Some beginnings do not end

Permanent shelters...Impermanent decisions

2012-01-19T12:42:00.000-08:00

Please read this: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/article2714197.ece

This was just before the winter in Delhi reached its peak. Today it's 3-4 degrees outside and still govt is continuing with its 64 permanent shelters for the homeless and shutting down all temporary shelters! One can understand why India, despite being the 5th largest economy in the world (I doubt the statistics though), is still not considered a developed country. There are many lacunae for India being not taken seriously in World arena:

1. India's lack of sensitivity towards humanitarian ideology: The above stated report is one example. There will still be many which can be listed here. I abstain.

2. India's lack of sensitivity towards animal welfare: I have met many people who still laugh at Maneka Gandhi for being an active proponent of animal welfare. I don't understand what is there to laugh! Indians' apathy towards atrocities to street dogs is striking. I strongly believe that the value system has to change. Animal poaching is another issue!

3. Deforestation: Same ignorance towards the nature. It's a pity that the foundation of the civilized (!) India was based on a concerted effort of deforestation, started in a massive scale under the colonial rule and continued till the present times being driven by lust and hunger for money. Should the civilized India have forgotten the tribal way of subsistence based on calculated exploitation of forest produce and a symbiotic relationship with the nature? There's a lot to think about.

4. India's lack of hygiene: This is really one aspect where we have to learn from the Europeans or the Japanese for that matter. And this is really something for which I can never boastfully pronounce: Mera Bharat Mahaan! We will have to stop spitting here and there, stop using plastics, and really really stop pieing in public places. The government has to make strict law and order as well as build public conveniences at every nook and corner of the country. We must realize that until and unless the people of a country looks developed and behave developed, the other countries are never going to accept it as developed.

5. India has to understand its strength as a nation; the virtuous social norms should be retained and nurtured, the vices to be abolished. Women needs more empowerment, or rather social security; women should be in a social environment where they will automatically feel equal to men. The Indian man's preconceived social dominance or superiority should be questioned and curtailed. This is a far more deeper problem than we normally perceive it to be - it's hidden inside every Indian's mind and hence need a much more effective and penetrating movement or reform to be remedied. I will spare my views for another piece on this.

6. India should be more proactive and try to be more participatory in sports and similar activities such as geographical explorations, film making, heritage preservation, adventure, etc. etc. Although the govt has an active role to play in this, the people should be also ready for challenges. Defeatist mentality and lack of unity is a big problem in the Indian society.

7. Lack of public awareness despite the presence of a strong media: I just want to present a small example here. Just before the Delhi Commonwealth Games, the city roads were widened and cycle tracks were laid on both sides of the roads. The idea was to facilitate smooth traffic by providing cyclists (mostly from the lower rung of the society) a safe passage. One year after, we see all cycle tracks being used for parking or illegal petty business establishments. Who is responsible for this. I blame the media as well as the cyclists. The cyclists never used these tracks, they preferred the vehicle roads instead; but then it was media's responsibility to bring an awareness among the people who use cycles to commute in the city that those tracks were prepared for them and them only. From my public interaction with people from the lower rung of the society in Delhi (who usually use a cycle to commute), i have, sadly enough, come to know that they were never aware of the fact that those were actually cycle tracks. This is a failure of the nation as a whole. It may sound like a small thing, but then we are so insensitive, and dumb to understand, the Other's issues. Our media, which is always busy either in analysing our relationship with neighbouring countries or the issues bothering the elite class or the petty crimes happening all around, is so dumb to understand that public awareness doesn't necessarily mean highlighting the faults in the public itself, but to highlight issues that are for the benefit of the public. Jaago Media Jaago.

A country cannot be run by a management mechanism. A country does not have a theory, nor it is a system - it does not have a method. It is an entity which also has its emotions. Whenever we tend to configure the entity within a system, the emotions will suffer; whenever we give importance to the emotions the system will falter. We need a balance, and the balance should come from within every individual, every man should be the judge of the other and himself. And then only the country will prosper.

Legend of the Mountain, the Sea, the River, and the Rock

2012-01-17T14:34:00.000-08:00

You: Where are you heading to?
The mountain beyond the village
Or the sea that we have never seen?

Me: Do you really believe you can find God
In the darkest caves of that ugly mountain
Or in the monstrous waves of that condemned sea?

