Banglapedia

Banglapedia: the National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh is the first Bangladeshi encyclopedia. It is available in print, CD-ROM format and online, in both Bengali and English. The print version comprises fourteen 500-page volumes. The first edition was published in January 2003 in ten volumes by the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, with a plan to update it every two years. The second edition was issued in 2012 in fourteen volumes. Banglapedia was not designed as a general encyclopedia but as a specialized encyclopedia on Bangladesh-related topics. For the encyclopedia's purposes, Bangladesh is defined as the territory comprising ancient Eastern India, Bengal Sultanate, Bengal Subah, Bengal Presidency, East Bengal, East Pakistan, and the independent Bangladesh, in historical succession. The encyclopedia's chief editor is Sirajul Islam. Over 1450 writers and specialists in Bangladesh and abroad helped create the entries. Banglapedia has over 5,700 entries in six editorial categories, each of which is overseen by an expert editor, as well as over 2,000 single and four-colour illustrations and 2,100 cross-references. The project was funded by the Bangladeshi government, private sector organizations, academic institutes and UNESCO. Though its original budget was 800,000 taka (roughly US$10,000), the Asiatic Society eventually spent 80 million taka (roughly US$1 million) on the project. Despite controversies over entries on the Bangladesh Liberation War and indigenous people, both the Bengali and English versions became popular upon publication. The Banglapedia project originated when the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh was working on a three-volume study titled History of Bangladesh, 1704-1971 in 1991. The editors felt the need for a standard desk reference, as that project progressed laboriously, culling facts from various libraries. The idea finally led to a concept paper prepared by Sirajul Islam and his colleagues and submitted to the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh in early 1994.