International Journal of All Research Education and Scientific Methods (IJARESM), ISSN: 2455-6211 Volume 8, Issue 12, December-2020, Impact Factor: 7.429, Available online at: www.ijaresm.com Contribution of the Missionary to the Bodo Language and Literature Prasanta Boro Asstt. Professor, Deptt. Of Bodo, L.O.K.D. College, Dhekiajuli, Sonitpur, Assam. -------------------------------------------------------*****************--------------------------------------------------- ABSTRACT Linguistically the Bodos include a large group of people who are the speakers of the Tibeto-Burman speeches of the North and East Bengal, Assam and Burma. The period starting from 1797 down to 1959 has been described as the Missionary age of the Bodo Literature by many writers and thinkers. The activities and contributions of the Christian Missionaries towards the growth of Bodo Literature in early period, research works on the Bodo Language and Literature had been undertaken by the Missionary workers and writers. In 1846 B. H. Hodgson used the Bodo word in his writings for the first time. Contribution of Rev. S. Endle towards the growth of Bodo Language and Literature in greater than any other writer or contributor of the Christian Missionary. In his “An Outline of the Kachari Grammar (1884)”, he discussed widely about the Bodo Language of the Boro Kacharis of Darrang District. He also described vividly about the Bodo Culture in his book – “The Kacharis (1911)”. In 1889 Rev. L. O. Skrefshrud brought out his “A Short Grammar of the Mech of Bodo Language”. In this paper, an attempt has been made to study activities and contribution of the Missionary towards the growth of Bodo Language and Literature. Keywords: Missionary, Contribution, Bodo Language and Literature. INTRODUCTION Linguistically the Bodos include a large group of people who are the speakers of the Tibeto-Burman speeches of the North and East Bengal, Assam and Burma. They are the Bodos or Boros of the Brahmaputra valley, they are known as Meches, Garos, Dimasas and Kacharis, Lalungs, Sonowals, Missings, Deuris, Chutias, Thengal in Assam and Tipras in Tripura. Hence, Bodo is a general term, which is the generic name of the people; it means all the Tibeto-Burman (Bodo) speaking group of the Sino-Tibetan origin. As per the classification given by Robert Shafer in the Linguistic Survey of India describes the Boros of the Boro Kacharis as a member of the Bodo (Boro) sub-section under the Assam Burmese group of the Tibeto-Burman branch of the Sino-Tibeto-Chinese speech family. The Bodo speaking areas of Assam at present are stretching from Dhubri in the West to Sodia in the East. In Tripura and Nagaland also a small number of the Boros or Boro-Kacharis are found to have been living. In Jalpaiguri and other adjacent districts of West Bengal, in Dimapur and adjacent areas of Nagaland, the Boros are known as Mech. The Bodos once were powerful and dominant race in the entire Northern and North Eastern India. Racially, the Bodos, the earliest known ethnic group to inhabit to Assam with their distinctive culture and linguistic traits belong to the Mongoloid stock of the Indo-Mongoloid or indo-Tibetans. CONTRIBUTION OF THE MISSIONARY The period starting from 1797 down to 1959 has been described as the Missionary age of the Bodo Literature by many writers and thinkers. The activities and contributions of the Christian Missionaries towards the growth of Bodo Literature in early period, research works on the Bodo language and Literature had been undertaken by Missionary workers and writers. In 1846 B. H. Hodgson used Bodo (Boro) word in his writings for the first time, in his article “Essay on the Koch, Bodo and Dhimal Tribal”, G. A. Griersion has explained about the Boro Language widely in the “Linguistic Survey of India (1903)”. The Boro Language has been described by him as one of the languages of the Sino-Tibetan or Tibeto-Chinese speech language. It belongs to the Boro-Naga group of the Assam-Burmese branch of the Sino-Tibetan family. Robert Shafer also has classified the Boro Language as one of the branches of the Barish section of the Sino-Tibetan speaking family in his “Classification of Sino-Tibetan Language (1955)”. Although the Bodo Language is a rich and ancient language, it did not have written literature until the second decade of the twentieth century. The Christian Missionaries, who entered the Bodo-speaking areas with an intent to preach their religion, published some books on religion, tales, rhymes and songs. They