পৃষ্ঠা:অসমীয়া ব্যাকৰণ আৰু ভাষাতত্ত্ব.djvu/৮৬

66 অসমীয়া ব্যাকৰণ আৰু ভাৰাতত্ব known as Deodhais, and roblemen possessed Buranjis or historics with were brought up-to-date from time to time. At first they we written in the Ahon language. But after their conversion to Hinduism they gradually adopted Assamese and the later Buranjis were written in Assamese. The oldest Assamese Buranji appears to date from about 1539 A.D. | When the country came under the sway of the East India Company after the Burmese war in 1826 clerks were imported from Bengal for employment in Government offices. A few pleaders also came from Bengal. Through their influence Bengali was introduced as the court language and medium of instruction in the public schools. This had disastrous efects on the growth of Assamese language. Fortunately, how- ever, the Christian Missionaries of America came to the rescue. These philanthropic Missionaries wrote an Assamese gammar and an Assamese dictionary, translated the Bible into Assamese and started an Assamese journal, Arunodaya, and thereby saved the Assamese language from an untinely death. Emboldened by this example Assamese writers also began to write Assamese books. This is the beginning of the modern Assamese literature. | It will thus be seen that the kings of Kamatapur and Cooch Behar as also the Tripura kings fostered Assamese literature in the zenith of their power and ushered in a period of great literary activity as the result of which a vast Assamese literature came into being. The language of the Pre-Vaisnava and Vaisnava literature was the dialect of Western Assam while the language of the modern literature is that of Eastern Assam. This latter has been accepted by common consent as the literary lafiguage of the country. Political power thus determined the centre of literary activity and also of the form of literary language, (b) Influence of Religion :- In the 7th century A.D. King Bhaskara Varma in the opening lines of his copper plate inscription pays as much homage to “Sasisekhara Priya Pinakin" (Siva) as to the cause and effect of the universe, Dharma. This shows the existence of Sivaism and Buddhism side by side. The copper plate and rock inscriptions of Harjara Varma, Banamala, Bala Varma and Ratnapala between the 9th andith centuries A.D. begin with an invocation to Siva showing in an unmistakable degree the we valence of Sivaism in this country. The later inscriptions except the 2nd plate of Dharmapala also invoke the same deity. But the 2nd plate of Indrapala (iith century) adds Durga and his 1st plate (iith century) Maha-Varaha visnu) and Dharti (earth). It will thus be seen that the kings and priests were Saivas till the first part of the eleventh century | Sir E. A. Gait's History of Assam, p vi,