Page:History of Asamiya Literature.pdf/5

 INTRODUCTION by SM BISNURAN ME, Rajyapal, Madres have great pleasure in acccpling this invitation to write this intro- duction to this authoritative and exhaustive History of Literature of my own mother tongue, Assamese, and I consider it a privilege to intro- duce the author Shri Dimbeswar Neog to the English-reading public. He is a great scholar and has devoted his whole life and has under- taken herculean labour and Immense pains for the last forty years in collecting important materials to give a comprehensive idea of ancient, mediaeval and modern development and trend of Assamese literature and how it has played the most important part in welding together various people of the North-Eastern corner of India into a single uni- lingual unity. The Tribals in the Hills and the Plains have freely adopted what- ever they found in our way of life, our language and culture. In the same way, Plains people have adopted many of their custoons, Institu- tions and practices. The Assamese people are composed of Tribals and non-Tribals. The Assamese language is a composite structure of words borrowed from Sanskrit, Persian and tribal languages. Even the dress of the Assamese, their customs and amusements represent a mixture of tribal and non-tribal elements. About seven lakhs of Tribals are living in the Plains in the closest of friendship with the rest of the population of the Brahmaputra Valley. Among the Nagas there are 22 sub-tribes speaking different dialects and one sub-tribe cannot under stand the dinleet of the other sub-tribe. Assamese language serves as a lingua franen in the entire area of Naga Hills and Tuensang and the people living there exchange their ideas through Assamese language which is their lingua franca I feel greatly relieved to think that my task of writing this preface has been rendered comparatively easier as eminent Orientalists and world-famous scholars like Prof. Jules Bloch and Dr. Sunil Kumar Chatterji have commended the work to the English readers of the world and late Tripitakacarya Dr. Benimadhav Barun of international fame has even given a life-aloetch of the author. They have left