Brajavali (
Assamese
Assamese may refer to:
* Assamese people, a socio-ethnolinguistic identity of north-eastern India
* People of Assam, multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic and multi-religious people of Assam
* Assamese language, one of the easternmost Indo-Aryan language ...
: ''Brôzawôli'') was a literary language used by
Sankardev (1449–1568) for some of his compositions (
Borgeet
Borgeets ( as, বৰগীত, lit=songs celestial, translit=Borgeet) are a collection of lyrical songs that are set to specific ragas but not necessarily to any tala (music), tala. These songs, composed by Srimanta Sankardeva and Madhavdeva ...
s and
Ankia Naats) in the context of his Vaishnavite religion,
Ekasarana Dharma
Ekasarana Dharma (literally: ''Shelter-in-One religion'') is a neo-Vaishnavite monolithic religion propagated by Srimanta Sankardeva in the 15th-16th century in the Indian state of Assam. It reduced focus on vedic ritualism and focuses on de ...
, in
Assam
Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
. Though similar languages were used in the Vaishnavite contexts in
Odisa and
Bengal
Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
, the one used in Assam was different, as it was based on
Maithili (and not
Brajbhasa), to which
Assamese
Assamese may refer to:
* Assamese people, a socio-ethnolinguistic identity of north-eastern India
* People of Assam, multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic and multi-religious people of Assam
* Assamese language, one of the easternmost Indo-Aryan language ...
is added and the native pronunciation overrides the original pronunciation of Maithili. In general, the vocables and idiomatic expressions of Brajavali were local (Assamese), while the inflectional forms were Maithili,
easily understood by the people of Assam but carrying the flavor of
Brajbhasa, the language of choice of the
Bhakti poets.
See also
*
Brajabuli
Brajabuli is an artificial literary language popularized by the poet Vidyapati. His Brajabuli lyrics about the love which were turned out to be for Radha Krishna later on these are considered his best work. Other poets emulated his writing, and t ...
– another literary language based on Maithili
Notes
References
*
Languages of Assam
{{IndoAryan-lang-stub