Nepal and the BrahmaputraValley are not geographically contiguous, but geological, historical, mythological, socio-anthropological, linguistic and prehistoric facts bring people of these two areas very close and make their relation obligatorily tied to each other.
By the name ‘Assam’, people of Nepal understand the old Assam which includes Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya with the present Assam. For the same reason, the name Assam has been inclusive in this paper. These states (including parts of modern Bangladesh and Bhutan) were collectively called ‘Praagjyotisa’ in the Mahabharata (Sabha Parva 23:28, Udyoga Parva ch 48 and Ashvamedha Parva ch 75). Pragjyotisa was a noted invincible power at the time of the Mahabharata. The holy river Brahmaputra has been called ‘Lohityaa’ in the Mahabharata (Sabha Parva 9:22). Chinese explorer Chang Kien (100 BC) and Greek geographer Ptolemy (2nd c. AD) are said to have mentioned Assam. In the later period Assam was called Kamarupa.
Both Nepal and Assam are linked geologically by the Himalayas. In this way, peoples of both geographical regions share the same Himalayan culture. All the rivers of Nepal and Assam have their origin in the Himalayas. Two of them namely the Karnali river of Nepal and the Brahmapurta of Assam originate in the same region of MountKailasa and the Man Sarovar. The Brahmaputra originates in Man Sarovar.
Before Tibet was unified (in 1949) in China, the Kailas-Man Sarovar region was a territory of Nepal (Satya MohanJoshi). If it had been the case today, the Brahmaputra would have joined both the peoples of Nepal and Assam.
There are four major families of languages spoken in Nepal. They are Tibeto-Burman, Indo-Aryan, Austro-Asiatic and Dravidian. In addition to these four, there is a language isolate named Kusunda. I am not sure about any Dravidian language being spoken in Assam, but the other three families of languages are spoken even in the Brahmaputra valley.
The Austric people must have occupied Assam before the Sino-Tibetan speakers arrived. There are two groups of Austro-Asiatic languages in the Indian peninsula. One is called Mon-Khmer and the other is Munda. The Khasi language of Meghalaya and Assam belongs to the Mon-Khmer group while the Santali and Kharia languages and a cluster of languages spoken in Orissa, Behar, Madhya Pradesh and Bengal (including Assam) fall to the category of Munda. If Tai Wan is the original home of the Austro-Asiatic language, then Santals (speakers of a Mundari language) of Nepal must have moved through the Brahmaputra valley. I have met Santals in Assam as well as in eastern Nepal. Grierson (1927) writes:
…although the languages composing it are spoken by a comparatively small number of people, is spread over an area wider than that occupied by any other group of tongues. Its speakers are found scattered over Nearer and Further India, and form the native population of Indonesia, Melanesia and Polynesia including Madagaskar and New Zealand. It extends from Madagaskar, off the coast of Africa, to Easter Island which is less than 40 degrees from the coast of S. America. In the North, traces of it were discovered in Kanawar in the Panjab, and its southern limit included New Zealand. West of Easter Island it covers the whole of Pacific Ocean, except Australia (including Tasmania) and a part of New Guinea.
Austronesian is the sister node of Austroasiatic. These two nodes together form ‘Austric’ (Schmidt 1906 quoted by Grierson 1927). Whether Tai Wan or any other Pacific country may be the original home of the ‘Austric’ people, they must have passed through the Brahmaputra basin on their way towards Nepal.
The original home of the Indo-Aryan family is said to be Europe, the region in the vicinity of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea (Mair 1998). Tibeto-Burman languages are believed to have originated in the Chang Jiang (Yang Tse) river valley (Hale 1981) of China. Archaeological records of Chinese Central Asia (Xin Jiang) and other regions of Eurasia (Mair 1998) hint that the original home of the Dravidian people as well was the Mediterranean Sea. The Austro-Asiatic people are believed to have originated in Tai Wan (National Geographic). Nobody knows anything about the whereabouts of the Kusunda language and the people, but the comparative phonology of the Kusunda (Watters 2004) and the Yuguric languages of Western China are pointing their origin to the Altaic family.
John Matisoff has divided Tibeto-Burman languages into Indosphoric and Sinosphoric types. The pronominalized languages of Nepal and Pragjyotisa, according to Matisoff, belong to the Indosphoric type, while Tibetan dialects and the Tamangic languages (Tamang, Gurung, Thakali and Manangba) fall to the category of Sinosphoric type. Tibeto-Burman languages of the Brahmaputra valley can also be grouped into these two types.
These existing theories imply that the Indosphoric group of Tibeto-Burman speakers of Nepal must have poured down from South China along the Brahmaputra gorge. At some point of time in prehistory, ancestors of this group of peoples of Nepal must have remained the inhabitants of Pragjyotisa (Assam) while majority of Tibeto-Burman languages bordering Tibet tend to fall on the Sinosphoric category in both the regions, because both Nepal and Pragjyotisa are touching Tibet to the north. Chatterji (1974) believes that the movement of the Tibeto-Burman people towards eastern Tibet and Assam may have started prior to 1000 BC, that is, in the Vedic period. This estimate may mean their arrival in the vicinity of Dibrugarh. I believe that statistically there may be positive correlation between the distance of a Tibeto-Burman people from Dibrugarh and the date of entering South Asia. Chatterji (p.41) thinks that the pronominalized languages of Nepal may be earliest to enter.
Chatterji’s guess sounds correct, because Chinese culture got its conception in the Hwang He (Yellow River) valley in the north. People of the Yang Tse or Chang Jiang (LongRiver) basin were pushed down when the population and the power of the Han people increased with culture. Climatic conditions of North China are very hard compared to the South. This vacuum may have been caused the southward flow of the population when the military power of the North increased. Military pressure of the North pushed the population in the South to pour down to South Asia. Tibeto-Burman speakers of Nepal and Assam resemble the cultures and appearance of the people of Si Chuan (Four Rivers) and Yun Nan (South of the Clouds) of South China. The Tai-Ahoms who ruled Assam around 13th century, came from Yun Nan.
