There are divergent views on the racial affinity of Narkasur alias Narak, a mythological Bodo king of Pragjyotish. In 1906 Sir Edward A. Gait proposed a non-Aryan origin of Narkasur on the basis of 'Asur' appellation. In 1933 K.L. Barua stated that Narak was a Dravidian prince.N. N. Vasu also suggested Dravidian origin of Narak. In 1949 K. Datta opined that Narak and his descendants were not Mongolian, but they belonged to Aryan race. P.C. Chaudhury in 1959 suggested Alpine origin of Narak. In 1991, Nayanjyot Lahiri stated that Kamrup dynasties were Sanskrit-speaking, because their Copperplate grants were written in Sanskrit, and that they were of Aryan origin. How a learned scholar like him drew such a proposition is beyond my comprehension.Can we just surmise on the basis of the language of the Copperplate grants that the Kamrup dynasties were Sanskrit-speaking? During the time of the Mahabharata War, or even earlier, the Bodo tribes constituted bulk of the Assam valley,Northern and Eastern Bengal, and the surrounding and intervening hills.
The royal families of Pragjyotish-Kamrup had been termed as Mlechcha or Mech or Asur. The language of the Meches or Bodos was unintelligible to the Aryans. It is mentioned in the Satapatha Brahmana that the gods had cut off her vak from the Asuras or Meches who then spoke unintelligble speech like He'lava, He'lava and thus who spoke thus had been termed as Mlechcha. Hence the Brahmanas enjoined the Aryans not to speak Mlechcha language since such was the language of the Asuras or Mlechchas. The statement of Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterji in 1954 that the Great Bodo People of Assam are the descendants of the son of Vishnu and Mother Earth dismisses away all the speculations of the scholars.This son of Vishnu and Mother Earth was none other than Narkasur or Narak. Narkasur was a Mech or Bodo prince and all the subsequnt dynasties of Kamrup claiming descent from him were all of Mech or Bodo origin. Views or comments of scholars on the subject will be highly appreciated.
