GUWAHATI, Dec 15 � While research is throwing new light on the antiquity of the Assamese script, which is likely to be far older than previously thought of, it is still not recognized as a script separate from any other Indic script. While many seek to refer to the Assamese script as a variant of the Bangla script, due to their affinities and also believe that the typeset for Assamese script was taken from those prepared by Charles Wilkins in 1777 in Calcutta, a Guwahati-based researcher has sought to negate the concept as incorrect.
Ashok Sarma, who is doing extensive research in Kamrupi civilization, script, and language, says that the typeset prepared by Wilkins contains the Assamese ra and even the wa (without the lower diagonal).
�Wilkins did not prepare the Bangla ra with a dot. On the other hand, the Assamese ra had come into existence long before the ra with a dot below ba. So, it eventually leads to the conclusion that Wilkins either studied the Assamese manuscript or he prepared the Assamese alphabet mistaking the Assamese script as Bangla script,� Sarma says.
It may be noted that the typeset prepared for Bangla script before Charles Wilkins was for A Code of Gentoo Laws (1776). �There also we find the Assamese alphabet. Even in the first grammar book on the Bangla language written by Helhad, we get the samples of both Assamese language and Assamese script. It is, therefore, beyond any doubt that Wilkins actually prepared the Assamese alphabet, and that was the beginning of Assamese script entering the printing era. Subsequently, the Assamese script was used in published works in the same manner though the Bangla ra was introduced later,� Sarma says.
Going a step further, Sarma says that if one notices the inscription in Golaghat district, which was dated between 2nd to 3rd century AD, it can be presumed that the Devnagari script or some other Indic script was actually derived from the old Kamrupa script and not the other way round.
�... there is no proof in any book on Assamese script or other books that can furnish sufficient evidence to support the theory � that the Assamese script evolved from the Brahmi script. The Hatishila stone inscription which the Archeological Survey of India has failed to decipher as belonging to any known script has a close similarity with ancient Phonecian script. If the �Pani� tribes were from Kamrup, then we can easily confirm � as some scholars say � that Kamrup was the place where, for the first time in the world, the writing system originated. Because, the Phonecians were the people of the �Pani� tribe,� Sarma says.
According to Sarma, the origin of the Assamese script, on which little research had been done previously, is gathering new information in terms of historical, archeological and inscriptional evidence and findings.
�Latest research has attributed the origin of zero to ancient Kamrupa. But in spite of the new findings, it is unfortunate that the Assamese script is still not recognized as a separate script distinct from any other Indic script. The Unicode Consortium in the USA and the Department of Electronics and Information Technology of India have clearly mentioned the Assamese script to be nothing but Bangla script,� Sarma says.