[Assam] About the Name Assam

[Dilip and Dil Deka]

Kamal,
In today's parlance, you are absolutely correct. The local people call the land "Oxom" and, themselves "Oxomiya". When those words are written as "Assam" and "Assamese", it is an attempt to anglicize the locally used words.

Now whether Oxom was derived from another word that was local to the area and non-Sanskrit in its origin is another issue.
As we all know the region (at least the western part) was called Kamrupa in ancient literature. For the name Kamrupa to change to Oxom, it is almost impossible. There is no resemblance between the two words. So the natural assumption would be that the transformation to Oxom did not happen with the so called Hindu settlers of Assam from the west. It is more likely it happened with the domination of Assam by the Ahoms, who for the first time in a long time brought the people of the region under one rule through political acumen.

I have in my possession books written/compiled by British officers where the word Assam is used. But I wouldn't use these books nor a book written in another European language (Dutch) to prove that Assam is an indigenous word. There needs to be more research done by Xahitya Xobha, digging into the Buranjis of the Ahoms and whatever remains of the Ahom language.

I am told by my Ahom friends that many Buranjis were burnt during the waning years of Ahom rule. I am also told many Buranjis are still available in the Ahom villages kept as family heirloom. Does anyone know how to read and decipher these tomes?
Isn't there a scholar in all of Assam who could trace through the transformation of Ahom language from 1228 to the British days
to see if the name Oxom was coined by the Ahoms to describe their kingdom?

When I am on a roll, let me also ask how the Shans from Burma renamed themselves as Ahoms and when it happened.
If all of this is known to some netter, please publish it, so that some of us not exposed to recent findings in Assam can learn and stop arguing over a name.

Dilip Deka

 



________________________________
From: kamal deka <kjit.deka at gmail.com>
To: adhazarika at yahoo.com; A Mailing list for people interested in Assam from around the world <assam at assamnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, March 8, 2009 10:23:39 AM
Subject: Re: [Assam] About the Name Assam

In my humble view,the very word " Assam" is an Anglicised one.As an
adjective," Assamese " pertains to the characteristic of the people of
Assam and their culture.As  a noun,it means the native of Assam or the
language of Assam.
In view of the above fact.Assam Sahitya Sabha may not be in error.
Kamal

On Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 9:47 PM, Ajoy Hazarika <adhazarika at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Dear Oxom Xahityo Xobha:
>
>
> I agree with Chandan Mahanta.  If you do not know anything about it,
> an article written by H. Borgohain.  I could not find the article,
> otherwise I could have forwarded to you.
>
> Hi Chandan, Rajen, if you have that article please forward that to . Oxom
> Xahityo Xobha
> Oxom Xahityo Xobha.  It will also help if Oxom Xahityo Xobha study
> the Bodo language.  There are other historical facts.  Chandan and Rajen
> can help.
>
> A. D. Hazarika
>
>
>
>
> --- On Mon, 3/2/09, Chan Mahanta <cmahanta at charter.net> wrote:
> From: Chan Mahanta <cmahanta at charter.net>
> Subject: [Assam] About the Name Assam
> To: info at axomxahityaxobha.org
> Cc: assam at assamnet.org
> Date: Monday, March 2, 2009, 9:05 PM
>
> Dear Oxom Xahityo Xobha:
>
>
> >In 1917 the Asom Sahitya Sabha was formed as a
> >guardian of the Assamese society and the forum for the
> >development of Assamese language and literature.
> >The word Assamese is an English one, built on the same
> >principle as Cingalese, Canarese, etc. It is based on the
> >English word Assam by which the tract consisting of the
> >Brahmaputra valley is known.
>
>
> *** It is pretty sad that you don't know the origins of the name
> Assam, that you claim is an English name.
>
> It is such display of ignorance of our history and an absence of
> intellectual curiosity to know what it truly is, that makes the likes
> of Oxom Xahityo Xobha irrelevant to our cultural heritage
>
> Sondon Mohonto
>
> USA
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