Monday, May 12, 2014

Kamrupi language

   ''Kamrupi language'' is the first Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Brahmaputra valley and North Bengal.1 During medieval times, intellectuals and saints in the Brahmaputra Valley and its adjacent areas employed Kamrupi for literary purposes, alongside Sanskrit, for both prose and poetry. This differed from the practices of literary figures in central India, such as Vidyapati, who used Sanskrit for prose and Maithili for poetry.2 Notably, in contemporary times, the South Kamrupi dialect has been effectively utilized by author Indira Goswami in her works, producing dramatic effects. Ambikagiri Raichoudhury, a renowned poet and nationalist hailing from Kamrup, also extensively used the Kamrupi language in his writings.3 
 
    According to the census data of 1951 and 2011, the combined number of Kamrupi language speakers in the Undivided Kamrup district, referred to as the "Kamrup region," is estimated to be 1,177,587 and 6,000,000, respectively.4 5


Etymology

    The appellation traced to Kamrup, the place where it is spoken. In Hindu mythology, Shiva burnt Kamadeva into ashes by a fiery glance of his third eye. Kamadeva eventually regained his life and his original 'form' (Rupa) here and the land where this took place become known as "Kamrup" ("Kamarupa").

Dialects

    The Kamrupi language has three dialects: West Kamrupi (Barpeta), Central Kamrupi (Nalbari) and South Kamrupi (Palasbari).6 The West Kamrupi dialect is spoken in Barpeta district and circumambient regions, Central Kamrupi dialect is spoken in Nalbari district and adjacent areas and South Kamrupi dialect is spoken in Palashbari and surrounding neighbourhoods.6


Script

Kamrupi Consonants

    The classical Kamrupi script was historically utilized for writing the Kamrupi language until the end of the first millennium. This script underwent a bifurcation into four distinct varieties in the second millennium, namely Bamoniya (employed by Brahmins), Katheli (utilized by Kayasthas), Lakhri (used by the common people of Kamrup),7 and Gadgaya (specific to Eastern Assam). The first three varieties were exclusively used for writing in Western Assam. However, since the nineteenth century, the Bengali script has been adopted for writing the Kamrupi language.8

 

Kamrup

    During the first half of the seventh century, the renowned Chinese traveler Hiuen-Tsiang visited Kamrup, which was under the rule of Bhaskar Varman at that time. He observed that the language spoken in Kamrup differed slightly from the languages spoken in central India. This linguistic distinction marked the emergence of what is now known as early Assamese or Kamrupi. This observation provided substantial evidence for Upendranath Goswami, who concluded that Assamese first made its way into Kamarupa, or western Assam, where it began to develop as a distinct language. Hiuen-Tsiang's remarks about the Kingdom of Kamarupa during the reign of Bhaskar Varman serve as vital historical records in this regard.Suniti Kumar Chatterji, another notable linguist, further supports this assertion by stating that one would expect a single, uniform language to have been prevalent in both North Central Bengal (Pundra-vardhana) and North Bengal, as well as in West Assam (Kamarupa) during the seventh century. 
 
    This expectation arises from the fact that these regions and other parts of Bengal shared similar linguistic characteristics during that period. Originally, Kamrupi was spoken in the region of Kamrup and gradually spread to adjacent areas as the Kingdom of Kamrup expanded its boundaries through conquest. Its presence and influence extended beyond its traditional borders due to the territorial acquisitions of the kingdom.
 


Scholarly views

    Furthermore, the modern Bengali scholars like Suniti Kumar Chatterjee and Sukumar Sen have named the dialect of Bengali spoken in North Bengal as Kamrupi. Chatterjee writes, Assamese Kamrupi and Bengali Kamrupi is quite similar, the division possibly occurred due to political reasons and two forms dialect continuum. According to him, Magadhi Prakrit, keeping north of the Ganga river, gave rise to the Kamarupa Apabhramsa dialects of Western Assam and North Bengal. He divides Magadhan dialects regionwise as Radha, Varendra, Kamarupa and Vanga.

