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 heterogeneous with three subdialects— Barpetia dialect, Nalbariya dialect and Palasbaria dialect.
In medieval times, Kamrupi was used in the Brahmaputra Valley and its adjoining areas for literary purposes in parallel with Sanskrit, both for prose and poetry. This went against the practices of literary figures of mid India like Vidyapati who used Sanskrit for prose and Maithili for poetry. In more recent times, the South Kamrupi dialect has been used in the works of author Indira Goswami. Poet and nationalist Ambikagiri Raichoudhury also used Kamrupi in his works to great extent. In 2018, the Kamrupi film Village Rockstars became the first from the region to be selected for India's official entry to the 91st Academy Awards.

Features

Phonology

The Kamrupi dialects have seven phonemes in contrast to the eight in standard Assamese dialect. The phoneme that is missing in the Kamrupi dialects is the close-mid back rounded vowel //. In the Kamrupi dialects, this vowel is replaced by another vowel, a diphthong or a different form.

Morphology

According to Upendranath Goswami, differences between Kamrupi and east Assamese is not insignificant, they ranged over whole field of phonology, morphology and vocabulary.
Its unique features distinguishes it from Eastern Assamese, there may some commonalities—case endings, conjugational affixes, pronominal roots, derivatives and vocabulary—that underscore a fundamental unity, nonetheless, Kamrupi dialect, with a long history of its own differs greatly from the eastern variety of Assamese.
Dr. Nirmalendu Bhowmik, while discussing similarity of Kamrupi with Eastern Assamese, observes that despite some similarity in morphology, there is absolutely no similarity in terms of phonology, though both languages shares few common words.

Comparison with other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages

Eastern Indo-Aryan languages share a common phonological structure.

KamrupiSylhetiStandard AssameseTranslation
Xi ghorot/ghorok gesi He Goro gese Xi Ghoroloi/Ghorot goise He has gone home.
Tai Ghorot gesi Tai Goro gese Tai Ghoroloi/Ghorot goise She has gone home.
Eta Kamot aihlu/aisu Exta xamo aisi Eta Kamot Ahilû/Ahisû I have come for some work.
Deksa na? Dexso ni? Dekhisa ne? Have you seen it?
Zaba na tumi? Zaibay ni tumi? Zaba ne tumi? Will you leave?

Glossarial

There is differences in vocables of Kamrupi and Eastern Assamese, such that even common objects are denoted by different words. In eastern variety there are no generic terms to such English words like brothers and sisters, Kamrupi do have, such as bhak and bainak. Kamrupi also uses /soli/ for both boys and girls collectively for children, East Assamese lacks such forms.
Khüam Xauaimu Khüam Feed
Kumra Kumṛa Kümüra Gourd
MekurMekur/Bilai Mekuri Cat
Hosa Hasa Xosa Truth
Dhól Ḍul Dhül Drum
Nun Nun Lün Salt
Sana Aulad Püali/Sona Offspring
Dima Ḍim/Enḍa/Boida Koni/Dim Egg
Gila/Gilak Guin Bilak Plural suffix
Pani Fani Pani Water
Taka Texa Toka Money
Bazar Bazar Bozar Market
Chowk Souk Tiniali/Sariali Town square
Manhu Manu/Manuš/Mainš Manuh People

Old Indo-Aryan words

Kamrupi retained many Old Indo-Aryan words.
KamrupiEast AssameseSylhetiO.I.ATranslation
ThengThengTengTangaLeg
Pek BükaFexPankaMud
PhenPhenFenPhenaFoam
BorBorVaraBridegroom
Bari BariUtanVatikaEnclosed ground with plantation
SoliSabalChalliOffspring
Boni BhoniBoni/BoinBhaginiSister
DimaDimDimDimbaEgg
KakeKakoiXaxoiKanikattikaComb
Niar NiorNiorNiharaFog
KurmaKutumbakaRelative

Definition of the region

The Kamrup between Manas and Barnadi rivers, where Kamrupi is spoken, formed the capital area of two of three dynasties of the ancient Kamarupa kingdom, with Pragjyotishpura and Durjaya. Kingdom existed as parallel to Davaka of central Assam. Absorption of Davaka by Kamrup marks eastward expansion of latter, which ultimately covered area from the Karatoya in the west to the temple of Dikkaravasini at Sadiya in the east, Bhutan in north and Northern Bangladesh in south.

