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Culture of Assam

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Through Assam, Mahabharata and Common Era

Lab · Class 6–12Sociology: Individual & Society

Historical perspective

The roots of culture in Assam goes back almost five thousand years when the first wave of humans, the Austroasiatic people reached the Brahmaputra valley. They mixed with the later immigrant Tibeto-Burman and the Indo-Aryan peoples out there in prehistoric times. The last wave of migration was that of the Tai/Shan who later formed the idea of Assamese culture and its identity. The Ahoms, later on, brought some more Indo-Aryans like the Assamese Brahmins and Ganaks and Assamese Kayasthas (Kalitas) to Assam.

According to the epic Mahabharata and on the basis of local folklore, people of Assam (Kiratas) probably lived in a kingdom under the Himalayas before the Common Era, which led to early assimilation of various Tibeto-Burman and Autro-Asiatic ethnic groups. Hydronyms and geographic distribution of related ethno-cultural groups also support this theory.

It is believed that Assamese culture developed its roots over 750 years as the country of Kamarupa during the first millennium AD of Bodo-Kachari people assimilation with Aryan. The first 300 years of Kamarupa was under the great Varman dynasty, 250 years under the Mlechchha dynasty and 200 years under the Pala dynasty. The records of many aspects of the language, traditional crafts (silk, lace, gold, bronze, etc.) are available in different forms. When the Tai-Shans entered the region under the leadership of Sukaphaa to establish Ahom kingdom in Assam for the next several centuries, the modern form of Assamese culture developed. The original Tai-Shans assimilated with the local culture adopted the language on one hand and on the other also influenced the culture with the elements from their own. Similarly, the Chutia kingdom in eastern Assam, the Koch Kingdom in western Assam and the medieval Kachari and Jaintia kingdoms in southern Assam provided stages for assimilation at different intensities and with different cultural-mixes.

The Vaishnava Movement, a 15th-century religio-cultural movement under the leadership of Srimanta Sankardeva and his disciples, has provided another dimension to the Assamese culture.

A renewed Hinduisation in local forms took place, which was initially greatly supported by the Koch and later by the Ahom Kingdoms. The resultant social institutions such as namghar and sattra – the Vaishnav Hermitage have become part of the Assamese way of life. The movement contributed greatly towards language, literature, and performing and fine arts. On many occasions, the Vaishnav Movement attempted to introduce cultural attributes and modify the way of life of the common people. Brajavali, a language specially created by introducing words from other Indian languages, failed as a language but left its traces on the Assamese language. Moreover, new rules were also introduced changing people's food habits and other aspects of cultural life.

During periods when strong politico-economic systems emerged under powerful dynasties, greater cultural assimilation created common attributes of Assamese culture, while under less powerful politico-economic systems or during political disintegration, more localized attributes were created with spatial differentiation. Time-factors for such integrations differentiations have also played an important role along with the position of individual events in the entire series of events.

With a strong base of tradition and history, modern Assamese culture is greatly influenced by various events that took place in under British rule of Assam and in the Post-British Era. The language was standardized by American Missionaries according to that of the Sibsagar District, the center of the Ahom politico-economic system while a renewed Sanskritisation was increasingly adopted for the developing Assamese language and grammar (ব্যাকৰণ). A new wave of Western and northern Indian influence was apparent in the performing arts and literature.

Due to increasing efforts of standardization in the 19th and 20th centuries, the localized forms present in different districts and also among the remaining source-cultures with the less-assimilated ethnocultural groups have seen greater alienation. However, Assamese culture in its hybrid form and nature is one of the richest and is still under development. 20th century saw numerous self-determination and identity movement and many states were new states created in the process as most indigenous tribal communities of the state refused to accept the idea of collective Assamese identity which was imposed upon them. Many indigenous tribal communities of the state still oppose the efforts of assimilation into Assamese cultural identity.

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