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Assamese literature
Assamese literature (Assamese: অসমীয়া সাহিত্য, pronounced [ɔxɔmia xaɦitjɔ]) is the entire corpus of poetry, novels, short stories, plays, documents and other writings in the Assamese language. It also includes the literary works in the older forms of the language during its evolution to the contemporary form and its cultural heritage and tradition. The literary heritage of the Assamese language can be traced back to the c. 9–10th century in the Charyapada (IAST: caryāpada), where the earliest elements of the language can be discerned.
Banikanta Kakati divides the history of Assamese literature into three prominent eras—Early Assamese, Middle Assamese and Modern Assamese—which is generally accepted.
The first reference to the language of Assam was found in the account of famous Chinese monk-cum-traveler Huen Tsang. He visited the Kamarupa Kingdom (Kāmarūpa) during the reign of Bhaskaravarman of Varman dynasty. While visiting Kamrupa in seventh century, Xuanzang noted that the language of the region was slightly different from the language of Middle India (Magadha). He was able to identify the phonetic differences evident in the region. Even though systematic errors in the Sanskrit of Kamarupa inscriptions portray an underlying Pakrit in the pre-12th century period, scarce examples of the language exist. The Charyapadas, the Buddhist ballads of 8th-10th century some[citation needed] of whose composers were from Kamarupa and the language of which bear strong affinities with Assamese (besides Bengali, Maithili and Oriya), are considered the first examples of Assamese literature. The spirit of the Charyapadas are found in later-day Deh-Bicharor Geet (dehavicārar gīta) and other aphorisms; and some of the ragas found their way to the 15th-16th century Borgeets. In the 12th-14th century period the Bengali works of Ramai Pandit (Sunya Puran), Boru Chandidas (Krishna Kirtan), Sukur Mamud (Gopichandrar Gan), Durlabha Mallik (Gobindachandrar Git) and Bhavani Das (Mainamatir Gan) bear strong grammatical relationship[citation needed] to Assamese; and their expressions and their use of adi-rasa are found in the later Panchali works of Mankar and Pitambar. After this period of shared legacy, a fully differentiated Assamese literature finally emerged in the 14th century.
This period saw the flourishing of two kinds of literary activity: translations and adaptations, and choral songs.
The earliest known Assamese writer of this period was Hema Saraswati, whose well known works include Prahlad Charita (prahlādacarita) and Hara Gauri Samvada (haragaurīsaṃvāda). The story of the Prahlad Charita is taken from the Vamana Purana and the Hara Gouri Samvada includes the myth of Hara-Gouri marriage, birth of Kartik etc. Kaviratna Saravati's Jayadratha-vadha; Rudra Kandali's Satyaki-pravesa are prominent works of this era. Harivara Vipra, a court poet of Kamata Kingdom, composed Babhruvahanar Yuddha (babhruvāhanar yuddha) based on the Mahabharata, Lava-Kushar Yuddha (lavakuśar yuddha) based on the Ramayana, and Tamradwajar Yudha (tāmradhvajar yuddha). Though translated works, they contain local descriptions and embellishments, a feature that describes all translated work of this period. His Babhruvahanar Yuddha, for instance makes references to articles of the Ahom kingdom, which at that time was a small kingdom in the east, and describes the undivided Lakhimpur region, and in Lava-Kushar Yuddha he departs from the original and describes local customs for Rama and Sita's pumsavana ceremony. All these works are associated with Durlabhanarayana of Kamata and his immediate successors.
The major work from this period that left a lasting impression is Saptakanda Ramayana (saptakāṇḍarāmāyana), composed by Madhava Kandali in verse, and recited in the court of a 14th-century Baraha king Mahamanikya (Mahamanikpha) who ruled either in the Nagaon or the Golaghat region. In chronology, among vernacular translations of the original Sanskrit, Kandali's Ramayana comes after Kamban's (Tamil, 12th century), and ahead of Kirttivas' (Bengali, 15th century), Tulsidas' (Awadhi, 16th century), Balaram Das' (Oriya) etc. Thus the Saptakanda Ramayana becomes the first rendition of the Ramayana into an Indo-Aryan language in the Indian subcontinent. The literary language (as opposed to the colloquial Assamese) this work adopted became the standard literary language for much of the following periods, till the rise of new literature in the 19th century. That his work was a major influence can be inferred from Sankardev's tribute to the "opromadi purbo kobi" (apramādī pūrvakavi, unerring predecessor poet).
The pada form of metrical verse (14 syllables in each verse with identical two syllables at the end of each foot in a couplet) became a standard in Assamese kavya works, something that continued till the modern times. Though a translated work, it is infused with local color, and instead of the heroic, Kandali instead emphasized the homely issues of relationships etc. Among the two kinds of alamkara's, arthalankaras were used extensively, with similes and metaphors taken from the local milieu even though the original works are set in foreign lands; whereas the shabdalankara (alliteration etc.) were rarely used.
In the pre-shankari era, a renowned mathematician, Bakul Kayastha from Kamarupa Kingdom, compiled Kitabat Manjari(1434), which was a translation of the Līlāvatī by Bhāskara II into Assamese. Kitabat Manjari is a poetical treatise on Arithmetic, Surveying and Bookkeeping. The book teaches how accounts are to be kept under different heads and how stores belonging to the royal treasury are to be classified and entered into a stock book. The works of Bakul Kayastha were regarded as standards in his time to be followed by other Kayasthas in maintaining royal accounts.