Dr. Sukumar Sen says, "Oriya and Assamese have intimate relations with Bengali. All three were the same language initially. There is not much difference between Kamrupi dialect of Bengali and Assamese. Assamese has differed from Kamrupi in the modern period because of inclusion of innumerable Deshi words". 

Upendranath Goswami wrote, "The Assamese language, coming from the west was first characterized in Kamrup or Western Assam whose boundary comprised in early times the whole of North-Bengal, including Cooch-Behar, Rangpur and Jalpaiguri districts of Bengal".

According to Kanak Lal Barua, the Kamrupi dialect was originally a variety of eastern Maithili and it was, no doubt, the spoken Aryan language throughout the kingdom which then included the whole of Assam valley and whole of North Bengal with the addition of the district of Purnea. The language of the Buddhist Dohas is described as belonging to the mixed Maithili Kamrupi language.


Features

Kamrupi Vowels
Phonology

(a) The treatment of ks as kh which is a notable feature in O.I.A and the Kamrupi, has been found in Kamrup inscriptions, such as inscriptions of Ratna Pala where ksitimatha & khimatha was used.

(b) /X/ does not occurs finally in Kamrupi, it does in Eastern dialect. In non-initial position Old Indo-Aryan sibilants become /kh/ and sometimes /h/, whereas in eastern Assamese it become /x/, e.g. Akha (hope) and Axa (east Assamese).

(c) Medial vowels are thus rarely pronounced or largely slurred over.

(d) In Kamrupi, two consecutive /a/ are tolerated (star: /taɹa/ (Kamrupi), /tɔɹa/ (eastern dialect)). In Eastern Assamese if a word has two /a/ sounds side-by-side, the first /a/ turns into an /ɔ/ or /ɛ/. . 

(e) Epenthetic vowels are the rule in Kamrupi, with even diphthongs and triphthongs appearing in initial syllables (haula Kam; haluwa St) (keuila Kam; kewaliya E Ass).

(f) High vowels are feature of Kamrupi, in contrast to predominance of medial vowels in Eastern dialect. Kapur, tule, mul, tamul and khalu in Eastern Assamese as against Kapor (cloth), tole (raises), mol (worth), tamol (betel-nut) and khalo (i have eaten) in Kamrupi.

(g) The eastern dialect favours de-aspiration as against aspiration of Kamrupi in same phonological context.

(h) One of the most prominent features of Kamrupi is the use of initial stress, as opposed to penultimate stress in the eastern dialects, which effectively shortens the word (kumra (Gourd) in Kamrupi  and komora in eastern dialect). 


Morphology

(a) Western Assamese shares morphological peculiarities with North Bengali. The plural suffixes in Western Assamese -hamra and -gila have parallel forms in North Bengali -amrah, the remote demonstrative plural and -gila, -gla.

(b)The plural suffixes of Kamrupi are very different from the eastern Assamese (Kamrupi: -gila, -gilak; Standard: -bor, -bilak). Kamrupi plural suffixes has continuity from ancient times, as opposed to late medieval appearance of bor and bilak in Eastern Assam.

 (c) Standard uses -loi in the dative case ending, Kamrupi uses the dative-accusative case ending -k or the locative -t (Kamrupi: gharot/gharok zau; Standard gharaloi zao). The third personal affix in the past tense is -lak (Kamrupi: xi khalak; Eastern Assamese: xi khale).

 (d) The instrumental sense -di in Kamrupi is increasingly accepted in the Eastern Assamese now (Kamrupi: hatedi; Standard: hatere).

Similarities with Assamese language

Dr. Nirmalendu Bhowmik, while conversing about resemblance of Kamrupi with Assamese language based on Eastern Assam, observes that regardless of some similarity in morphology, there is absolutely no parallelism in terms of phonology, though both languages shares few common words.


