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Assamese Culture
The culture of Assam is traditionally a hybrid one, developed due to cultural assimilation of different ethno-cultural groups under various political-economic systems in different periods of its history. Historical perspective The roots of culture in Assam goes back almost five thousand years when the first wave of humans, the Austroasiatic people reached the Brahmaputra valley. They mixed with the later immigrant Tibeto-Burman and the Indo-Aryan peoples in prehistoric times. The last wave of migration was that of the Tai/Shan who later formed the idea of Assamese culture and its identity. The Ahoms, later on, brought some more Indo-Aryans like the Assamese Brahmins and Ganaks and Assamese Kayasthas to Assam. According to the epic ''Mahabharata'' and on the basis of local folklore, people of Assam (Kiratas) probably lived in a strong kingdom under the Himalayas in the era before Jesus Christ, which led to early assimilation of various Tibeto-Burman and Autro-Asiatic e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cultural Assimilation
Cultural assimilation is the process in which a minority group or culture comes to resemble a society's majority group or assume the values, behaviors, and beliefs of another group whether fully or partially. The different types of cultural assimilation include full assimilation and forced assimilation; full assimilation being the most prevalent of the two, as it occurs spontaneously. During cultural assimilation, minority groups are expected to adapt to the everyday practices of the dominant culture through language and appearance as well as via more significant socioeconomic factors such as absorption into the local cultural and employment community. Some types of cultural assimilation resemble acculturation in which a minority group or culture completely assimilates into the dominant culture in which defining characteristics of the minority culture are less obverse or outright disappear; while in other types of cultural assimilation such as cultural integration mostly found i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Raj
The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himself employed by the British East India company from the age of seventeen until the British government assumed direct rule over India in 1858." * * and lasted from 1858 to 1947. * * The region under British control was commonly called India in contemporaneous usage and included areas directly administered by the United Kingdom, which were collectively called British India, and areas ruled by indigenous rulers, but under British paramountcy, called the princely states. The region was sometimes called the Indian Empire, though not officially. As ''India'', it was a founding member of the League of Nations, a participating nation in the Summer Olympics in 1900, 1920, 1928, 1932, and 1936, and a founding member of the United Nations in San F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gamosa
The Gamosa or Gamusa is (from Assamese গা (ga) and মোচা (mosa) 'Body wipes or Towel') an article of significance for the indigenous people of Assam, India. It is generally a white rectangular piece of cloth with primarily a red border on three sides and red woven motifs on the fourth (in addition to red, other colors are also used). Although cotton yarn is the most common material for making/weaving gamosas, there are special occasion ones made from Pat silk. A 1,455.3 meter long Gamusa displayed in Delhi created world record as it became the world's longest hand woven piece of cloth. Origin of the name Literally translated, it means 'something to wipe the body with' (''Ga''=body, ''musa''=to wipe) however, interpreting the word ''gamosa'' as the towel is misleading. The word gamosa is derived from the Kamrupi word gamsaw, the cloth used to cover the Bhagavad Purana at the altar. The Gamusa has its original from either the Tai people or from other people in East a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Assamese Language
Assamese (), also Asamiya ( ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in the north-east Indian state of Assam, where it is an official language, and it serves as a ''lingua franca'' of the wider region. The easternmost Indo-Iranian language, it has over 23 million speakers. Nefamese, an Assamese-based pidgin, is used in Arunachal Pradesh, and Nagamese, an Assamese-based Creole language, is widely used in Nagaland. The Kamtapuri language of Rangpur division of Bangladesh and the Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri districts of India are linguistically closer to Assamese, though the speakers identify with the Bengali culture and the literary language. In the past, it was the court language of the Ahom kingdom from the 17th century. Along with other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, Assamese evolved at least before the 7th century CE from the middle Indo-Aryan Magadhi Prakrit. Its sister languages include Angika, Bengali, Bishnupriya Manipuri, Chakma, Chittagonian, Hajong, Rajbangsi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hermitage (religious Retreat)
A hermitage most authentically refers to a place where a hermit lives in seclusion from the world, or a building or settlement where a person or a group of people lived religiously, in seclusion. Particularly as a name or part of the name of properties its meaning is often imprecise, harking to a distant period of local history, components of the building material, or recalling any former sanctuary or holy place. Secondary churches or establishments run from a monastery were often called "hermitages". In the 18th century, some owners of English country houses adorned their gardens with a "hermitage", sometimes a Gothic ruin, but sometimes, as at Painshill Park, a romantic hut which a "hermit" was recruited to occupy. The so-called Ermita de San Pelayo y San Isidoro is the ruins of a Romanesque church of Ávila, Spain that ended up several hundred miles away, to feature in the Buen Retiro Park in Madrid. Western Christian tradition A hermitage is any type of domestic dwelli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ek Saran Naam Dharma