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Assamese literature
Assamese literature (Assamese: অসমীয়া সাহিত্য, pronounced [ɔxɔmia xaɦitjɔ]) is the entire corpus of poetry, novels, short stories, plays, documents and other writings in the Assamese language. It also includes the literary works in the older forms of the language during its evolution to the contemporary form and its cultural heritage and tradition. The literary heritage of the Assamese language can be traced back to the c. 9–10th century in the Charyapada (IAST: caryāpada), where the earliest elements of the language can be discerned.
Banikanta Kakati divides the history of Assamese literature into three prominent eras—Early Assamese, Middle Assamese and Modern Assamese—which is generally accepted.
The first reference to the language of Assam was found in the account of famous Chinese monk-cum-traveler Huen Tsang. He visited the Kamarupa Kingdom (Kāmarūpa) during the reign of Bhaskaravarman of Varman dynasty. While visiting Kamrupa in seventh century, Xuanzang noted that the language of the region was slightly different from the language of Middle India (Magadha). He was able to identify the phonetic differences evident in the region. Even though systematic errors in the Sanskrit of Kamarupa inscriptions portray an underlying Pakrit in the pre-12th century period, scarce examples of the language exist. The Charyapadas, the Buddhist ballads of 8th-10th century some[citation needed] of whose composers were from Kamarupa and the language of which bear strong affinities with Assamese (besides Bengali, Maithili and Oriya), are considered the first examples of Assamese literature. The spirit of the Charyapadas are found in later-day Deh-Bicharor Geet (dehavicārar gīta) and other aphorisms; and some of the ragas found their way to the 15th-16th century Borgeets. In the 12th-14th century period the Bengali works of Ramai Pandit (Sunya Puran), Boru Chandidas (Krishna Kirtan), Sukur Mamud (Gopichandrar Gan), Durlabha Mallik (Gobindachandrar Git) and Bhavani Das (Mainamatir Gan) bear strong grammatical relationship[citation needed] to Assamese; and their expressions and their use of adi-rasa are found in the later Panchali works of Mankar and Pitambar. After this period of shared legacy, a fully differentiated Assamese literature finally emerged in the 14th century.
This period saw the flourishing of two kinds of literary activity: translations and adaptations, and choral songs.
The earliest known Assamese writer of this period was Hema Saraswati, whose well known works include Prahlad Charita (prahlādacarita) and Hara Gauri Samvada (haragaurīsaṃvāda). The story of the Prahlad Charita is taken from the Vamana Purana and the Hara Gouri Samvada includes the myth of Hara-Gouri marriage, birth of Kartik etc. Kaviratna Saravati's Jayadratha-vadha; Rudra Kandali's Satyaki-pravesa are prominent works of this era. Harivara Vipra, a court poet of Kamata Kingdom, composed Babhruvahanar Yuddha (babhruvāhanar yuddha) based on the Mahabharata, Lava-Kushar Yuddha (lavakuśar yuddha) based on the Ramayana, and Tamradwajar Yudha (tāmradhvajar yuddha). Though translated works, they contain local descriptions and embellishments, a feature that describes all translated work of this period. His Babhruvahanar Yuddha, for instance makes references to articles of the Ahom kingdom, which at that time was a small kingdom in the east, and describes the undivided Lakhimpur region, and in Lava-Kushar Yuddha he departs from the original and describes local customs for Rama and Sita's pumsavana ceremony. All these works are associated with Durlabhanarayana of Kamata and his immediate successors.
The major work from this period that left a lasting impression is Saptakanda Ramayana (saptakāṇḍarāmāyana), composed by Madhava Kandali in verse, and recited in the court of a 14th-century Baraha king Mahamanikya (Mahamanikpha) who ruled either in the Nagaon or the Golaghat region. In chronology, among vernacular translations of the original Sanskrit, Kandali's Ramayana comes after Kamban's (Tamil, 12th century), and ahead of Kirttivas' (Bengali, 15th century), Tulsidas' (Awadhi, 16th century), Balaram Das' (Oriya) etc. Thus the Saptakanda Ramayana becomes the first rendition of the Ramayana into an Indo-Aryan language in the Indian subcontinent. The literary language (as opposed to the colloquial Assamese) this work adopted became the standard literary language for much of the following periods, till the rise of new literature in the 19th century. That his work was a major influence can be inferred from Sankardev's tribute to the "opromadi purbo kobi" (apramādī pūrvakavi, unerring predecessor poet).
The pada form of metrical verse (14 syllables in each verse with identical two syllables at the end of each foot in a couplet) became a standard in Assamese kavya works, something that continued till the modern times. Though a translated work, it is infused with local color, and instead of the heroic, Kandali instead emphasized the homely issues of relationships etc. Among the two kinds of alamkara's, arthalankaras were used extensively, with similes and metaphors taken from the local milieu even though the original works are set in foreign lands; whereas the shabdalankara (alliteration etc.) were rarely used.
In the pre-shankari era, a renowned mathematician, Bakul Kayastha from Kamarupa Kingdom, compiled Kitabat Manjari(1434), which was a translation of the Līlāvatī by Bhāskara II into Assamese. Kitabat Manjari is a poetical treatise on Arithmetic, Surveying and Bookkeeping. The book teaches how accounts are to be kept under different heads and how stores belonging to the royal treasury are to be classified and entered into a stock book. The works of Bakul Kayastha were regarded as standards in his time to be followed by other Kayasthas in maintaining royal accounts.
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