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ASSAMESE AND THE

INTRODUCTION

This piece of writing seeks to clear up the whole issue of the position of the , their language and its system of writing in the world, more particularly in the

Unicode Standard, keeping in mind all the parties involved in the issue including the . All the facts, historical, socialPHUKAN'S, political and technical which are necessary and essential to be discussed are being discussed openly, even if it may seem unpleasant to some and unnecessary or irrelevant and boring to some other, nothing in the dark, nothing to hide.

The Unicode Consortium, a non-Governmental body with headquarters in the

U.S.A, with Governments of countries as members have standardised a Universal

Character Set (UCS), .. a standard that defines, in one place, all the characters needed for writing the majority of living languages in use on computers. It aims to be, and to a large extent already is, a superset of all other character sets that have been encoded. Unicode (as the UCS is commonly referred to) can access over a million characters of which about 100,000WEBPAGES have already been defined. These include characters for all the world's main languages along with a selection of symbols for various purposes.

Assamese SATYAKAM is one of the language recognized and listed in the 8th Schedule of the

Constitution of . In the list the language is on the top. In all currency notes the denomination of the currency valued is written first in Assamese, the name being DRalphabetically on the top of the sorting order. But the same has not happened in case 1 of the Assamese . Assamese script is not recognized as a separate but is considered to be written using the script.

This is what is happening in the ISCII or the Indian Standard Code for Information

Interchange. The same thing has been reflected in the Unicode’s Universal

Character Set, the UCS.

Since most of the Assamese and Bengali are similar in their canonical forms, it is possible to write in Assamese language using Unicode Bengali encodings and ISCII (Indian Standard Code) encodings using the Bengali script, where the two

Assamese alphabets dissimilar in form with the current set of alphabets used in writing Bengali viz. ৰ () and ৱ (wa) are included andPHUKAN'S another “khya ক” not included. The included two are being shown there as Bengali alphabets. But it is possible simply to write Assamese using the Bengali script but not possible to do two other important functions in the Assamese language using these encodings.

First, sorting software/programs cannot sort in Assamese language because the alphabetical order of the characters/alphabets as is normally present in the normal list of Assamese alphabets is disrupted and positions misplaced in the Unicode chart of the . This is something called in computer parlance as collation error. Second, no transliteration to and fromWEBPAGES the Assamese language is possible because of the non-representation of the Assamese script in Unicode. Although the script is similar in form by many of its characters to Bengali, they represent different entities and makingSATYAKAM them functionally totally different from the form used by the Bengali, in case of many of the alphabets. This is something which is called in Unicode terminology, duplication of character. Unicode has encountered duplication of characters between three major European writing systems namely, Latin, Cyrillic DR 2 and Greek and has allowed duplicate and triplicate characters for these scripts.

What is there in case of the Assamese scripts is also the presence duplicity with the Bengali script. This duplicity is there in the Assamese script because it was designed since the ancient times to write two languages Assamese and which are of quite differing phonology, using the same set of alphabets which change their identity and functionality as per the language of the scripts.

Historically this script now named Bengali in the ISCII and the Unicode, does not belong to the Bengali language and this erroneous nomenclature of the script as

Bengali has generated considerable displeasure in the Assamese community. The historical issue of this erroneous nomenclature ofPHUKAN'S this writing system as Bengali has already been conveyed to the Unicode by the memoranda of mine and Pastor Azizul

Haque. The matter is referred to the Government of India by the Unicode supposedly seeing political implications and is still pending with them. The

Government of India has also responded, I have received written communication from the Department of Information Technology. The Government of India is seeking opinion of the respective state Governments of the states of , West

Bengal, Bihar and . The contents following this will try to describe and discuss in details the problem and possible solution of the seemingly vexed issue.

WHAT IS ASSAM AND KAMRUPWEBPAGES ?

Presently, Assam is a state of, the sovereign nation called the Union of India. It is in the northSATYAKAM eastern part of India. It is geographically connected to the Indian mainland by a narrow strip of land in the of West .

Assam is surrounded on all the side barring the western border by the states of

Arunachal , , , Manipur, and . DR 3 Historically the heritage of Assam and the Assamese people goes back to the times when Assam was known as Kamrup. . Historically India had been more of a continent or a subcontinent with many countries within its realm. The area of

Assam was part of one such country known as Kamrup.

The name Assam came into use from an important group of people who came to rule a major portion of the land of Kamrup since 13 t h century AD for a period of around

600 years. These Ahoms by origin are a group of non-Buddhist Tai people, who had their roots in the area of the province of , when there was an independent and powerful Tai Kingdom called Nan-Chao, later overrun by a

Mongol-Chinese invasion. The name Tai itself means "free" or a "free-men".

Asham was the name by which the Tai peoplePHUKAN'S are known to non- of

Burma or and that name became associated with the Kingdom founded in Kamrup by the great Ahom King Su--.

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SATYAKAM

The of Kamrup however is very very ancient, going back some thousands of years in time. The Kingdom of Kamrup had definite boundaries, marked by the DR 4 rivers. The name element "Kam" is significant, it found associated with places along the Himalayan range from west to east. In the east there is the eastern most province of Kam or , then in proper just above the western part of

Bhutan is one place called Kamru, the map shown above.

Further westward in the Kinnaur region of the Himachal Pradesh bordering Tibet is another place name Kamru.

PHUKAN'S

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SATYAKAM

In Kamru there is fort, inside which there is temple dedicated to Goddess DRKamakhya. In Assam there are several temples in the name of Goddess 5 Kamakhya. The largest and the most famous of them is located in the Nilachal hill within the capital city of . Interestingly Kamru is the name by which

Kamrup has been known to the since very very ancient times, record of which can be found in many of the ancient Persian manuscripts.

PHUKAN'S

In the Nuristan province of Afghanistan is the town of Kamdesh or Kambrom. In

Persian language Kamrup is called Kamru. The country of Wales in United

Kingdom is called in the Welsh language as Cymru or Cymri and their language,

Cymraeg.

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SATYAKAM

As per Hindu mythology the name Kamrup has come from the re-emergence of the

Hindu God of Love Kamdev, regaining his form in this particular land. As per the mythology he had been reduced to ashes by fiery beams emanating from the Third DR 6 Eye of another Hindu God Shiva, the destroyer. “Kam” the God, regaining his form or “rup”. This explanation about the origin of the name Kamrup cannot be anything more than a clever invention of some ancient Hindu intellectuals or priests.

Instances of this sort of synthetic Hindu mythological linkages abound at all places where people were newly “baptized” into fold in the ancient times. Hard to believe but this type of distortions of historical facts continues even up to the present times.

The name “Kamrup” has got relation with all the places with the name element

“Kam” mentioned above. The originators of the what is now the Assamese people and language had come to the area of present day Assam, not by the way of Gangetic plains of northern India but by the way of northernPHUKAN'S side of the Himalayan range of mountain in southern part of Tibet. Not only the Assamese, progenitors of many nationalities in north-eastern part of India and south- had migrated along this important migratory route of the ancient times and it is also part of many of the well established caravan trails to and from Tibet.

This important part of the of the ethno-linguistic and the

Assamese people have been ignored and not investigated by the dominant segment or more properly the lobby of the Assamese intellectuals except one, Devananda

Bharali linguist of the Assamese language. WEBPAGES HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

The Kingdom of Kamrup existed as an independent country continuously through several centuriesSATYAKAM of history from the times shrouded in mythology. It was divided into four divisions marked by rivers flowing from north to south. Several dynasties drawn from differing ethnic roots came up to rule the country. In the east it ended in present eastern border of India and in the west it extended up to the river Korotoya DR 7 now in the areas of so-called north Bengal. Till the pre-Muslim era of Indian history no external power specially from the adjacent part of mainland India, could ever rule it from a seat of power situated outside the borders of Kamrup. On the other hand, the ancient kingdom of Kamrup in pre-Muslim era used to make conquering forays into adjacent areas of mainland India and had ruled many areas of mainland

India. Consequently whole of Bengal, eastern part of Bihar mainly the Mithila area and Orissa were under rule of Kamrup for considerable period of time intermitently. This part of the history of ancient Kamrup was studied and worked out fully by an Assamese historian Kanak Lal . But this fact that many parts of eastern India being under the rule of Kamrup intermittently, at times for considerable period of time is not accepted by almostPHUKAN'S the whole of the community of Indian historians.

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SATYAKAM

DR 8 One historian Prabodh Chandra Sen saw “streaks of chauvinism” in the research of Kanak Lal Barua and another named Bhandarkar found it impossible to accept the fact that Kamrup could have ever extended its frontiers beyond the western boundary of river Korotoya. Kanak lal Barua however was a researcher maintaining the highest standards of dispassionate intellectual neutrality, leaving no room for any form of bias.

PHUKAN'S

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During the Turko-Afghan-Mughal era of Indian history, when the whole of India was conqueredSATYAKAM and ruled by these Muslim rulers , then also the country of Kamrup remained independent. By the 12th century AD the ancestors of the arrived in the eastern part of Kamrup known as Soumar (Assamese – Xoumar

ৌসৌমাৰ) from the area of present Yunnan province of China. These people DR 9 assimilated with native population and started a kingdom named Assam, which was to become historically one of the most important and determining kingdom in the whole history of the country of Kamrup. Three principal kingdoms remained

(during the era of Muslim rule of India) in the area of Kamrup, in the east the

Assam kingdom of the Ahoms, in the west the Koch kingdom (actual pronunciation “KOS” but wrongly transliterated as “KOCH”) and in the south the

Kachari kingdom.

PHUKAN'S

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SATYAKAM

DR 10 PHUKAN'S The Koch kingdom which

could not withstand the

pressure of the Muslim

rulers of Delhi and Bengal

capitulated into their

vassalage. But the Ahom

kingdom with their

excellent military system

maintained the WEBPAGESindependence in three of four divisions of Kamrup and due to that the Kachari kingdom could also remain independent with the help of the Ahoms. This period of history of Assam is described SATYAKAMmostly in the works of two great historians an Englishman Edward Gait who wrote a history of Assam. The other is an Assamese Suryya Kumar Bhuyan.

DR 11 PHUKAN'S

It is because of this extraordinary feat of maintaining the independence of three divisions of Kamrup by the Assam Kingdom ruled by the that name

ASSAM is applied to the whole of retained area of the ancient Kingdom of

Kamrup and the name Assamese to the people and the language.

In the early part of the 19th century, solely because of internal bickering Assam was overrun by Burmese invaders in three successive waves. The Assam and

Assamese people were devastated beyond imagination. A large chunk of population were decimated, many fledWEBPAGES the country and many carried away as slaves to Burma in conditions far more dehumanised than the slaves carried off to

America from the coasts of Africa. See this webpage for more details . The BritishSATYAKAM defeated and drove out the Burmese and by 1824, Assam became part of British India. The eastern part of western most division of Kamrup which included the district of was rejoined to the Assam state. In the post independent(?) India, during the time of re-organisation of the states, Bengali DR 12 leaders like the Chief Minister Bidhan Chandra Roy and others wanted to take

Goalpara into state.