You: The mountain brings peace to my ruffled mind
The sea provides depth of thought
And in both you find a faith
That can win wars no heroes have ever fought!

Me: The sea has never moved;
The mountain stands where it has been
for thousands of years.
I shall follow the river that runs between them
Ask her the stories of the battles that were won
And the wars that were lost.

You: The red river has always moved on
with a speed that nobody can catch,
leaving the scars on those pebbled banks.
Why would you trust the fables that it creates?

Me: I believe in the speed that it moves
I believe in the changes that it brings

You: It's so dark, I can't see the lines written on your chest
that you always sing whenever the river cries
that you always believe is the epitaph of time

Me: If speed is your belief and change your religion
I am the mighty rock that you can call God!

You and Me

2011-12-29T02:06:00.000-08:00

1
You: I am a tree
Me: You are not a tree
You: Because I rhyme with the wind
Me: Because the wind destroys you
You: But I provide shade to everyone
Me: You provide shade only to the insects
You: I am a tree, because I am innocent
Me: You are not, you're merely a Bonsai !!!

2
You: The mist is gone, the road is clear now.
Me: Look at the patch of cloud!
You: Where exactly?
Me: Towards the horizon...
You: What do you plan to do now?
Me: I will sell this painting for one million!

THE THREAD

2011-12-12T22:33:00.000-08:00

The thread missed its target at last!

There was only little hope

That the sun will ever defeat

The might of the western city

And it found the Dim Candle

“The thread has started burning at last!”

Declares the old man from the cave,

“Let us follow the path of its light

And we’ll find the thunderstorms at last!”

Death

2011-11-12T13:46:00.000-08:00

Death's an art!

Carved on the plutonic bands of the gneiss,
Weathered by the prehistoric waters of the creek,
Metamorphosed through hominoid touches through the ages,

Death's the sculpture of life!

Two days after the blast

2011-07-14T22:29:00.000-07:00

15 July, two days after the Mumbai blasts, and one month for the Independence day celebration - What are our thoughts? What's playing in our minds?

PM Manmohan Singh must be thinking his hope of making a stable, superpower South Asia is going to crash. Who did he rely upon, the military establishment of Pakistan? Even if you don't want, you have to believe it. Yes, Dr Singh has been optimistic, and that's fine with the administrative head of the strongest nation of South Asia; it's understandable if he thinks he can control and dictate terms of a region. But somewhere down the line, we are made to believe that the diplomats of India have been naive, and naivety of the heads of a wannabe superpower cannot be accepted.

What is Advani and the opposition thinking? Well, I see no reason why they should not hope for regaining power next time; although that is also not going to help the cause of India any better. We have experienced that, we will experience the same. Rather we can predict a worse situation if that were to happen.

What are the industrialists thinking. The big industrialist set-up is not disturbed at all. The only thing they are bothered is the fluctuating graph of the stock market. Small things (!) like price hike, growing economic disparity, etc. are beyond their imagination. They will at best talk about a much romanticized goodwill and world-changing, friendship-making event like the IPL, and so on. After all, it's the Western world that they have to look out for, not our immediate neighbours.

What is the common people of India thinking? There can be many thoughts: A will be thinking "Damn, why was I to lose one leg? It could have happened to any Tom, Dick and Harry!"; B will be thinking, "Thank God, I was not there." C will be thinking, "Shit! It is going to be a difficult coming six months." D will be thinking, "Anyways, I am going out of this forbidden country, and I will not come back." E will be thinking, "I don't have money to buy rice for tonight, who can I go and ask?" F will be thinking, "If it was possible, I would fuck my boss and move to the other job." G will be thinking, "This many persons I will have to contact, let's see if i get a bakra for this rubbish insurance policy today." H will be dreaming and thinking nothing, while "I" will have nothing to dream and nothing to think, yet a lot to calculate. - Yes, the common man will forget it over a period of time, and will adapt to various ways of coping up with a crisis situation, like they do in Hollywood movies. They will think, everything will be nice one day. And some common men will remain unaware of that there was even a crisis.

Is it better to be insensitive about everything? I have a 50-50 stand on this. As a responsible citizen of this country, I always hope for all-round betterment and peace of this land, and wish to contribute in every possible way. But as a selfish individual, I simply hope to survive and try not to be sensitive, and be calculative and remain safe.