Ekasarana Dharma (literally: ''Shelter-in-One religion'') is a neo-Vaishnavite monolithic religion propagated by Srimanta Sankardeva in the 15th-16th century in the Indian state of Assam. It reduced focus on vedic ritualism and focuses on devotion ('' bhakti'') to Krishna in the form of congregational listening (''sravan'') and singing his name and deeds ('' kirtan''). The simple and accessible religion attracted already Hindu as well as non-Hindu populations into its egalitarian fold. The neophytes continue to be inducted into the faith via an initiation ceremony called ''xoron-lowa'' (literally: take-shelter), usually conducted by ''Sattradhikars'', heads of monastic institutions called Sattras, who generally draw apostolic lineage from Sankardev. Some Sattradhikars, especially those from the Brahma-sanghati, reject apostolic lineage from Sankardev due to an early schism with the order. Some modern reformation institutions conduct ''xoron-lowa'' outside the ''sattra'' in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sattra
Satras are institutional centers associated with the Ekasarana tradition of Vaishnavism, largely found in the Indian state of Assam and neighboring regions. Numbering in the hundreds, these centers are generally independent of each other and under the control of individual ''adhikaras'' (or ''satradhikars''), though they can be grouped into four different ''Sanghatis'' (orders). These centers, in the minimum, maintain a prayer house (''Namghar'', or '' Kirtan-ghar''), initiate lay people into the Ekasarana tradition and include them as disciples of the Satra from whom taxes and other religious duties are extracted. The Neo-Vaishnavite satra culture started in the 16th century. They grew rapidly in the 17th century and patronage extended to them by first the Koch kingdom and later the Ahom kingdom was crucial in the spread the Ekasarana religion. Many of the larger Satras house hundreds of celibate and non-celibate ''bhakats'' (monks), hold vast lands and are repositories of r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Namghar
Namghars ( as, নামঘৰ) literally ''Prayer House'' are places for congregational worship associated with the entire Assamese community and the Ekasarana sect of Hinduism, in particular, that is native to Assam. Besides forming the primary structure used for worship, they also function as meeting houses for congregations, as well as theaters for dramatic performances (''bhaona''). The Namghar, also called the ''kirtanghar'', is also the central structure in the Sattras (monasteries of the Ekasarana dharma) where the other buildings are positioned around it. Namghars are widespread in Assam, and very often more than one namghar exists in a single village, signifying many congregational communities. Namghars were introduced in Assam by the Vaishnavite saints Damodardev, Madhavdev and Sankaradeva for Assamese people where they can culture and practice naam (devotional songs) and Bhakti of God (devotion). He established the first Naamghar at Bordowa in Nagaon district. Ther ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Koch Dynasty
Koch may refer to: People * Koch (surname), people with this surname * Koch dynasty, a dynasty in Assam and Bengal, north east India * Koch family * Koch people (or Koche), an ethnic group originally from the ancient Koch kingdom in north east India ** Koch language, a language spoken in India and Bangladesh * Koch, an alternate name of the Rabha tribe in northeast India and surrounding countries * Koch Kingdom, in and around Assam Places * Koch (crater), a crater on the Moon * Koch, Iran (other), places in Iran * Koch, Łódź Voivodeship, a village in central Poland * Koch, Mississippi, United States * Koch, South Sudan, a village in Unity State, South Sudan * Koch Bihar, a princely state in north east India * Koch County, an administrative area in Unity State, South Sudan * Koch Kingdom, Assam, 13th-16th centuries Businesses * Koch Entertainment LP, now known as E1 Entertainment ** Koch Records, former name of Entertainment One Music * Koch Industries, petrole ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Srimanta Sankardeva
Srimanta Sankardev( শ্ৰীমন্ত শংকৰদেৱ )(; ; 1449–1568) was a 15th–16th century Assamese polymath; a saint-scholar, poet, playwright, dancer, actor, musician, artist social-religious reformer and a figure of importance in the cultural and religious history of Assam, India. He is widely credited with building on past cultural relics and devising new forms of music (Borgeet), theatrical performance (Ankia Naat, Bhaona), dance (Sattriya), literary language ( Brajavali). Besides, he has left an extensive literary oeuvre of trans-created scriptures (Bhagavat of Sankardev), poetry and theological works written in Sanskrit, Assamese and Brajavali. The Bhagavatic religious movement he started, Ekasarana Dharma and also called Neo-Vaishnavite movement, influenced two medieval kingdoms – Koch and the Ahom kingdom – and the assembly of devotees he initiated evolved over time into monastic centers called Sattras, which continue to be important soci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jaintia Kingdom
The Jaintia Kingdom was a matrilineal kingdom in present-day Bangladesh's Sylhet Division and India's Meghalaya state. It was partitioned into three in 630 AD by Raja Guhak for his three sons, into the Jaintia Kingdom, Gour Kingdom and Laur Kingdom. It was annexed by the British East India Company in 1835. All the Khasi (Pnar) Rajahs of the Jaintiapur Kingdom are from the Syiem Sutnga clan, a Pnar clan of the Khasi tribe which claims descent from Ka Li Dohkha, a divine nymph. Etymology One theory says that the word "Jaintia" is derived the shrine of Jayanti Devi or Jainteswari, an incarnation of the Hindu goddess Durga. Another theory says that the name is derived via Pnar (the language of the rulers) from ''Sutnga'', a settlement in the modern day Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya. The Pnars (also called Jaintia by outsiders) and War, speak Mon-Khmer languages that are related to Khasi. Extent The Jaintia Kingdom extended from the east of the Shillong Plateau of present- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