But not only the people of Goalpara but also the indigenous people of Jalpaiguri,

Siliguri and Koch Bihar area started a movement for merger of these areas with

Assam. Koch

Bihar was a

princely state

under the British

Raj and it lies

midway between

PHUKAN'SJalpaiguri and

Goalpara. The ruler of Koch Bihar who was under the influence of Bengali culture, joined his state with West Bengal and hence Jalpaiguri, Siliguri was given to West Bengal state and Goalpara remained with Assam.

ASSAMESE PEOPLE

Ethno-linguistically Assam is like a Kaleidoscope showing many different linguistic and ethnic roots. Similitude of the situation can be found with that of and to some extent with Latin America. WhileWEBPAGES considering this aspect, the Indian state of

Assam cannot be considered in isolation but together with the hill areas of hill states surrounding the and the areas to the south. This area had functionedSATYAKAM as one geopolitical unit till the British era. Although the rulers of the plains areas of the Brahmaputra valley exerted considerable influence and authority on the hills, practically most of the hill tribes however, were never under DRthe direct rule of the Assam monarchs. 13 The Assamese people are not a homogeneous monolithic lot. There are divisions in the line of segment, tribe, religion and ethnic origins. Barring a Melanesian-

Negrito substratum which is common to all Assamese, the following other characteristics are seen in the segments of the Assamese people.

The , Kayastha, Bamun (Brahmin), Jogis and the Assamese Muslim segments show more of Caucasoid features dominantly of the Aryan type with varying degrees of Dravidian, Mongoloid and Austric admixtures.

The Koiborta, Keot, Saral and their kindred populace show a mixed pattern of racial features dominantly Caucasoid like the former grouping but with a higher degree of Dravidian influence than them. PHUKAN'S The Koch (actual pronunciation Kos, written with “ch” due to ignorance) numerically the largest amongst all the segments of the Assamese people show the highest degree of physiognomical heterogenicity, exhibiting local differences according to their area of habitation also. It is in them that the mixed Mongolo-

Aryo-Dravido-Austric features typical of the Assamese people are most pronounced, so much so that their pattern of physical features are comparable with Mestizo, the mixed European-Amerindians of Latin America.

The Ahoms a segment started by Tai people coming into Kamrup, likewise are also mixed with the same elements as the Koch, but in them the Mongolo-Austric part still has preponderance to some extent.WEBPAGES But mixed features and at times almost complete Caucasoid phenotypes are also to be seen among the Ahoms.

Although Ahoms are assimilated culturally and racially with the other populace of

Assam andSATYAKAM have been Hinduised and do not speak their original Tai language for normal activities the is still used in many of their religious ceremonies which have been preserved with a large degree of assimilation. Among DRall the ethnic groups who owe their origin to the ancient Tai people of Nanchao 14 kingdom which was there in the present area of Yunnan province of China, which includes the Thai, Lao, and the Shan (of Myanmar), it is only in the Ahoms that the original pre-Buddhist Tai religion is preserved, in all the rest these cultural element have been eclipsed by Buddhist influence.

Prior to Hinduisation in Assam, the Ahom royalty had the custom of entombing the important members of the royal family in chambered tombs covered with burial mounds. Similar tombs of the Keltic people are recorded in pre-Roman

Britain and are still preserved.

PHUKAN'S

Morans a segment of eastern Assam also have a similar kind of admixture as the

Koch and present similar physical features.

The Chutia (actual pronunciation Sutia, written with “Ch” due to ignorance) segment presents an interesting subjectWEBPAGES of study. When their ancestors migrated and founded the Chutia Kingdom in the far eastern part of Kamrup, they were definitely a people with marked Mongoloid physical features. The entire community mixed thoroughlySATYAKAM with pre-existing indigenous people mainly with Kalita, so much so that the present Chutia segment has more of Caucasoid than Mongoloid or

Austric features. The priestly class among the Chutia did not do so and hence still DR 15 retains much of their original Mongoloid physical features and are identified as a tribe known as Deori. The word Deori meaning a priest in the Assamese language.

The largest among the so called tribal communities is the Boro tribe, the Assamese name for the Boro and similar tribes is Kachari. The meaning of the word Kachari is lost in the vocabulary of the the language. However its meaning can be traced in the European Indo-European languages like English and French, with which Assamese retains an ancient connection. "Cachere" in French and

"Catcher" in old English means hunter and the tribal communities of Assam have a strong tradition of hunting. The other tribes kindred to the Boro are the Sonowal

Kachari and the Thengal Kachari of eastern Assam and the Dimasa Kachari of the hill areas and areas of southern Assam.PHUKAN'S

The Rabha is tribe limited to the western part of Assam, the tribe with the

Assamese name Lalung are in the central part of Assam. The Karbi is another tribe thought to be one of the oldest inhabitants of Assam, they are divided into a hills and a plains segments.

Garos and Hajong tribes are also in Assam although the main body of these people live in the neighbouring state of Meghalaya.

Mishings, Assamese name Miri, are one of later migrant tribe coming to the plains of Brahmaputra valley, who have migrated down from the hills to the north and adapted to living along the rivers. WEBPAGES

All these tribes exhibit more of Mongolo-Austric physiognomy with dominance of the Mongoloid part but with significant proportions of Caucasoid physical features which is manySATYAKAM a times overlooked by many scholars and observers.

As already mentioned, in addition to these there exists among all the segments and tribes of Assam a substratum of Melanesian and Negrito strain. Unlike the DR 16 Caucasoid (both Dravidian and Aryan), Mongoloid or the Austric groups of which there are representative segments or tribe, the Melanesian and Negrito element has no particular representative segment. No segment of Assamese people from the most aristocratic of the so-called upper segments to the segments erroneously and conclusively dubbed as purely Mongoloid tribes, segments which refuse to identify themselves as “Assamese” on politically considerations, are biologically free from the presence of this strain. The Melanesio-Negritic phenotype shows up randomly and frequently in the physiognomy of all Assamese. Even some of the racial characters which are view as Dravidian may actually be from this contribution. PHUKAN'S The mixed physiognomy of the Assamese is shown below in a sample drawn from the Ahom and the Bamun (Brahmin) segments. The former from a Mongoloid background and the latter Aryan.

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SATYAKAM

DR 17 The Assamese people have a particular food habit and this food ingredient has been the identifier of the community, because apart from the Assamese, no other people in this or in other part of has this habit.

PHUKAN'S

The Assamese dry the plantain sheets or the banana peel and burn and use the alkaline ashes as an additive ingredient of food. The Assamese call it “KHAR” or “KOLA-KHAR”. This habit hasWEBPAGES earned the Assamese the nickname “Khar- khowa” meaning eaters of “khar”. This “Khar” was used in the ancient times as a substitute for salt, when, in the landlocked ancient Assam, rock salt was a luxury affordableSATYAKAM only to a few. No community in the neighbourhood of Assam has this habit.A similar use of plantain ashes as salt is still in vogue in a very primitive

Melanesian tribe of Papua (Irian-Jaya), named “DANI”. Even now this people go almost naked and their society is still in a primitive state. The Dani people dip DR 18 plantain sheets in the brine of salt springs, dry them and burn to use the ashes as salt substitute. Question therefore remains, whether the Assamese people picked up this habit from some similar Melanesian people who might have pre-inhabited this land much before the Mongoloids or the Caucasoids migrated here. It may also be the answer to the ubiquitous presence of Melanesio-Negritic strain in all the segments of the Assamese people.

PHUKAN'S

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SATYAKAM

DR 19 ASSAMESE LANGUAGE

Although the ethnological composition of the Assamese is mixed and has come from diverse origins, the language retains more of the original Indo-European characteristics. It is considered the eastern most language of the Indo-European language group. It has three main variations in , the Standard Dialect spoken from eastwards, Kamrupia and Gaoalparia. It is spoken by the majority of the indigenous segments, tribes and the religious groups, a large number of whose anthropological affiliations are not with the Indo-

European speakers . Assamese with its similarities and dissimilarities with the Indo- European languages of mainland India, has PHUKAN'Sas a distinctive characteristic, a marked and an ancient and an inherent connection by its roots, with the European part of the Indo-European languages like English, Swedish, German, Greek etc.

Similar linkages also exists with Persian and many smaller languages of north western India and north eastern Pakistan and Afghanistan. Assamese is the only

Indo-European language with which affinities could be documented with the Ainu language of Japan, still considered a language isolate by most scholars and authorities of linguistics. One can refer to my Roots and Strings of the

Assamese Language and the book Tonkori (Affinities of the Ainu language of

Japan with Assamese and some other languages) . WEBPAGES The Assamese language has its own separate stream of origin. It has evolved in a different way from the rest of the Indo-Aryan . It is not a Sanskrit originatedSATYAKAM language rather, it was later influenced later by Sanskrit due to migrations of people from in various ages and from the spread of

Hinduism. Contrary to the beliefs of many, Sanskrit is a highly Dravidian influenced Aryan language. It is from this Dravidian influence that cerebral DR 20 pronunciations have found their way into the Sanskrit phonology. The Assamese and the European Indo-European languages do not have the cerebral pronunciations, the hard retroflexes.

This view about the Assamese language

as well as about the Sanskrit, has been

worked out by the pioneer linguist of

the Assamese language Devananda

Bharali way back in 1912 in a concise

way, in his book “Axomiya Bhaxar MoulikPHUKAN'S Bisar অসমীয়া ভাষাৰ ৌমৌিলক িবচাৰ ”. Devananda Bharali like me was

not a trained linguist, in fact in 1912 I

do not know whether linguistics as a

subject had properly developed or not.

The second thesis on the origin of the Assamese language was written by a trained scholar Dr Bani Kanta Kakati in the 4th decade of the last century, under the guidance of a Bengali scholar Dr Suniti Kumar Chatterji. Dr Chatterji had earlier published his thesis on the origin of the Bengali language. There is no difference in the basic theory put forward by the teacher student duo. Both the thesis propounds a common origin of theWEBPAGES Bengali and the Assamese languages coming out as offshoots of the Magadhan Prakrit. The points put forward by Devananda

Bharali or even the very mention of his is not there in the thesis of Dr Kakati. The Assamese SATYAKAM and the Indian scholar circle accepted without any proper testing the thesis vis-à-vis the findings of Devananda Bharali. This view is also reflected in the international intellectual circles. I have been working on the footsteps of Bharali since several years, when I could see the basic flaws in the thesis of Dr Kakati. DR 21 Current problem on the status of the Assamese language and script has come up because the scholars or the intelligentsia who are concerned with this job have neglected the findings of Bharali, which only can explain the true status of the Assamese language, which in turn has its effect on the script and its operation.

The ancient people whose language after a number of additions and subtractions since the ancient times has evolved into the Assamese language of the present times had not come into the area of Assam passing through the Gangetic plains of northern India. Because they had not come in contact with the Dravidised Indo- European speakers of the Indian mainland, AssamesePHUKAN'S could retain the most of its original characteristics. They had entered Assam coming across the northern side of the Himalayan mountain range by the southern part of Tibet. As mentioned above earlier, this was the major migratory route of ancient people into the north eastern part of India and the south east Asia.

WEBPAGES

SATYAKAM

DR 22 The name Kamrup has come from one such people and the key point is the name element “Kam”. In the east there are the people known as Kampa or Khampa, the suffix “” means people in Tibetan language and is affixed in post-position to all people of Tibetan affiliation like the Sherpa, Drukpa, Monpa and the list goes on.

