Assamese is the official language of the state of Assam in India. This language belongs to the easternmost group of Indo Aryan languages. Apart from Assam, it is also spoken in several parts of the state of Arunachal Pradesh and some more North Eastern Indian states. Assamese language is basically found along the Brahmaputra valley.It is the easternmost native Indo-European language and is spoken by over 15 million native speakers. Its sister languages consist of Maithili, Oriya, Chittagonian, Sylheti, Angika, Bishnupriya, Rohingya and Chakma. It is written in Assamese script, from left to right, with a large number of typographic ligatures.
Assamese literature
The prominent works in Assamese literature include ‘Giti Ramayana’, several poems and songs, etc. It was followed by a generation of novelists, writers and poets like Rajanikanta Bardaloi (1867-1939), Chandra Kumar Agarwala (1867-1938), Padmanath Gohain Baruwa (1871-1946), Hiteshwar Bezbarua (1871-1931), Benudhar Raj Khowa (1872-1935) and many more. Moreover several contemporary writers like Raghunath Chaudhari also wrote generously at the age of social reforms and nationalism. From the 15th and 16th centuries, songs like ‘Borgeets’, dramas like ‘Ankiya Naat’ and the first prose writings (by Bhattadeva) were created. The fictional language, based on the western dialects of Assam moved to the court of the ‘Ahom’ kingdom in the 17th century, where it became the state language. This period saw the well-known development of identical prose infused with spoken forms in ‘Buranjis’.
History of Assamese Language
The beginning of Assamese language is not comprehensible. Some suppose that it derived from ‘Kamarupi Prakrit’ used in earliest ‘Kamarupa’ Kingdom. On the other hand, it is believed that Assamese language developed at least before 7th century CE from the middle Indo-Aryan Magadhi Prakrit, but in some ways more ancient than Vedic Sanskrit with other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages.The earliest forms of Assamese in literature are found in the ninth-century Buddhist verses called ‘Charyapada’. In the late 13th century AD, Hema Saraswati, one of the oldest Assamese writers, wrote the very popular 'Prahlada Charita'. Another renowned figure of Assamese literature was ‘Madhava Kandali’.
The beginning of Assamese language is not comprehensible. Some suppose that it derived from ‘Kamarupi Prakrit’ used in earliest ‘Kamarupa’ Kingdom. On the other hand, it is believed that Assamese language developed at least before 7th century CE from the middle Indo-Aryan Magadhi Prakrit, but in some ways more ancient than Vedic Sanskrit with other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages.The earliest forms of Assamese in literature are found in the ninth-century Buddhist verses called ‘Charyapada’. In the late 13th century AD, Hema Saraswati, one of the oldest Assamese writers, wrote the very popular 'Prahlada Charita'. Another renowned figure of Assamese literature was ‘Madhava Kandali’.
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