EMERGENCE OF BODO AS A POWERFUL LANGUAGE

                                                               HIRA CHARAN NARJINARI

“Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow.”

                                                      – Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) American Author and Poet.

Fifty years ago from now Bodo became the medium of instructions in the Lower Primary Schools in the predominantly Bodo inhabited areas in Assam. After journeying for forty years as unclassified language Bodo received constitutional recognition only in 2003 when it was incorporated in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. It is gratifying and a matter of great pride that Bodo has become by dint of its great thrust to emerge as the living language towards the middle of the 20^th century. 

C.S. Mullan, Superintendent of Census, in his Census Report for 1931 has described Assam as a province of “a philologist’s paradise for it is a veritable Babel.” In the statistics of language in Imperial Table XV languages of Assam we find (1) Vernaculars of Assam, (2) Vernaculars of India outside Assam, (3) Vernaculars of Asiatic Countries outside India, and (4) European Languages. This was not the case with early Assam as many of the languages for example Bengali and Assamese were not even born when a class of people speaking Bodo language was already in occupation of the Brahmaputra valley. The Assamese speaking people were the late intruders into Assam and before they came to Assam, the Bodos had already in occupation of the Brahmaputra and Surma Valleys, and the languages of the Baric (Bodo) division of the Sino-Tibetan family such as Meches, Koches, Tipras and Dimasas, were spoken on both sides of the Brahmaputra and Surma Valleys and these two valleys were under the control of the Baric or Bodo people.[1]

The Bodos were the most powerful race of ancient Assam. They ruled over the whole of ancient Assam since or before the advent of the Vedic Aryans into the province. They ruled under various dynastic names like Danav, Asur, Kirat and Mlechha. During the historic times they ruled under the dynastic names of Varman, Stambha and Pal. Prior to the coming of the Ahoms in 1228 A.D. eastern Assam was ruled by four branches of the Bodo family named Kachari, Chutiya, Moran and Matak. In Western Assam the Bodos ruled over Koch Bihar, Bijni, Darrang and Beltola near Guwahati.

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It is said that the ancestors of the modern Bodos came into contact first with the Mediterraneans, then with the Alpines and lastly with the Vedic Aryans and that the Vedic Aryans met the ancestors of the Bodos of the Brahmaputra Valley in about 1000 B.C.[2] When the Vedic Aryans immigrated into ancient Assam they found the forefathers of the modern Bodos completely different from them in features, customs, religion, culture, manners and language and they, out of abomination towards them, gave them the name of Asura, Kirata, Danav and Mlechha.

 Mlechhas of Pragjyotish are modern Bodos

The Mahabharata calls the ancient Assam then known as Pragjyotish as a Mlechha Kingdom i.e., a Mlechha Desh, and was ruled over by king Bhagadatta who is always spoken of in respectful and even eulogistic terms (e.g., Sabha Parva, xxxv. 1000-1; and 1.1834; Udyoga Parva, clxvi. 5804; and Karna Parva, v. 104-5) and in other passages it is called a Danava or Asura kingdom ruled over by the demons Naraka and Mura (Vana Parva, xii. 488; Udyog Parva., xlvii. 1887-92; Harivamsa., cxxi. 6791-9; cxxii. 6873 etc.)[3]  F.E. Pargiter states that the people of Pragjyotish were all Mlechhas.[4]  An Assamese scholar named Dr. Tarun Chandra Sharma also confirms this when he writes, “From the records in the Epics – the Ramayana and the Mahabharata (dated c. +1000 – 800 B.C.), it is known that the northeastern frontier Kingdom of India, a Mlechha territory ruled by the Bodo kings, referred to as Danabas and Asuras by the Aryans of the Ganga valley, was known as Pragjyotisha (the eastern land of Astrology) and later as Kamarupa with its central shrine of mother goddess Kamakhya on the Nilachal hill overlooking the mighty Brahmaputra within the present metropolitan complex of Gauhati.”[5]

The greatest testimony to the Bodos being descended from Narak and his son Bhagadatta is conclusively confirmed by Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterji when he said, “The Great Bodo people of Assam (are) the Offspring of the Son of Vishnu and Mother Earth.”[6]  Who was this son of Vishnu and Mother Earth? He was none other than Narak Asur, the father of celebrated king of Pragjyotish named Bhagadatta who had been indiscriminately described as Kirat or Mlechha.

