Etymology of Assam

The earliest epigraphic mention of the Assam region comes from Samudragupta's Allahabad stone pillar from the fourth century CE, where it is called Kamarupa. The pillar lists the frontier kingdoms (pratyanta nripati) and lists Kamarupa (Western Assam) along with Davaka, a region in the central Assam (undivided Nagaon district).[11] Therefore, during the fourth century, the eastern boundary of the Kamarupa did not extend beyond west Assam. The Kalika Purana (10th century) and the Yogini Tantra (16th/17th century) refer to Kamarupa as a kingdom from Karatoya in the west to Dikkaravasini in the east. Dikkaravasini is identified with present-day Sadiya.[12] The copper-plate inscription from Vaidyadeva calls Kamarupa a mandala within his own kingdom. Later epigraphic sources from Assam call the kingdom Pragjyotisha-Kamarupa. In the early twelfth century, epigraphic sources from the Pala dynasty mention Kamarupa as a mandala of the kingdom they ruled. The invasion of western Assam by Allauddin Hussein of Gaur up to Barnadi river in 1498 is recorded in coins from the early sixteenth century, declaring Hussein as the conqueror of Kamru (Kamrup) (and not Assam). The Kamarupa kings called themselves the Maharajadhiraja of Pragjyotisha. One of the kings Vaidyadeva, referred to Pragjyotisha as a bhukti and Kamarupa as a mandala (a smaller division, possibly within Pragjyotisha).[13]

Locally, Vaishnavite writers and biographers used different forms of the name indiscriminately (e.g. Āsām, Āsam, Asam) to refer to the Ahom community.[14] The earliest mention of Asama is found in the Assamese Bhagavat of Sankardeva, which was composed in early sixteenth century.[20] The relevant stanza[21] is (in iTrans):

The Ahoms were called Asam in the eighteenth century Darrangraj Vamshavali of Suryya Khari Daibajna;[18] variously as Āsām, Āsam, and Asam in the seventeenth century Shankar-carit of Daityari Thakur;[19] and Acam in Kamrupar Buranji.[23] According to a count provided by (Bhuyan 1930), the Kamrupar Buranji names the country some thirty times, of which Āsām was used three times, Ācam was used three times, and Ācām was used for the rest, though in other Buranjis other spellings are also seen.[24] Furthermore, Bhuyan mentions that though both "স" (s) and "চ" (c) have been used in the name, it is likely that it was pronounced mostly with ⟨s⟩.[25]

The name asama (as well as acam, asam, asam, asam) was used in the form asamakshara to denote the Ahom script in Sanskrit-Ahom bilingual copper plate grants of the Ahom kings.[26]

As opposed to the local uses, where Asam and similar formations were used to denote the Ahom community, external sources used variations of Asam to denote the kingdom ruled by the Ahoms. The Ain-I-Akbari of the sixteenth century uses the form Asham (آشام) to denote the Ahom kingdom.[28] The official chronicler of Mir Jumla also calls the place "Asam".[29]

The earliest Europeans who came in contact with Assam (and who had the opportunity to write the name in the Latin script), were travelers who went to Bengal and adventurers who accompanied military expeditions against the Ahom kingdom; these groups used variations of the name Asam to denote the kingdom. In a map of "Kingdom of Bengale", drawn by Joh. van Leenen around 1661 and published around 1662, Assam was clearly named and correctly identified.[30] One of the first unambiguous references comes from Thomas Bowrey in 1663 about Mir Jumla's death: "They lost the best of Nabobs, the Kingdome of Acham, and, by consequence, many large privileges".[31] Though Bowrey wrote his manuscript in the 17th century, the manuscript itself was published for the first time in the 20th century. On the other hand, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier's Travels in India, published in 1676 uses the spelling "Assem" for Assam in the French original (Aſem in the English translation, published in 1678).[32] Thus the earliest English use of the name was "Aſem", with a Long s.