also published books on grammar and IJARESM Publication, India >>>> www.ijaresm.com Page 906 International Journal of All Research Education and Scientific Methods (IJARESM), ISSN: 2455-6211 Volume 8, Issue 12, December-2020, Impact Factor: 7.429, Available online at: www.ijaresm.com dictionary. Sidney Endle complied “An Outline of the Kachari Grammar” in 1884. The grammar is based on the dialect of the Darrang District. In this book, he discussed widely about the Bodo Language of the Boro Kachari of Darrang District. Sidney Endles another book “The Kacharis” was published in 1911 after his death by the endeavour of J. D. Anderson. The book contains chapters on social customs, agriculture practice, festivities, food habit, life-cycle rituals, crafts and textiles of the Bodos. The book has incorporated specimen of Bodo folktales, rhymes and grammar. In 1895 was published Anderson’s book of “Dimasa Vocabulary”, A Christian’s book “Grammar and Dictionary of Kachari Language (1904)”. L. O. Skrefshrud’s “A short Grammar of the Mech or Boro Language (1884)”. The treatise of Bodo grammar helped the interested scholars to know the Bodo Language and its grammars. Another work on grammar by W. C. Dundas “An Outline Grammar of the Kachari (Dimasa) Language (1880)”. Wolfenden’s “Outline of Tibeto-Burman Linguistic Morphology (1929)”, is a scholarly contribution to the linguistic field of Bodo Language. His “Notes on the Tribal name Borofisa” (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1929) is worth mentioning Bastold’s “Dimasa Grammar (1906)”, Rev. H. Holevershood’s “Boro Grammar (1959)”. Sonaram Thousen’s “Dimasa Bhasa (1959)”. In the Missionary age, the book in Bodo Language published for the first time was “Boroni Fisa O Ayen” (Laws of the Bodos). It was the customary laws of the Bodos of Southern Bank of Brahmaputra under the then undivided Goalpara District of Assam published in 1915 by Habraghat Boro Sanmilani. It was bilingual Boro and Bengali. Bibar is the first magazine in Bodo Language. The magazine was published in 1924 as the mouthpiece of Bodo Chattra Sanmilani. The publication of Bibar created a congenial atmosphere of literacy creativity where young poets and authors could show their creative talents in writing for the first time in the history of the community. The first and second decades in the twentieth century was thus the most eventful years in the history of the Bodo people. Starting from the early period, the Bodo poems played a good role in the Bodo Literature. The contributors of the poems were Padmashri Modaram Brahma, Rupnath Brahma, Satish Chandra Basumatary, Dwarendra Basumatary, Promod Chandra Brahma, Iswan Moshahary, Kali Kr. Lahary and many others, who mainly contributed poems of the nature, classicism, romanticism and satire. Along with the poems the contributors have contributed prose articles towards the Bodo Literature. It has also a great role in the development of Bodo Literature. The contributors were Promod Ch. Brahma, Anandaram Moshhary, Moniram Sompramary (West Bengal), Kalicharan Brahma, Bishnu Rabha, Nagen Choudhury and many others. In the prose literature the stories and short stories have a great role in the Bodo Literature. During the early age there were no sufficient contributors in the prose literature. However, although very few writers like Promod Ch. Brahma, Ishan Moshahary and some other started to contribute stories and shot stories towards the Bodo Literature. CONCLUSION It is true that the growth of the Bodo Literature was possible due to the valuable contributions of the Christian Missionaries during the early period. Among those contributions we must mention the name of Rev. S. Endle in his book “An Outline of The Kachari Grammar (1884)”, he discussed widely about the Bodo language and in his another book “The Kacharis (1911)”, he vividly described about the Bodo Culture. In 1889 Rev. L. O. Skrefshrud brought out his “A Short Grammar of The Mech or Boro Language”. Besides J. D. Anderson, Bastold, S. Thousen, Rev. H. Holevershood and many other contributed a lot. Many individual Bodo writers also have been contributing towards the growth of Bodo Language and Literature. REFERENCES [1]. Boro, Anil Kumar, 2010, A History of Bodo Literature, Kolkata, Sahitya Academy. [2]. Basumatary, Banewar (Ed), 2016, Bodo Sahitya Sabhani Jarimin, Chapanguri : Bodo Publication Board. [3]. Boro, Madhu Ram, 1990. The History of Boro Literature, Bijoya Printing Press. IJARESM Publication, India >>>> www.ijaresm.com Page 907 .