History

A eleventh century work by Kamrupi litterateur Rama Saraswati
     
    The Kamrupi language, despite its current status as a dialect of Bengali and Assamese, has its roots in the Magadhi Prakrit, along with other old Indo-Aryan languages of the eastern region such as Radhi, Vanga, and Varendri. It emerged from this ancient language and eventually gave rise to the modern Assamese language in the eastern part of India.9 10 Kamrupi was the predominant language used in ancient and medieval Assamese literature,11 12 until the arrival of American Christian missionaries in the mid-19th century who introduced the usage of the eastern variety for translating the Bible.13 14 The earliest examples of Kamrupi writings and literature can be found in copper plate seals issued by Kamrupi rulers, which were discovered in different parts of Eastern and Northern India. These seals serve as valuable historical documents that shed light on the linguistic landscape of the region during that time.15 16 17
 
    Charyapada is a collection of 8th-12th century Vajrayana Buddhist caryagiti, or mystical poems. Being caryagiti (songs of realization), the Charyapada were intended to be sung. These songs of realization were spontaneously composed verses, that expressed a practitioner's experience of the enlightened state. A manuscript of this anthology was discovered in the early 20th century, by Haraprasad Shastri in Nepal. It provides the examples of the Kamrupi and other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages. The authors of the Charyapada, the Mahasiddhas or Siddhacharyas, belonged to the various regions of Kamrup (Assam), Gauda (Bengal), Kalinga (Orissa) and Mithila (Bihar). A Tibetan translation of the Charyapada was also preserved in the Tibetan Buddhist canon.

    In eighth century, celebrated litterateur Daka of Lehidangra village of Barpeta district composed  authoritative Dakabhanita. The notable medieval Kamrupi literary figures are Rama Saraswati, Ananta Kandali, Sridhara Kandali, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, Kalapachandra Dvija and Bhattadeva, the father of Assamesc prose. Hema Saraswati and Haribara Vipra are two other well known Kamrupi poets. Hema Saraswati composed the "Prahlad Charitra" based on the Vamana Purana, while Haribara Vipra translated the Aswamedha Parva of the Mahabharata. Kaviratna was the author of the "Jayadratha Vadha". His home was at Sila, a village within the Barpeta district. The writings of all these three poets are still extant. To a some what later period belonged Madhava Kandali and Rudra Kandali. The former versified portions of the Ramayana and the latter composed, in Kamrupi verse, portions of the Mahabharata.

     Sankara Deva who was born in 1449 A.D., refers to Madhava Kandali as one of the reputed poets belonging to an earlier age. It may therefore place both Madhava Kandali and Rudra Kandali towards the end of the fourteenth century. In his Ramayana, Madhava Kandali himself states that his other name was Kaviraj-Kandali and that though he could easily compose verses in Sanskrit he composed the Ramayana in Assamese verse for the benefit of the people at large. Madhava Kandali wrote also another poem entitled "Devajit." Sixteenth century, witnessed a great development of the vernacular literature of Kamarupa. The Yogini Tantra, a well-known Sanskrit work which gives the boundaries of the kingdom of Kamarupa, as it existed during the rule of the Pala kings, probably written in Kamarupa during the first pact of the sixteenth century. To this period it must also assign the compilation of the Behula Upakhyana by Durgabar Kayastha, a native of Kamakhya.


