GUWAHATI, Nov 12 - Tributes were paid to Dimbeswar Neog, illustrious teacher and a pioneer in the research work on the history of the origin and development of the Assamese language and literature at a memorial function organised by the Brihattar Panjabari Sahitya Sabha (BPSS) in collaboration with the Dimbeswar Neog-Ajalitora Memorial Trust at the Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra here on Sunday.
Inaugurating the event, DN Chakravartty who was an adored student of Neog, described him as one of the finest teachers not only of Assam but of the whole country.
He said that Neog who taught Assamese in Class IX and Class X at the Jorhat Govt High School for over three decades, built up several generations of Assamese students who were competent in the use of the Assamese language in their later active life.
�Several brilliant students including Jnanananda Sharma Pathak, Hari Prasad Neog, Dr Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya, Paragdhar Chaliha and Dr Nekib uj Zaman drew inspiration from their great teacher,� he observed. Chakravartty said the history of Assamese literature and the life and philosophy of Srimanta Sankaradeva were Neog�s monumental works. Indradhanu, a poetic work of Neog containing several patriotic poems was another notable work.
�Neog was such a brilliant teacher that while lecturing on Raghunath Choudhary, he took the students to the vast world of English literature and introduced the students to great poets like Wordsworth, Coleridge, Browning, Byron, Tennyson, Shelley and Keats. No student in the high school was initiated into the world of English literature in the manner done so illuminatingly by Neog,� he said. The meeting, presided over by Dr Bijoy Krishna Deva Sarma, was addressed by Bipul Sarma who in his keynote address as chief guest spoke on the literary genius and the works of poetry and essays of Neog.
Pranab Khound, retired commissioner and writer, while addressing the function, gave a critical appraisal of the brilliant works of poetry and research of Neog. He said Neog�s critical analysis of Assamese literature identifying the different stages of Assamese literature right from the pastoral days and the colonial days to the advent of the modern era and the days of renaissance in Assamese literature had few parallels.
He added that Assamese literature had been immensely benefitted by the contributions of Neog in the form of poetry, and research on the origin of the Assamese language and its various stages of development.
Santana Neog, daughter-in-law of Neog, recited a poem of Neog. Rijumoni Goswami and Dipika Kalita also recited poems.