Kamrupi Literature
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Kamrupi literature is the
literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...
written in the modern
Kamrupi dialects Kamrupi dialects are a group of regional dialects of Assamese, spoken in the Kamrup region. It formerly enjoyed prestige status. It is one of two western dialect groups of the Assamese language, the other being Goalpariya. Kamrupi is hetero ...
of
Assamese language Assamese () or Asamiya ( ) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam, where it is an official language. It has long served as a ''lingua franca'' in parts of Northeast India."Axomiya is the major langu ...
.


Legends

The story of Behula and Chand Sadagar appears to be common to both Bengal and Kamarupa. The ballads connected with this story must have been current in western Kamarupa and the rest of northern Bengal long before the verses were reduced to writing by Sukavi Narayan in the thirteenth century and by Durgabar in the early part of the sixteenth century. The ballads of Sukavi Naravan's composition are still sung in Kamrup and they are known as Suk Nanis or Suk-Narayanis to this day. Sukavi Narayan was very likely a poet of Kamarupa who described the sea-voyages of a Kamrupi trader named Chand Sadagar whose home was in
Chaygaon Chaygaon is a town in the Kamrup district of Assam, India; situated on the south bank of the Brahmaputra River. It is 38 km from the major town of Guwahati. The town is known for "Maa Chandika Devalaya", a Shakta pitha, where thousands of dev ...
in modern Kamrup, on the south bank of the
Brahmaputra The Brahmaputra is a trans-boundary river which flows through Southwestern China, Northeastern India, and Bangladesh. It is known as Brahmaputra or Luit in Assamese, Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibetan, the Siang/Dihang River in Arunachali, and ...
but, strangely enough, both Sukavi Narayan and Chand Sadagar have been claimed as natives of Bengal. The songs of Durgabar are still known as Durgabari.


Further development

There is much controversy as to the authorship and date of a work known as Dipiki Chanda. Internal evidence points to the compilation of the work after the death of Sankara Deva. The author is said to have been a king called Purusottama Gajapati. Several Assamese writers have attempted to locate him somewhere in Assam but all have failed to notice the fact that Purusottama Gajapati was a well-known powerful king of
Odisha Odisha (), formerly Orissa (List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2011), is a States and union territories of India, state located in East India, Eastern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by ar ...
who ruled from 1476 to 1497 A.D. and whose kingdom, or rather empire, extended from the Hugli district in modern Bengal as far as the
Guntur district Guntur district is one of the twenty six districts in the Coastal Andhra region of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The administrative seat of the district is located at Guntur, the List of urban agglom ...
of the
Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...
. He was the son of Kapilendra Gajapati and the father of Pratapa Rudra, the last powerful Gajapati who ruled from 1497 to 1541 A. D. and who was a contemporary of Sri Chaitanya. Purusottama Gajapati was a devout Vaisnava and he may have written the work known as Dipika Chanda in order to ridicule the later Buddhist sect and the Tantrik system. There was close connection between Kamarupa and Odisha in the sixteenth century on account of the existence, in the latter country, of the famous temple of
Jagannatha Jagannath (; formerly ) is a Hindu deity worshipped in regional Hindu traditions in India as part of a triad along with (Krishna's) brother Balabhadra, and sister, Subhadra. Jagannath, within Odia Hinduism, is the supreme god, '' Purushotta ...
at
Puri Puri, also known as Jagannath Puri, () is a coastal city and a Nagar Palika, municipality in the state of Odisha in eastern India. It is the district headquarters of Puri district and is situated on the Bay of Bengal, south of the state ca ...
. It is possible that an Kamrupi Vaisnava came across the book and translated it into Kamrupi verse. The title Gajapati could not have been assumed by an ordinary king. It was assumed by Kapilendra, the father of Purusottama, who possessed, according to the Muslim account Burhan-i-maasir, two hundred thousand war elephants.Banerji, ''History of Orissa Vol I'', p.292


Preservation of literary material

The Assam Government collection of Sanskrit and Assamese manuscripts now deposited in the library of the
Kamarupa Anusandhan Samiti The Kamarupa Anusandhana Samiti (Assam Research Society) is the oldest Research institution in North-East India, which was established in the year 1912 at Kamakhya with a view to working in the field of antiquarian study and research, particularly ...
, includes quite a good number of works. These are mostly works on astronomy, astrology, mathematics, proverbs, riddles, mantras, medicine, history or traditions and also tantras.


Nature of literary work

The Yuddha Jayanava Dasa, Jyotisha Chakra, Jataka Chandrika, Kerali, Jyotisha Darpan, Jyotisha Ratnamala and the Jyotisha Muktavali are all astrological works pertaining to preparation of horoscopes. The Mantra Prakasa and the Mandaladhyaya are Tantrik works. The Samudrika is a treatise on palmistry. The Shatachakra by Purnananda Paramahamsa is also a Tantrik work dealing with astral physiology. Besides the above there are numerous works on Hindu religion and religious rites based upon the Smrita Sastras of the works in the vernacular language of Kamarupa the most important are Bhamvati, an astrological work by Kaviraj Chakravarti, the Ghora Nidana, a treatise on horse and treatment of equine diseases, Gukarati, a collection of mantras to ward off charms practised by Tantrik Buddhists who defy the authority of the Vedas, the Hara-Gauri Sambada, an important book which, like the Yogini Tantra, gives, in the guise of prophesies, the history of ancient Kamarupa, the Jyotish Churamani by Churamani Kayastha, a work on Arithemetic and land-Surveying, the Kamratna Tantra," an Assamese translation of a Tantrik work of that name ascribed to Gorakshanath, a celebrated Buddhist Siddha who flourished in the fourteenth century and the Kitabata Manjari by
Bakul Kayastha Bakul Kayastha (born c. 1400) was a mathematician from Kamrup. He was especially known for his masterpiece in the field of mathematics named ''Kitabat Manjari,'' written in 1434, and ''Lilavati''. ''Kitabat Manjari'' is a poetical treatise on ...
written in Saka 1356 equivalent to 1434 A.D. This last named work is a poetical treatise on arithmetic, Surveying and book-keeping. The book teaches how accounts are to be kept under different heads and how stores belonging to the royal treasury are to be classified and entered into a stock-book.


References


Further reading

* * * * * * * * * {{refend Kamrupi culture Indian literature History of literature in India