That Mlechhas of Pragjyotish were later called Mech has been widely accepted by distinguished scholars like B.C. Allen,[7] J.N. Farquhar, [8] Grierson, [9] Rev. Endle[10],  Vasu,[11] and many others who state that the word Mech is derived from the Sanskrit word Mlechha.  We may therefore presume that the population of Pragjyotish or Kamrup was chiefly consisted of Mlechha or Mech race.  Even today in many parts of Assam there are people who call themselves Mech. In Dimapur in the state of Nagaland they are still

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known as Mech.  The British, however, knew them as Kacharis. In Western Darrang and North Kamrup, however, they spoke of themselves as Bodo. In Goalpara they were commonly known as Mech, but presently they are known as Bodo. At the foot of the Garo Hills they were known as Hojai or Hajong. In Nowgaon, Hojai Kacharis were found but they were locally known as Lalung. The Kacharis of North Kachar Hills spoke themselves as Dimasa.[12] In Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and Cooch Behar they are known as Mech.  As late as 1881, the Bodo group of people constituted one-third of the population of the Brahmaputra valley.

We are then persuaded to say that the forefathers of the Bodo people were abhorrently given the name of Mlechha by the Vedic Aryans and their language was called Mlechha language. In the course of time these Mlechha people were again designated by their neighbours variously as Mech, Kachari, Koch, Tripuri, Dimasa, Garo, Rabha etc. It was B.H. Hodgson who for the first time used the name Bodo to describe the Mech or Kachari people. [13]  The Report of the Census of Assam 1881 has rightly remarked that Hodgson has “conferred the genuine name of Bodo, being the title given to themselves by the most numerous branch of the race, namely, the Kacharis.”[14] Subsequently in 1903, G.A. Grierson while compiling his famous Linguistic Survey of India, adopted this generic name Bodo to denote the Meches, Koches, Kacharis, Garos, Rabhas, Dimasas, Lalungs, Tripuris etc.

Language of the ancestors of the Bodos

If the people of Pragjyotish were all Mlechhas then their speech is supposed to be of Mlechha tongue. The Mahabharata distinctly mentions of a language called Mlechha which was the language of the Mlechhadesh otherwise also known as Kiratdesh. This country is identified with Pragjyotish which was known in the medieval period as Kamrup and finally it received the modern name of Assam.  

It is interesting to note that Krishna-Dvaipāyana Vyāsa distinctly states that Yudhishthira and Vidura spoke in Mleccha language so that others except Yudhishthira might not know what Vidura wanted to pass on to Yudhishthira. He also says that Vidura was conversant with the Mlechha language and Yudhishthira too was conversant with that language (Adi Parva, Section CXLVII). This reveals that during the time of the Mahabharata Mlechha language was used for clandestine communication or exchange of secret information in written form or verbally. There are several internal evidences in the Mahabharata and the Ramayana that people in those days spoke multiple languages. However, it cannot be ascertained for sure whether the Mlechha language spoken by Vidura and yudhishthira was akin to

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the Mlechha language spoken by king Bhagadatta. It requires further investigation to be undertaken by linguistic scholars.

Recent linguistic researches made by Scott Delancey of University of Oregon, confirms the high antiquity of Bodo. He says that Proto-Bodo-Garo preceded Indo-Aryans and during the time of Kamrup kingdom and probably several centuries before, Proto-Bodo was a lingua franca throughout the Brahmaputra plains and up into the surrounding hills.[15]

According to Franҫois Jacquesson, archaeologically there is no evidence to show Indo-Aryan cultures east of the river Karatoya border before Christian era and Assamese and Bengali languages were latecomers in northeastern India.[16]

Bodo-speaking areas

The languages of the Bodo group were spoken by peoples living on both sides of the Brahmaputra and Surma rivers, and up the Brahmaputra Valley and into the northern Naga Hills. The Assamese who occupied the valleys of these two rivers were comparatively late intruders. From the distribution of the Bodo peoples and their linguistic ties with other branches of Bodo group across these two rivers clearly indicated that the Bodos occupied both valleys before the Aryans came.[17]

