Assam shares a boundary with all the states of Northeast India and serves as a doorway to the secrets of the seven sisters. This land has its deepest roots to the mighty Brahmaputra River which overpowers the landscape and has shaped both culture and the environment. Assam is renowned over the world for its tea plantations and also as a delicate interconnected hotspot of cultures, wildlife and biodiversity.
The great plains of Assam has a long history and has been mentioned even in the age old Vedic scriptures such as Mahabharata and Kalika Purana where it was referred as Kamrupa in the ancient times. In Hindu mythology, this land was also believed to be ruled by the demon Narakasura who had his capital at ‘Pragjyotishpur’, the eastern city of lights and a learning centre of astronomy. Perhaps the first written records is from the 7th century Chinese traveler Huan Tsang who visited ancient Assam during the reign of King Bhaskarvarman whom he described as “the aristocratic king of eastern India’ and a devotee of Lord Shiva. The medieval era is predominantly marked with the invasion of the Tai Ahom clans from northern Myanmar in 13th century which ruled over the Brahmaputra valley for six hundred years and have recorded their history in the Buranji chronicles. It was finally the British East India Company which arrived in 19th century and colonized the region. British historian Edward Gait defined the boundary of Assam as “The plains of Assam, parts of East Bengal and foot hills of Bhutan”. Their administration merged the plains of Brahmaputra valley with the surrounding hills and tribal areas and eventually formed the state of Assam, deriving the name from the Ahom word ‘Axom’, meaning ‘the land like no other’.
The Koch group of Bodo Kacharis in the west, Sonowal Kacharis in the east and Dimasa Kacharis of Dima Hasao hills in Cachar are considered as the oldest inhabitants of the region and are of Tibeto-Burman origin. They formed independent kingdoms before the arrival of other ethnic groups such as Ahoms during the 12th century. Though they lived in different parts of the state, their Kachari dialects were mutually intelligible. The Bodos are today the largest tribal community of Assam and they dwell primarily near the foothills of Bhutan in western Assam. Bodo culture is well known for the Bagurumba dance and Bathow worship. The Sonowal Kacharis were one of the earliest ethnic groups to have come in contact with the invading Ahoms. They served as gold washers for the Ahom kings. Whereas the Dimasa Kacharis who had their capital in Dimapur of modern Nagaland have similarities to the Tripuri peoples of Tripura.
The landscape of the state mainly comprises of the vast Brahmaputra plains, Cachar hills and the Barak valley in south. The Cachar hills and its Barail range separate the Brahmaputra plains from Barak Valley. The wide Brahmaputra river forms a major part of the landscape of Assam, flowing across the length of the entire state from Sadiya in the east to Goalpara in the west. Many rivers flowing from the surrounding mountains of the neighboring states also form tributaries of the Brahmaputra. Majuli, the biggest inhabited river island and Umananda, the world’s smallest island are both in Assam. The meandering Barak river flows only in the southern part of the state before it flows into Bangladesh. An interesting quote from 19th century writes “The number and magnitude of rivers in Assam probably exceed those of any other country in the world of equal extent. They are in general of a sufficient depth at all seasons to admit of a commercial intercourse in shallow boats, and, during the rains, boats of the largest size find sufficient depth of water. The number of rivers, of which the existence has been ascertained, amounts to 61, including the Brahmaputra and its great branches… Many of these contributory streams are remarkable for their winding course.”