Honesty

2011-06-01T00:37:00.000-07:00

“This” is what I like

“That” is what I am told I should like

“This” is what I feel

“That” is what I am asked to feel

And I roam about in a constant space

Between the “this” and the “that”

“This” says: “you are dishonest.”

“That” says: “you will be dishonest.”

I say: “Who are you to decide?

My honesty lies in the space I live.”

The Listener

2011-03-10T04:02:00.000-08:00

For years i have listened to!
For years i have obeyed
and have obeyed that i would listened to!

When you said: listening is the way to knowledge
And knowledge is the ladder to success,
i felt...
holy shit!
Years have gone by

And I am still not the leader!

The Fountain Pen and My Thoughts on Cultural Evolution

2010-05-17T21:34:00.000-07:00

Fountain pens are fantastic, they’re my favourites. The one I have with me now is very simple, but it writes very smooth, and I have been using this for more than six years now. As it happened, the nib broke and I had to go in search of a new nib for it, suddenly the idea came to my mind that I shall gift a fountain pen to a friend of mine as a B’Day gift. Hence, in no moment I was at this local stationery shop. What I had to encounter in that shop was a revelation.

The shopkeeper was amused when he had the knowledge that I wanted to buy a fountain pen together with an inkpot. He was further shocked when he learnt that I was buying a pen not only for a gift but I still prefer to write with a fountain pen rather than a ball pen or a roller pen! His expression said it all. Following this, the shopkeeper gave me a lecture on why I should stop using a fountain pen and start using more ‘sophisticated’, ‘user-friendly’ and ‘smoother’ ball pans or the roller pens: “Technology has advanced and we should march ahead with time my friend…”…bla bla bla! I could not help but listen to him with patience. Although I was utterly irritated and was eager to leave the shop as early as possible, I realize, there comes such circumstances in life when you just can’t do what you want to. I felt like arguing and throw a lesson on fountain pens to that shopkeeper, but could not. I was more keen on getting that pen from the shop and just get back to my daily evening routine: cook food, watch tv for sometime and then prepare for a good night’s sleep.

The shopkeeper was, however, able to hold me stay put for half an hour, and at the end of it was able to gather the ‘priceless’ information that I was a student of archaeology and am still very interested in things related to history – ancient in his own language! There comes the greatest declaration from the man: “That’s what I was wondering man! There are only a few people these days who are interested in buying antique stuff.” Now for heaven’s sake, “don’t put the label of antique to the fountain pen my friend. These are still manufactured in large numbers and are marketed throughout the world, and there are people who still buy these pens rather than going for the more popular and use-and-throw stuff!” I wanted to tell him, but I knew that wouldn’t concur to him. Then he gave me a statistical figure of his business in pens over the last two decades, and concluded that I was the only person in the last six months who have actually genuinely showed interest in buying a good fountain pen. That truly, I must admit, explains the shocked expression he had when I first told him that I wanted to buy a fountain pen. In fact, I bought two – one for my friend and another for myself – and returned home.

I remember the Head Master of my primary school who never allowed us to use pens till we were promoted to the higher sections. I got my first pen in the 5th standard; it was a black Hero pen – a small pen. Goss, I still remember how carefully I used to put ink into it. It was a special pen. Father taught me how to properly hold a fountain pen and write along the straight rules. At first I would falter, but then I picked up gradually. Since then I have rarely used a ball pen, but never for writing an exam paper. The fountain pens that I have had bear emotional value; I have truly loved them.

A question has come to my mind ever since I got that statistical explanation from the shopkeeper. Has the time arrived when we can declare the death of the fountain pen? Has it already become an antique piece, as wondered by the shopkeeper? Well, I don’t intend to speak for or against using a fountain pen or a ball pen. To be honest, I don’t have a strong argument for asking everyone to use the fountain pen. I simply do not have a valid argument. But I have a strong belief that writing with a fountain pen is a much delightful experience – in fact the whole process of it; putting ink, writing and looking at the after you have finished writing. But it is only a belief, I can not guarantee that one will have very good handwriting if one writes with a fountain. After all good handwriting is an act of personal/individual brilliance. Although we can ignore the handwriting issue as rather trivial, can we really ignore the emotional and, more importantly, the cultural value that one can attach to a pen – a fountain pen for that matter? The pen has lost its power gradually. First with the coming of the typewriter and the computer, simultaneously with the growing popularity of the ‘use-and-throw’ ball pens, the importance of the pen and the paper has remarkably gone down.

I fear you will call me conservative. I am not. I completely understand that the cultural values, social needs, people’s attitudes, and above all people’s adaptation strategies change. Whatever I have observed above is also nothing but a similar sort of change – a change that is unstoppable, a change that is acceptable. The society is evolving. But should we not have the emotional element also in the new set of cultural values; otherwise what would become of a culture without emotions and ethics?

I also strongly argue that it is not yet the time we give a heritage status to the fountain pen – and the ‘Pen’ that it used to be – for that matter. It’s not dead yet.

The Camel

2010-05-16T23:37:00.000-07:00

Don’t stop don’t stop my westbound friend
Until you get to that deserted den
Carry on carry on my stranger friend
Until you get to that withdrawn land

Where the oasis turns yellow
And the meandering river
Comes roaring against the ancient rock
That abuts the temple of prehistoric fame

Leave your mark over the thorniest of land
And those irregularities of the ocean of sand
Which have survived
The ravages of an untold saga

Of whispers and murmurs
Of that charlatan charmer
Who walked on the lane of forgotten chants
And goaded winds to the beholden land

He who promised and promised a lot
That the river would flow here
Young and strong
And trees would grow here
Tall and green

Forget those stories of hope and despair
Of endless promises and unfortunate failures
Forget it forget it o ravening wanderer
Forget that you have reasons to mourn
For there will be none that you will be known

Tread the path to that unbeaten land
Gyrate your ways through the searing sand
Until you get to that deserted den
Until you get to that wondrous land
Don’t stop don’t stop my wandering friend

Life is not B&W; there's always some yellow in it!!

2009-11-06T03:05:00.000-08:00

In Assamese:

Moi janu toi dhumuha bhaal pao
Moi janu toi barasun bhaal pao
Seyehe tuk kou
Sukan sarapatbor butali lo
Dhumuha ahile
Ekhan haladhiya dalisa parim!

Phagunat marahi joasei kisor gasjopar para
Pasimar duosa akaskhanaloi
Ekhan haladhiya dalisa parim!

Translation as follows:

I know you like storms
I know you like rains
Hence i tell you
Collect those dry leaves
I shall lay a yellow carpet
When the first storm breaks!

From the young tree
That dried up during the last winter
To the two-coloured sky in the west
I shall lay a yellow carpet!

Note: Two-coloured (duosa), i know is not the correct translation. Used here only for want of proper alternative. Duosa actually refers to the hair of a middle-aged woman, a mixture of black (grey) and white colours.

(The poet is none other than Pranab J. Sarma)

Journey of a man (through limericks)

2009-03-18T15:50:00.000-07:00

Early life of Guddu
1.
Ek nanha munha rahi tha
Desh ka jabaaz sipahi banna chahta tha
Hamesha lekin pita tha duddu
Ma ne pyaar se bola usko guddu
Aisa hi tha Guddu apna khatta meetha

2.
Ma ka laadla dheere dheere bigar gaya
Dekhte hi dekhte guddu siyana ho gaya
Hath me leke banduk
Tod ke ghar ka sanduk
Shina chouda kar ke guddu jang ko nikal gaya

3.
Guddu ka tha apna hi ek funda
Hamesha rahta tha cool thanda thanda
Dushman ne chillaya: ‘Aaja teri maa ki’
Guddu bola: ‘Jay ho mere dushman ki’
Banduk phek ke Guddu ne uthaya gilli danda

Its HOLI tomorrow

2009-03-09T22:14:00.000-07:00

Kuch kagaz ke tukde hai, pencil hai, pen hai, siyahi bhi hai
Kuch yaadein hai, tanhai hai, khusiya bhi hai
Kuch ankahi si baaten hai, kahne ki khwahish bhi hai
Kahi to koi bhule bhatke ghumta hai,
Kahi kisi ke liye par rangeen bistar hai
Lekin ...
Kahi aisa ek dil bhi hai
Jo dono ke irt girt jhumta bhi hai
Ek hi gali hai, do ghar hai
Ek me andhera hai to dusre me diya jalta hai

Kahi pani nahi hai to kahi sharaab ki nadi bahti hai
Par tum ghabrao mat mere dost
KAL HOLI HAI
Aur charo aur bhang hi bhang hai!!!!

(If you wish you can ignore the last para! otherwise i thought the poem was brilliant, ha ha ha)

The art of forgetting

2008-07-05T04:56:00.000-07:00

The moment I got into the bus, I realized that i took a wrong route. I thought for a moment what to do. I did not get down. Thus, a journey started, as if not to end!

There was something strange in that bus stop. I remember , going back in past, that this was not my first visit to this place. There were three dogs, lying just along the road, totally unaware of being trampled by the uncompromising big buses. I would do my habitual chu chu to them thinking they would atleast come near me. They would just give a momentary stare and then carry on with their own way. Then there was that couple; the boy standing with a stick on his right hand and the girl with a single drapery around her lower half. The office-going fellow standing near me would shout and declare to everyone that the couple was mad, and they would always stand there and strike the buses that stand there and shout, as if defining that that was their territory. Do we human beings really bring out our animal instinct when we go mad. atleast for the moment I thought the dogs were behaving more humanlike. Then there was this girl with a skin-tight top, running giving curious stares at my bald head, and within a moment changing her seat. People have become so suspiscious of each other!

I was standing there, trying to rrecollect when did I last visited that place, but in vain. My conscience would constantly tell me "run away from here! You are simply running after a mirage." but I wouldn't listen to it. i stay there. i see my co-occupants change. the mad couple still stand there, the dogs too! and I too; a complete status quo. It was midnight when i got into the bus, and discover that it was the wrong route.

Childhood memory and the forts around Guwahati

2007-02-08T05:38:00.000-08:00

Few days back, a very good friend of mine advised me to write a note on the medieval forts of Assam. I was startled as when I took to the pen, I was horridly taken aback by the inadequacy of my knowledge on the subject.

Since my childhood, I have been listening to the stories of Lacit Borphukon, the great hero of medieval Assam, who is credited to have repulsed the invasion of the Mughal army of Aurangzeb in the year 1665. The Mughal army was headed by none other than the great Rajput commander Raja Ram Singh. As a child I used be thrilled by the bravery displayed by the Assamese army. The glorious victory in the naval battle of Saraighat on the waters of the mighty Brahmaputra made a strong imprint in my mind and memory as well. More was I stunned at the courage shown by Lacit, the Commander-in-Chief of the Assamese army, who despite being bedridden owing to high fever caused by a painful boil on his left armpit, lead the Assamese fleet to the water and took the enemy by surprise. The battle was won at that very moment. Lacit did not survive for long after this great victory. The festive mood of the victorious Assamese camp was dampened and all were engulfed with grief at the loss of their great warrior, a real hero. I used to question: why should he die just after that victory? Why didn’t he live longer? He could have achieved so much in his life!.....I am ashamed of my childish anxiety, as I could not realize that had Lacit not died at that time, his fame would have dissipated. That single achievement was enough to make him immortal and secure his name among the great heroes of all time. Also I was ignorant of the reality that he was one of the two great warriors of the contemporary India, who stood firmly against the might of the invulnerable army of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. The other one was Shivaji, whose achievement Lacit could hear from his home. Shivaji’s feat was a real source of inspiration for Lacit.

Let me keep aside my emotions for a moment and focus on some vital questions. They are many: Who was Lacit and how many of us know him? Is he considered to be a national hero in the similar lines of Shivaji and many others? Who is responsible in case we have not remembered him?....I must confess that although I have committed not to be emotional while I state these questions, yet they are borne out of my emotions only. These emotions, in a way, helped me realize some horrendous truths, which I shall focus on at a later stage.

The seat of the Assamese army during this war with the Mughals was at the heart of the modern city of Guwahati. There is a considerable amount of historical source material to know about the preparation of the Assamese army for the war. It is clearly mentioned in the buranjis that the Assamese constructed a series of fortification walls surrounding the main military camp at Guwahati. These forts were made of mud, and bamboo was used to strengthen it. Walls were raised to height of 25m. Lacit’s head office was situated inside the fortified camp of ‘Itakhuli’, which can be identified with the present Panbazar area just on the south bank of the Brahmaputra. ‘Itakhuli’ has been mentioned in the historical sources as an impenetrable fort initially constructed the Fauzdar under the Nawab of Dacca, when the administrative headquarters of Lower Assam was shifted from Hajo to Guwahati. This was a time when the kingdom of Koch Behar already declined and the Lower Assam region went to the hands of the Bengal Nawabs. Lacit defeated this Fauzdar in the famous battle of Itakhuli and captured the lost Guwahati. He sensed immediate danger of the inevitable war with the Mughals after this victory, and so, along with Aton Burhagohain, the shrewd minister of the Ahoms, made an elaborate plan to bring about an array of fortification walls surrounding Guwahati. Aton Burhagohain became the in-charge of the northern bank of the Brahmaputra, while Lacit himself settled on the south.