See also


References

  1. Goswami, Upendranath (1970),  A study on Kāmrūpī: a dialect of Assamese, Dept. of Historical Antiquarian Studies, Assam. p. 4 "Assam from ancient times, was known as Kamarupa till the end of the Koch rule (17th century) and ancient Kamarupa comprised the whole of North Bengal including Cooch-Behar, and the Rangpur and Jalpaiguri districts of Bengal. Its permanent western boundary is said to have been the river Karatoya in North Bengal according to the Kalika Purana and Yoginitantra, both devoted to geographical accounts of ancient Kamarupa. So the Aryan language spoken first in Assam was the Kamrupi language spoken in Rangpur, Cooch-Behar, Goalpara, Kamrup district and some parts of Nowgong and Darrang districts. As also put by K.L. Barua "the Kamrupi dialect was originally a variety of eastern Maithili and it was no doubt the spoken Aryan language throughout the kingdom which then included the whole of the Assam Valley and the whole of Northern Bengal with the addition of the Purnea district of Bihar”. It is in this Kamrupi language that the early Assamese literature was mainly written. Up to the seventeenth century as the centre of art, literature and culture were confined within western Assam and the poets and the writers hailed from this part, the language of this part also acquired prestige. The earliest Assamese writer is Hema Saraswati, the author of a small poem, Prahrada Caritra, who composed his verses under his patron, King Durlabhnarayana of Kamatapur who is said to have ruled in the latter part of the 13th century. Rudra Kandali translated Drone Parva under the patronage of King Tamradhvaja of Rangpur. The most considerable poet of the pre-vaisnavite period is Madhava Kandali, who belonged to the present district of Nowgong and rendered the entire Ramayana into Assamese verse under the patronage of king Mahamanikya, a Kachari King of Jayantapura. The golden age in Assamese literature opened with the reign of Naranarayana, the Koch King. He gathered round him at his court at Cooch-Behar a galaxy of learned man. Sankaradeva real founder of Assamese literature and his favourite disciple Madhavadeva worked under his patronage. The other-best known poets and writers of this vaisnavite period namely Rama Sarasvati, Ananta Kandali, Sridhar Kandali, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharyya, Dvija Kalapachandra and Bhattadeva, the founder of the Assamese prose, all hailed from the present district of Kamarupa. During Naranaryana's reign "the Koch power reached its zenith. His kingdom included practically the whole of Kamarupa of the kings of Brahmapala's dynasty with the exception of the eastern portion known as Saumara which formed the Ahom kingdom. Towards the west the kingdom appears to have extended beyond the Karatoya, for according to Abul Fasal, the author of the Akbarnamah, the western boundary of the Koch kingdom was Tirhut. On the south-west the kingdom included the Rangpur district and part of Mymensingh to the east of the river Brahmaputra which then flowed through that district," The Kamrupi language lost its prestige due to reasons mentioned below and has now become a dialect which has been termed as Kamrupi dialect as spoken in the present district of Kamrup."
  2. Medhi, Kaliram (1988), Assamese Grammar and Origin of the Assamese Language, Publication Board, Assam, p.84, "Prose had also been used by the Maithili poets, Vidyapati, Harsanatha and others,--in their dramas. But whereas the Maithili poets prose was in Sanskrit and their songs alone in Maithili Sankara Deva's prose and songs were both in Kamrupi".
  3. Sahitya Akademi, Indian literature: Volume 30, 1987 "Ambikagiri set a new trend in Assamese by his abundant use of Kamrupi language in his writings." 
  4. Census of India 1951, "Number of Assamese language speakers in Undivided Kamrup district"
  5. Census of India 2011, "Number of Assamese language speakers in Undivided Kamrup district"
  6. Goswami, Upendranath (1970),  A study on Kāmrūpī: a dialect of Assamese, Dept. of Historical Antiquarian Studies, Assam. p. 28. "The sub-dialectical varieties of Kamrupi may be grouped mainly into three divisions —western, central and southern. The variety spoken in the area comprising Barpeta, Sundardiya, Patbausi, Bhabani- pur etc. is western, that of Nalbari and its surrounding areas is central and that of Palasbari, Chaygong, Boko etc. is southern."
