Not in the Ráŕh of black soil, but in the Ráŕh of laterite (red) soil, lie the following villages: Bandyogháti of Birbhum district (the original abode of the Bandyopádhyáyas, or Banerjees); Mukhot́i village of Bankura district (the original abode of the Mukhopádhyáyas, or Mukherjees); Chát́uti of West Burdwan (the ancestral home of the Chat́t́opádhyáyas, or Chatterjees); Ghośli of Manbhum (the ancestral home of the Ghośáls); and Gauṋgolii of West Burdwan District (the ancestral home of the Gauṋgopádhyáyas or Gauṋguliis). All these villages are located in the land of laterite soil; none is in the area of black soil. The Baul school of music also originated in the area of laterite soil. In the study of history, this significant fact should be remembered.

Still more [[remarkable]] is the fact that all the principalities whose names end in bhúm are situated in the land of laterite soil. For example, the northernmost region is called Birbhum. Birbhum comprised Rampurhat Subdivision, Kandi Subdivision, Pakur Subdivision, Sahebganj and Rajmahal.

In the Austric language, biir means forests; so biirbhúm means “the land of abundant forests”. Next to Birbhum is Gopabhúm, which comprised Suri Subdivision, Dumka Subdivision, and Deoghar Subdivision. The Sadgops with the surname of Ghosh used to be the rulers in this area, hence it was called Gopabhúm.

Next to Gopabhúm was Sámantabhúm, which comprised Durgapur Subdivision, Asansol Subdivision, and Jamtara Subdivision of Santhal Parganas. All these are areas of laterite soil. South of Sámantabhúm was Mallabhúm, comprising the present-day Visnupur Subdivision of Bankura District. Then Senbhúm comprising of Bankura Sadar Subdivision. The Vaidyas having the surname of Sen were the rulers here: hence the principality was known as Senbhúm and Senpáháŕii was the capital. Later King Banku Rai built a new city which was named after him, Bankurai. This was subsequently changed to Bankura.

To the west of Sámantabhúm was Shikharbhúm, which extended from the Barakar River to Parashnath Hill after Dhanbad. Parashnath Hill was the last boundary of Ráŕh, but the area was known as Shikharbhúm because the name of the hill was Sametshikhar. There is a temple there to Parashnath, but the hill is far more ancient than the temple, so the land was called Shikharbhúm.

To the west of Senbhúm was Manbhúm, which was named after King Mansing. Manbazar was its capital. South of Manbhúm was Barahabhúm. Two Munda brothers, Adibarah and Keshbarah, founded this kingdom. Barahabhúm comprises Bagmundi, Barahabazar, Balarampur, Candil, Patamda, Icagarh, and Bandoyan. Bandoyan is situated beside the Binpur police station of Jhargram Subdivision of Midnapore District. Barahabazar (Barabazar) was the capital of Barahabhúm. (Many people wrongly pronounce the word Barahabazar as Barabazar).

South or southwest of Birbhum is Singhbhum, and close to Singhbhum is Dhavalbhum. Tatanagar comes within this Dhavalbhum area. All the villages around Tatanagar are Bengali speaking. East of Dhavalbhum is Shavarbhum, which comprises Midnapore North and South Subdivisions. The Shavaras or the Kheriyamundas were its rulers, so the area was named Shavarbhum. The Kheriyas and the Cuyáŕs were the original inhabitants of Shavarbhum, and at the southwest of Dhavalbhum and Shavarbhum was Bhaiṋjabhum. The rulers of Bhaiṋjabhum used to place peacock emblems on their crowns and on their thrones: thus Bhaiṋjabhum was also known as Mayurbhaiṋja (mayúr means “peacock”).

Thus this vast area extending from Birbhum on the north to Bhaiṋjabhum in the south was known as Ráŕhbhúm, the land of laterite soil. All the people of this area spoke almost the same dialect of Bengali – Ráŕhii Bengali. Of course, there was some difference in the Ráŕhii dialect spoken in Birbhum and the dialects spoken by the Mahatos of Bhaiṋjabhum. There are some similarities also. The main speciality of the Ráŕhii dialect of Bengali is that in the future and past tenses, the suffix ek is used for transitive verbs. For instance, Kii bal-lek? [“What did he say?”] or Kuthá yábek?, [“Where will he go?”].

Formerly it was written in the third-class compartments in trains, Śát́ jan basibek [“Seats for sixty people”]. In Bengali poetry also, the suffix ek was used. In the Bengali compositions of Vidyasagar, ek was widely used. In Bengali poetry, the poet Bharatcandra wrote:

Tathástu baliyá Devii dilá baradán,
Dudhe bháte thákibek tomár santán.

[The goddess Devi granted a boon, saying, “So be it. Your children will live amidst plenty.”]

There are other specialities of the Ráŕhii dialect. In Bengali, the suffixes e and te are used in the seventh case ending; but in the second case ending, they also use e and te to indicate directions. For example, if one says, “He lives in, or at, Kolkata,” the Bengali sentence will be, Se Kalkátáy áche.

Similarly, if one wants to say, “He is going to Kolkata,” a person speaking Bengali, will say, Se Kalkátáy yácche. That is, for three prepositions – in, at, and to – the same suffix is used in Bengali.

