Assamese Literature
Key figures in Assamese Literature are as follows:
Dhrubajyoti Bora
Dhrubajyoti Bora is the Guwahati-based Assamese playwright, who was awarded 2009 Sahitya Academy award for his novel “Katha Ratnakar“. He has published novels these are that include Kalantarar Gadya (Prose of Tempest), Tejor Andhar(Darkness of Blood) and Arth (Meaning), a trilogy based on tragedy of Assam have been acknowledged as major literary creations.
Sameer Tanti
Sameer Tanti is a renowned Assamese poet. He was awarded the prestigious Assam Valley Literary Award for the year 2012. The award, instituted by Williamson Magor Education Trust, is given to preserve and promote the rich literary heritage of Assam.
Sameer Tanti has penned 12 collections of poems, four critical and literary essay collections, two translations of African poems and love songs and Japanese love poetry and two story collections.
Some of his prominent publications are ‘ Yuddhabhumir Kabitaa’ , ‘ Kadam Phular Rati’ , ‘ Shokakool Upatyaka’ and ‘ Somoy Sabdo Sopun’.
Hiren Bhattacharyya
Hiren Bhattacharyya (1932-2012) was a popular and celebrated Assamese poet and winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award and several honours.
Popularly known as Hiru-da, Bhattacharyya was widely known for using simple words in his poems, through which he could establish direct communication with his readers. He possessed a large vocabulary of simple Assamese words, very rare in contemporary Assamese literature.
He had to his name 10 anthologies of poems apart from two collections of rhymes for children. He won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1992 for his anthology of poems ‘Saichor Pathar Manuh.’
Chandana Goswami
Chandana Goswami is an Assamese Writer and winner of Sahitya Akademi Award 2012 for his work “Patkai Epare Mor Des”.
Indira Goswami
Indira Goswami (1942-2011) was an Assamese editor, poet, professor, scholar and writer, who used to write with the pen name Mamoni Raisom Goswami. She won the Sahitya Akademi Award (1983) and Jnanpith Award (2001). In 2002, she was also nominated for Padma Shri, which she refused to accept.
She also worked as mediator between United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the Government of India. Her involvement led to the formation of the People’s Consultative Group, a peace committee.
She referred to herself as an “observer” of the peace process rather than as a mediator or initiator. She was awarded the Ambassador for Peace from the Inter Religious and International Federation for World Peace.
She also received Asom Ratna – the highest civilian award in Assam. The notable works are “The Shadow of Kamakhya“, “Pages stained with Blood” or “The Moth-Eaten Howdah of the Tusker” and “The Bronze Sword of Thengphakhri Tehsildar“.
The Bronze Sword of Thengphakhri Tehsildar
One of the most notable novels of Indira Goswami is on the legendary Bodo heroine Thengphakhri, who had apparently worked as a Tehsildar during the British regime in Assam. This novel was Indira’s last work of fiction. Thengphakhri was a tehsildar (tax collector) in Bijni kingdom in lower Assam that was then ruled by the British. It was the late 19th century and Thengphakhri was the first woman to fill the post.
Thengphakri was initially in favour of the British because they shielded the people from incursions by the Bhutanese army. However, she soon faced an inner conflict when she found the colonial taxes were milking poor farmers of their last pennies in a drought-hit year. The novel ends with Thengphakhri picking up her famed bronze sword to join the underground nationalist movement.
The novel vividly describes the life of a widow turned British Official in the times where women seldom stepped out of their homes, child marriages were common and, in a kingdom nearby, five queens burned on their husband’s pyre.