Colonialists then followed these travelers and adventurers. Both Grierson and Gait agree that the British used Asam before finally settling on Assam.[33] In various documents of the British East India Company relating to the last few Ahom kings, the name of country was mentioned as Assam. The 1826 Treaty of Yandabo, marking the conquest of the Ahom kingdom at the hands of the British, uses Assam to denote the area under the erstwhile Ahoms and its protectorates (Darrang Koch, Jaintias, Kacharis and some hill areas in the present Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland).

After the British took control of the region, the name Assam was extended to the province that was then much larger than the Ahom kingdom. It then included, Garo Hills and Lushai Hills (Mizoram). Since that time, the boundaries of Assam have been repeatedly redrawn, though the name Assam remained. Today, the political boundary of Assam contains roughly the historical Ahom Kingdom and its protectorates, the Kachari kingdom, Koch Hajo and a part of the Jaintia Kingdom.

One of the earliest theories published was provided by Baden-Powell in 1896, when he proposed that the name could possibly derive from the Bodo Ha-com, meaning "low or level country".[39] He rejected the possibility that the name Assam (Asam) could be derived from Aham (Ahom).[40] Subsequent writers like P. C. Choudhury[41] and R N Mosahary[42] lend credence to this theory. So, if Ha-Com is the source of Sanskrit Asama, then it traces its origin from very early times, long before any Ahom invasion.[4]

Two different meanings of the Sanskrit word Asama have been used to explain the name: one meaning "uneven" (terrain) and the other "unequaled".

Gait (1906) reports that according to some people, the name "Assam" is derived from the Sanskrit asama, meaning "uneven" which describes the terrain of the region in contrast to the flat plains of Samatata,[43] though he rejects this explanation on the grounds that the word was never used before the advent of the Ahoms and that the Vamshavali of the Darrang kings used it to refer to the Ahom community and not to the land.[44]

The second theory Gait reported is that Asama, meaning "unequal" or "peerless", was a name the local people gave the undefeated Ahoms, according to a tradition that the Ahoms themselves believed in. Gait rejects this notion as well, noting that the local tribal people would not have given a Sanskrit name to the invaders.[44]

Though Gait rejects both these explanations, he nevertheless asserts that the name is somehow associated with the Ahoms.[44] George Grierson,[45] Banikanta Kakati,[46] and Dimbeswar Neog,[47] also reject the Sanskrit origin of the name. Satyendra Nath Sharma accepts Banikanta Kakati's view in toto.[6]

Though both explanations have been rejected in the academic literature, the notion that the name Assam has a Sanskrit origin continues to hold sway in popular perceptions, due mainly to two standard dictionaries of Assamese: Hemkox and Chandrakanta Abhidhan.[48] The Hemkox forwards the second theory, associating the name to the meaning "unequaled".[49]

Gait reports that some associated the name with the Shan who are called Syam by the Assamese, an explanation which he found not convincing.[50] nevertheless Grierson has accepted that the 13th century natives of Assam called the Shan (Sham) invaders by this name.[51] Dimbeswar Neog notes that the Indic prefix a- does not necessarily mean an antonym in Assamese and it could just be a synonym (e.g. kumari/akumari, bihane/abihane), a feature that is also seen in Sanskrit (sur/asur); therefore, Asham could mean the same as Sham, and the name could be derived as Sham (শাম) > Āshām (আশাম) > Āsam (আসম) > Asam (অসম).[52] Amalendu Guha, too derives it from Sham; but instead of using an Indo-Aryan rule, derives it from the Bodo form, Ha-Sham, meaning the land of the Sham people.[53] Masica too believes that Assam derives from an earlier attested form of asam, acam which in turn is from a Burmese corruption of the name Shan/Shyam.[1]

(Kakati 1953) derives the name from a Tai root, cham (defeated), with an Indic prefix for negation, a-, so that a-cham would mean undefeated.[54]