  7. ''Goswami, Hemchandra (1930), Descriptive Catalogue Of Assamese Manuscripts, p.145 "There are 1,893 stanzas in the puthi (Ramayana - Lanka Kanda) and it is generally free from spelling mistakes. The writings are uniform and resemble Lahkari characters of Kamrup. The puthi was copied by Dharmanarain Kayastha of Khudramakhibaha in Nambarbhag mauza of Kamrup in saka 1727. 
  8. Barua, Birinchi Kumar (1978), The History of Assamese Literature, Sahitya Akademi, p. 6, "Like the Bengali, the Assamese script also was derived from old Devanagari alphabets. Originally there are several schools of Assamese script, namely, Gargaya, Bamunia, Lakhari and Kaithali; but in later years all the different scripts merged into one. After the establishment of the printing-press at Serampore, near Calcutta, Assamese books began to be printed in the Bengali script, and since then the Bengali script has been adopted for Assamese with certain modifications.
  9. Datta, Birendranatha  (1999), Folkloric Foragings in India's North-East, p.134 "Scholars have shown that it is rather through the western Assam dialects that the development of modern Assamese has to be traced". 
  10. Goswami, Upendranath (1975), Grammatical Sketches of Indian Languages With Comparative Vocabulary And Texts, Linguistic Survey of India, Census of India 1971, p.35 Thus it is clear that Kamrupi dialect does not only claim as the mother of modern Assamese, but also that this speech continued to exert its appreciable influence on Assamese literature, both prose and poetry. It is worth mentioning here that Assamese Vocabularies may greatly be enriched by incorporation of certain important words and expressions, still in vogue in the modern district of Kamrup proper, in modern Assamese lexicon.
  11. Medhi, Kaliram (1936), Assamese Grammar and Origin of the Assamese Language, Sri Gouranga Press, p. 66 "The language of the pre-Vaisnava and Vaisnava was the dialect of Western Assam while the language of the modern literature is that of Eastern Assam. This latter has been accepted by the common consent as the literary language of the country. Political power thus determined the centre of literary activity and also of the form of literary language".
  12. Goswami, Golockchandra (1982), Structure of Assamese, Department of Publication, Gauhati University, p. 11 "The Eastern and Central dialects may be regarded as uniform to a certain extent in their respective areas, while Western Asamiya is heterogeneous in character, with large regional variations in the east, west, north and south. There must have been in early times as well, diverse dialects and dialect groups as at present. But then, there seems to be only one dominant literary language prevailing over the whole area; and that was Western Asamiya, the sole medium of all ancient Asamiya literature including the Buranjis written in the Ahom courts. This was because the centre of all literary activities in early times was in western Assam; and the writers were patronized by the kings and local potentates of that region. In the later period, however, even though the centre of literary activities moved to eastern Assam in the Ahom period, the writers continued to accept and use the existing model of the literary style of that time". 
  13. Garg, Gaṅgā Rām  (1992) , Encyclopaedia of the Hindu world: Volume 3 "With the publication of the translation of the Bible (1838) done by Nathan Brown of the American Baptist Mission Group, modern period of Assamese language began." 
  14. George, K. M. Modern Indian literature, an anthology: Volume 3, "In the restoration of the language (Eastern Assamese), American Baptist missionaries played a very significant role."
  15. "Choudhury, Dr. Pratap Chandra (1959), The history of civilisation of the people of Assam to the twelfth century A.D., Dept. of Historical and Antiquarian Studies, Gauhati, p.395 "The best specimens of wise sayings are contained in a work, 'Dakabhanita', attributed to Daka, written in old Kamarupi dialect. The work provides an important specimen of the ancient literature of Assam. It is, however, too early to ascribe the work to the 6th century A.D., as done by D.N. Bezbarua. It may have been composed about the 8th century A.D. It is true that Daka flourished at a time when the written literature of Assam had scarcely taken its birth. The place of the nativity of Daka is given in the work, which states that he was the native of the Lehidangara near modern Barpeta."
  16. Goswami, Upendranath (1970), A study on Kamrupi: a dialect of Assamese, 1970, "They cannot furnish the grammatical structure of Kamrupi or Assamese for which we are to turn our attention to the songs of the Buddhist Siddhacaryas, known as Caryas, composed in between 8th to 12th centuries A.D". 
