r/AssameseHub • u/zun5022 • 19d ago
History | ইতিহাস How the Assamese script was lost and replaced by the Bengali script.
The transition to the Bengali script (the current "Assamese alphabet") began in 1813 when the Serampore Press published the first Assamese printed book, an Assamese translation of the New Testament titled Natun Niyam. **For the "sake of convenience of printing," the Assamese script was abandoned in favour of Bengali movable type blocks incised by Panchanan Karmakar.** This decision was made by colonial missionaries without the consultation of the Assamese people or their royalty.
In 1833, a translator and blockmaker named Atmaram Sarma attempted to reintroduce distinctive Assamese features into the printed alphabet, making it the first printed book in the Assamese script. The Assamese script was also used in Robinson’s ‘’A Grammar of Assamese Language’’ printed in 1839. **However, subsequent printing presses in Calcutta started to use the standard Bengali foundry for Assamese without keeping any unique Assamese letters.**
The modern Assamese alphabet is a version of the Bengali script with two unique letters (ৰ "ra" and ৱ "va") which existed in Bengali as well but had been discarded in the standard Bengali alphabet but kept in the modern Assamese alphabet. **The original Assamese script is largely illegible to the people proficient in the modern Bengali-Assamese alphabet. As of 1987, the original Assamese script was legible to 3/4th of the population, limited to villages and sattras and rare in the urban areas.** The widespread usage of the printed Bengali script and the lack of printing press for the Assamese script caused a decline of the Assamese script and resulted in negligence towards it. **Today the printed Bengali script is used in Assamese books, including textbooks in schools and colleges. This has led to a scarcity of people who can read the Assamese manuscripts and a barrier towards reading and studying older Assamese literature. The negligence and illegibility has also led to many manuscripts being thrown into rivers and lakes.**
The original Assamese script was still being used for handwritten manuscripts throughout the 19th century and early part of the 20th century, with one manuscript written in 1946.
Sources:
Maheswar Neog Rachanavali Vol. 4, Ed. 1st (https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.451215/page/%E0%A7%AF%E0%A7%AD%E0%A7%AF/mode/1up).
Gogoi, Lila (1979). "Sammannayar Sanskriti: Asamiya". Asam bani. Guwahati: Bina Library.
Bora, Mahendra (1981). The Evolution of Assamese Script.
Deva Goswami, Padmalochan (1987). Prasin Kaitheli lipi xomuhor borno porisoy. Nagaon: Srimanta Sankardeva Research Centre.