Assamese poetry is poetry in
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 langua ...
. It borrows many themes from Sanskrit literature and is mainly devotional in tone. The origins of Assamese poetry are considered to have taken place in the early 13th century, the ''Bhagavat Purana'' is one of the most notable examples
History
Sanskrit literature, the fountainhead of most of the Indian literature, supplied not only the themes of medieval
Assamese literature
Assamese literature ( as, অসমীয়া সাহিত্য, translit=ɔxɔmiya xaɦitjɔ}) is the entire corpus of poetry, novels, short stories, plays, documents and other writings in the Assamese language. It also includes the liter ...
but also has inspired many a writer of modern Assamese literature to undertake creative writings in the context of modern literary trends and styles. Literature starting with poetry in Sanskrit was mainly devotional in tone and tenor, and so does the Assamese version. Since all the adaptations are being rooted in Sanskrit, making no contrary to this Assamese literature (poetry) was at the devotional tone and tenor. The starting of Assamese Poetry is marked with the adaptation from Sanskrit ''puranas'' into Assamese by the poet-scholar ''Hema Saraswati'' in the early 13th century. His first adaptation was ''Prahlad-Charita'' adapted from ''
Vamana Purana
The ''Vamana Purana'' ( sa, वामन पुराण, IAST: ), is a medieval era Sanskrit text and one of the eighteen major Puranas of Hinduism. The text is named after one of the incarnations of Vishnu and probably was a Vaishnava text in ...
''.
Starting with a very few adaptations, Assamese Poetry were of the devotional type in the very beginning. Later the adaptations got divided into two types – religious and secular. During the period of Vaishnavite revivalism, the secularism trend got into much demand. The
Bhagavat Purana
The ''Bhagavata Purana'' ( sa, भागवतपुराण; ), also known as the ''Srimad Bhagavatam'', ''Srimad Bhagavata Mahapurana'' or simply ''Bhagavata'', is one of Hinduism's eighteen great Puranas (''Mahapuranas''). Composed in ...
was considered to be the most important among all the
puranas.
Sankardev
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 im ...
(1449–1568), the initiator of the
Bhakti movement, started the process of translating and adapting different books and episodes of Bhagavat-Purana by rendering more than seven books (SKANDHA) and composed a few
kāvyas basing on that. He was the introducer of ''BORGEET'', the most initial form of Assamese poems. (There is still confusing to call them poems since they were sung with musical instruments like KHOL and TAAL).
[ Akademi, p. 62]
See also
*
List of Assamese poets
*
History of Assamese literature
References
Sources
* ''Modern Assamese poetry'', by Hem Barua. Pub. Kavita, 1960.
* ''History of Assamese literature'', Birinchi Kumar Barua. East-West Center Press, 1965. ''Chapter VII: Poetry''
*
* ''Mysticism in Indian poetry: a critical study of the Assamese mystic poets of the romantic age'', by Kamal Narayan Choudhury. Punthi-Pustak, 1996. .
Assamese literature
Indian poetry by language
{{Assam