Kamtapuri Language, An Indo-Aryan Subgroup

1.0 Name of Language:

In today's North Bengal and West Assam there is a variety of Indo-Aryan Language spoken by millions of people. The speaker people are on an active movement for recognition of the language as Kamtapuri. The naming of this language bears a controversy. The political parties which are better to be known as so

cio-political parties growing with regional concern and some socio-linguistic groups name the language as Kamtapuri. Some of them tend to call 'Kamta' and 'KamtaBehari'. And some other people wh

Grierson(1903-'28) in his Linguistic Suvey of India first named the Language as 'Rajbanshi. But he could not stick to his idea of naming the language. In Rangpur he named it as Rangpuri. This caste-specific and locality specific name given by Grierson have been discarded first by Thakur Panchanan. He was the first scholar from among the speaker people who made a daring protest against the socio-linguistic misnomer. He named the Language as KamtaBehari referring to Kingdom of lato always remain with the side of institutions as to gain facility and some of whom sometime cruelly scolds the Kamta-protagonists to show their open heartedness, name the language as 'Rajbanshi'. There are some other alternate names which are not prominent and belong to less educated and less conscious people. These are 'Deshi Bhasha', 'Rangpuri', 'Suryapuri'. Rangpuri is local name of the language in Rangpur, and Suryapuri is called in Kishanganj.

er Kamtap

ur which dominated the region from eighteenth century onward. He proved the ethnic identity of the Rajbanshi as Kshatriya.

Through several kinds of socio-cultural controversies prominence has been gained in favour of of the name Kamtapuri because of its generalizing aspect referring to the people irrespecting of caste, creed and religion; though 'Rajbanshi' is also following the track with its caste centric idealism and opportunism too. This term is mostly used in Nepal. But there is also another term 'Tajpuria' which rejects 'Rajbanshi' term on the basis that it is caste-centric(Toulmin-2006). The Muslims who also speak the same language reject this Rajbanshi term for fear of being fallen in linguistic identity crisis. The term Suryapuri is also used in North-East Bihar and adjoining place of Dinajpur mostly by the Deshi Muslims as they tend to reject the Caste-cebtric term Rajbanshi.

Dr. Suniti Kr. Chatterjee used the term 'Kamrupi'(ODBL). He also called it 'Paschim Kamrupi. The term Kamrupi seems to be appropriate whcih covers the whole region of this language. But historically th

e term Kamta is the later name of Kamrup Empire or Kingdom and which is also called Paschim Kamrup. This Kamta was also called Kamtapur. And so Kamta or Kamtapuri term is most appropriate and most popular too. The credit of this conclusion goes to Suniti Kr. with his place idealism of Kamrupi or Pschim Kamrupi, And which was also followed by Panchanan with his 'Kamta Behari' term.

The term Kamtapuri gets its closer relation to Kamtapuri political movement while being evolved with socio-linguistic upliftment, and getting debarred by the institutions.

Due to its political touch some scholars tend to name the language as mere Kamta which keeps a closer relation to historical background and at the same time do not discard the political overtone which is the cry of the indigenous people. But it is found that the term Kamtapuri has automatically been popular through continuous movement and circulation of written documents.

1.1 Geographical Spread:

The ancient Kamrup was very much developed. Its rule spread all over the surrounding area. And so still its lan

guage prevail in all over the surrounding areas cntring on Cooch Behar.

The Present Districts are:

- Jhapa and Morong of Nepal

- Kishanganj, Katihar, Purnia of Bihar(India)

-Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Cooch Behar, North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur of West Bengal(India)

- Kokrarjhar, Dhubri, Bongaigaon and Goalpara of Assam(India)

- Rangpur, Dinajpur, Rajbanshi and part of Bagura of BAngladesh.

2.0 A Brief History of the Language:

Indo-Aryan LAnguage came to Kamrup in ancient times. Dr. Suniti Kr. Chatterjee says: 'It can not be divined when Aryan speech first came to Bengal, to North Bengal probably from Mithila, and central and south Bengal from Anga.''- ODBL. Mithila was the earliest settlement of the Aryans in North-East India. And from Mithila the Aryans entered into Kamrup. And with them generally came the Aryan Speech.

The flow of Indian Language started in the Vedic period. The language of the Vedas was called 'Chhandas'. From the very beginning of the Vedic Language it had been experiencing a mixture with other indige

nous languages. With this mixture the Language 'Chhandas' turned itself into 'Sanskrit'(Reformed) Language. The great grammarian Panini did this job of making reformed. The Sanskrit was the language of the elite people ie, the Purahit and the Brahmins. So beside this aristocratic language another language grew which was called 'Prakrit Language'. This Prakrit Languages were of four kinds: 1) Shaursheni, 2) Maharastri, 3) Paishachi, and 4) Magadhi. Kamtapuri Language is branch of Magadhi Prakrit. But here is another vital point to note that this language took its shape in the very beginning of the formation of Magadhi Parakrit. The Aryan culture, when it came forward towards East. It entered first to Mithila. Mithila was Aryanized before Magadh.At the same time or after a short period of time the then Pragjyotish or Kamrupa was Aryanized. Afterwards MAgadh became the centre of Aryan culture. So the Prakrit language of this region was named after Magadh, not after Mithila. However, with Mithilan influence Kamrupi Prakrit(Kamrupi or Kamta or language) took its shape. And so this language has some similarity with Mithila. In this language earliest form of Pali Prakrit can also be found.

