Now it’s official– Assamese (Asomiya) is a classical language. The Union Cabinet on 3 October 2024 approved to confer Classical Language status to the Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Bengali (Bangla), and Assamese languages. The classical languages serve as a custodian 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, gets entry to the prestigious category already comprising Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Odia languages.
The Union government in New Delhi 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, which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers, the literary tradition as being 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.
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, acknowledge linguistic heritages, and preserve by documenting and digitizing ancient texts. The government usually supports by announcing national and international awards, establishing chairs in reputed universities, and providing various other initiatives to promote the classical languages. The recent declaration is expected to benefit Maharashtra, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, and Assam. Nevertheless, Pali is widely spoken in Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.
Assam’s official language Asomiya is rooted in Sanskrit and it can be traced to the days of 7th century. A number of linguists argue that pre-modern Assamese scripts are found in Charyapadas (the ancient Buddhist Tantric text). Various scholars believe that Assamese was enhanced by both Magadhi-Prakrit and Kamrupi-Prakrit groups. During the days of Mahabharat, the larger Brahmaputra valley was known as Pragjyotishpur and it came to exist as a Kamrup kingdom in the contemporary period of Samudra Gupta (one of the greatest rulers of Bharat during 335–375 CE).
Assamese scripts are similar to Bengali and Maithili. Being a vibrant and evolving language, Asomiya is also understood in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and some parts of Bangladesh and Bhutan. Pioneer Assamese poet Madhava Kandali translated the Ramayana (in Sanskrit) into Assamese in the 14th century. Saptakanda Ramayana is known as one of the earliest translations into a modern regional language. Kandali projected the epic characters; namely, Rama, Sita, and others in a non-heroic way. As the Adikanda and Uttarakanda of Kandali’s literary work were lost, those were inserted respectively by the great Vaishnavite saint Madhavdeva and his Guru Sankardeva, the greatest son of the soil in far eastern Bharat, during the 16th century.
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 accommodative, he added.
Meanwhile, a northeast India-based forum of nationalist citizens extended heartfelt thanks to New Delhi for paving the way to recognize Assamese as a classical language. Patriotic People’s Front Assam (PPFA), in a media statement, appreciated everyone who contributed to the momentum needed to achieve the honor. 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 yesteryears are now assumed as 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 status, seemingly to distinguish the difference with the working Bengali language. The forum argues that all those words (precisely from Kamrupiya) which survived orally for centuries now among native speakers in western Assam should also be incorporated without delay.
