when Mr Shastri wrote this, no significant archeological excavation was as yet done in Bangla. But when fossils of the paleontological mammoths were found at Shushuniya (dist. Birbhum, West Bengal), Mr Shastri stood somewhat vindicated.
The Aryans learnt everything related to elephants from the ancient Bangla. That may lead to a presumption that Bangla probably had a culture older than the Vedic civilisation. In this regard, a remark of Mr Shastri is worth mentioning, 'I believe Bangla is a nation that has forgotten itself… Bangla’s history has not yet been clear enough for anybody to say with certainty that Bangla is older or newer than Egypt, Bangla is older or newer than Neniva or Babylon… Bangla is older or newer than China. Bangla was already civilised when the Aryans arrived at Punjab from the middle-Asia.'
Paleontological pieces of evidence from the Neolithic era indicate that there existed an ancient civilisation in Bangla that resembled the Harappa-Mohenjodaro civilisation to a considerable extent. Renowned Anthropologist Dr Atul Sur said in his article, 'Pre-history and beginnings of Civilisation' that the Chalcolithic civilisation (Copper-Stone age) that flourished in Egypt, Sumer, Asia Minor and Indus valley had possible origin in Bangla. Thanks to the Bangla merchants, its civilisation spread to other far-flung places.
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