Sanskrit influence in Kamtapuri language is domonantly found. The practical etymological findings of Kamtapuri language proves that thia language rightly may be called Classical Sanskrit(Kamtapur

i Abhidhan-2011).

In mythological the Aryan King Amurtajan(in earlier stage of Ramayana era) established the Kingdom or empire of Pragjyotishpur. Then Narak, the son of Janka of Mithila, is another Aryan king who reigned Pragjyotishpur after driving the Kiratas out to the south-east, and gave shelter to the high caste people. "In the Brahmans the Aryan settled in the eastern country by crossing the river Sadanira(Kusi) between Kosala and Mithila. This is recounted in in also in the Satapad Brahmana. The Aryans came to Kamrupa through Mithila. According to Bankim Chandra Chatterjee also Kamrupa is an ancient settlement of Aryans. "-(Cooch Beharer Itihas, Sarat Chandra Ghosal, p-14).

In the historiacal era Pushya Barman established the Barman Dynasty(380). This Barman dynasty made utmost development. Before 350 BC Brahmi script had been used. And after that the Brahmi script divided into two differnt branches such as North Brahmi script and south Brahmi script. From North Brahmi script Gupta script was originated. Gupta era is called Golden Era in Indian history. Aryan culture, literature, religion_ everything was rejuvenated. With the touch of this rejuvenating enthusiasm of the Gupta empire Barman Kings did not lack behind. Aryan culture an

d religion got proper place to be developed in this Kamrup of Barman dynasty. Vashnavism also developed in this dynasty specially in the reign of Bhuti BArman. From the Gupta script Kamrupi script was originated by the Kamrupi Barman Kings. This Kamrupi script got reformed by other Kamrupi Kings after Bhaskar Barman.

The greatest emperor of this line was Bhaskar Barman in whose reign the Chinese travellor Huen Tsang came to Kamrup and commented on Kamrupi language to be slight different from the language of Mid-India.

The history of development of Indo-Aryan Language in India may be divided into three parts such as 1) Old Indo-Aryan(1500 BC to 600 BC which is called the era of Vedic Language or Sanskrit, 2) Middle Indo-Aryan(600 BC to 800 AD) which is the era of the Language Pali Prakrit, and 3) New Indo-Aryan (800 AD to the present). The BArman dynasty of Kamrup was from 380 AD to 910 AD which covers successfuly the last Old Ind-Aryan age and the whole of Middle Indo-Aryan and even the first part of New Ind-Aryan age, which was the foundation-stone of the Language development of later times.

In 800 AD to 1200 AD Charyapada was composed in Kamrupi-Maithili language. From a careful study of compositions it appears that dohas fit into the prevailing spirit of the age. Though they appear to be written in a a mixed dialect of Kamrupi and Maithili and are mainly dedacticin a purpose. Those poems have a significant literary value in the evolution of old Assamese poetry"- (Assamese Literature, -Dr. Hem Chandra Barua, Page- 40).

But the Assamese came to Kamrup on 1228their Tai tribal language. The present Assamese language originated from Kamrupi Lnaguage( 'The Kamta Language, Progenitor of Assamese and Bengali'- Dr. T. C. Rastogi and Arun Chowdhury.

After Charyapada Kamrupi Tantra, Gopichandra Maynamatir Gan, Jager Gan, Murshia Gan, Chair Juger Gan, Gorokhnather Gan, Sonarayer Gan etc. came into existence flourishingly all over Kamta or Kamtapur. In 1250 AD the Kamrup became Kamta and then Kamtapur. In this Kamta region language got its real shape and literature developed to its zenith.

In the royal court of Naranarayan a host of scholars developed this language. The greatest of them was Sankar Dev who was on the other hand a religious teacher of the Vasnavism sect. The historian Kanak lal Barua compared the age of Naranarayan with that of Elizabethan era.

In early eighteenth century and nineteenth century Kamtapur lost its lusture. The East India Company became powerful and started making development of Bengali language for administrative purpose, and thus afterwards Assamese language was developed by the missionaries. And so this Kamta or Kamtapuri language was left behind. In the early twentieth century Panchanan Sarkar(Barma), the indigenous scholar started writing Kamta or Kamta Behari language.

And then came present age of Kamtapuri language with tidal flow of written documents.

2.1. Short Bibliography:

1. Kamtapuri Bhasha Sahityer Ruprekha- Dharma Narayan Barma, Rayadak Prakashan,

Tufanganj, Cooch Behar

2) Bhashar Itibritta- Dr. Sukumar Sen.

3) O.D.B.L.- Dr. Suniti Kumar Chattarjee.

4) Reconstructing Linguistic History in Dialect Continuum, The Kamta Rajbanshi and Northern

Deshi Bangla Subgroup of Indo-Aryan, Matthew W.S. Toulmin-2006,

5) Assamese Literature - Dr. Hemchandra Barua.

6) Linguistic Survey of India- G.A. Grierson.

7) The Kamta Language, Progenitor of Assamese and Bengali,- Dr T.C. Rastogi and Arun

Chowdhury.

9) Kamrup Kamta Kuch Behar Rajyer Itihas,- Dharma Narayan Barma, Dhaneswar Manta,

Raydak prakashan, Tufanganja, Cooch Behar, 2000.

10) Kamtapuri Abhidhan,- Sujan Barman, Kamtapuri Bhasha Unnayan Parishad, Dinhata, Cooch

Behar.

3.0. Sample Poems Drawn From Written Literature: