Page:History of Asamiya Literature.pdf/11

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS These few pages may be regarded as an attempt to make the best of a worst situation, far from congenial or peaceful, by one who not only had but also chose the path of most resistance. Its author has neither any pretension for smartness, now called brilliance, nor any claim for pageantry, now styled as scholarship. On the contrary, he is one of those who would prefer an ounce of good sense to a ton of ostentatious scholarship. While the author has no parade of learning to demonstrate, he would fain lay under contribution better proofs of deep loyalty to his subject; but here too he has been obstructed by the powers that be in today's world, both seen and unseen. This work will be adjudged, I am sure, all these personal con- siderations apart. Merit, if any, may be attributed most particularly to the two great savants of the world, Sunil Kumar Chatterji of Calcutta and Jules Bloch of Paris, who have in turn acted as my "guardian angels" in this effort; defects, which may not be few, should surely be ascribed to my inability to avail myself of their advice, knowingly or unknowingly. My indebtedness to the mighty minds of old", mentioned or not, is deep and sacred. I also feel happy to cherish the memory of many young friends, now "Fortune hath scatter- ed them at distance wido", who helped me in various mechanical matters. In going through these pages my generous readers, in India and outside, can really feel like touring in a terra incognita, to use a com- mon comparison, only if they do not carry Bengal or any such of their already familiar Indian States about with them. In that case they may miss many a seeming similarity and alleged inferiority'; but they may be sure of "exploring an infinitely entertaining difference" about the small State of Asam, literally unparalleled, a polygiot and a strategic home, and a veritable museum of nature, before they come by "a new treasure due to the Indian mind." Those who have a knack for the pastime of the Opposite Number Game, to use another familiar simile, may be warned at the outset that Madhaw Kandali is not an Assamese Kyttibis, Rim Saraswati is not an Assamese Käsiram, bor Sankardew an Assamese Chitanyadew. They differ as the letters A and B do. "History of Assam is still at best a half-told tale. Even today it is perhaps the single instance of a province least known and most mis-