Robert Shafer postulates that the languages of the Baric (Bodo) division of the Sino-Tibetan family such as  Meches, Koches, Tipras and Dimasas, were spoken on both  sides of the Brahmaputra and Surma Valleys and before the Aryans came there these two valleys were under the control of the Baric or Bodo people.[18]  He also postulates that the ancient kingdoms of Anga, Vanga and Kalinga were ruled over by the Tibeto-Burmans and these names have been sanskritised from Tibeto-Burmic  Aṅ, Waṅ or Vaṅ and Ka-liṅ or Kliṅ.[19] He argues that the termination ṅg is not rare in Sanskrit, neither is it particularly common, but ṅ is particularly common as a final Sino-Tibetan languages. Therefore he concluded saying, “We may suspect that the non-Aryan names of the Ganges and of the three kingdoms at its mouth were originally Gaṅ, Aṅ, Waṅ or Vaṅ and K-liṅ or Kliṅ; that when the Aryan invaders took over the words they added the usual endings – ā for rivers and a for peoples, and, although Sanskrit could have final - ṅ, it could not have final ṅā or - ṅa and so a – g – had to be inserted.”[20] According to him “the Baric people are not only the closest Tibeto-Burmans to the old kingdoms of Vaṅga, Aṅga and Kaliṅga but these rivers

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provided them easy descent to the mouth of the Ganges, from which they could spread down the coast and up the Ganges.”[21] 

Dr. Chatterji has also corroborated this view. He states, “At one time Bodo or Boro group of speeches were current throughout the entire valley of the Brahmaputra, in North Bengal up to northern Bihar, and in East and South-East Bengal. This very extensive Bodo block is, however, broken up due to the intrusion of the Aryan Assamese and Bengali.”[22]

The population of North-Eastern Bengal and Lower Assam as well as of all the lower eastern hills was chiefly Bodos. In this regard in 1874, G. Campbell furnished a clear picture of Bodo-speaking areas which is as under:

“In the border plains of Eastern Bengal, Assam, and Cachar, and the lower hills bounding these countries, we come on a group of tongues evidently very nearly allied to one another, and which show that a large number of tribes, extending, under very different conditions, over a wide extent of country, and known by different names, are in fact closely cognate. This fact is the more important, because a large part of the population of Eastern Bengal is universally recognized to be cognate to the tribes speaking these languages. This group comprises the Cooches and Meches of Cooch Behar the sub-Himalayan Dooars and Goalpara, the Cacharees and Mekirs of Assam and Cachar, the Garos of the Garo Hills, and the Tipperahs of Hill Tipperah. Most of the civilized Cooches have lost their language, but all their traditions acknowledge their relationship to the Meches, who speak a language regarding which there can be no doubt under the name of Rajbunsees, Pullees, &c., people nearly allied to these form a large proportion of the population of the great districts of Rungpore and Dinagepore, as well as of Julpigoree, Goalpara, and parts of Assam. They are also found in the Dacca and Mymensingh districts. Probably then these people form the main stock of the population of North-East Bengal and Lower Assam as well as of all the lower eastern hills.”[23]   

About twenty-five years later, H.H. Risley stated that the linguistic evidence shows that at one time they extended over the whole of Assam. He writes:

“Linguistics evidence shows that at one time they extended over the whole of the present province west of Manipur and the Naga Hills, excepting only the Khasi and Jaintia Hills, which are inhabited by people speaking another language akin to the Mon-Khmer dialects of Indo-China. To the north of the Khasi Hills

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they occupied the whole or nearly the whole of the Brahmaputra valley. To the west they made the Garo Hills their own. To the south they extended over the plains of Cachar, and further, over the present state of Hill Tippera.”[24]

Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterji has identified certain tracts where, he conjectures, Bodo was spoken about 1000 years ago. He delivered a series of lectures on 21^st, 22^nd and 23^rd November 1947 at Jorhat, Assam, which became the nucleus of his work called Kirata-jana-Kriti. Now if we deduct 1000 years from the year 1947 A.D. we get approximately 947 A.D.  So during 947 A.D. Bodo was spoken not only in Brahmaputra valley but in almost all the districts of Eastern Bengal-Pakistan-Bangladesh. Regarding the wide extension of Bodo language Dr. Chatterji writes thus:

