After an eventful journey covering more than thousand years, Asomiya (Assamese) duly receives the status of a classical language. The Union cabinet on 3 October 2024 approved conferring the classical language status to five languages, namely Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Bengali (Bangla), and Assamese. The classical languages serve as custodians of Bharat’s profound and ancient cultural heritage, embodying the essence of each community’s historical and cultural milestone. Assamese, which is spoken by over 20 million people on Earth, gets an entry to the prestigious category of Tamil (notified in 2004), Sanskrit (2005), Telugu (2008), Kannada (2008), Malayalam (2013), and Odia (2014) languages.

The central government decided to create a new category of languages as classical in October 2004 and declared Tamil as a classical language. Some important criteria for the same were also formulated, including the high antiquity of its early text/recorded history over a thousand years, a body of ancient literature/texts that is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers, the literary tradition as original and not borrowed from another speech community, etc. It was followed by the constitution of a Linguistic Experts Committee under Sahitya Akademi to examine the proposal for a particular language for the said status.

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As a linguistically diverse nation, India nurtures more than 121 languages and thousands of sub-languages or dialects. Now conferring the classical status to a widely used language should help encourage academic research, acknowledgement of linguistic heritages, and preservation with documenting and digitising ancient texts. The government usually supports announcing national and international awards, establishing chairs in reputed universities, and various other initiatives to promote the classical languages. The recent declaration is expected to benefit the states of Maharashtra, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, and Assam. Nevertheless, Pali is widely spoken in Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka.

Asomiya is primarily rooted in Sanskrit (even though maintaining some distinct features) and can be traced since the days of the 7th century in the written structure. But the language may have survived in the oral form since the 4th century. Assamese scripts are very similar to Bengali and Maithili. A number of linguists argue that pre-modern Assamese scripts are found in Charyapadas (ancient Buddhist tantric text). Various scholars also believe that Assamese was enhanced by both Magadhi-Prakrit and Kamrupi-Prakrit groups. The language is also understood in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya, and some parts of Bangladesh and Bhutan.

Great Assamese poet Kaviraj Madhav Kandali translated the Valmiki Ramayana (in Sanskrit) into graceful Assamese verses in the 14th century. Saptakanda Ramayana is known as one of the earliest translations into a modern regional language (only preceded by Tamil and Telugu translations). The flawless poet projected the epic characters, namely Ram, Sita, and Lakshman, with others in a non-heroic way. As the Adikanda and Uttarakanda of Kandali’s literary work were lost, those were inserted respectively by great Vaishnavite saint Madhavdev and his saint-poet Guru Sankardev, the greatest son of the soil in far eastern Bharat, during the 16th century. Earlier, Hem Saraswati created Prahlad Charita, an Assamese poem with a lot of Sanskrit words in the 13th century.

The ancient Sanskrit literature mentions Pragjyotishpur during the Mahabharat days (which represented the larger Brahmaputra valley, parts of other north–eastern states, and north Bengal). Later it came to exist as the great Kamrup kingdom, which is indicated in rock inscriptions created during the 4th century by emperor Samudra Gupta, recognised as one of the greatest rulers of Bharat. The name of the land (mostly the eastern part) as Asom was possibly initiated by the Ahom dynasty rulers, who entered this part of India in 1228 and assimilated with the local culture. Ahom kings ruled Assam for nearly six hundred years until the Burmese invasion in 1826. After independence, Assam became a constituent state in 1950, and its capital was shifted to Dispur in Guwahati from Shillong (the present-day Meghalaya capital) in 1974. Following the language movement in 1959-60, Assamese was adopted as the official language, while Bengali enjoyed similar status in Barak Valley.

State chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has already expressed his gratitude to the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the historic decision to accord Assamese the classical status. The saffron leader opined that this recognition will help the Assamese language that carries the ancient wisdom of numerous saints, philosophers, thinkers, and writers to be better preserved. Promoting the language that lasted over a thousand years with independent traditions will now be more accommodating, he added.

With an aim to celebrate the historic achievement, Assam will observe Bhasa Gaurob Saptah from 3–9 November, where the universities, schools, and civil society organisations will host events to honour the contributions of Assamese writers and scholars, whose works shaped the language since the 4th century AD. The celebration will also give an opportunity to the people to express their heartfelt gratitude to PM Modi for the gesture towards the cultural and language heritage of Assam.

Meanwhile, a forum of nationalist citizens extended heartfelt thanks to the government for paving the way to recognise Assamese as a classical language of India. Patriotic People’s Front Assam (PPFA), in a media statement, appreciated everyone who contributed for the momentum to achieve the honour. Now the forum insists on developing Asomiya as an internet-savvy language so that any user can cross-check the spelling and construction of sentences while using various digital media platforms. Moreover, many Assamese words are still printed differently in a number of well-known dictionaries. Some words recorded in the school books of yesteryear are now assumed to be wrong. The forum insisted on resolving these issues passionately with a scientific approach.

Moreover, the eastern Assamese dialect (primarily spoken in upper Assam) was considered the standard (written) form of Asomiya for official uses in government communication, educational purposes, and mainstream media outlets. The western Assamese dialect (spoken in lower Assam) was not considered for the recognition, seemingly to distinguish the difference with the working Bengali language. The forum argues that all those words (precisely from the Kamrupi language) that survived orally for centuries among native speakers in western Assam should also be incorporated. It may emerge as an intriguing debate where every Assamese would endorse a pragmatic way while defining Asomiya as a vibrant, inclusive, and evolving language.

The writer is a Guwahati-based special representative of The Statesman