Kamrupi
Encyclopedia
Kamarupi or present Kamrupi (Assamese
: কামৰুপি, Bengali
: কামরুপি) is the language that was spoken in the Kamarupa
kingdom in the first millennium, which, some linguists claim, gave rise to or influenced various eastern Indo-European languages like Assamese
and Bengali
.
During British India at some point Kamrup
was divided into two big districts for administrative reasons one added to Assam
and other to Bengal
. Slowly after this division, same Kamrupi gets dialect status of Assamese
and Bengali
although both Assamese
and Bengali
rooted out from mighty Kamrupi.
Kamrupi today is an endangered language
, and it will probably go to "dead" state like Latin
and Sanskrit
.
s of Assamese
language
spoken in the undivided Kamrup district of Assam
. The four main dialects that form this group are Kamrupi, Nalbariya, Barpetiya and South Kamrupi [Moral, 1992]. These dialects are spoken in the present districts of Kamrup, Nalbari, Barpeta, Darrang, Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon in Assam. The name is derived from the Kamarupa kingdom that existed from the fourth to the eleventh century, ruled by three major dynasties. The south Kamrupi dialect has been used with dramatic effect in the works of Mamoni Raisom Goswami
.
i scholars like Suniti Kumar Chatterjee and Sukumar Sen http://banglapedia.org/HT/B_0137.htm have named the dialect of Bengali
spoken in North Bengal as Kamrupi. This dialect is also called Kamatapuri named after the Kamata kingdom
that succeeded the Kamarupa
kingdom in the 13th century. The Assamese Kamrupi and the Bengali Kamrupi are very similar according to Suniti Kumar Chatterjee. The division possibly occurred due to political reasons: the division in the 16th-17th century of the Kamata kingdom
(under Koch dynasty
) along the Sankosh river. Today the two dialects form a dialect continuum.Some consider sylheti language to have several commonalities with Kamrupi .
The Sylheti language has undergone a lot of changes owing to its association with Urdu, Persian etc. The Sylheti language spoken today in Bangladesh by the majority Muslim community has little or nothing in common with Kamrupi. However, the Sylheti language spoken by the Sylheti Hindus residing in India, particularly the Barak Valley and other parts of Assam show a striking similarity in diction and pronunciation (fricatives, vowels etc) to Kamrupi. Thereby showing common ancestry.
An example of these similarities(there are more)
apabhramsa from which the three cognate languages---Assamese
, Bengali
and Oriya
---sprouted. The initial motive comes from extra-linguistic considerations. Kamarupa was the most powerful and formidable kingdom in the region which provided the political and cultural influence for the development of the Kamrupi apabhramsa. Xuanzang
's mention that the language spoken in Kamarupa was a 'little different' from the one spoken in Pundravardhana
is provided as evidence that this apabhramsa existed as early as the 5th century. That Kamarupa remained unconquered till the beginning of the Kamrupi language in the 14th century points to the possibility that the apabhramsa of the Kamarupa kingdom must have flourished.
Archaic forms found in epigraphic records from the Kamarupa period give evidence of this apabhramsa, of which there are numerous examples.
The Buddhist Charyapada
s from the 8th to 12th century are claimed by different languages: Assamese
, Bengali
, Oriya
and Maithili
languages. But the geographical region of its composition was the Kamarupa pitha and many of the composers were Kamarupi siddhas. Therefore the language in the Charyapadas is the best example of this apabhramsa. H. P. Sastri, who discovered these poems, termed the language sandhya bhasha (twilight language
) and this is nothing but the Kamarupi apabhramsa.
. The language is defined by uniquely identifiable Kamrupi grammar where Sanskritize pronunciation is used to compose present perfect form. This grammar is heavily used by Kamrupi speakers all over greater Kamrup now including in Assam and West Bengal. At least 95% of the "sloka" composed in yester year scriptures use this unique Kamrupi grammar.
Kamrupi came to endangered language
during British India when for administrative reasons Kamrup
was divided into two big districts one added to Bengal
and the other to Assam
. Thus, Kamrupi since then has never been written but only spoken and do not have a State Language status in India
.
