Bibhatsa Bedana

In Bengali by HindiRinnyLeave a Comment

Bibhatsa Bedana, p. 1978. From the University of Chicago Library.

বীভৎস বেদনা Bibhatsa Bedana (Obscene Pain), by চৈয়দ আব্দুল মালিক Syed Abdul Malik.

What a fantastic cover to represent “Obscene Pain”! Bloody scorpions? Yes!

This book was controversial, as it covered sexual themes. More about the author, Syed Abdul Malik here.

The book is written in the Assamese language, which uses a slight variant of the Bengali script. The Ra and Va characters being the only real difference:

rô is represented as র in Bengali, and as ৰ in Assamese.
Assamese script has an additional sound, wô, represented as ৱ.

Neither of these is present in the cover above, but I thought I’d mention it 🙂

 

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