“Judging from the wide range of extension of their language, the Boḍos appear first to have settled over the entire Brahmaputra valley, and extended west into North Bengal (in Koch Bihar, Rangpur and Dinajpur districts); they may have pushed into North Bihar also, and the Indo-Mongoloids who penetrated into North Bihar might equally have been either Bodos or ‘Himalayan’ tribes allied to the Newars. They skirted the southern bend of the Brahmaputra and occupied the Garo Hills, where, as Garos, they form a bloc of Boḍo speech. South of the Garo Hills they spread in northern Mymensing, where the semi-Bengalised Haijong tribe is of Boḍo origin. From Nowgong district in Assam their area of occupation extended to Cachar district (particularly in the North Cachar Hills) and into Sylhet, and from Cachar and Sylhet they moved further to the south, to Tripurā State, where there is still a Boḍo-speeking bloc in the shape of the Tipra tribe which founded the State; and from Tripurā they spread into Comilla and possibly Noakhali districts: and thus they occupied the mouths of the Ganges by the eastern sea.”[25]

Bodo Influence

There is a great reason to believe that Bodo was at one time widely spoken over a great portion of the Brahmaputra Valley, as well as in the adjoining districts of north-east Bengal.[26]  Thus said Endle about the influence of Bodo …“ the names of many of the principal rivers of Assam begin with the syllable, “Di,” which is perhaps the Kachári (Bodo) word (“dŭі,” “dі”) for “water,” e.g., Dі-hong, Dі-bong, Dі-bru, Dі-hing, Dі-sáng, Dі-khu, Dі-soi, Dі-ju, Dі-mu, Dі-mangal, Dі-krang, Dі-kurai, Dі-puta, Dі-má gasum (“black water”), Dі-ang, &c., (cf. Dimápur – Dŭіmápúr, e.g., River-town, the old Kachári capital on the Dhansiri River).”[27] This has also been corroborated by the famous historian of Assam named Sir Edward Albert Gait who wrote thus: “The wide extent and long duration of Bodo domination is shown by the frequent

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occurrence of the prefix di or ti, the Bodo word for water, in the river names of the Brahmaputra valley and the adjoining country to the west, e.g., Dibru, Dikhu, Dihing, Dibong, Disang, Diphang, Dimla, etc. In some cases the old name is disappearing – the Dichu river, for instance, is now better known as the Jaldhāka – while in others it has already gone, as in the case of Brahmaputra, which in the early days of Ahom rule was known as the Ti-lao.”[28]

Dr. Praphulladatta Goswami has also acknowledged the influence of Bodo on Assamese. He found Kachari or Bodo substratum in Assamese language and states that a number of words of a domestic type and even verb roots have come from Kachari or Bodo. He opines that the Kacharis or Bodos have even indirectly contributed to Assamese culture. The first important work of early Assamese literature is the translation of the Ramayana and the translator Madhava Kandali records: I have made – that everyone might understand – the sweet verses of the Ramayana at the request of King Mahamanikya.”[29] Mahamanikya was a Bodo king belonging to the second half of the 14^th century. This is one of the instances to state that Bodo kings took keen interest to develop Assamese language. Had King Mahamanikhya not patronized translation of the Ramayana then today’s Assamese scholars could not have possessed such early Assamese literature.

 Modern Assamese people brag of their rich literature and refer to the 13^th century A.D. as the beginning of Assamese literature. They however forget the hands of Bodo rulers behind the development of Assamese language. It was the Bodo ruler of Kamatapur in West Assam under whose instance Hema Saraswati composed “his Bhāgavata Purāṇa story of Prahlāda in Assamese verse.”[30]

Plight of Bodo till 1952

The Bodos suffered much from external pressure like the Ahoms who came from the east and occupied the Brahmaputra valley and ruled it for centuries till the British annexed it. Risley says:

“The Bodo country was also invaded from the south, and this within the last two centuries…But the most important invasion was that of Aryan culture from the west. With its language it has occupied the plains of Dacca, Sylhet, and Cachar, so that the Bodos of the Garo Hills are now separated from their kinsmen of Hill Tippera by a wide tract filled with a population speaking an Aryan language. So, too, with the valley of the Brahmaputra. It is almost completely Aryanised, and the old Bodo languages are gradually dying out.”[31]

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The Bodos confronted Aryan invasion, colonization, and above all, movement for assimilation in Assamese culture by Sankardev, the greatest religious reformer of Assam. In course of time a great many Bodos became ashamed of their own language, and used it less and finally stopped passing their language to their children which caused a great decline in number of Bodo speakers.