  17. "The Kamrupi Apabhramsa" in The Journal of the Assam Research Society - Volume 18 (1968), Kāmarūpa Anusandhān Samiti, p.83,"However, Kamrupi Ap. is mostly related to that of Magadhi Ap. in the 7th century A.D., for which Chinese Pilgrim Yuan Chwang passed an worthy remark that the language of Kamrupa 'differs a little from that of Mid-India'.After dealing with Inscriptional Prakrits of oldest Kamrupi language, we find distinct Kamrupi Apabhramsa in written evidence of Carya- padas. These are the Buddhist songs based on Buddhist religion and life-philosophy"
  18. Goswami, Upendranath, "The Assames Script" in The Journal of the Assam Research Society - Volume 27 (1983), Kāmarūpa Anusandhān Samiti, p.27 "The Kamarupi script developed into the mediaeval Assamese script and the latter into the modern Assamese script. The Assamese script maintains some relationship with the Bengali and the Maithili scripts." 
  19. Goswami, Upendranath (1970), A Study on Kāmrūpī: A Dialect of Assamese, p.iii "The Assamese language, coming from the west was first characterized in Kamrup or Western Assam whose boundary comprised in early times the whole of North-Bengal, including Cooch-Behar, Rangpur and Jalpaiguri districts of Bengal." 
  20. Bangladesh Itihas Samiti (1999), Sylhet: History and Heritage, p.591 "Suniti Kumar Chatterjee in his Origin and Development of Bangla Language (ODBL) divided the Bangla dialect into four groups in accordance with the name of the regions such as Rada, Pundra or Barindra, Banga and Kamrupi."
  21. Barma, Sukhbilas (2007), Socio-Political Movements In North Bengal "Suniti Kumar Chatterji, in "The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language' published in 1926 has given to this dialect of North Bengal the name 'Kamrupi'."
  22. Sharma, Deba Brat (1995), Changing Cultural Mosaic of a Village in Assam, p.10, "an end the kingdom of Kamarupa and since then the area between the rivers the Manas on the west and the Barnadi on the east came to be known as Kamrup." 
  23. T. Raatan (2006), History, Religion and Culture of North East India, p.70 "Known in the ancient lore as the kingdom of Pragjyotisha and Kamrupa, the capital having been Pragjyotishpura situated in or near Guwahati".
  24. Tripathi, Chandra Dhar  (2002), Aspects of the medieval history of Assam, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, p.17 "Ratnapala founded a new city called Sri Durjaya and shifted his capital there. It has been identified with the ruins at modern North Gauhati."
  25. Bhattasali, N.K (2005), New Lights on the History of Assam in Suresh Kant Sharma, Usha Sharma (2005), Discovery of North-East India, p.248, "Davaka (Nowgong) and Kamarupa as separate and submissive friendly kingdoms."
  26. Barua, Kanak Lal (1933), Early History of Kamarupa: from the Earliest Times to the End of the Sixteenth Century, p. 31, "in the sixth or the seventh century this kingdom of Davaka was absorbed by Kamarupa" 
  27. Goswami, Upendranath (1970), A study on Kāmrūpī: a dialect of Assamese, p.1 "Assamese entered into Kamarupa or western Assam where this speech was first characterised as Assamese. This is evident from the remarks of Hiuen Tsang, who visited the Kingdom of Kamarupa in the first half of the seventh century A.D., during the reign of Bhaskaravarman." 
  28. Chatterji, Suniti Kumar (1926), The origin and development of the Bengali language, Volume 1 "One would expect one and identical language to have been current in North Central Bengal (Pundra-vardhana) and North Bengal and West Assam (Kamarupa) in the 7th century, since these tracts, and other parts of Bengal, had almost the same speech." 
  29. Martin, Robert Montgomery (1838), Puraniya, Ronggopoor and Assam "The ancient Hindu territory of Kamrup, which extends east from the Korotoya, where it joined the kingdom of Motsyo, to Dikkorbasini." 
  30. Great Britain India Office, The India list and India Office list, 1819 "The earliest authentic traditions attest the existence of a Hindu kingdom of Kamrup, with its capital at Gauhati." 
  31. Barma, Sukhabilasa (2004), Bhawaiya, ethnomusicological study, Global Vision Publishing House, ISBN:9788182200708, 8182200709, p.101 "Based on the materials of the Linguistic Survey of India, Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyay has divided Eastern Magadhi Prakrita and Apabhramsa into four dialect groups (1) Radha-the language of West Bengal and Orissa (2) Varendra-dialect of North Central Bengal (3) Kamrupi-dialect of Northern Bengal and Assam and (4) Vanga-dialect of East Bengal." 