In the 16th century Koche or Rajbamshis came to power. They not only ruled ruled Assam, but also Bijayapur (of Nepal), my birth place. Narayanpur at Bijayapur is a witness. It is believed that the Sen rulers of Bijayapur ousted Rajbamshis. Roughly around the same period, Nepal and Assam were neighboring countries, separated probably by the Tista. Bodos of Nepal, who are called Meche, live in eastern Nepal and mark the historical relation between Nepal and Assam.
Chatterjee (1974:36-7) writes that the Indo-Aryan speakers and the Tibeto-Burman speakers [kiratas] entered the Indian peninsula about the same time (1000 BC). He further adds:
…in the free-Christian centuries, they [Tibeto-Burman speakers] had occupied the southern tracts of the Himalayas and the whole of North-eastern India, North Bihar contiguous to Nepal and to the north of the Ganges, the greater part of Bengal and Assam…Eastern Nepal and the Lauhitya or the Brahmaputra valley were the lands specially connected with them.
During the Rigvedic period (1500-1200 BC), the Indo-Aryan speakers were primarily were confined to the Panjab. By the time of the rise of Buddhism and Jainism (6th century BC) Indo-Aryan speakers had already reached the eastern sea crossing the tributaries of the Brahmaputra valley (Burrow 1975). Nepali is developed from the Northwestern Prakrit, but Assamese is developed from the Eastern Prakrit (commonly called Magadhi). Nepalese languages like Maithili, Majhi, Danuwar and Rajbamshi belong to this dialect. Other languages closely related to Assamese are Bangla, Magahi and Oria which are spoken in India. Beams (1872:20) is of the view that the proportion of Sanskrit words in South Asian languages can be correlated with the distance from Sindh and Panjab. It means, Assamese and Bangla use more Sanskrit words in written language than Sindhi and Panjabi, but in the spoken varieties Sindhi and Panjabi are closer to Sanskrit than Assamese, Bangla and Oria. If Beams is correct, then we should expect clearly two varieties in Assamese. Linguistically, these Magadhi languages are more developed than the Western group of Indo-Aryan languages. Diverse nationalities with diverse historical, geographical and socio-anthropological backgrounds have acted to the cultural shaping of these regions. Ethnic, linguistic and social contacts of diverse peoples in Assam and Nepal have given birth to somewhat similar patterns of cultural exchange. With this scenario at hand, I believe, Nepal has to have a deeper knowledge of the various factors responsible to the socio-cultural configurations of the Brahmaputra valley in order to have a better understanding of her own society.
Kautilya (350 BC) has mentioned Nepal’s woolen blankets. In the same text he has mentioned ‘kausheya’ (silken garments) as well. I believe silk technology began in China. Therefore these silken garments must have been produced in China or in Assam in South Asia, because the historic Silk Road was a mark of ancient silk trade of Xian in Western China with Rome in Europe. There were branches of this Road through Nepal and Assam (Prof. Wang Rao personal communication) of Central University of Nationalities in Beijing This Road was linked to Iran and Turkey as well. This historic Silk Road also keeps a distant relationship between Nepal and Assam, however, Assamese silk is has been famous through ancient times but ancient Nepal does not seem to have learnt silk technology. Chang Kien (100 BC) is recorded to have discovered a trade relation between Assam and South Chana.
Buddha was born at Lumbini in Nepal. Buddhism was extended by the emperors of India, Central Asia, China, Mongolia, Korea, Japan and Tibet. Tibetan tradition believes that Buddhism entered Tibet through Nepal. Chinese historical records also supply the name of a Nepalese princess called Chi Zhan who was married to the Tibetan emperor Srong Chan Gampo. Chi Zhan is called Bhrkuti, in Nepal and is believed to be a daughter of Amshu Varma. Tibet is a Buddhist country. Northern frontiers of both Nepal and the Brahmaputra countries touch Tibet and the majority of people along the border of both are Buddhist. Buddhists across the Tibetan border share the same scriptures. Xuan Tsang (7th c.AD) visited both Nepal and has given a detailed description of Assam.
Nepal is a Hindu country and Hinduism is a major religion of the people of the Brahmaputra valley. This factor has unified pilgrims of Nepal (Pashupati and Guhyeshwari) and Pragjyotish or Kamarupa (Kamakhya). According to the Swasthani Vratakatha developed in the Nepal valley, both Kamakhya of Assam and Guhyeshwari of Nepal came into existence by Sati Devi’s limbs. Both represent the fertility cult and imply Tantric practices possibly originated in Bengal.
For centuries the Brahmaputra basin is inhabited by Nepali speaking people as well. Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Tejpur, Guwahati and Gwalpada are some of the major cities developed at the banks of the Brahmaputra. These are the centers of Nepali speaking population too.
Both the Brahmaputra of Assam and the Karnali of Nepal originate in the Kailas-Manarovar region of Western Tibet. The Brahmaputra bends eastward and remains a source of inspiration to the Tibetan people until it reaches the northeast frontier of Assam. It makes Assam, Bhutan and Bengal holy lands. The Karnali cuts across Western Nepal. Finally the Brahmaputra joins the water of Karnali at Faridpur near Dacca until it reaches the Bay of Bengal.
There are only two classifier languages in South Asia: one, the Newar language of Nepal and the other is the Garo language of Assam. This linguistic similarity may hint their close historical relationship, but research has yet to confirm this relation.
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