[Assam] Naming Assam: A glance into the history.

[Bartta Bistar]

  http://www.kimia-sains.com/articles/Assam#Early_documented_mentions Origin
of name



The land of Assam was known by various names in the past---Pragjyotishpura
in ancient Hindu scriptures like the
Mahabharata<http://www.kimia-sains.com/articles/Mahabharata>;
and Kamarupa <http://www.kimia-sains.com/articles/Kamarupa> in the early
medieval times. After the decline of the Kamarupa kingdom in the 12th
century <http://www.kimia-sains.com/articles/12th_century>, the land that
included a part of the old Kamarupa kingdom and regions to the east of it
was ruled by a Shan <http://www.kimia-sains.com/articles/Shan> people, who
called themselves Tai <http://www.kimia-sains.com/articles/Tai>, but who
were called Ahoms <http://www.kimia-sains.com/articles/Ahom> by the others.
This kingdom lasted for nearly 600 years. Satyendra Nath Sarma writes
[Assamese Literature, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1976]:



While the Shan invaders called themselves Tai, they came to be referred to
as *Āsām*, *Āsam* and sometimes as *Acam* by the indigenous people of the
country. The modern Assamese word *Ä€hom* by which the Tai people are known
is derived from *Āsām* or *Āsam*. The epithet applied to the Shan
conquerors was subsequently transferred to the country over which they ruled
and thus the name Kāmarūpa was replaced by Āsām, which ultimately took
the Sanskritized form *Asama*, meaning "unequalled, peerless or uneven"
[Banikanta Kakati: *Assamese: Its Formation and Development*, p2]


Early documented mentions



Therefore, the name Assam is of relatively recent origin. One of the first
unambiguous references come from Thomas Bowrey in
1663<http://www.kimia-sains.com/articles/1663>about Mir Jhumla's
death: "They lost the best of Nabobs, the Kingdome of
Acham, and, by consequence, many large privileges" (Bowrey, Thomas, A
Geographical Account of Countries around Bay of Bengal, ed Temple, R. C.,
Hakluyt Society's Publications).
Tavernier<http://www.kimia-sains.com/articles/Jean-Baptiste_Tavernier>'s
"Travels in India", published in
1676<http://www.kimia-sains.com/articles/1676>uses the spelling
"Assen" for Assam in the French original. The official
chronicler of Mir Jhumla too calls the place "Asam" (The Indian Antiquary,
July 1887, pp222-226). Most scholars accept that the first known mention of
the word Assam today is in a stanza from the Assamese Bhagavad
Puran<http://www.kimia-sains.com/articles/Bhagavata_Purana>composed/translated
about the middle of the 16th
century <http://www.kimia-sains.com/articles/16th_century> which described
the ethnic groups of the region (Srimadbhagavad, skandha 2, H Duttabaruah
and Co., Nalbari, pp-38) transcribed in iTrans:



       kiraTa kachhaari      khaachi gaaro miri

               yavana ka~Nka govaala |

       asama maluka            dhobaa ye turuka

               kubaacha mlechchha chaNDaala ||


Later adoption



After the fall of the Ahoms and the conquest by the British in
1826<http://www.kimia-sains.com/articles/1826>,
"Assam" was used to denote first the principality of the erstwhile Ahoms,
and later the British province. Soon, the province was expanded to include
regions that were not part of historical Ahom kingdom. The boundaries of
Assam have been redrawn many times after that, but the name Assam remained.


Other mentions



The word *asama* or *assama* was used during the time while Bhaskarvarman
ruled Kamarupa <http://www.kimia-sains.com/articles/Kamarupa>. Then the
present upper Assam used to emit poisonous gasses and was uninhabitable.
Some of the *Kamrupi criminals* escaped to this land during those days in
order to avoid punishment, as reported in the travel notes of the Chinese
traveler Xuanzang <http://www.kimia-sains.com/articles/Xuanzang>. Those
people were also called *asama* or *assama*.
Xuanzang<http://www.kimia-sains.com/articles/Xuanzang>not traveling
back via this route returning to China was because he was
worried about attacks from *asama* or *assama* people. In
Kamrupi<http://www.kimia-sains.com/articles/Kamrupi>,
the term can also mean one who is *not comparable with*, in addition to *
weird/sinner*, but no yester year
Kamrupi<http://www.kimia-sains.com/articles/Kamrupi>scriptures
referred the land
*asama* or *asam* or *asom*.



The British general did not choose the name from any of the above, but
concatenated it from the scientific name “Anthera Assama”, i.e., he
dropped “Anthera” and “a” of “Assama”. This was done for the
first time while British created “Upper Assam State” after the “Yandabu
Accord <http://www.kimia-sains.com/articles/Yandabu_Accord>”.



Anthera Assama was discovered long before the Yandabu
Accord<http://www.kimia-sains.com/articles/Yandabu_Accord>,
and *assama* here implies *unequal* or *not comparable with* â€"
*assama*was chosen as part of the
*scientific name* because the
silkworm<http://www.kimia-sains.com/articles/Silkworm>can only live in
the climate of foothills of Eastern
Himalaya <http://www.kimia-sains.com/articles/Himalaya>.an as thing.



*(disputed <wikipedia:Disputed_statement> â€" see talk page<talk:Assam#Disputed>
)*
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