In standard or recognized Bengali, the suffix is the same, but in Ráŕhii Bengali it is slightly different. The suffix ke is used to denote direction, and e or te is used as the 7th case ending to denote position in something (like standard Bengali). For example, Se ghare áche [“He is in the house”]. It is the same in Ráŕhii dialect and in standard Bengali. But if we say, “He is going to the house” in Ráŕhii Bengali, people will say, Se gharke yácche.

A woman has gone to a pond for a bath. In standard Bengali we will say, Bhadramahilá pukure gechen [[literally “The lady has gone to the pond”]]. But in Ráŕhii Bengali it is said, Bhadramahilá jalke gechen [[literally “The lady has gone to the water”]], because the direction is towards the pond.

The poet Rabindranath Tagore has written, Belá ye paŕe elo jalke cal [“the sun sets, let us go to the pond”]. In a Bhádu song [folk songs of Ráŕh] it is said,

Sát bhádute jalke gelo
Ámár bhádu kár báŕi,
Chay bhádute gharke elo
Ámar bhádu kárbáŕi.

[Seven damsels went to the water.
Which one is my nearest?
Six damsels came back home.
Where is my dearest?]

There is still another speciality of the Ráŕhii dialect of Bengali. For “can” and “cannot”, the standard Bengali uses párá and ná párá. But in the Ráŕhii dialect, it is different. For instance, in standard Bengali one says, se párbe [“he can”], but in the Ráŕhii Bengali dialect, it is u párbek. In standard Bengali it is said, se párbe ná; in Ráŕhii Bengali, u lárbek [“he cannot”] or u párbek nái. But better to say, u lárbek.

So this land of Ráŕh is composed of laterite soil. The eastern part of Ráŕh is composed of black soil, because that part has been formed from alluvial soil carried by the rivers. It is not exactly red because pacá gáchpála [humus or decomposed vegetation] is also mixed with the red soil. Thus the eastern Burdwan, Howrah and Hooghly Districts are very fertile. The remaining portion of Ráŕh, which is composed of laterite soil, is gradually eroding.

But how was this laterite soil formed? It has come from the constant erosion of the hills. The small hills which we see today were medium-sized hills in the past, and the undulating highlands of red soil were once great hills. Now those hills have been reduced to mere anthills. And where the land is still very high, we must infer that these were once extremely lofty peaks which in the gradual process of erosion have been reduced to small mounds. The land of Ráŕh flows in waves of hills and valleys: where the crests are lower, these areas were once valleys and smaller hills; and where the land is comparatively high, there the hills were extremely lofty. All of these hills have undergone, and are still undergoing, a gradual process of erosion. If someone travels past Bolepur station by train, one will invariably come across huge areas of extreme soil erosion (khoyái in Ráŕhii Bengali): it seems as if the skeletons of the hills are exposed. And when that soil gradually flows down towards the sea, it creates new fertile lands. By large-scale afforestation, this type of extreme erosion can be checked – there is no other alternative. In fact, it is extremely necessary now to create large new forests by afforestation, so the roots of the trees will hold the soil and prevent erosion. Of course, it is not true that the entire red soil has been lost.

Previously this whole area was completely hilly; in fact Birbhum, West Burdwan and Bankura were all hills. Thus we find this vast area of undulating land today. If there is a slight increase of rainfall, tea cultivation will be very successful. In fact, tea plantation requires just this type of land. Even coffee and cocoa may be cultivated there, because the land is sloping.

Along these high slopes one may discover many heavy minerals. In the ancient past this was a belt of hard rock; it was neither an area of sedimentary rock created by volcanic eruption, nor igneous rock; rather it was metamorphic rock (formed by extreme pressure under the ground). Wherever the land is undulating in Bankura, Birbhum, West Burdwan, Purulia etc., one can discover heavy minerals buried deep within the earth. Actually these are being discovered even now: there is a strong likelihood that great deposits of gold and copper will be found there. If the people of Bengal prepare a detailed plan for the future, they will have to take these possibilities into consideration, and accordingly they can develop industries in the area. But this will not be easy; it will demand hard labour. As Swami Vivekananda once said, nothing is accomplished without toil.

The old Bengali word for the verb “come” or “came” was ásila. What is its colloquial form now? In old Bengali this verbal form was not in existence; it was áila. In medieval Bengali, the correct term was ásila, but in colloquial language, even in ancient days, ásila was not used; the proper term was áilen or elen. The poet Krttivas Thakur wrote:

Deshete áila Ram, ánanda sabár;
Shunila Kaekeyii ráńii shubha samácár.
Abhimáne Kaekeyiir báripurńa áṋkhi;
Kathá kii kaben Rám Má baliyá d́áki.

[Ram returned to his country to everyone’s delight. When Queen Kaekeyii heard the news, her eyes were full of tears from the pain of her wounded heart. Will Ram approach her and address her as “Mother”?]

So we find the old form áila here, and now the latest colloquial form of áila is ela. The Bengali language, through gradual changes along the various river valleys, has developed into its present standard form. These river-valley languages have joined with one another in Samatat́ Bengali, from Kolkata to Goyalanda. Thus it is generally accepted that Nadia [[with its Nadia dialect]] is the central point of the Bengali language.