Among the people who inhabit this part Khampas along with the Black Lolos and some others exhibits a typical type of mixed Mongoloid-Caucasoid physiognomy and they are visibly different from Tibetans of Usang or or other parts of

Tibet. I have found that two genre of Khampa folk songs, Namther and Thrukse have tunes similar with Assamese and Borgit folk songs respectively. Some of this songs are uploaded in the Tibetan page ofPHUKAN'S my musical blog Ri-Mita Melody here are the links to these songs Bihu like song , Borgit like song1 , Borgit like song2 ,

Borgit like song3 and this is the link to the Tibetan page .

In the Nuristan province of Afghanistan and in the northern areas of Pakistan are two groups of people Kam and Kalash respectively. The older name of Nuristan was Kaffirstan, there are many other tribes who inhabit this region apart from the

Kam, all of them followed their own form of religion till 1895 and hence the

Muslim Afghans called them Kaffirs meaning infidels in the Islamic parlance. In

1895, Abdur Rahman Khan the King or Amir of Afghanistan defeated them and forcefully converted them to Islam.WEBPAGES Instead of Afghans attacking and harassing the Kaffir tribes, it was them who used to constantly raid and attack the Afghans, which is one of the reason why the Afghan King decided to subdue them. The town named KamdeshSATYAKAM or Kambrom is the capital of this province and is the main seat of the Kam tribe now also called Kom. Kamdesh is actually a Chitrali name, (Chitral is a part in the northern areas of Pakistan) in their own language called Bashgali, it is called Kambrom. During the Mughal period of Indian history like Assam and DR 23 Assamese of Kamrup country , Kamdesh and the Kam and all the other people of the then Kaffirstan were independent. Before their forcible conversion in 1895 AD, the Nuristanis (Kaffirs) used to follow their own animistic form of religion. The pre-

Islamic religious practice of the Kam bore distinct similarity with the Sakta form of religion practised in Assam. Animal sacrifice was a major part of their religious rituals and continues in Assam. The religious altar of the Gods and Goddesses of the Kam was named "Tan" and similar ones in Assam are called "Than থান".

Just before their conversion to Islam an Englishman G S Robertson visited and stayed in the Kam area for almost a year. His book “KAFFIRS OF THE HINDU

KUSH” gives valuable insight into the Kam tribe chiefly their pre-islamic religious practices and their society. PHUKAN'S

The Kalash tribe is a small tribe in the northern region of Pakistan in the Chitral area. They still follow their own form of animistic religion, which is neither

Hinduism or nor . The Kalash have been able to retain their culture because they were in the area under the rule of the British and secondly they are a peaceful people who compromised in many ways with the rulers of the area chiefly the Mehtar or the ruler of Chitral. Many Kalash have converted to Islam and are known as Sheikhs and many of them still speak the Kalash language, known as

Kalasha or Kalasha Mon. There are many things common between the Kalash and the Kam particularly the language and culture. On part of the Kam their pre-islamic culture and religion. WEBPAGES

The work on the Kam or the Bashgali language was first undertaken an English soldier cumSATYAKAM scholar Colonel John Davidson, who published his book “Notes On The Bashgali Language”. This book was further worked upon by a linguist Sten

Konow who brought it out as “Bashgali Dictionary”. Then came Georg Valentin

Morgensteirne, a Norwegian scholar incidentally the son-in-law of Sten Konow. DR 24 He came to study Nuristani culture and language and also the Kalash. He came with a personal letter of recommendation from the King of Norway to the King of

Afghanistan. Many of his materials can be accessed from the Norwegian archive online.

The Kalasha Dictionary is compiled by two scholars Ronald L Trail and Gregory R

Cooper and the book is a joint project of the Summer Institute of Linguistics and the National Institute of Pakistan Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University, Pakistan.

Both these languages Bashgali and Kalasha have been included in The Linguistic

Survey of India compiled by George Grierson.

I have gone through almost all of these materialsPHUKAN'S, but I have not been able to lay my hands on the original book by Colonel J Davidson. I could find an inherent connection between the Kam and Kalash people and the Assamese both in terms of language and culture. Many of the colloquial Assamese words with which the

Sanskritised Hemkosh (Assamese-Hemkox) dictionary of Hem Chandra Barua could not connect with Sanskrit or any Sankritised Indian languages, have been found in these languages.

Examples :

Kam (Bashgali) : ash ------to throw

Assamese : esar (এছাৰ) WEBPAGES ------to throw

Kam (Bashgali)SATYAKAM : ber ------foolish, stupid Assamese : bel, belbung (ৌবল,ৌবলবুং) ------stupid, foolish, fool,

simpleton

DR 25 Kam (Bashgali) : charra ------idiotic, foolish, mad,

Assamese : sera (ৌচৰা) ------half-mad

Kalash : ak karik ------to defecate (as said to a child)

Assamese : kora (অ’ কৰা) ------to defecate (as said to a child)

Kalash : gak-chir ------cow’s milk gak ------PHUKAN'S cow chir ------milk

Assamese : gakhir (গাখীৰ) ------milk

Kalash : day ------continuous aspect

parim day ------am going

karim day ------am doing

Assamese : dei (ৌদই) ------continuous aspect, in making a request or emphasising something being done

koriba dei (কিৰবা ৌদই) ------please be doing ...... that WEBPAGES

goiso dei (ৈগোছা ৌদই) ------will be going

The wordsSATYAKAM shown here does not have their cognates in any other languages of India. I have given these few examples as more of these are beyond the scope of this article. The main point of similarities are not only in the words but between the grammar of these two languages and Assamese. There are many other DR 26 languages in Nuristan like Wai, Presun, Veron but it is only with the Kam

(Bashgali) that Assamese have its connections. Many other languages of the western part of Himalayas and of the Hindu Kush have many similarities with the

Assamese but connection with these two languages is unique. Below is given an entry from the Linguistic Survey of India, where the Kam and Kalash expressions for “what is your name in included” .

PHUKAN'S

Georg Morgenstierne had established the fact that the had developed from the main Indo-European root, separately from the Sanskrit and therefore placed them in a separate group. The same thing has been done by the

Devananda Bharali in case of the Assamese language and has drawn a definite relationship between Assamese and the languages of western Himalayas, Nuristan, Kalash, Persian and withWEBPAGES the whole lot of European section of the Indo- European languages.

There is something fundamental in the name Kam. The people who founded the country ofSATYAKAM Kamrup have got direct connection with these two communities, the

Kam and the Kalash. It was by some people with the name element “Kam” who carried this name element and gave the names Kamru, Kamrup, Kam/Kham or DRmaybe even the name Cymru. There may have been more than one group of such 27 people but traces of all of them are lost as they must have assimilated with others except one, the Kalita segment of the Assamese people.

KALITA

One of the most important segment of the Assamese people who have the major role in the shaping of the Assamese people and the language is the Kalita segment.

Apart from Assam the only other places where Kalita caste is present in India are

Orissa and Uttarakhand. In Orissa the Kalitas there are better known as Kulta or

Kolta and they are of Assamese origin. The Kalitas of Uttarakhand are remnants or left-over portion of Kalita migration into KamrupPHUKAN'S, deep in the historical past. The Kalita are the only remaining and identifiable part of the people who had migrated along the northern slopes of the Himalayas in southern Tibet and entered the area of Assam and gave birth to the nation of Kamrup which later came to be known as Assam after the advent of the Ahoms. There may have been other groups also but no trace of them remains except that of the Kalitas. There are records and writings, Assamese and others, which points to the existence of a

Kalita Kingdom in the southern area of Tibet just at the point where the east flowing river takes a bend southwards to flow into Assam.

WEBPAGES

SATYAKAM

DR 28 The first Assamese historian to give Kalita the most important status in the

Assamese history was Padmanath Gohain Barua. Himself ethnically an Ahom, a community with Tai and Mongoloid background, he describes them as the oldest of the inhabitants of Assam and about their kings, in his history of Assam named

“Axomor Buranji অসমৰ বুৰঞী ”. Illustration shown above.

Two British historians have dealt well on this part. One was Robert Gordon

Latham and the other was Edward Balfour. Both of them were doctors and Balfour added to that was a surgeon.

PHUKAN'S

Scholar and linguist Dr Bani KantaWEBPAGES Kakati had written a book “Kolita zatir itibritta”. Wherein he presented an episode from an old Assamese Gurcharit puthi

(A book about a guru or seer), wherein description on the genealogy of a VaishanviteSATYAKAM seer Bhabanipuria Gopal Ata is written. This particular seer is supposed to have his origin in the Kalita kingdom in southern Tibet. The same

Kalita kingdom referred to by Balfour and Latham.

DR 29 Kalita as a surname is to be found in several countriesPHUKAN'S of Europe, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. There are records recording the presence of people with this name in Scotland also. Except Scotland, all these countries are Slavic nations and each of them have their own distinctive Slav nomenclatural style or system with some particular suffix added to the surname like -ov, -ev, -sky etc but the surname

Kalita is there in all these places in the same universal form. Poland has the highest number of people with the Kalita surname among all these countries. As per, an information, of all the people with the surname Kalita in the United States of

America, 65% are of Polish origin and only 35% are of Assamese origin.

WEBPAGES

SATYAKAM

DR 30 The Kalitas of Assam have considerable degree of European like Caucasoid features preserved in a considerable segment of its population but the larger majority presents the typical mixed physiognomy seen in Assam. There are also some, in whom a Mongoloid or Dravidic admixture is very prominently seen.

PHUKAN'S

WEBPAGES

SATYAKAM

DR 31 There are also several places in Europe with the place name Kalita. One in the

Minsk area of Belarus, one in Saarde Parnu area of Estonia, one in Smolenskaya

Oblast and one in Yaroslavskaya Oblast of Russia, in Kyylvska area of Ukraine and lastly in Sulaymanyah in Iraq.

PHUKAN'S

WEBPAGES

SATYAKAM

DR 32 There are enough reasons to believe that thePHUKAN'S presence of this nomenclatural similarities of the Kalita, in Assam and Europe is a pointer towards the existence of an ancient ethno-linguistic connection between Assam or ancient Kamrup and ancient Europe and its people. If so, then it is through these Kalita only, that it is possible. The un-Dravidised character of the Assamese language which it shares in common with all the European languages of Indo-European group is by all probability due to the Assamese language having been originated by the ancestors of the Kalita people of Assam migrating to the area of ancient

Kamrup via Tibet bypassing Gangetic Indian heartland and thereby escaping

Dravidisation, which is there in all the Indian Indo-European languages. The presence of the cultural affinities WEBPAGES between Assam and Tibet and with the Kam, Kalash, Kinnauri and the ancient Persians, is also because of the same reason.

The linguistic connections of the Assamese language with the other languages in

Asia and EuropeSATYAKAM apart from the Kam and the Kalash have been described my article

Roots and Strings of the Assamese Language . A similar article By the Marks of a

Furcated History on cultural similarities between pre-Christian European festival DR 33 centering round the Maypole and its Assamese counterpart the Bhotheli may also be helpful.

