Medieval Bengali Literature and Society: Background, Geopolitics, and the Division of Literary Trends

This historical and critical study explores the transitional dawn of the medieval period in Bengali literature following Bakhtiyar Khilji's conquest in 1204 CE. It examines the geopolitical expansion, subaltern demographics, religious conversion, and the subsequent consolidation of two distinct literary streams—the Hindu/classical-sanatana tradition and the Muslim/Islamic tradition—across the Sultanate, Arakan, and Mughal eras up to the eighteenth-century twilight of the Middle Ages.