Etymology of Assam

The Etymology of Assam is an issue that often comes up for debate in the Indian state of Assam. In the latest instance, the Government of Assam under the Indian National Congress has sought to change the name of the state from "Assam" to "Asom". This move has been opposed by a wide range of people, triggering once again a public debate.

The academic consensus is that the name is associated with the Ahom kingdom (called Kingdom of Assam in medieval times), established by the Shan prince Sukaphaa in the 13th and which existed till 19th century for nearly 600 years. According to historian Satyendra Nath Sarma, [Sarma, Satyendra Nath (1976) "Assamese Literature", Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden.]

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]

Though there exists an academic consensus on the association of "Assam" with the Ahom kingdom, the exact etymology is not clear. Look below for some theories.

Evidence of names

Pragjyotisha

The land referred as Progjyotisha in the Mahabharata is now accepted to be present-day Assam. In the "Bhismaparvan", the Pragjyotisha king Bhagadatta is said to have joined the Kurukshetra war with an army of "kirata" and "cinas". Since the name China is derived from the Qin Dynasty (221 BC - 206 BC), the reference cannot be dated to earlier than the 3rd century BC. In the Ramayana Pragjyotisha is situated on the Varaha mountain and not in present-day Assam, and it seemed that "the author of these stanzas, whosoever he was, had no idea at all of its location and was just eager to refer to it as it had already become a celebrated town". [Shastri, Ajay Mitra (2002) "Ancient North-East India (Pragjyotisha)", Aryan Books International, New Delhi.]

Kamarupa

:"See also:" Kamarupa Kingdom

The earliest epigraphic mention of the Assam region comes from the Samudragupta's Allahabad stone pillar from 4th century AD, where it is called Kamarupa. Later epigraphic sources from Assam calls the kingdom "Pragjyotisha-Kamarupa". In the early 12th century epigraphic sources from the Pala dynasty mention Kamarupa as a "mandala" (an administrative division) of the kingdom they ruled. The invasion of western Assam by Allauddin Hussein of Gaur up to Barnadi river in 1498 is recorded in coins (from the early 16th century), which declares Hussein as the conqueror of "Kamru" (and not "Assam".)

Assam and other derivatives

The earliest mention of "Assam" is found in the Bhagavat of Sankardeva, composed in the 15th and 16th centuries. The relevant stanza [Srimandbhagavat, skandha 2, H Dattabaruah and Co., Nalbari, pp-38] is (in [http://www.aczoom.com/itrans/#itransencoding iTrans] )

kiraTa kachhaari khaachi gaaro miri yavana ka~Nka govaala
asama maluka dhobaa ye turuka kubaacha mlechchha chaNDaala |

In a map of [http://www.indiawijzer.nl/links/assam/map_of_bengale.jpg"Kingdom of Bengale"] , drawn by Joh. van Leenen around 1661 and published around 1662, Assam was clearly named and correctly identified. ["Vervarelijke Schipbreuk Van't Oostindisch Jacht Terschilling", January 1944, W. de Haan NV, Utrecht. The [http://www.indiawijzer.nl/links/assam/map_of_bengale.jpgmap] .]

One of the first unambiguous references comes from Thomas Bowrey in 1663 about Mir Jumla's death: "They lost the best of Nabobs, the Kingdome of Acham, and, by consequence, many large privileges". [Bowrey, Thomas, "A Geographical Account of Countries around Bay of Bengal", ed Temple, R. C., Hakluyt Society's Publications]

Jean-Baptiste Tavernier's "Travels in India", published in 1676 uses the spelling "Assen" for Assam in the French original.

The official chronicler of Mir Jumla too calls the place "Asam". [The Indian Antiquary, July 1887, pp222-226]

In various documents of British East India Company, in their relationships with the last few Ahom kings, the name of country was mentioned as Assam. After the fall of the Ahom kingdom and the conquest by the British in 1826, in the Treaty of Yandabo, "Assam" was used to denote the area under the erstwhile Ahoms, and its protectorates (Darrang Koch, Jaintias, Kacharis and some hill areas in the present Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland).

After the British took control of the region, the name "Assam" was extended to the province which was then much larger than he erstwhile Ahom kingdom. It then included, Garo Hills and Lushai Hills (Mizoram). The boundaries of Assam have been redrawn many times after that, but the name Assam remained. Today, the political boundary of Assam contains roughly the historical Ahom Kingdom and its protectorates, the Kachari kingdom, Koch Hajo and a part of the Jaintia Kingdom.

Theories on etymology

Though there exists a consensus on the fact that the name Assam is associated with the Ahom kingdom, the exact etymology of Assam is not clear and there are a number of theories that address this issue.

Ha-sam

According to Amalendu Guha "The Ahom domain of Upper Assam came to be known to the Dimasa and other Bodo people as "Ha-Sam" (the land of the Shams or Shans) in their language. From this the terms 'Asam' and 'Ahom' were derived in due course, and the first term came to stand for the expanded Ahom klngdom. Under the impact of the Indo-Aryan heritage of the region, the concept of 'Asam' was further extended to cover the entire area defined as 'Kamarupa' in the Kalika-Purana (c 9th-10th centuries). The Ahom statesmen and chroniclers wishfully looked forward to the Karatoya as their natural western frontier. They also looked upon themselves as the heirs of that glory that was ancient Kamarupa by right of conquest, and they long cherished infructuously their unfulfilled hopes of expanding up to that frontier." [The Ahom Political System: An Enquiry into the State Formation Process in Medieval Assam (1228-1714), Amalendu Guha, Social Scientist, Vol. 11, No. 12. (Dec., 1983), pp. 3-34.]

Notes