The impact of the Aryan culture had been so much so that the Bodos completely abandoned their original tongue in some tracts of the Bodo country. As for example, the Bodo-Kachari kings of Cachar like Ramchandradhwaj Narayan, Surdarpa Narayan, Krishnachandra Narayan and Govindachandra Narayan became experts in Bengali language that they began composing verses in Bengali language.[32]  The ancient Bodo Kingdom of Cooch Behar claimed Bengali as its language abandoning its proper tongue. “In Kamrup and Goalpara, the former head-quarters of the Kingdom of Kamrup, the speakers of the Aryan Assamese and Bengali are counted by hundreds, while those of Bodo are counted by tens.”[33] 

Disappearance of Bodo language was becoming imminent. Having acutely observed this trend among the Bodo speakers, the famous Assam historian Sir Edward Albert Gait in 1906 had prophesied: “The Bodo dialects, though still spoken in Assam by more than half a million persons, are in their turn giving way to Aryan languages (Assamese and Bengali), and their complete disappearance is only a matter of time.”[34]

Emergence of Bodo as a distinct Language

From such a deplorable state and despite having lack of script, written language and literature, transmission of Bodo language continued from children to grandchildren in a number of domains.  Bodo language emerged as a distinct language from the middle of the 20^th century when a pioneering effort in preserving Bodo and popularizing the Bodo literature was stamped by forming Bodo Sahitya Sabha on 16 November 1952, the biggest literary body of the Bodos in Eastern India. In fact, this organization has been playing a crucial role in coordinating effort of the Bodo poets, scholars and authors. They hold an Annual Conference every year, with pomp which is attended by numerous big and small Bodo literary organizations, from both far and near.  A highpoint in the history of the Bodo language is the socio-political movement that was launched by Bodo organizations since the second half of the last century onwards. It was due to their relentless effort that this language was finally introduced as the medium of instruction in the primary schools in Bodo dominated areas in 1963.

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Bodo is now one of the famous languages of Northeast India. It has become one of the official languages of the Indian state of Assam.  Bodo is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by the Bodo people of West Bengal, Tripura, Nepal and Bangladesh, apart from Indian state of Assam. It is one of the 22 languages recognized by the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India. Bodo language is enriched inherently. It is regarded a substantial language of the Bodo group under the Assam-Burmese group of languages. There are no records indicating the origin of Bodo language. However, it is known to be a branch of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. The language also bears a close links with the Dimasa language of Assam and the Garo language of Meghalaya. Bodo is further regarded as a closely related language of Kokborok language spoken in Tripura. Bodo language is officially scripted employing Devanagari script, although it also has a prolonged history of utilizing the Roman Script. Some researchers also are of the view that the language originally made use of a now-lost Script called Deodhai.     

Today Bodo is at par with Assamese in terms of constitutional status. Once the Bodo children were taught through Assamese medium why not then Assamese children are taught now through Bodo medium? While studying in Assamese medium schools Bodo children retained their own tongue, with certain exception, similarly, Assamese children can study in Bodo medium schools and at the same time retain their tongue. After all Bodo is now a language of the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India. Long before the present status of Bodo, Upendra Nath Brahma (now fondly and popularly called Bodofa) foresaw importance of Bodo. That is why in 1987 he urged the Assamese people to read, speak Bodo and accept it as link language. Thus he said:

 “…the Bodos the Kacharis – the original master ruler of Assam whose language is the most aboriginal and widespread in Assam can also ask – why not the Assamese people read, speak and accept Bodo as a whole for a link language and for the integrity of Assam? Will the Assamese agree?”[35]     

I wonder in awe and amazement that despite the onslaught of the Aryan language and Indo-Aryan languages in the past, our Bodo language has managed to stay alive. Though the Bodo language was unwritten, without a script and without recorded literature, it has survived the ravages of time. Imagine how great and wonderful it is to know that Bodo language still exists in the world to this day and age. Today Bodo is a language of literature and a language of Bodoland.

