Languages of Assam

About Assam

Assam (Asom, Axom) is a beautiful and diverse state with an incredible range of cultures and landscapes located in the northeast of India. It shares it’s borders in the North and East with the Kingdom of Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh. Along the south lies Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram. Meghalaya lies to her South-West, Bengal and Bangladesh to her West.

Assam has many fascinating things to see and experience, including the Kaziranga National Park, home to the world famous and rare one horned rhinoceros, the remarkable Majuli island, ancient Ahom architectural marvels and numerous Golf courses backed by beautiful heritage/luxury resorts and colonial tea bungalows. Renowned for its tea, rich flora and fauna and other rare species of wildlife on the verge of extinction, there is perhaps no part of the world where such a variety of wildlife exists barring Africa.

Assamese Language

Assamese is the eastern-most language of the Indo-European family of languages. It is spoken by about twenty million people in Assam on both banks of the mighty Brahmaputra. It has an illustrious written history going back almost a thousand years.

The Assamese language grew out of Sanskrit, the ancient language of the Indian subcontinent. However, its vocabulary, phonology and grammar have been substantially influenced by the original inhabitants of Assam, such as the Boros and the Kacharis

History
There is not much information on the history of Assamese language, either in the form of historical records or otherwise. All that we know is that the initiation of Assamese and the other related languages, such as Maithili, Bengali and Oriya, came from Magadhi Prakrit. In fact, Magadhi Prakrit gave rise to four Apabhramsa dialects, out of which one further gave rise to the dialects in West Bengal and Assamese, in the Brahmaputra valley. With time, the language recorded developments and today, it is spoken by a large number of people in India.

Literature 
The oldest Assamese writer was Hema Saraswati, who wrote the famous Prahlada Charita in late 13th century AD. Madhava Kandali (14th century) was another well-known figure in Assamese literature, having written a vernacular Ramayana. The prominent works of 15th century Assamese writers include Giti Ramayana by Durgavara, poems and songs from the Puranas by Pitambara and Manakara and the mass of literature called ‘Mantras’ (of unknown authorship). The echoes of the Bhakti Movement of 15th century, which took over the whole of India, were felt in Assam too, under the leadership of Shankara Deva.

The later half of the 19th century witnessed a flood of literary activities in Assam, the enthusiasm of which spilled over to the present century. Dictionaries, like Hema Chandra Baruwa’s Hema Kosha, were written and magazines, such as Arunodaya Samvad Patra (1846) and Asam Bandhu (1885), were launched. A fresh style of prose, based on the spoken language, became the order of the day. Anandaram Dhekial Phukan (1829-96) and Gunabhiram Baruwa (1837-95) were the two big names of this age. Short poems and novels, dramas, lyrics and folk poetry pleased the literary circles.

A generation of novelists and poets like Rajanikanta Bardaloi (1867-1939), Hiteshwar Bezbarua (1871-1931), Chandra Kumar Agarwala (1867-1938), Padmanath Gohain Baruwa (1871-1946), Benudhar Raj Khowa (1872-1935) and his contemporary Raghunath Chaudhari, wrote profusely in an age of nationalism and social reforms. The Assamese literature of today has a vibrant short-story genre. Some of the best writers of the present generation are Phul Goswami, Indira Goswami, Harendra Kumar Bhuyan, Arupa Patangia Kalita and Manoj Kumar Goswami.

Writing Style & Grammar
A variant of the Eastern Nagari script, Assamese script has its roots laid down to the Gupta script. The language had a unique style of writing, on the bark of the saanchi tree. In fact, the religious texts and chronicles in Assamese have been written on the same bark only. The spellings in Assamese, which were initially in use, are not phonetic. Instead, Hemkosh, which is the second dictionary of Assamese, is known to have introduced Sanskrit-based spellings in the language, which are deemed as standard, today.

Assamese Language Early Facts

*The earliest known Assamese writer is Hema Saraswati, who wrote a small poem “Prahrada Charita”.

*In the 14th century the most well-known poet of the Pre-Vaishnavite sub period Madhav Kandali rendered Valmiki’s Ramayana into Assamese verse Kotha Ramayana.

*In 1819 the publication of Bible in Assamese marked the onset of modern Assamese period.

*In 1836 ‘the Missionaries’ established the first printing press in Sibsagar.

*In 1846 Nathan Brown with Oliver Cutter and Miles Bronson published the first Assamese newspaper/magazine ‘Arunodoi’. Hemchandra Barua was the editor of the magazine

*In 1848 Nathan Brown published the first book on Assamese Grammar.

*In 1867 ‘the Missionaries’ published the first Assamese-English Dictionary compiled by Miles Bronson.

*In 1873 Assamese was reinstated as the state language of Assam.

*In 1889 the period of modern literature began with the publication the Assamese journal ‘Jonaki’ (জোনাকী) under the leadership of Chandra Kumar Agarwala.

*In 1889 Laxminath Bezbarua introduced the short story form in assamese.

*In 1894 Rajanikanta Bordoloi published the first Assamese novel Mirijiyori (মিৰি জীয়ৰী).

*In 1901 ‘Cotton College’ the first institution for higher education, was Established in Guwahati, Assam by Sir Henry John Stedman Cotton, the then-Chief Commissioner of the erstwhile British province of Assam.

*In 1909 Laxminath Bezbarua created the state song or state anthem of Assam ‘O mor aponar desh’ (অ’ মোৰ আপোনাৰ দেশ) for an Assamese magazine named ‘Baahi’. It was officially adopted as the Assam’s state song in 1927 at Oxom Chhatra Xonmilon held in Tezpur.

*In 1917 the Oxom Xahityo Xobha (অসম সাহিত্য সভা) was formed as a guardian of the Assamese society and the forum for the development of Assamese language and literature. Padmanath Gohain Baruah was the first president of the society.

*In 1919 ‘Arun’, the first book of poems, was published. It was written by the ‘first Asssamese Poetess and the first Assamese female short-story writer’ Jamuneswari Khatoniar. Jamuneswari Khatoniar, Dharmeswari Devi Baruani and Nalinibala Devi and are regarded as the trio of poetesses of the same decade.

*In 1935, Rupkonwar Jyotiprasad Agarwala produced and directed the first Assamese film Joymoti under the banner of Critrakala Movietone.

*In 1947 the first medical college of North-East India ‘Assam Medical College’, was established in Dibrugarh.

*In 1948 the first university of North East India ‘Guwahati University’ was established.

*In 1955, the first under graduate engineering college in North-Eastern India ‘Assam Engineering College’ was established.

*In 1968 Prof. Bhabananda Deka, Parikshit Hazarika and Upendra Nath Goswami formed the ‘Asomiya Sahitya Samaj’ in Delhi. They were subservient in the introduction of Assamese Language in MIL Department of Delhi University (DU).