There are a lot of similarities between Assamese and other eastern Indian languages like Bengali, Oriya and Maithili. It is on the basis of these similarities that Dr Bani

Kanta Kakati had written his thesis, wherein he had shown Assamese as an offshoot of the Magadhan Prakrit. But the fact remains that Assam or the Kamrup was never under rule of any power of Magadh, even when Magadh had attained the status of an empire. Nor was there any large scale migration of people from these places to Assam in the ancient times. Rather it was Kamrup which had controlled considerable parts of eastern India which included Bengal, Orissa and eastern part of Bihar and there are the possibilities ofPHUKAN'S Kamrupi soldiers settling there.

One such group the Kulta or Kolita people in Orissa can be cited as an example. It never studied or investigated or even thought of whether the similarities shown between these languages in Dr Kakati’s thesis as Magadhan influence on

Assamese are in reality Kamrupi influence on the Bengali, Oriya and the others.

The Orissa’s has its Kalita community which is included in the Oriya warrior caste grouping known as Khandayat, Khanda meaning a sword.

The past martial character of the Kalita segment of Assamese is recorded in

Assamese historical records as well in the records of Muslim scholars who accompanied the invading armiesWEBPAGES of the Muslim rulers of in India in their unsuccessful attempts at conquering Assam. The one of the person who showed the highest grade of individual bravery, intrepidity and moral courage belonged to the Kalita SATYAKAMsegment. Bhotai Deka Kalita was an ordinary soldier who on duty in the palace of an Ahom nobleman and de-facto ruler of Assam, Laluk Khola

Borphukan, single handedly slew a large wild bear which entered and created havoc, on with just a sword. The Borphukan who had assumed power by installing a DR 34 puppet king on the throne and by ceding whole of western Assam to the Mughals and by eliminating all fit contenders for the throne from the Ahom royal families, got alarmed by Bhotai’s daring and bravery. He planned to sacrifice this brave soldier in the altar of a temple named Kesai Khaiti where human sacrifices were a regular affair. When Bhotai came to know of his intention, in a daring nocturnal raid in his palace, killed the Borphukan. His action changed the course of Assam vis-à-vis the Mughals forever. The puppet king was removed and one of the strongest of the Ahom monarchs Gadadhar Singha or Gadapani ascended the throne. Right after assuming the throne Gadapani attacked the Mughals and drove them out for the final time and there were no more Mughal invasions of

Assam after that. In many of the records PHUKAN'S of the Muslim scholars they have clearly written that the majority of the common soldiers they encountered in the engagements with the Assamese in western Assam were Kalitas, along with the

Ahoms.

Adventurers from Orissa had gone to the island of Sri and it was from them that the Sinhala nationality was formed. The Oriya names like Patnaik, Naik have their more numerous counterparts in Sinhala like Bandarnaike, Dissanaike,

Senanaike etc. But crossing the sea or ocean was a taboo for most of the Indian communities, even during the British era people going to England had to get religiously purified in ceremonies heldWEBPAGES particularly for the purpose. Some of the Indian adventurers who had gone to the islands of south-east Asia,

Burma and Indo-China area are definitely from the southern part of India where religiositySATYAKAM is much more liberal than the north Indian cow belt. But these Indo- European speaking people who had gone to Sri Lanka who are they ?

Were they adventurers from Orissa with roots in Kamrup ? DR 35 Two names which could be a mere co-incidence puzzles me, Lasit of Assam and Lasith of Sri Lanka. Lasit Borphukan is the nationalPHUKAN'S hero of Assamese people , the who defeated and drove out Mughal invaders from India led by a

Hindu Rajput general Ram Singh. Lasith Malinga is a star cricket player of Sri

Lanka and is still in the field.

The ancestors of many Assamese people belonging to the Bamun (Brahmin) and

Kayastha segments had migrated to Assam from Indian mainland. But the overwhelming majority of these people have their roots in the heart of the

Hindustan area i.e. north India, mainly from the area of Kannauj called by the

Assamese as Kanyakubja, not from the areas of eastern India like Bihar, Bengal or

Orissa. There may be few instances of people coming from these areas but no large scale migrations. The facts wasWEBPAGES also taken into account by the Christian Missionary Nathan Brown, who mentioned it in his book “Grammatical Notices of the Assamese Language”. These people basically fled, when north India came under MuslimSATYAKAM rule. Assam is not the only place where such people are found, the entire Himalayan belt from the Himachal Pradesh to Nepal has large number of these people. The last ruling royal family of Nepal is one such example. The proportion of these people in Assam however is much much smaller compared to DR 36 the Himalayan area. The linguistic influence of these migrants from north India on the Assamese language is negligible. My own ancestor as per our family record migrated to Assam during the Ahom period from Kannauj. Just one ancestor who married locally, from then on it is all Assamese and Assamese. In patriarchal societies, people always remember the Grandpas and seldom remembers the

Grannys. My caste identity has come from that first Grandpa, but I am an

Assamese because of my Granny. My ancestor is from Kannauj, but I do not speak his language, I speak another Indo-European language which is different from the one my ancestor spoke and which is still spoken in north India. Not only me, my compatriot whose ancestor had come here from the area of Yunnan province of

China also do not speak the language his ancestorPHUKAN'S spoke, but speak the language I speak. Whose language are we speaking, the language is Indo-European but differ from other Indian languages. This is the uniqueness of the

Assamese language.

UNIQUENESS OF ASSAMESE LANGUAGE

The Assamese language is a soft language with an accent which can be best described as “neutral”. One of the most unique sound of this language is the pronunciation “xa” which is not presentWEBPAGES in any of the Indian Indo-European or any other languages of India. It is present in some of the European languages like

German, Russian, Greek and the Scottish dialect of the . In the

Assamese SATYAKAMlanguage it is represented by three alphabets শ, ষ and স. As mentioned earlier, the -ch of the German names Bach, Ulrich, the Scottish word for lake loch

(made famous by the Loch Ness Monster) and the χ chi represents DRthis sound . This sound is also present in the Ainu , Persian and as per Grierson’s 37 Linguistic Survey of India in the Khampa dialect of the Tibetan language. I have also heard from unconfirmed sources about its presence in the Aztec language of

Mexico. The Persian “xa” is however not soft like the Assamese somewhat harsher.

This is how American Baptist Missionary Nathan Brown described some of the

Assamese sounds in his book “Grammatical Notices of the Assamese Language”.

PHUKAN'S

There are no cerebral pronunciations i.e. the hard retro-flexes in the Assamese language. The “i” and the “” are short, no “ii” or “uu”. When an Assamese speaker with good command speaks EnglishWEBPAGES it sounds similar to a Scandinavian speaking English. In 1997 I met two Danish journalist one has the name Tomas Hundsbæk and the other Morten Jastrup. I met them in , the capital of the Assam’s neighbouringSATYAKAM state of Meghalaya. I had met Europeans before some Germans, Englishman and Russians but I noticed something different while talking with them. We conversed in English and we were speaking with almost the same accent.

For around four years beginning in the year 1999, I had intensively studied the DR 38 Assamese commonality with other languages outside of India as part of my private research. I have found that the Assamese has an inherent connection with the

European Indo-European languages and among them the linkage with the

Scandinavian languages is very basic. The “xa” that the Assamese use, is corrupted into “” in Swedish. Similar effect is seen in some other languages as well, chiefly old Persian. In a language Bisnupriya listed as a dialect of Assamese by Grierson in the Linguistic Survey of India, same thing is seen. Here are the examples.

Swedish : hoger̈ ------right (side) Assamese : xo (ৌসঁা) ------rightPHUKAN'S (side)

Swedish : halka ------to slip (slide)

Assamese : xoloka (ৌসাোলাকা) ------to remove something like clothing or a ring by sliding down ,

Old Persian : haurva

Assamese : xarba ( সবৰ ) all, everything

Sanskrit : sarba WEBPAGES

BisnupriyaSATYAKAM : hun ( হন ) ------gold

Assamese : xon (ৌসান) ------gold

DR 39 No Assamese dictionary has proper etymological connection of the Assamese word for the right side given in it. Hemkosh one of the leading Assamese dictionary connects the word xo (ৌসঁা ) to a Sanskrit word “Sabyator”, which does not have any cognate value compared to the Swedish “hoger”.̈

Phonetic uniqueness and simplicity of the Assamese language prevents the

Assamese speakers from pronouncing properly most of the other languages with complex pronunciations. Consequently Assamese speakers gets stuck while pronouncing Sanskrit words chiefly cerebrals/retroflexes, this is true even in the case of priests and Sanskrit scholars to whom use of the Sanskrit language is part of their livelihood. Almost similar difficulty is PHUKAN'Sthere when it comes to voicing the of the Arabic language. But this phonetic difficulty is not there with the

Persian language. I have talked with some of my senior doctor colleagues who had done their stint in Iran. One of them was Late Dr Dwipen Choudhury , a daring surgeon who worked for several years in Iran, even served in the frontlines during the Iran-Iraq war and had the unique experience of stitching up a ruptured bleeding heart of an injured soldier in a frontline medical unit. He used to tell me that he found it very easy to learn and adapt to the Persian language and it was particularly easy for an Assamese speaker because of many phonetic similarities between the two languages. Same is true in case of Persian speakers from Iran when they adapt to speak Assamese. I am saying Persian language of Iran because I am not sure if I can say the same thingWEBPAGES for the form of Persian called Dari spoken in

Afghanistan. One AssameseSATYAKAM doctor Dr Iftekar Ahmed, a radiologist, who worked in Iran, married an Iranian lady, Sonia Sheikh Mirvand from the city of Isfahan. The family now lives in Guwahati in the same locality that I do. So perfect Assamese

DR 40 that this lady Mrs Sonia Ahmed speaks that if not told to a listener, one can never find out that it is an Iranian lady speaking Assamese.

PHUKAN'S

BENGALI

Presently the western border of Assam is with Bengal, the Bengal represented by the sovereign nation of to the south and a small portion in the north by the West Bengal state of the Indian Union.WEBPAGES This was not so in the past, the part of Bengal in the northern portion of Assam’s border with Bengal used to be the western part of the ancient country of Kamrup and the border then jutted close to Mithila andSATYAKAM Nepal. Below is given a map of ancient Bengal with Kamrup and Mithila. For a larger, extensible and better quality pdf of the map, click here . DR 41 PHUKAN'S

WEBPAGES Nowadays the Assamese call the , “Bongali” or sometimes, “”. The word “Bongal” is being used specifically for Bengalis only after the British takeover SATYAKAM of Assam, whereby Assam was made a part of a unified Indian administrative setup. The word “Bongal” in the Assamese language actually means a foreigner, from the western side who may or may not be a Bengali. All the DRHindustanis (people of northern India) used to be called by that name and when the 42 British came to Assam, the Assamese used to call them “Boga Bongal” meaning white foreigner, boga meaning white in Assamese.

The picture below of the this pond, known as “Bongal Pukhuri” in town of eastern Assam, seat of the last capital of the Ahom kings.

PHUKAN'S

WEBPAGES

SATYAKAM I am citing another example an episode from an Assamese historical chronicle called “Tunkhungia Buranji” on a Hindustani soldier adventurer named Hazara

Sing. DR 43 PHUKAN'S

Among the Bengalis they have a kind of division between the eastern and the western Bengalis. The east Bengalis are called “” by the west Bengalis and the easterners call the westerners “Ghoti”.