The fort of Itakhuli was well protected by small army camps on all sides. These camps were the gates to the main fort and were situated amidst thick and impenetrable forests. The western gate was known as 'Andharu Soki', and the northeastern one was known as 'Joiduar Soki'. The eastern gate was known as 'Dharmaduar Soki'. Beyond the Andharu Soki on the western side, there was another gate known as 'Bogoribari Soki'. One gate to the south was known as 'Daurgondalah Soki', while further east near the boundary of the Dimaria kingdom, there was another gate known as 'Jamuguri Soki'. We need to know about the geographical set-up of Guwahati to have a clear picture of the positioning of these gates. From the south bank of the Brahmaputra upto the foothills of the Khasia Pahar, the modern Guwahati city is spread upto almost 15 km north-south, and from the Bonda Hills in the east to the Jalukbari Hills in the west, its extent is 25 km. topographic maps show that almost 2/3rd of this area is covered by several isolated low hills. These scattered hills are interspersed with several low-lying and marshy flat lands. It is through these low-lying passes between the hills that one could enter the heart of the city.

The Assamese army constructed imposing fortification walls in each of these passes between the hills. Moreover, the banks of the Brahmaputra were also fortified with long-stretching ramparts on both sides, barring a small section near the fort of Itakhuli. Soldiers were stationed at each fortification with kamans and weapons. There is a lot to be studied on this warfare tactics of the Assamese soldiers. Looking at the strategic positioning of the forts, it was virtually impossible for an advancing enemy to penetrate into the heart of the camp, as they would have to destroy and surpass at least four to five gates to come anywhere near the fort of Itakhuli. The Mughals realized the difficulties and tried to blast open a few such fortifications with gun-powder, but in vain. A helpless ram Singh, the Commander Supremo of the Mughals, at last, had to take resort to the waterway via the Brahmaputra, of which unpredictable nature was no one better aware of than the Assamese. The Mughal fleet was destroyed in the final combat near Andharubali in 1665. This battle came to be known as the Battle of Saraighat.

Thomas Wood, an engineer who accompanied the detachment of Cpt. Welsh to Assam in the year 1794, recorded the fort of Itakhuli. Where now stand some imposing buildings of the District Commissioner’s office and the GPO, and also the bustling market place of Panbazar, according to Wood, was once occupied by the Itakhuli Fort surrounded by a bad ditch. This fort is impossible to trace now. Not only this, but most of the peripheral fortification walls, which once stood as the protector of Assam’s pride, have disappeared now, thanks to the unscrupulous vandalism done in the name of urbanization.

My mind is again flashing back to a childhood memory. After watching a play on Lacit Borphukon, I used to enact at home a memorable scene from the play with my brother. It was on the beheading of his maternal uncle by Lacit due to the formers negligence of duty. The story goes like this:

An important outer fortification was damaged by the Mughals by gun powder blasting. This created grave concern in the Assamese camp. Lacit assigned his uncle with the responsibility to repair the portion of the wall as quickly as possible. But his uncle became complacent as he thought Lacit won’t do any harm to him because of his blood relations. Such an act of truancy could not escape the vigilant eyes of Lacit, who took no time to unhesitatingly behead his uncle.

The fort came to be known as the Momai Kota Garh (meaning fort where uncle was beheaded) after this incident. As a child, I was really very excited to repeatedly enact the patriot Lacit and make my brother the poor uncle. Later on, I could realize the impact that this unique incident had on the minds of the Assamese soldiers. One way, it created a kind of fear for a madly patriotic General, while on the other hand, it showed an unparalleled precedent of patriotism and will to protect the motherland. Both helped in the tactful management of the Assamese army. This was a real achievement of the ‘General Lacit Borphukon’.

I have lived in the city of Guwahati for a major part of my life, and have always wanted to see this special ‘Momai Kota Garh’. But never has anyone, nor even any archaeologist, been able to locate this fort on a firm basis. Certain scattered remains of this series of medieval fortification can still be seen in and around Guwahati, and also in the North Guwahati on the other bank of the Brahmaputra. Most of these remains are known as Momai Kota Garh. This has created a baffling confusion among archaeologists to find the exact ‘Momai Kota Garh’. My knowledge, at present, is insufficient to suggest a solution to this problem.

All these medieval remains of Guwahati need proper conservation and careful study. There is no other better way to make our heritage known to the world.

The Heritage of Kachari

2007-02-01T13:45:00.000-08:00

The Kacharis are the most enigmatic population of modern Assam, a state in the northeast region of India. The 1881 census reports the Bodos and other related Kachari groups to be the majority in the whole of the Brahmaputra valley, followed by the Kalitas, and then the Daibagnas and the Brahmanas. Koches and Rajbanshis were included in the Kachari group, but were considered as totally Hinduised tribes.

The 1881 Census is important in many respects. It was the first census that covered the whole length and breadth of the valley. But most importantly, it can be presumed that in 1881, the population of the valley would have been similar to that of the medieval period, and the early medieval and the early historic periods for that matter, considering the growth rate of population to be constant throughout this span of time. Someone might raise the question that beginning from the British occupation of Assam in 1836, several groups of people from the mainland India migrated to Assam, thereby changing the demographic set up in a drastic manner. But then, we have to keep in mind that Assam’s population was reduced to 2/3rd after the incessant invasions of the Burmese which continued till the British occupied the region.

What I am trying to emphasize here is that the Kacharis (including the largest group Bodos) were the most dominant population in the valley throughout its history. That they were once very influential too, can be gauged from the fact that most of the place and river names of modern Assam still continues to be that of Bodo origin. The prefix Di, meaning water in Bodo languages and dialects are invariably used in naming most of the rivers and places in Assam (e.g. Di-bru, Digboi, Disang, Dihang, Dikhou, etc). The river Brahmaputra was also earlier known as Ti-lao or Di-lao.

At present, two important divisions among the Kachari population of Assam is conspicuous, viz. the Bodos (plain Kachari) and the Dimasas (hill Kachari). There are several other groups like Hajongs, Lalung (Tiwa), Garos, Rabhas, Karbis, Morans, Chutias, etc. which are included in the greater Kachari fold. There are reasons to believe that once upon a time, such divisions among the Kacharis were not so distinguishable. Two evidences are sufficient to prove this assumption:

1. All these groups speak dialects and languages belonging to the Tibeto-Burman (TB) language sub-group of the Sino-Tibetan Family. This takes back us to a single parentage to this entire group, which probably had originated in the southern province of Sichuan in China in the prehistoric times.

2. All these Kachari population (barring the Bodos of Western Assam), until recently, used to pay an annual homage or tribute to the Kesaikhaiti Gosani Temple at Sadiya. This proves a single lineage of these various tribes, a religious knot to say more precisely.

I shall elaborate on these two points in the remaining part. The difference between the Bodos and the Dimasas is sharp at present. Traditions, however, indicates a single root to both. The Bodos call themselves Bodo-sa or Bodo-fisa (sons of the Bod country), while the Dimasas call themselves Dima-sa or Dima-fisa (sons of the great river), although they have a similar tradition of the origin of the universe, which speaks of a flood and the subsequent creation of the earth. There is another tradition among the Bodos which speaks of the existence of two groups among them, one of which happened to cross a big river because of some disputes. It seems probable that the Bodos were the ones who crossed the river and settled down on the foothills of the Himalayas and later were disowned by the Dimasas, who initially settled on the foothills of the Patkai and the Naga Hills and the Dhansiri and Kopili valleys. In all likelihood, they entered the Brahmaputra valley through the Patkai Hill Range. When did it happen?

This is, perhaps, the most intriguing issue which I can see, will dominate the archaeological and anthropological studies in Assam for the coming decades. I shall just try to present the recent trends in both these disciplines to come out with a solution.

Renowned linguist George Van Driem, a professor in the Leiden University in the Netherlands suggested that a western group of the Proto Tibeto-Burmans branched out from the original homeland, i.e., the Sichuan Province of Southern China (Archaeology and Language II 1998). Looking at the corresponding archaeological evidences, he confined a date between 6000-2000 BC for this supposed migration. He preferred to state that there were several waves of migrations. But recent genetic studies on the TB people of the Northeast India and those of Eastern Asia and Southeast Asia has proved that the TB of Northeast India spread out into the region from a single stock. The Y-chromosome of the Northeast India tribes, which corresponds to a male lineage shares a lot of characteristics with the East Asian TBs, and also shows a genetic bottlenecks. This proves the fact that, the TBs migrated from East Asia in a small number to the Brahmaputra valley and dispersed in subsequent times. Another explanation regarding the date of the arrival of these people can also be made from such studies: the Northeast Indian TBs got separated from the parent group at an earlier date. Another group migrated to Southeast Asia more or less at the same time.

Archaeological records, however, conflict this view to some extent. The Neolithic implements of Bangladesh, Tripura, and also North Kachar Hills and Manipur share interesting characteristics, especially the raw material (fossil wood) and the technique of manufacturing. Could this have been a different belt of Neolithic culture, separate from the Neolithic of the other regions of the Brahmaputra valley, and having affinities with the South East Asian Neolithic? Could there have been a different migration of the Tibeto-Burmans from South East Asia? These are questions to be answered on the basis of farther research. But one thing seems clear that the Kacharis, who were the forbearers of the Neolithic culture of the Brahmaputra valley entered through the Sadiya region at an early date, may be around or before 2000 BC, although no sequential or absolute dating is available to confirm this view at present.

The greatest contribution of the Neolithic TBs to Assam is the introduction of rice cultivation. Manjil Hazarika (Ancient Asia, Vol.1. 2006) has highlighted this point in a recent article. Archaeological remains of rice cultivation are, however, difficult to find in Assam. But I have a strong feeling that the foothill regions of the Himalayas bordering Arunachal Pradesh and also Naga Hills will provide definite evidence of early rice cultivation in Assam and thus will help in establishing a cultural sequence. The distribution of the Kacharis (TB) within the valley happened hand in hand with the spread of this Neolithic tradition.

In regard to the medieval kingdom of the Kacharis, situation is not far too good to get conclusive results. When I see the enormous remains of the brick-built fortified towns of the Dhansiri valley, the brick monuments of Sadiya, the tanks and pottery of the Kopili valley, I am left without the slightest doubt that they are the extant remains of the early medieval and medieval kingdoms of the Chutias and the Kacharis. The brick size and texture is remarkably similar, or rather I would prefer to say, they are typically Kachari bricks. It is wonderful to see that the Kacharis developed the art of burnt brick-making as early as the 7-8th CAC, while the Ahoms could never master this art till the 17th century, when Rangpur was built. All the Ahom ramparts and forts were totally devoid of bricks! Brick-making is definitely another significant contribution of the Kacharis to the Heritage of Assam.

The makers of the medieval kindom of Sadiya were definitely the Chutias and those of the Dhansiri valley were Dimasas, which can be put beyond any doubt. The Chutias, later on, got amalgamated to the greater Assamese society, while the Dimasas fled from the Dhansiri valley following their defeat at the hands of the Ahoms in 1536, and dispersed in the North Kachar Hills. They formed a petty kingdom initially at Maibong and later shifted to Khaspur. A detailed history of this kingdom can be found (Kachari Buranji, S.K. Bhuya). But the most of this compact Dimasa people got dispersed and became isolated after their retreat from Dhansiri valley. One such group of Dimasas was noticed even in Nagaland by K.S. Singh (Scheduled Tribes, People of India Series 1994). We do not have concrete evidence for the earliest date of these Kachari kingdoms. But it might have started after the degeneration of the Kamarupa Kingdom, around 10-11th CAC. But that the Kacharis were even dominant during and before the Kamarupa regime can be put beyond doubt. Such a situation in the early history of Assam helped in assimilation to a great extent which later on became the greater Assamese identity.

There were several other petty kingdoms or rather principalities of various Kachari groups (e.g. Dimarua, Beltola, etc.) in the middle and lower Assam regions which continued to exist independently until recent times. Archaeological remains are also found. As for the Bodos of the northern bank of the Brahmaputra, it is however, difficult to say whether they formed a dynasty of their own. They remained in relative isolation for most part of the history, although practically remaining within the Kamarupa regime during the early historic and Kamata kingdom during the medieval periods. The Koch kingdom of Koch Behar can also be attributed to the greater Bodo family (the Koches were Hinduised Bodos with admixture with the Indo-Europeans).