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REFERENCES

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[1] Robert Shafer, “Classification of the Northernmost Naga Languages”, Journal of the Bihar Research Society, Vol. XXXIX, September 1953, Part III, pp. 225-226.

[2] K.L. Barua, ‘Prehistoric Culture in Assam’, in The Journal of the Assam Research Society, Vol. VII, July 1939, No. 2, p.38.

[3] F.E. Pargiter, The Markandeya Purana. Translated with Notes, 1904, p.328.

[4] F.E. Pargiter, The Markandeya Purana, Translated with Notes, 1904, p.328

[5] Dr. T.C. Sharma, “The Culture and Civilization of Assam” in Nagen Saikia, ed. Assam and the Assamese Mind, 1980, pp. 15-16.

[6] Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterji, The Place of Assam in the History and Civilization of India, 1955, p.18

[7] B.C. Allen, Assam District Gazetteer, Vol. III, 1905, p. 46

[8] J.N. Farquhar, Modern Religious Movement in India, 1915, p. 134

[9] J.N. Farquhar, Modern Religious Movement in India, 1915, p. 134

[10] Rev. S. Endle, The Kacharis, 1911, Appendix-I p. 81.

[11] N.N. Vasu, The Social History of Kamarupa, Vol. II, Reprint 1983, p.157

[12] Rev. S. Endle, Outline Grammar of the Kachari (Bara) Language, 1884, p. vi.

[13] B.H. Hodgson, ‘On the Origin, Location, Numbers, Creed, Customs, Character and Condition of the Koch, Bodo and Dhimal People with a general description of the Climate they dwell in,’ Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1849, Vol. XVIII, pp. 702-747.

[14] Report on the Census of Assam, 1881, p.63.

[15] Scott Delancy, On the Origins of Bodo-Garo. Available at http://www.academia.edu/226363/On_the_Origins_of_Bodo-Garo

[16] www.ohll.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/pages/documents.../francois-jacquesson-2.ppt

[17] Robert Shafer, ‘Classification of the Northernmost Naga Languages’, in the Journal of the Bihar Research Socieyt, Vol. XXXIX, September 1953, Part III, p. 225.

[18] Robert Shafer, JBRS, Vol. 39,  1953, Part III, p.226

[19] Ibid.

[20] Robert Shafer, Ethnography of Ancient India, 1954, p.14.

[21] Robert Shafer, JBRS, Vol. 39,  1953, Part III, p.226

[22] Suniti Kumar Chatterji, ‘Adivasi Languages and Literatures of India’, in The Cultural Heritage of India, Vol. V, 2^nd  Edition, 1978, p.667.

[23] G. Campbell, Specimens of Languages of India, 1874, p.3.

[24] H.H. Risley, Census of India 1901, Vol. I, India, Part-I – Report, p.263

[25] Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterji, Kirāta-Jana-Kŗti, The Indo-Mongoloids their contribution to the history and culture of India, Reprinted in April 1998, p. 46

[26] Rev. S. Endle, Outline Grammar of the Kachári (Båṛå) Language as spoken in District Darrang, Assam, 1884, p.iii.

[27] Rev. S. Endle, Outline Grammar of the Kachári (Båṛå) Language, 1884, Preface, iv.

[28] E.A. Gait, A History of Assam, 1906, p.5

[29] Dr. Praphulladatta Goswami in his Introduction to the book Boro Kacharis Janashitya written by Bhavendra Narzy, 1957, pp.2-4.

[30] Suniti Kumar Chatterji, The Place of Assam in the History and Civilisation of India, 1955, p.65.

[31] H.H. Risley, Census of India 1901, Vol. I, India, Part-I – Report, p.264

[32] Manicharan Barman, Hoirimba Bhasa Prabesh, 1320 B.S. pp. ১৷৷৵-১৸৴৹

[33] H.H. Risley, Census of India 1901, Vol. I, India, Part-I – Report, p.264

[34] E.A. Gait, A History of Assam, 1906, p.6

[35] U.N. Brahma, Why Separate State, 1987, pp.31-32