Assam
| Assam | |
| Location of Assam | |
| Capital | Guwahati 26.15° N 91.77° E |
| Largest city | Guwahati |
| Abbreviation | IN-AS |
| Official languages | Assamese, Bodo, Karbi |
| Legislature • Strength • Governor • Chief Minister | Unicameral 126 Ajai Singh (list) Tarun Gogoi (list) |
| Formation | 1947-08-15† |
| Area | 78,438 kmē (16th) |
| Population (2001) | 26,638,407 (14th) |
| Density | 340/kmē |
| Districts | 23 |
| Time zone | IST (UTC +5:30) |
| Seal of Assam | |
| † Assam had a legislature since 1937 | |
Assam (অসম) is a northeastern state of India with its capital at Dispur. Located just below the eastern Himalayan foothills, it is surrounded by the other northeastern states: Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Meghalaya. Assam and its commercial capital Guwahati form the gateway to the northeastern states, together called the seven sisters. These states are connected to the rest of India via Assam's border with West Bengal and a narrow strip called the "Chicken's Neck." Assam shares international borders with Bhutan and Bangladesh.
Origin of name
The land of Assam was known by various names in the past---Pragjyotishpura in ancient hindu scriptures like the Mahabharata, and Kamarupa in the early medieval times. After the decline of the Kamarupa kingdom in the 12th century, the land that included a part of the old Kamarupa kingdom and regions to the east of it was ruled by a Shan people, who called themselves Tai, but who were called Ahoms by the others. This kingdom lasted for nearly 600 years. Satyendra Nath Sarma writes [Assamese Literature, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1976]:While the Shan invaders called themselves Tai, they came to be referred to as Āsām, Āsam and sometimes as Acam by the indigenous people of the country. The modern Assamese word Āhom by which the Tai people are known is derived from Āsām or Āsam. The epithet applied to the Shan conquerors was subsequently transferred to the country over which they ruled and thus the name Kāmarūpa was replaced by Āsām, which ultimately took the Sanskritized form Asama, meaning "unequalled, peerless or uneven" [Banikanta Kakati: Assamese: Its Formation and Development, p2]
Early documented mentions
Therefore, the name Assam is of relatively recent origin. One of the first unambiguous references come from Thomas Bowrey in 1663 about Mir Jhumla's death: "They lost the best of Nabobs, the Kingdome of Acham, and, by consequence, many large priviledges" (Bowrey, Thomas, A Geographical Account of Countries around Bay of Bengal, ed Temple, R. C., Hakluyt Society's Publications). Tavernier's "Travels in India", published in 1676 uses the spelling "Assen" for Assam in the French original. The official chronicler of Mir Jhumla too calls the place "Asam" (The Indian Antiquary, July 1887, pp222-226). Most scholars accept that the first known mention of the word Assam today is in a stanza from the Assamese Bhagavad Puran composed/translated about the middle of the 16th century which described the ethnic groups of the region (Srimadbhagavad, skandha 2, H Duttabaruah and Co., Nalbari, pp-38) transcibed in iTrans:
kiraTa kachhaari khaachi gaaro miri
yavana ka~Nka govaala |
asama maluka dhobaa ye turuka
kubaacha mlechchha chaNDaala