Assam, the land of hills and valleys,
the land of the mighty river Brahmaputra, the land
of Mother Goddess Kamakhya, lies in the northeastern
corner of India. In these pages, you will find a few
glimpses of Assam and Assamese people. Assam is a
land of about 25 million people situated in the
northeast corner of India. The principal language of
Assam is Assamese although a large number of other
languages are spoken. Assam comprises an area of
78,523 square kilometers (30,318 square miles).
Except for a narrow corridor running through the
foothills of the Himalayas that connects the state
with West Bengal, Assam is almost entirely isolated
from India. The capital of Assam, is Dispur, a
suburb of Guwahati in 1972.
The name "Assam" is derived from the term "Asom"
which, in Sanskrit, refers to unequal or unrivalled.
The uneven topography of the land, full of hills,
plains and rivers might, therefore, have contributed
to her name. The Mongolian Ahom dynasty which had
ruled Assam for more than six hundred years might
also be the cause for her name.
Assam is a land with an illustrious recorded history
going back to the 4th century BC. Assam was an
independent kingdom throughout all of history till
the end of the first quarter of the 19th century
when the British conquered the kingdom and annexed
it to British India. The current state capital of
Assam, Guwahati, known in ancient time as
Pragjyotishpura or The Eastern City of Light, was
the capital of Kamrup which finds frequent mention
in the Great Hindu Epic Mahabharata and other
Sanskrit volumes and historical lores.