The country of Wales in United Kingdom is not called by that name by the Welsh people. They call Wales as Cymru or Cymri. The name Welsh has come from an

Anglo-Saxon term Waelisc meaning foreigner and the name Wales from the word

Waelas meaning foreigner’s land.

The word “Hindu” likewise is a Persian word, meaning among all things, an Indian, black, servant, slave, robber, an infidelWEBPAGES, a watchman. The first Muslim conquest of India was made by the Arabs, when Muhammad-bin-Qasim conquered Sindh.

But the actual conquest of India was effected by the Turko-Afghan-Mughal conquerors.SATYAKAM With them came the Persian language to India. They called the natives by this name “Hindu”, since then it is by this word, a large mass of the Indians have been identifying, organizing and glorifying themselves and is also identified DRglobally by this term, in spite of derogatory overtones in it. 44 PHUKAN'S

In the pre-Muslim historical documents and inscriptions and in other sources of history, Bengal has mostly been mentioned by the other three other names of the kingdoms that flourished in its area, Gaur, and Samata. The capitals of these three ancient kingdoms were located in three different locations, the first one in the Malda area of West Bengal state of India and the other two in the area of eastern Bengal included in the sovereign country of Bangladesh. In the light of the facts mentioned above regarding the nomenclature Welsh, Wales and Hindu, it needs to be studied whether the nameWEBPAGES Bengal itself has come from the Assamese or the Kamrupi term for foreigners from the west i.e. “BONGAL”. Because as mentioned earlier the fact remains that the area of the present day Bengal had been under the SATYAKAMrule of the Kamrup kings intermittently, for considerable period of time. One of the earliest dictionary of the Bengali language, perhaps the oldest one written by an officer of the British , Henry Pitt Forster. The dictionary is titled “Vocabulary...... ENGLISH AND BONGALEE” , and the DR 45 establishment as “Bongal”. These two words are in the exact form by which the

Assamese refer to the Bengali. The digitised version of this book published in 1799

AD is downloadable from the Internet Archive and from the Google Books. The form of “Ra ৰ” used here is the one used by the Assamese in the past and present alike.

PHUKAN'S

When it comes to a glorious historical past, Bengalis have very few things to claim, compared to the Assamese. But in the present times the Assamese intelligentsia have degraded beyond imagination, particularly in what is called the

“Independent India”. Bengalis on the other hand have thrived and progressed and are now in a far more advanced and secure state of existence in comparision to the Assamese. Frenchman Jean BaptisteWEBPAGES Tavernier who had travelled to India during the reign of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in travelogue had mentioned about

Assam as, “one of the best countries of Asia”. Sadly enough at this point of time, far fromSATYAKAM carrying the distinction of being one of the best countries of Asia, ASSAM AND THE ASSAMESE NOW ARE IN A PITIABLE AND PRECARIOUS

STATE OF EXISTENCE. DR 46 PHUKAN'S

British rule came much earlier in Bengal than Assam. When it came to Assam, it was in a state of sheer devastation from the Burmese invasion and the oppressive rule. It was depopulated by no less than 1/8 of its total population, as per the statistics collected by Gyananath Bora, an Assamese scholar of the British era, who had authored the book “ Axamot Bidexi আসামত িবোদশী ”. Therefore Bengalis got exposure to western education much earlier than the Assamese. With the emergence of a western educated Bengali intelligentsia evolved the concept of a Bengali nationhood and nationalismWEBPAGES. Every form of nationalist always looks towards the past glory and heritage to draw inspiration from it to nurture nationalistic feelings, ideas and pride. Assamese have a glorious past that few nationalitiesSATYAKAM or communities can boast of but has a miserable, pitiable and precarious present. The opposite is true in case of the Bengalis there is very little they can be proud of from their history particularly in comparison to the Assamese.

But in the present context Bengali is a much more advanced, secure and more DR 47 important a mature and intelligent community than the Assamese. In the British era, many enthusiastic scholars and intellectuals of western educated Bengali intelligentsia while searching for past heritage of the newly developed Bengali nationality, presented many things as Bengali whereas it right fully belonged to the

Assamese.

PHUKAN'S

They set out in a campaign of cultural imperialism by which they wanted establish that Bengali is the primordial source from which Assamese and also the Oriya had emerged as mere offshoots. A notable example is the book by Rakhal Das Banerji on the origin of the Bengali script wherein inscriptions written in Assamese in Assam are all shown as examples ofWEBPAGES Bengali script and presented the view that both Oriya and Assamese scripts are scripts originating from the Bengali.

SATYAKAM Earlier to that in the century preceding his publication of this book, Bengali was imposed as the official and educational language in Assam. This was due to the view of many of such Bengali intellectuals who tried to establish the view that DR 48 Assamese is just a corrupt patois of the Bengali language. It is also because of many of the British intellectuals like Robinson, author of a book on Assamese grammar, approving this concept of these Bengali intellectuals. A 37 year long struggle by two American Baptist Christian missionaries Nathan Brown and saw the restoration of the Assamese language in Assam. They were joined in their struggle by just one Assamese gentleman, an officer of the British administration

Ananda Ram Dhekiyal Phukan, from an aristocratic Bamun family of upper

Assam. Plus there were some right thinking Bengali intellectuals who opposed the this unjust imposition.

PHUKAN'S

WEBPAGES

The story narrated above on the cultural imperialist of the Bengali has been written overSATYAKAM and over again in scores of writings in Assam and outside. But there is another side of the Bengali intelligentsia of another type of Bengali intellectuals who have always displayed the highest grade of integrity, intellectual neutrality, open mindedness and a sense of undiluted righteousness. For every wrong DR 49 interpretation and action of the parochial Bengali intellectual there has always been one or more of these right thinking person to undo the wrong done to the

Assamese. I have the deepest respect for the Bengali community because they have the greatness to produce such personalities, something I have found missing in the north and the south Indians. The ability to see, say and present the things as they are, rising above narrow sectarian considerations.

While Bengali scholars like Prabodh Chandra Sen called the research of Kanak

Lal Barua as being driven by a “spirit of chauvinism”, because he presented the fact that Kamrup ruled many areas of eastern India. One of the leading Bengali intellectuals Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy held the view that when civilization was practically non-existent in Bengal, Assam hadPHUKAN'S an empire of its own.

WEBPAGES

When BengaliSATYAKAM was imposed in Assam during the initial period of British rule, many right thinking Bengali intellectuals opposed it, many of them voicing their opposition publicly facing the ire of their compatriots. I stumbled upon this piece of information in 1992 while going through the Sunday magazine of DR 50 newspaper then published solely from Calcutta (). That magazine used to feature the old heritage buildings of Calcutta, there used to be a sketch of the house and a description of the person who owned and lived in it. In one such magazine the owner of the house sketched therein was said to be one of the persons who was part of the group of Bengali intellectuals who steadfastly opposed the imposition of

Bengali language in Assam by the British. Now I have got one more information from Pastor Azizul Haque an authority on the subject of missionary struggle for the restoration of the Assamese language, that one of the leading Bengali intellectual of that time Romesh Chunder Dutt, a scholar, civil servant and the president of the Bongiyo Sahitya Parishad did not agree to the view that Assamese is a dialect of the Bengali. Incidentally RabindraPHUKAN'S Nath Tagore was an office bearer of that organization, junior to him, when he presided over it and held views just the opposite to that of Dutt’s.

One of the leading Vaishnavite saint of the Assam was a person whose actual name was Sankar Bhuyan but better known as . The suffix –dev was attached after his name, when his Bamun teacher impressed by his sharp intellect told his other pupils to call him Sankardev, the –dev suffix signifying a seer. This saint is a symbol or a bridge of unity, connecting the people of the entire area of ancient

Kamrup. He hailed from an area in central Assam under Ahom rule and preached and lived most of his life in the kingdom of Koch Bihar, in the region of the western most division of Kamrup. The WEBPAGESXatras or the monasteries from where Saint Sankardev sermonised his teachings still exists but are now within the area of the

West Bengal state of India. The BengaliSATYAKAM cultural imperialists tried establish that Sankardev was a mere disciple of a Bengali saint Sri Chaitanya and all his knowledge and teachings are acquired from him. To this unjust proposition the counter came from a Bengali scholar Babu Nagendra Nath Vasu, who in his book “Social History of DR 51 Kamrupa” , conclusively nullified this view and established that Sankardev’s preaching differed fundamentally with that of Chaitanya’s and that he was in no way a disciple of his.

These are only two examples but the list will have many more. On another such scholar of the present time Dr Mitali Chatterji it will be discussed in the appropriate part below.

THE ASSAMESE SCRIPT

Nobody can exactly say as to when writing systemPHUKAN'S started to be used in Assam or ancient Kamrup. Most of the ancient inscriptions discovered and presented as samples of proto-Assamese script are in reality . Majority of the scholars present the view that the Assamese script developed out of the Brahmi script in a process of evolution similar to the one by which the humans are said to have been evolved out of the apes. This view is not true and without reason, lacking the minimum common sense. The Brahmi alphabets and Assamese alphabets are different they do not resemble in form. What Brahmi has contributed in the development of the Assamese alphabets is the basic concept, the schema or the plan of the writing system. Here one controversy needs to be mentioned here, Brahmi itself is said to have been developedWEBPAGES by borrowings from the Semitic script, most western maintain this view but no Indian scholar agrees to it. Till the

Assamese or the ancient Kamrupi did not have a script of their own they used Brahmi andSATYAKAM when their own script was developed they stopped writing in Brahmi. But Brahmi is not the only system of writing found in Assam pre-dating the present script. DR 52 On the outskirts of Guwahati city in a place named Khangkor, a private researcher, Hemendra Kumar Bhuyan found some rock inscription in a rock field in 1990, he showed it to some scholars but nobody took it seriously. He then wrote to the Archaeological Survey of India sending impressions of the inscriptions.

Archaeological Survey officer/specialist informed him that it was not any script but mere symbols.

PHUKAN'S

Just after his discovery suddenly intense religious activity started in the rock field and within a few days it was converted into a holy temple site and the name changed to Hatixila or elephant rock. The way things were done is something is something fishy and throws doubtsWEBPAGES on the forces behind this nefarious manoeuvre and their intentions . A Nepali person residing in the area one morning told the people of the locality that he had a vision in his sleep wherein a Goddess came to him in hisSATYAKAM dream and told him that a an idol of the Goddess was lying in a particular spot in the river bank adjacent to the Khangkor rock field. People went with him to the spot he identified and lo!, a metal Idol was indeed found. The word DRspread of the miracle and the Khangkor historical site was instantly converted into 53 a holy religious place and the caves were converted into temples. Mr Bhuyan the discoverer of the site interrogated the Nepali person and asked him in what language the Goddess spoke to him in his dream, Sanskrit, Assamese or Nepali. He was answerless then said it was probably Sanskrit, when asked if he understands the Sanskrit language and he was speechless. He was pressed hard to tell the truth, which he confessed. His whole story of dream or vision was concocted he was paid well to circulate the story by some persons of Guwahati to enact the whole drama with intention of converting the whole place into a temple site.

I have seen and photographed the site and inscription, true it does not resemble any known Indian system of writing, but it is certainly not mere symbol but some alphabet. I could find resemblance of the charactersPHUKAN'S to two writing system quite far away from here, one is the script of the Tuaregs of north Africa and the other is the ancient Runic form of writing of pre-Christian Europe. The site where the inscription is there and some of the other inscriptions and drawings depicting pictures of animals are there further up the hillock. This valuable site is not secure it may get destroyed by ravages of nature or may be intentionally destroyed by the forces which want to suppress it.

I do not know whether the Khangkor inscription is indeed a script or some symbols, but many more of similar inscriptions might lying all over Assam or in the states in the neighbourhoodWEBPAGES of Assam, but never considered with any importance solely because they do not resemble any known Indian script.

SATYAKAM

DR 54 PHUKAN'S

WEBPAGES

SATYAKAM To see the documents sent by Hemendra Kumar Bhuyan and ASI reply click here

It has one importance for which I have been highlighting this issue here. Most of the forms in the Khangkor inscriptions shows angles. The prime characteristic DR 55 which differentiates the Assamese script from all the other Indian scripts is the presence of angular forms in the alphabets which can be made into triangles in most of them by drawing a line. There is only one script with which the Assamese script has resemblance in terms of the angular form of its alphabets. This is the

Tibetan script. To see the similarities between the Assamese and the Tibetan click here . Comparison of Tibetan with Devnagari script as done by a Bengali scholar and Tibetologist Sarat Chandra Das is also included there. The relation between Assam and Tibet was very close and unlike the present time where Assam is locked within the Indian Union in the past, Assam was equally well connected to

Tibet, China and Burma as was connected to the Indian mainland. One cannot PHUKAN'Sforget the fact that it owes it current name

from a people who

ruled it for not less

than 600 years at a

stretch, having their

roots in the area of the

Yunnan province of

China. It is through

Tibet that Assam or WEBPAGESKamrup of that time was maintaining

contact with . SATYAKAM I am presenting here an extract from the thesis of an Assamese scholar Pratap Chandra Choudhury which was published as a book.

It mentions about a Kamrupi king Balavarman who reigned between 405-420 AD, DR 56 whose daughter princess Amritprabha got married to the king of Kashmir and it is also mentioned that her Guru or the Spirtual Mentor was a Tibetan.

The script that I am referring to as the Assamese script is not represented in the

Unicode (UCS). The Unicode like the ISCII assumes that Assamese language is written in Bengali script with the difference of two letters “Ra ৰ” and “Wa ৱ”, the

“Wa” also is misrepresented there as a “Ra” with a lower diagonal. Historically this script does not belong to the Bengali language. It developed in the ancient kingdom of Kamrup and is in use only in the area of ancient Kamrup and in the areas which were recorded to be under rule of Kamrup in the pre-Muslim era of the Indian history. It is also used in the state of PHUKAN'SManipur, but Manipuri people do not call it their own, but as the Bengali script and are in the process of change over to their own script called the Meitiei Mayek. Meitei Mayek is already included in the Unicode. Consequently this script is used in Bengal where they call it the Bengali script, in Mithila area of eastern Bihar where they call it as Mithilakshar and in

Assam. In Bihar it is used only in the Mithila area but not in any part to the west of it, parts which were never recorded to be ever under the rule of the Kamrup kingdom. In Mithila this script is not used anymore in day to day use, it place has been taken over by the Devnagari script, all publications in are now in the Devnagari script. But the script is still retained in Mithila, for religious purpose of the Maithili people. ThereWEBPAGES is a movement going on for the revival of this script there.

The alphabets of the Assamese and the Maithili versions are almost same, except the character “WaSATYAKAM ” and these scripts are phonetically complete for all the sounds used in their respective languages. Whereas the form used by the Bengali is phonetically lacking because they do not have any alphabet to represent the sound “wa”. This is because the Bengali was using the same script as is used by the Assamese till the DR 57 coming of the British. Notable example is the alphabet for the sound “ra ৰ”, they were using the same alphabet the Assamese and the Maithili uses till the British period.

Then they started using the alphabet the Maithili uses for denoting “wa র” for representing the sound “ra র ” and in the process ended up having no alphabet for representing “wa”. The sound “wa” in the present Bengali is represented on assumption by the alphabet used to denote the sound “ য়”. Not only Maithili, even one of the Assamese manuscripts, written in ornamental calligraphic style has represented the “Wa” in the way Maithili still uses. This is an illustrated page from an Assamese manuscript, a treatise on Elephants known as “Hastividyarnava”. PHUKAN'S

WEBPAGES

SATYAKAM

DR 58 Most of the earlier books and manuscripts of Bengali language has been written using the Assamese form of “Ra ৰ”, that includes the Dictionary prepared by Henry

Pitt Forster displayed above.

One Bengali scholar Dr Mitali Chatterji hailing from the West Bengal state of India, published a paper on the development of the Bengali “Ra” alphabet. She did not publish it in any journal published from her home state West Bengal, but in the

Bulletin of the Assam State Museum, Guwahati, Assam, in the year 1991. She gave in that article several photographs of rock inscriptions from all over Bengal, both

West Bengal state of India and Bangladesh. All the photographs she presented showed the use of the “ৰ” form of the “Ra” alphabet,PHUKAN'S used in Assamese but not used in the current Bengali alphabets. There are some “র” forms also but whether they are used as “Ra” or “Wa” that needs to be clarification..One of her plates from the said article is given below.

WEBPAGES

SATYAKAM

DR 59 We have gained a lot from Dr Mitali Chatterji’s photographs and from the point of the current study of the Assamese language and script she has given us a breakthrough, for which she will always have our heartfelt thanks.

A manuscript containing some Buddhist poems called Charjyapad was discovered by a Bengali scholar Hara Prasad Shastri in the royal archives of the palace of the

Nepal king in the early part of the 20th century. All the scholars of the languages

Maithili, Bengali, Oriya and even Assamese claim this to be part of their heritage. I have not gone into the language of this manuscript but one thing I can say. The script that is used there, uses more of the Assamese form of the alphabets, this has been confirmed to me by an Assamese scholar and litterateur Dr Satyendra Nath

Goswami, who had the opportunity to personallyPHUKAN'S examined the manuscript preserved in the office of the Bongiya Sahitya Parishad at Kolkata.

In the Kamrup era of Assam history which corresponds to the the pre-Muslim era of the Indian history, the formative period of the Kamrupi script, Kamrup had a highly developed intelligentsia. Two such scholars to be named are Kumarila Bhatta and Dharmakirti. Kumarila was a staunch proponent of Vedic Hindu religion and philosophy. He was a contemporary of the great Indian saint and scholar

Shankarcharya, a Namboodiri Brahmin hailing from south India, the area now in the Kerala state of India. He is solely responsible for the revival of Vedic Hindu religion which had lost significant groundWEBPAGES to Buddhism. He travelled all over India and engaged scholars in all the places he toured to debates with him. From Kashmir to the tip of the Indian peninsula no scholar could subdue him in debate and accepted SATYAKAM Shankarcharya’s intellectual superiority. But he succumbed to Kumarila Bhatta who was too sharp an intellectual for him to defeat. In all the places

Shankarcharya went and conquered with his intellect, saw the establishment of the religious institutions or temples called Shankar Maths. They are to seen all over DR 60 India and is headed by a Shankaracharya most of whom still dress up like the original Shankaracharya whom they now call Adi Shankaracharya “Adi” meaning the the original or the originator to differentiate from his current replicas.

Assam has no such institution and religious leaders of this genre, solely due to

Kumarila Bhatta. There are local lore and folk songs in Assamese in praise of

Kumarila. Kumarila lived a substantial part of his life in the region of northern

India and the majority of the Indian intelligentsia claims Kumarila to be a north

Indian Brahmin. All the websites available on the Internet presents Kumarila as a north Indian. But British historians like Vincent A Smith has clarified that

Kumarila was an Assamese. Two books in Assamese language one by Ananda

Chandra Agarwala and another by ManoranjanPHUKAN'S Sastri has dealt with the issue of

Kumarila Bhatta, second one written particularly on him only. Both the books downloadable from the website Good Books (Pdf Format).

The episode on Kumarila is mentioned here to emphasize two points, first to provide an example of, how the ancient heritages which are rightfully Assamese are being claimed by others. Second, the more important point, on the developed state of the Assamese intellectuals/scholars who had the capacity to invent and develop intelligently, the Assamese script, keeping provisions for writing two languages of differing sound system. Two languages which are written with the Assamese script are Assamese and Sanskrit. WEBPAGES The Assamese have got, one of the largest collection of ancient manuscripts and the earliest recorded writer in Assamese language and script is Hem whose work PrahladSATYAKAM Charitra predates the earliest recorded writing in the Maithili language by Bidyapati Thakur. The Bengali as a literary language developed much later than Assamese and Maithili. Many of the early litterateurs of the Bengali language have drawn inspiration from Bidyapati Thakur. The collection of ancient DR 61 manuscripts of the Assamese quite large, the other two languages are nowhere near this large collection. The Assamese manuscripts are divided into two categories,

Assamese manuscripts in Assamese which are much more in numbers and Assamese manuscripts in Sanskrit. A Descriptive Catalogue of Assamese Manuscripts was compiled by an Assamese scholar Hem Chandra . It was published in 1930 by Calcutta University on behalf of the .

PHUKAN'S

The catalogue lists a large number of Assamese manuscripts but a larger number, far more than the manuscripts listed therein, are there in the possession of individuals, monasteries and templesWEBPAGES. The picture above will show a glimpse of relevant portions of that descriptive catalogue. To see the complete content list of “A Descriptive Catalogue of Assamese SATYAKAMManuscripts”, click here. Below are relevant pages from the book “The of Bengal” by R C Dutt, where the major literary works of Bengal are listed and shown. It will give a proper DR 62 comparison of the status of literary development of Assamese and Bengali languages in pre-British period.

PHUKAN'S

Unlike the Chinese and the Tibetans, there was no technology of printing developed in Assam and hence all the manuscripts of the Assamese were hand written. It was written mainly on two materials Xasi pat and Tula pat. The Tula pat is prepared using cotton. The Xasi pat is prepared from the bark of a large evergreen tree also known as Agoru or Agar, scientific WEBPAGESname Aquilaria agallocha, the oil extracted from the wood is scented and is in great demand in the Arab world. The Xasi bark is processed by an elaborate process to make the Xasi pat. The Xasi bark manuscripts called in AssameseSATYAKAM “ Xasipotiya puthi” are very durable and are of a better quality than many of the modern good quality papers. Ink that was used was also of the best quality and many of the manuscripts preserved till date has shown no sign of any fading of the ink. The manuscripts were almost always written in an ornamental DR 63 calligraphic style. There were three principal styles of Assamese writing, Kaitheli sometimes called Lahkori, Bamunia and Gorgoya. Below is an image of an

Assamese manuscript written in Kaitheli style.

PHUKAN'S

In the rock and metal plate inscriptions in Assam the in the Assamese scripts ornamentation is not always seen, the letters are in block shape like the modern

Assamese alphabets. The rock inscriptions below will show that.

WEBPAGES

SATYAKAM

DR 64 Although the Assamese is an Indo-European language, but as explained above, it does not owe its root or origin to the Sanskrit language considered as the language of all Indian Indo-European languages. The original people whose language with number of additions and subtractions have evolved into the present

Assamese language were also not followers of the Hindu or more properly the

Sanatan religion. Their religion from what I can see were probably something like religious practices of the present day Kalash or the pre-Muslim Nuristani people.

Many such element still persists in the Assamese Hindu religion culture. These people were later Hinduised and with the Hindu religion came a Sanskrit influence and an influx of Sanskrit words into the Assamese language. Sanskrit language being the religious language got a place of importancePHUKAN'S among the Assamese elite . The position of Sanskrit in Assam can be likened to the position of the Arabic in

Persia (Iran), after the conversion of the Persians to Islam. The post-Islamic Persian like Assamese was influenced by Arabic and the Persian language itself came to be written with a form of modified .

Sanskrit gave Assamese many words but Sanskrit could not influence or change the original sound system, the phonetics of the Assamese. Even the Sanskrit words which were imported into Assamese were used in Assamese by converting them to the Assamese system of phonetics.

So the Assamese script used to write these two languages Assamese and Sanskrit therefore has two versions of the sameWEBPAGES script. This is because of basic difference in the phonetic system of Assamese and Sanskrit languages. In the two versions of the

Assamese script, pronunciation of the alphabets changes and with that the identity of that particularSATYAKAM character also changes. Example “sa” of Assamese changes to

“” or “ccha” in Sanskrit, one “za” of Assamese changes to “ya” of Sanskrit, “xa” of Assamese changes to “sa”, “sha” or “ssha” in Sanskrit. The “ii”, “uu”, “nn”, “tt”, DR 65 “dd” and the “ddha” of Sanskrit , changes to “i”, “u”, “n”, “t”, “d” and the “dha” in

Assamese. The page below from the holy book Gita will explain.

PHUKAN'S

Had there been no computers, no encodings, no unique codes, these differences which I am explicating as the Assamese and Sanskrit versions of the Assamese script would have stayed as an abstractWEBPAGES concept in the minds of the user or the writer, never noticed or required to be noticed as long as the characters or the alphabets look alike. SATYAKAM

The script which the Bengali language uses and that which is charted in the Unicode as a block in the range U+0980 to U+0A7F is an incomplete Sanskrit version of the DRAssamese or more properly the Kamrupi script. Incomplete because of the absence 66 of the alphabet “wa” in their list of alphabets. The alphabet they are using as “ra” is used by the Maithili as “wa” and I have shown above that the Assamese also used it in the past in decorative and calligraphic writings. So the Bengali has no alphabet to express the important sound “wa”. Without the “wa” alphabet it is not possible to write the Sanskrit language.

The issue described here as two versions of the same script is an issue of duplication of characters. Around 15 characters show duplicity between the two versions

Assamese and Sanskrit, the Sanskrit version represented in the Unicode as the

Bengali script. Duplicate characters or sometimes termed look the same but represent two different entities. In thePHUKAN'S case of the Assamese and Bengali scripts, I cite three examples below.

Character : স Bengali : “sa” Assamese : “xa”

Character : চ Bengali : “cha” Assamese : “sa”

Character : য Bengali : “ya” Assamese : “za”

These difference are clearly seen in WEBPAGEStransliterations. Example of the word “city bus” is given below.

English: city bus = Assamese িচটী বাছ

English: SATYAKAM city bus = Bengali িসিত বাচ

Assamese িচটী বাছ will be transliterated as “chiti bus” in Bengali

Bengali িসিত বাচ will be transliterated as “xiti bus” in Assamese DR 67 To see the complete chart of the difference between the Assamese and the Bengali scripts scripts in terms of the duplicity of the alphabets and others click here .

THIS CHART CAN ALSO BE FOUND AT THE END PART OF THIS

DOCUMENT

To see the Assamese alphabets and their forms click .

Duplication to the extent of triplication of characters, have been encountered by the

Unicode between the three European scripts Cyrillic, Greek and Latin. Consequently There are three “A” each with its ownPHUKAN'S unique number.

The first one is Cyrillic “A” , the second one Greek “A” and the third Latin “A”.

This is just one example the list is a long one.

To see the complete chart of duplication of characters Cyrillic, Greek, Latin click here.

THE CHART CAN ALSO BEWEBPAGES FOUND AT THE END PART OF THIS

DOCUMENT.

Unicode’sSATYAKAM Universal Character Set (UCS) is a unique coding system. One particular character is assigned a unique number or code which is decimal or hexadecimal. One particular unique code represents one particular entity. One DRunique code can represent only one single entity and cannot be made to represent 68 two entities represented by two characters which are looks exactly alike, like in case of a or a duplicate character. Example the character “স” which represents the Bengali “sa” in Unicode, cannot not made to represent the entity

“xa” also with the same unique number. In other words it cannot be written like

“স” = Bengali sa/ Assamese xa. One particular unique code has to represent only one unique entity not more. If it is used to represent multiple entities it will not remain a unique code.

The Assamese and the Bengali, the Cyrillic, Greek and Latin have characters which are exactly similar in their appearance but they represent different entities. In case of the Cyrillic, Greek and Latin the Unicode have recognised the duplication and even triplications and have allowed separate codesPHUKAN'S for each of them, in separate block.

The case of the Assamese script is also a case of duplicity of characters. Therefore

Assamese script is till now not represented in the Unicode because of this confusion.

So the best solution is to provide a separate block for the Assamese script recognising the duplicity or the presence of homoglyphs between the Assamese and the Bengali scripts. If this is not done, transliteration, translation and proper collation will not be possible in Assamese.

So the Unicode consortium is requested to consider the materials I have provided, if needed take opinion of organisationsWEBPAGES like SIL International who have the expertise and I hope also the neutrality to see and take things as they are. Unicode can take the opinion of organisations or scholars from India, but my wise advice to them will be to relySATYAKAM more on international/ neutral scholars with no Indian/Sanskrit bias.

The prime reason for the misrepresentation and non-representation of the Assamese script in Unicode is because of the refusal on part of the Indian scholars to accept DRthe truth that Assamese is not a Sanskrit origin language because of which it has a 69 differing sound system resulting in different or duplicate entities of many of the characters.

PHUKAN'S

Unicode has differed with the Indian scholars while representing the South Asians scripts. The Unicode has written that both the primary Indian scripts, Kharosti and

Brahmi are derived from a Semitic source, chiefly Aramaic. This is not agreed to by any of the Indian scholars but Unicode has maintained its stand.

I wish in case of the Assamese script also, they can differ with the Indian school of scholars and give the Assamese script it own rightful separate block in the Unicode Standard (UCS). In previous crisisWEBPAGES during the British era the American Baptist Missionaries did the needful struggle to reinstate Assamese in its proper place.

There are no Missionaries anymore of the breed of Nathan Brown and Miles

Bronson anymore. So all international organisation like Unicode and SIL

InternationalSATYAKAM can take the place of the American Baptist Mission of the past and help in restoring the proper place of the Assamese language and script.

DR **** END**** 70 DOCUMENT PREPARED BY :

DR SATYAKAM PHUKAN

GENERAL SURGEON

JORPUKHURIPAR, UZANBAZAR

GUWAHATI, ASSAM (INDIA)

P.I.N : 781001 PHUKAN'S

PHONE : +91 99540 46357

E-MAIL : [email protected]

Two charts are availableWEBPAGES after these pages at the end

1. Assamese and Bengali difference chart SATYAKAM 2. Cyrillic-Greek-Latin duplication of character chart DR 71 COMPARATIVE CHART BENGALI AND ASSAMESE

UTF-8 encoding table and Unicode characters

page with code points U+0980 to U+0A7F

LEGEND >>> BENGALI AND ASSAMESE DIFFERENCES

>>> NOT USED IN ASSAMESE

“x” used in Assamese Names is pronounced like the “ch” in German names like Bach, Ulrich , Scottish loch and Greek “χ” (chi)

Unicode character UTF-8 UNICODE NAME IPA code (hex.) NAME ASSAMESEPHUKAN'SASSAMESE point BENGALI

U+0980 ঀ e0 a6 80

U+0981 e0 a6 81 BENGALI ASSAMESE ঁঁ SIGN SIGN CANDRABINDU SANDRABINDU

U+0982 e0 a6 82 BENGALI ASSAMESE ঁং SIGN SIGN ANUSVAR

U+0983 e0 a6 83 BENGALI ASSAMESE ঁঃ SIGN SIGN BIXARGA WEBPAGES U+0984 ঀ e0 a6 84

U+0985 e0 a6 85 BENGALI ASSAMESE SATYAKAMঅ LETTER LETTER ɒ A A

DR U+0986 e0 a6 86 BENGALI ASSAMESE আ LETTER LETTER a AA AA

U+0987 e0 a6 87 BENGALI ASSAMESE ই LETTER LETTER i I I (HORSWA)

U+0988 e0 a6 88 BENGALI ASSAMESE ঈ LETTER LETTER i II I (DIRGHA)

U+0989 e0 a6 89 BENGALI ASSAMESE উ LETTER LETTER u U U (HORSWA)

U+098A e0 a6 8a BENGALI ASSAMESE ঊ LETTER LETTER u UU U (DIRGHA)PHUKAN'S U+098B e0 a6 8b BENGALI ASSAMESE i ঋ LETTER LETTER r VOCALIC VOCALIC R RI

U+098C e0 a6 8c BENGALI CURRENTLY ঌ LETTER UNUSED VOCALIC L

U+098D ঀ e0 a6 8d

U+098E ঀ e0 a6 8e

U+098F e0 a6 8f BENGALI ASSAMESE এ LETTER LETTER ɛ EWEBPAGES E

U+0990 e0 a6 90 BENGALI ASSAMESE i ঐ LETTER LETTER ɔ SATYAKAMAI U+0991 ঀ e0 a6 91

DR U+0992 ঀ e0 a6 92

U+0993 e0 a6 93 BENGALI ASSAMESE ও LETTER LETTER o O O

U+0994 e0 a6 94 BENGALI ASSAMESE u ঔ LETTER LETTER o AU

U+0995 e0 a6 95 BENGALI ASSAMESE ক LETTER LETTER k KA KA

U+0996 e0 a6 96 BENGALI ASSAMESE h খ LETTER LETTER k KHA PHUKAN'S U+0997 e0 a6 97 BENGALI ASSAMESE গ LETTER LETTER g GA

U+0998 e0 a6 98 BENGALI ASSAMESE h ঘ LETTER LETTER g GHA

U+0999 e0 a6 99 BENGALI ASSAMESE ঙ LETTER LETTER ŋ NGA NGA

U+099A e0 a6 9a BENGALI ASSAMESE চ LETTER LETTER s SA (PRATHAM)

U+099B e0 a6 9b BENGALI ASSAMESE ছ LETTER LETTER s CHAWEBPAGESSA (DWITIYA)

U+099C e0 a6 9c BENGALI ASSAMESE জ LETTER LETTER z ZA SATYAKAM (BORGIYA)