  32. Barma, Sukhabilasa (2004), Bhawaiya, ethnomusicological study, Global Vision Publishing House, ISBN:9788182200708, 8182200709, p.103 "Acharya Suniti Chattopadhyay has commented that Assam was practically an extension of North Bengal, from its geographical position, so far as its speech and early history were concerned". 
  33. Barma, Sukhabilasa (2004), Bhawaiya: Ethnomusicological Study, Global Vision Publishing House, ISBN:9788182200708, 8182200709, p.135 "Particularly with the introduction of tea garden , spreading of tobacco and jute cultivation and trading in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries , lots of people speaking Bengali and Radhi came to North Bengal for their livelihood and as such Kamrupi language got mixed up with their languages".
  34. Chatterji, Suniti Kumar (1926), The origin and development of the Bengali language, Volume 1 "One would expect one and identical language to have been current in North Central Bengal (Pundra-vardhana) and North Bengal and West Assam (Kamarupa) in the 7th century, since these tracts, and other parts of Bengal, had almost the same speech".
  35. Chatterji, Suniti Kumar (1926), The origin and development of the Bengali language, Volume 1 "Eastern Magadhi Prakrita and Apabhramsa has four dialect groups (1) Radha-the language of West Bengal and Orissa (2) Varendra-dialect of North Central Bengal (3)Kamarupa-dialect of Northern Bengal and Assam and (4) Vanga-dialect of East Bengal". 
  36. Barma, Sukhabilasa (2004), Bhawaiya, ethnomusicological study Dr. Sukumar Sen says, "Oriya and Assamese have intimate relations with Bengali. All three were the same language initially. There is not much difference between Kamrupi dialect of Bengali and Assamese. Assamese has differed from Kamrupi in the modern period because of inclusion of innumerable Deshi words." 
  37. Choudhary, Radhakrishna (1976), A Survey of Maithili Literature, p.16 "According to Kanak Lal Barua, the Kamrupi dialect was originally a variety of eastern Maithili and it was, no doubt, the spoken Aryan language throughout the kingdom which then included the whole of Assam valley and whole of North Bengal with the addition of the district of Purnea. The language of the Buddhist Dohas is described as belonging to the mixed Maithili - Kamrupi language." 
  38. Goswami, Upendranath  (1970), A Study on Kāmrūpī: A Dialect of Assamese, p.96 "In early Assamese we find such forms : dayaluka rama tumi bolaya sansare" 
  39. Goswami, Upendranath (1970), A study on Kamrupi: a dialect of Assamese, Dept. of Historical Antiquarian Studies, Assam. p. 14 "Politically, socially and culturally Kamrup formed a separate unit and its speech also was compelled to take a shape to form a distinct dialect. It is only by chance that this dialect had to lose its prestige and had to remain as a dialect".
  40. Barua, Kanak Lal (1933), Early History of Kamarupa, p. 318 "The Kamarupi dialect was originally a variety of eastern Maithili and it was no doubt the spoken Aryan language throughout the kingdom which then included the whole of the Assam valley and the whole of northern Bengal with the addition of the Purnea district of Bihar. It is not therefore at all strange the language of the Buddhist Dohas, composed in Kamarupa during the tenth and the eleventh centuries, should be a mixed Maithili-Kamrupi language bearing close resemblance to modern Assamese, the direct offspring of the old Kamarupi dialect."

Bibliography

  • Goswami, Upendranath (1970),  A study on Kāmrūpī: a dialect of Assamese, Dept. of Historical Antiquarian Studies, Assam.
  • Medhi, Kaliram (1936), Assamese Grammar and Origin of the Assamese Language, Publication Board, Assam
  • Goswami, Golockchandra (1982), Structure of Assamese, Department of Publication, Gauhati University
  • Chatterji, Suniti Kumar (1926), The origin and development of the Bengali language, Volume 1, Calcutta university press
  • Goswami, Golockchandra (1966), An introduction to Assamese phonology, Deccan College Postgraduate and Research Institute
  • Goswami, Upendranath (1957), Onomatopoetic and echo-words in Kamrupi
  • Goswami, Upendranath (1957), O. I. A. sibilants in Kāmrupi
  • Goswami, Upendranath (1978), An introduction to Assamese, Mani-Manik Prakash
  • Sengupta, Madhumita (2016), Becoming Assamese: Colonialism and New Subjectivities in Northeast India, Routeledge India