Medieval

s established four sarkars : Bangalbhum, Dhekeri, Dakkhinkul and Kamrup; placing Kamrup in "Sarkar Kamrup".
The Kamrupi is currently prevalent in Mughal Sarkar of Kamrup. In late medieval times, Kamrupi literary style passed to eastern Assam.
The examples of medieval Assamese or middle Kamrupi are obtained from the 14th century from North Bengal, Western Assam and fewer in central Assam, and this was followed by a deluge of literary activity in the 16th century that accompanied the growth of Srimanta Sankardeva's Vaishnavite movement. The literary activities occurred throughout Assam and North Bengal, and influence of Kamrupi remain strong throughout.
Some forms of Early and Middle Assamese which are still present in some dialects of Kamrupi Assamese and Central Assamese but absent in current Eastern Assamese :
Kamrup passed to the British in 1824, and the colonial district, largely congruous to the Kamapitha and Mughal Sarkar became the Undivided Kamrup district in the post-colonial period.
Form spoken in Eastern Assam, come to notice due to translation of Bible in 1838 by American Baptist Missions, as part of conversion process. British adopted Eastern Assamese as the standard official language in 1873, due to recommendations of Christian missionaries. Whereas the Kamrupi was non-uniform, the eastern dialect was uniform over a large territory in eastern Assam. Nevertheless, Kamrupi pandits like Shyamal Choudhury, Amrit Bhushan Adhikary and Kaliram Medhi objected the imposition of eastern Assamese as official language of entire valley, especially in Kamrup due to distinctness and antiquity of Kamrupi language.

Modern

Since the center of literary activity has moved back to Guwahati in Kamrup, the standard based on eastern dialects has started acquiring Kamrupi dialectal elements in recent decades. For example, the instrumental case is -di in Kamrupi and -re in eastern Assamese, and the Kamrupi form is increasingly common in the Standard.
These dialects are now spoken in the present districts of Kamrup Rural, western part of Kamrup Metropolitan, Nalbari, Barpeta, Darrang, and parts of Goalpara, Udalguri and Chirang. The name is derived from the collonial Kamrup district, from Kamarupa kingdom.

Scholarly views

, keeping north of the Ganga river, gave rise to the Kamarupa Apabhramsa dialects of Western Assam and North Bengal. He divides Magadhan dialects regionwise as Radha, Varendra, Kamarupa and Vanga
Sukumar Sen referring to ancientness of Kamrupi, wrote, "Assamese, or more appropriately the old Kamarupi dialect entered into Kamrup or western Assam, where this speech was first characterized as Assamese."
Upendranath Goswami wrote, "The Assamese language, coming from the west was first characterized in Kamrup or Western Assam whose boundary comprised in early times the whole of North-Bengal, including Cooch-Behar, Rangpur and Jalpaiguri districts of Bengal".

Literature

The early examples of Kamrupi writings and literature are copper plate seals of Kamrupi kings, issued in different parts of eastern and Northern India and the Charyapada, which is a collection of 8th-12th century Vajrayana Buddhist caryagiti, or mystical poems. Being caryagiti, the Charyapada were intended to be sung. These songs of realization were spontaneously composed verses, that expressed a practitioner's experience of the enlightened state. A manuscript of this anthology was discovered in the early 20th century, by Hariprasad Shastri in Nepal. It provides the examples of the Kamrupi and other eastern Indo-Aryan languages.
The writers of the Charyapada, the Mahasiddhas or Siddhacharyas, belonged to the various regions of Kamrup, Gauda, Kalinga and Mithila. A Tibetan translation of the Charyapada was also preserved in the Tibetan Buddhist canon.
The notable medieval Kamrupi literary figures are Rama Saraswati, Ananta Kandali, Sridhara Kandali, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, Kalapachandra Dvija and Bhattadeva, the father of Assamese prose.
Hema Saraswati and Haribara Vipra are two other well known Kamrupi poets. Hema Saraswati composed the "Prahlad Charitra" based on the Vamana Purana, while Haribara Vipra translated the Aswamedha Parva of the Mahabharata. Kaviratna was the author of the "Jayadratha Vadha". His home was at Sila, a village within the Barpeta district. The writings of all these three poets are still extant. To a some what later period belonged Madhava Kandali and Rudra Kandali. The former versified portions of the Ramayana and the latter composed, in Kamrupi verse, portions of the Mahabharata.
Sankara Deva who was born in 1449 A.D., refers to Madhava Kandali as one of the reputed poets belonging to an earlier age. It may therefore place both Madhava Kandali and Rudra Kandali towards the end of the fourteenth century. In his Ramayana, Madhava Kandali himself states that his other name was Kaviraj-Kandali and that though he could easily compose verses in Sanskrit he composed the Ramayana in Assamese verse for the benefit of the people at large. Madhava Kandali wrote also another poem entitled "Devajit." Sixteenth century, witnessed a great development of the vernacular literature of Kamarupa. The Yogini Tantra, a well-known Sanskrit work which gives the boundaries of the kingdom of Kamarupa, as it existed during the rule of the Pala kings, probably written in Kamarupa during the first pact of the sixteenth century. To this period it must also assign the compilation of the Behula Upakhyana by Durgabar Kayastha, a native of Kamakhya.