U+099D e0 a6 9d BENGALI ASSAMESE h ঝ LETTER LETTER z ZHA

DR U+099E e0 a6 9e BENGALI ASSAMESE ঞ LETTER LETTER NYA NYA

U+099F e0 a6 9f BENGALI ASSAMESE ট LETTER LETTER t TTA TA (MURDHENYA)

U+09A0 e0 a6 a0 BENGALI ASSAMESE h ঠ LETTER LETTER t TTHA THA (MURDHENYA)

U+09A1 e0 a6 a1 BENGALI ASSAMESE ড LETTER LETTER d DDA DA (MURDHENYA)

U+09A2 e0 a6 a2 BENGALI ASSAMESE h ঢ LETTER LETTER d DDHA DHA (MURDHENYA)PHUKAN'S U+09A3 e0 a6 a3 BENGALI ASSAMESE ণ LETTER LETTER n NNA NA (MURDHENYA)

U+09A4 e0 a6 a4 BENGALI ASSAMESE ত LETTER LETTER t TA TA (DONTIYA)

U+09A5 e0 a6 a5 BENGALI ASSAMESE h থ LETTER LETTER t THA THA (DONTIYA)

U+09A6 e0 a6 a6 BENGALI ASSAMESE দ LETTER LETTER d DA DA (DONTIYA)

U+09A7 e0 a6 a7 BENGALI ASSAMESE h ধ LETTER LETTER d DHAWEBPAGESDHA (DONTIYA)

U+09A8 e0 a6 a8 BENGALI ASSAMESE ন LETTER LETTER n NA NA SATYAKAM (DONTIYA) U+09A9 ঀ e0 a6 a9

DR U+09AA e0 a6 aa BENGALI ASSAMESE প LETTER LETTER p PA PA

U+09AB e0 a6 ab BENGALI ASSAMESE h ফ LETTER LETTER p PHA PHA

U+09AC e0 a6 ac BENGALI ASSAMESE ব LETTER LETTER b BA

U+09AD e0 a6 ad BENGALI ASSAMESE h ভ LETTER LETTER β, b BHA

U+09AE e0 a6 ae BENGALI ASSAMESE ম LETTER LETTER m MA PHUKAN'S U+09AF e0 a6 af BENGALI ASSAMESE য LETTER LETTER z YA ZA (ANTUSTYA)

U+09B0 e0 a6 b0 BENGALI NOT USED IN র LETTER ASSAMESE RA

U+09B1 ঀ e0 a6 b1

U+09B2 e0 a6 b2 BENGALI ASSAMESE ল LETTER LETTER l LA

U+09B3 ঀ e0 a6 b3 WEBPAGES

U+09B4 ঀ e0 a6 b4 SATYAKAM U+09B5 ঀ e0 a6 b5

DR U+09B6 e0 a6 b6 BENGALI ASSAMESE শ LETTER LETTER x SHA XA (TALOBYA)

U+09B7 e0 a6 b7 BENGALI ASSAMESE ষ LETTER LETTER x SSA XA (MURDHENYA)

U+09B8 e0 a6 b8 BENGALI ASSAMESE স LETTER LETTER x SA XA (DONTIYA)

U+09B9 e0 a6 b9 BENGALI ASSAMESE হ LETTER LETTER h HA HA

U+09BA ঀ e0 a6 ba PHUKAN'S U+09BB ঀ e0 a6 bb

U+09BC e0 a6 bc BENGALI SIGN NOT USED IN ঁ় NUKTA ASSAMESE

U+09BD e0 a6 bd BENGALI SIGN NOT USED IN ঽ ASSAMESE

U+09BE e0 a6 be BENGALI ASSAMESE ঁা SIGN VOWEL SIGN a AA AA

U+09BF e0 a6 bf BENGALI ASSAMESE িঁ VOWEL SIGN VOWEL SIGN i IWEBPAGES I (HORSWA)

U+09C0 e0 a7 80 BENGALI ASSAMESE ঁী VOWEL SIGN VOWEL SIGN i II I SATYAKAM (DIRGHA)

U+09C1 e0 a7 81 BENGALI ASSAMESE ঁু VOWEL SIGN VOWEL SIGN u U U (HORSWA) DR U+09C2 e0 a7 82 BENGALI ASSAMESE ঁূ VOWEL SIGN VOWEL SIGN u UU U (DIRGHA)

U+09C3 e0 a7 83 BENGALI ASSAMESE ঁৃ VOWEL SIGN VOWEL SIGN ri VOCALIC VOCALIC R RI

U+09C4 e0 a7 84 BENGALI CURRENTLY ঁৄ VOWEL SIGN UNUSED VOCALIC RR

U+09C5 ঀ e0 a7 85

U+09C6 ঀ e0 a7 86 PHUKAN'S U+09C7 e0 a7 87 BENGALI ASSAMESE েঁ VOWEL SIGN VOWEL SIGN e E E

U+09C8 e0 a7 88 BENGALI ASSAMESE i ৈঁ VOWEL SIGN VOWEL SIGN o AI AI

U+09C9 ঀ e0 a7 89

U+09CA ঀ e0 a7 8a

U+09CB e0 a7 8b BENGALI ASSAMESE েঁা VOWEL SIGN VOWEL SIGN o OWEBPAGESO

U+09CC e0 a7 8c BENGALI ASSAMESE u েঁৌ VOWEL SIGN VOWEL SIGN o SATYAKAMAU AU

U+09CD e0 a7 8d BENGALI SIGN ASSAMESE ঁ্ SIGN REF

DR U+09CE e0 a7 8e BENGALI ASSAMESE ৎ LETTER LETTER t KHANDA TA HASANTA TA

U+09CF ঀ e0 a7 8f

U+09D0 ঀ e0 a7 90

U+09D1 ঀ e0 a7 91

U+09D2 ঀ e0 a7 92 PHUKAN'S U+09D3 ঀ e0 a7 93

U+09D4 ঀ e0 a7 94

U+09D5 ঀ e0 a7 95

U+09D6 ঀ e0 a7 96

U+09D7 e0 a7 97 BENGALI AU ASSAMESE ঁৌ LENGTH MARK VOWEL SIGN WEBPAGESAU (TIBETO- BURMAN) U+09D8 ঀ e0 a7 98 SATYAKAM U+09D9 ঀ e0 a7 99

DR U+09DA ঀ e0 a7 9a

U+09DB ঀ e0 a7 9b

U+09DC e0 a7 9c BENGALI ASSAMESE ড় LETTER LETTER r RRA RA (DORE)

U+09DD e0 a7 9d BENGALI ASSAMESE h ঢ় LETTER LETTER r RHA RHA (DHORE)

U+09DE ঀ e0 a7 9e PHUKAN'S U+09DF e0 a7 9f BENGALI ASSAMESE য় LETTER LETTER iɒ YYA YA

U+09E0 e0 a7 a0 BENGALI CURRENTLY ৠ LETTER UNUSED VOCALIC RR

U+09E1 e0 a7 a1 BENGALI CURRENTLY ৡ LETTER UNUSED VOCALIC LL

U+09E2 e0 a7 a2 BENGALI CURRENTLY ঁৢ VOWEL SIGN UNUSED VOCALIC L

U+09E3 e0 a7 a3 BENGALI CURRENTLY ঁৣ VOWEL SIGN UNUSED VOCALICWEBPAGES LL

U+09E4 ঀ e0 a7 a4 SATYAKAM U+09E5 ঀ e0 a7 a5

DR U+09E6 e0 a7 a6 BENGALI DIGIT ASSAMESE ০ ZERO DIGIT ZERO

U+09E7 e0 a7 a7 BENGALI DIGIT ASSAMESE ১ ONE DIGIT ONE

U+09E8 e0 a7 a8 BENGALI DIGIT ASSAMESE ২ TWO DIGIT TWO

U+09E9 e0 a7 a9 BENGALI DIGIT ASSAMESE ৩ THREE DIGIT THREE

U+09EA e0 a7 aa BENGALI DIGIT ASSAMESE ৪ FOUR DIGIT FOUR PHUKAN'S U+09EB e0 a7 ab BENGALI DIGIT ASSAMESE ৫ FIVE DIGIT FIVE

U+09EC e0 a7 ac BENGALI DIGIT ASSAMESE ৬ SIX DIGIT SIX

U+09ED e0 a7 ad BENGALI DIGIT ASSAMESE ৭ SEVEN DIGIT SEVEN

U+09EE e0 a7 ae BENGALI DIGIT ASSAMESE ৮ EIGHT DIGIT EIGHT

U+09EF e0 a7 af BENGALI DIGIT ASSAMESE ৯ NINEWEBPAGESDIGIT NINE

U+09F0 e0 a7 b0 BENGALI ASSAMESE ৰ LETTER RA LETTER r WITH MIDDLE RA SATYAKAMDIAGONAL

U+09F1 e0 a7 b1 BENGALI ASSAMESE ৱ LETTER RA LETTER w WITH LOWER WA DIAGONAL DR U+09F2 e0 a7 b2 BENGALI NOT USED IN ৲ RUPEE MARK ASSAMESE

U+09F3 e0 a7 b3 BENGALI NOT USED IN ৳ RUPEE SIGN ASSAMESE

U+09F4 e0 a7 b4 BENGALI NOT USED IN ৴ CURRENCY ASSAMESE NUMERATOR ONE

U+09F5 e0 a7 b5 BENGALI NOT USED IN ৵ CURRENCY ASSAMESE NUMERATOR TWO

U+09F6 e0 a7 b6 BENGALI NOT USED IN ৶ CURRENCY ASSAMESE NUMERATOR THREE PHUKAN'S U+09F7 e0 a7 b7 BENGALI NOT USED IN ৷ CURRENCY ASSAMESE NUMERATOR FOUR

U+09F8 e0 a7 b8 BENGALI NOT USED IN ৸ CURRENCY ASSAMESE NUMERATOR ONE LESS THAN THE DENOMINATOR U+09F9 e0 a7 b9 BENGALI NOT USED IN ৹ CURRENCY ASSAMESE DENOMINATOR SIXTEEN

U+09FA e0 a7 ba BENGALI ASSAMESE ৺ ISSHAR SIGN SWARGIO (LATE/HEAVENLY)

U+09FB e0 a7 bb BENGALI NOT USED IN ঀ GANDAWEBPAGES MARK ASSAMESE

Prepared bySATYAKAM : Dr Satyakam Phukan Composing help from Mr R Hazarika

IPA characters for Assamese, based on the work of Dr Dipankar Moral, (Ph. D) who was working as Professor in Linguistics, Department of Assamese and Folklore Research, , Guwahati, Assam (INDIA) (DrDR Moral died on the 28th of February 2008, at Guwahati, at an early age) CHART DUPLICITY OF CHARCTERS CYRILLIC, GREEK & LATIN SCRIPTS UNICODE

CYRILLIC GREEK LATIN

PHUKAN'S

WEBPAGES

SATYAKAM

DR PHUKAN'S

WEBPAGES

SATYAKAM

DR PHUKAN'S

WEBPAGES

SATYAKAM

DR PHUKAN'S

WEBPAGES

SATYAKAM

DR PHUKAN'S

WEBPAGES

PreparedSATYAKAM by Dr Satyakam Phukan

DR