It also claims that the standard languages, Bengali
and Assamese
, as well as the different dialects belonging to these language groups like Radhi, Virendari etc. have branched out of Kamrupi. This claim is not well substantiated because Bengali and other languages have had independent developments since the 14th century.
Assamese language
Assamese is the easternmost Indo-Aryan language. It is used mainly in the state of Assam in North-East India. It is also the official language of Assam. It is also spoken in parts of Arunachal Pradesh and other northeast Indian states. Nagamese, an Assamese-based Creole language is widely used in...
: কামৰুপি, Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
: কামরুপি) is the language that was spoken in the Kamarupa
Kamarupa (History)
Kamarupa, also called Pragjyotisha, was the first historical kingdom in Assam that existed between 350 and 1140 CE i.e for almost 800 years. Ruled by three dynasties from their capitals in present-day Guwahati and Tezpur, it covered the entire Brahmaputra river valley and, at times, North Bengal...
kingdom in the first millennium, which, some linguists claim, gave rise to or influenced various eastern Indo-European languages like Assamese
Assamese language
Assamese is the easternmost Indo-Aryan language. It is used mainly in the state of Assam in North-East India. It is also the official language of Assam. It is also spoken in parts of Arunachal Pradesh and other northeast Indian states. Nagamese, an Assamese-based Creole language is widely used in...
and Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
.
During British India at some point Kamrup
Kamrup
Kamrup district is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India, named after Kamarupa, a name by which Assam was previously known in ancient times. The district, however, is now a small western part of Assam, with a distinctive native Kamrupi culture and dialect . The distinctive...
was divided into two big districts for administrative reasons one added to Assam
Assam
Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...
and other to Bengal
Bengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...
. Slowly after this division, same Kamrupi gets dialect status of Assamese
Assamese language
Assamese is the easternmost Indo-Aryan language. It is used mainly in the state of Assam in North-East India. It is also the official language of Assam. It is also spoken in parts of Arunachal Pradesh and other northeast Indian states. Nagamese, an Assamese-based Creole language is widely used in...
and Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
although both Assamese
Assamese language
Assamese is the easternmost Indo-Aryan language. It is used mainly in the state of Assam in North-East India. It is also the official language of Assam. It is also spoken in parts of Arunachal Pradesh and other northeast Indian states. Nagamese, an Assamese-based Creole language is widely used in...
and Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
rooted out from mighty Kamrupi.
Kamrupi today is an endangered language
Endangered language
An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use. If it loses all its native speakers, it becomes a dead language. If eventually no one speaks the language at all it becomes an "extinct language"....
, and it will probably go to "dead" state like Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
and Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
.
Similarity with the Assamese Language
Kamrupi today denotes a group of dialectDialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
s of Assamese
Assamese language
Assamese is the easternmost Indo-Aryan language. It is used mainly in the state of Assam in North-East India. It is also the official language of Assam. It is also spoken in parts of Arunachal Pradesh and other northeast Indian states. Nagamese, an Assamese-based Creole language is widely used in...
language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
spoken in the undivided Kamrup district of Assam
Assam
Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...
. The four main dialects that form this group are Kamrupi, Nalbariya, Barpetiya and South Kamrupi [Moral, 1992]. These dialects are spoken in the present districts of Kamrup, Nalbari, Barpeta, Darrang, Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon in Assam. The name is derived from the Kamarupa kingdom that existed from the fourth to the eleventh century, ruled by three major dynasties. The south Kamrupi dialect has been used with dramatic effect in the works of Mamoni Raisom Goswami
Mamoni Raisom Goswami
Indira Goswami , known by her pen name Mamoni Raisom Goswami and popularly as Mamoni Baideo, was an Assamese editor, poet, professor, scholar and writer....
.
Similarity with the Sylheti-Bengali Language
The modern BengalBengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...
i scholars like Suniti Kumar Chatterjee and Sukumar Sen http://banglapedia.org/HT/B_0137.htm have named the dialect of Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
spoken in North Bengal as Kamrupi. This dialect is also called Kamatapuri named after the Kamata kingdom
Kamata Kingdom
The Kamata kingdom appeared in the western part of the older Kamarupa kingdom in the 13th century, after the fall of the Pala dynasty. The rise of the Kamata kingdom marked the end of the ancient period in the History of Assam and the beginning of the medieval period. The first rulers were the...
that succeeded the Kamarupa
Kamarupa (History)
Kamarupa, also called Pragjyotisha, was the first historical kingdom in Assam that existed between 350 and 1140 CE i.e for almost 800 years. Ruled by three dynasties from their capitals in present-day Guwahati and Tezpur, it covered the entire Brahmaputra river valley and, at times, North Bengal...
kingdom in the 13th century. The Assamese Kamrupi and the Bengali Kamrupi are very similar according to Suniti Kumar Chatterjee. The division possibly occurred due to political reasons: the division in the 16th-17th century of the Kamata kingdom
Kamata Kingdom
The Kamata kingdom appeared in the western part of the older Kamarupa kingdom in the 13th century, after the fall of the Pala dynasty. The rise of the Kamata kingdom marked the end of the ancient period in the History of Assam and the beginning of the medieval period. The first rulers were the...
(under Koch dynasty
Koch dynasty
The Koch dynasty of Assam and Bengal, named after the Koch tribe, emerged as the dominant ruling house in the Kamata kingdom in 1515 after the fall of the Khen dynasty in 1498...
) along the Sankosh river. Today the two dialects form a dialect continuum.Some consider sylheti language to have several commonalities with Kamrupi .
The Sylheti language has undergone a lot of changes owing to its association with Urdu, Persian etc. The Sylheti language spoken today in Bangladesh by the majority Muslim community has little or nothing in common with Kamrupi. However, the Sylheti language spoken by the Sylheti Hindus residing in India, particularly the Barak Valley and other parts of Assam show a striking similarity in diction and pronunciation (fricatives, vowels etc) to Kamrupi. Thereby showing common ancestry.
An example of these similarities(there are more)
| Kamrupi | Sylheti | Assamese | English | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Xhi Ghorot gaesi | Xhe Ghoro gaese | Xhi Ghorot goise | >- | Tai Ghorot gaesi | Tai Ghoro gaese | Tai Ghorot goise | >- | Eta Kamot aisu | Ekta Kamo aaisi | Eta Kamot Ahilu | >- | Deksa na nai ? | Deksos ki na ? | Dekhisa na nai ? | >- | Zaba na tumi ? | Zaibay ni tumi ? | Zaba ne tumi ? | >- | Khuwam | Khawaimu | Khuwam | >- | Kumra | Kumra | Komora | >- | Mekur | Mekur | Mekuri | >- | Hosa | Hasa | Hosa | Truth |
Apabhramsa
Some linguists claim that there existed a Kamrupi apabhramsa as opposed to the MagadhiMagadhi Prakrit
Magadhi Prakrit is of one of the three Dramatic Prakrits, the written languages of Ancient India following the decline of Pali and Sanskrit. Magadhi Prakrit was spoken in the eastern Indian subcontinent, in a region spanning what is now eastern India, Bangladesh, and Nepal. It is believed to be the...
apabhramsa from which the three cognate languages---Assamese
Assamese language
Assamese is the easternmost Indo-Aryan language. It is used mainly in the state of Assam in North-East India. It is also the official language of Assam. It is also spoken in parts of Arunachal Pradesh and other northeast Indian states. Nagamese, an Assamese-based Creole language is widely used in...
, Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
and Oriya
Oriya language
Oriya , officially Odia from November, 2011, is an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is mainly spoken in the Indian states of Orissa and West Bengal...
---sprouted. The initial motive comes from extra-linguistic considerations. Kamarupa was the most powerful and formidable kingdom in the region which provided the political and cultural influence for the development of the Kamrupi apabhramsa. Xuanzang
Xuanzang
Xuanzang was a famous Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveler, and translator who described the interaction between China and India in the early Tang period...
's mention that the language spoken in Kamarupa was a 'little different' from the one spoken in Pundravardhana
Pundravardhana
This article is about the historical territory. For the Mahabharata kingdom see Pundra KingdomPundravardhana , was a territory located in North Bengal in ancient times, home of the Pundra, a group of people speaking languages not of the Indo-European family.-Etymology:There are several theories...
is provided as evidence that this apabhramsa existed as early as the 5th century. That Kamarupa remained unconquered till the beginning of the Kamrupi language in the 14th century points to the possibility that the apabhramsa of the Kamarupa kingdom must have flourished.
Archaic forms found in epigraphic records from the Kamarupa period give evidence of this apabhramsa, of which there are numerous examples.
The Buddhist Charyapada
Charyapada
The Charyapada is a collection of 8th-12th century Vajrayana Buddhist caryagiti, or mystical poems from the tantric tradition in eastern India. Being caryagiti , the Charyapada were intended to be sung. These songs of realization were spontaneously composed verses that expressed a practitioner's...
s from the 8th to 12th century are claimed by different languages: Assamese
Assamese language
Assamese is the easternmost Indo-Aryan language. It is used mainly in the state of Assam in North-East India. It is also the official language of Assam. It is also spoken in parts of Arunachal Pradesh and other northeast Indian states. Nagamese, an Assamese-based Creole language is widely used in...
, Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
, Oriya
Oriya language
Oriya , officially Odia from November, 2011, is an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is mainly spoken in the Indian states of Orissa and West Bengal...
and Maithili
Maithili language
Maithili language is spoken in the eastern region of India and South-eastern region of Nepal. The native speakers of Maithili reside in Bihar, Jharkhand,parts of West Bengal and South-east Nepal...
languages. But the geographical region of its composition was the Kamarupa pitha and many of the composers were Kamarupi siddhas. Therefore the language in the Charyapadas is the best example of this apabhramsa. H. P. Sastri, who discovered these poems, termed the language sandhya bhasha (twilight language
Twilight language
Twilight language may refer to:*A conspiracy theory proposed by James Shelby Downard and embraced by Michael A. Hoffman II*The Twilight Language, a polysemic language and communication system associated with Tantric traditions...
) and this is nothing but the Kamarupi apabhramsa.
Endangered language
Kamrupi is an endangered languageEndangered language
An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use. If it loses all its native speakers, it becomes a dead language. If eventually no one speaks the language at all it becomes an "extinct language"....
. The language is defined by uniquely identifiable Kamrupi grammar where Sanskritize pronunciation is used to compose present perfect form. This grammar is heavily used by Kamrupi speakers all over greater Kamrup now including in Assam and West Bengal. At least 95% of the "sloka" composed in yester year scriptures use this unique Kamrupi grammar.
Kamrupi came to endangered language
Endangered language
An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use. If it loses all its native speakers, it becomes a dead language. If eventually no one speaks the language at all it becomes an "extinct language"....
during British India when for administrative reasons Kamrup
Kamrup
Kamrup district is an administrative district in the state of Assam in India, named after Kamarupa, a name by which Assam was previously known in ancient times. The district, however, is now a small western part of Assam, with a distinctive native Kamrupi culture and dialect . The distinctive...
was divided into two big districts one added to Bengal
Bengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...
and the other to Assam
Assam
Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...
. Thus, Kamrupi since then has never been written but only spoken and do not have a State Language status in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
It also claims that the standard languages, Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
and Assamese
Assamese language
Assamese is the easternmost Indo-Aryan language. It is used mainly in the state of Assam in North-East India. It is also the official language of Assam. It is also spoken in parts of Arunachal Pradesh and other northeast Indian states. Nagamese, an Assamese-based Creole language is widely used in...
, as well as the different dialects belonging to these language groups like Radhi, Virendari etc. have branched out of Kamrupi. This claim is not well substantiated because Bengali and other languages have had independent developments since the 14th century.