A History of Assam c15.s1.23

c15.s1.23

Many attempts have been made to trace the origin of the word Assam. Muhammadan historians wrote Āshām, and in the early dates of British rule it was spelt with only one *s*. According to some the word is derived from *Asama*, in the sense of "uneven," as distinguished from Samatata, or the level plains of East Bengal. This however seems unlikely. The term nowhere occurs prior to the Ahom occupation, and in the *Bansābali* of the Koch kings, it is applied to the Ahoms rather than to the country which they occupied. There is, I think, no doubt that the word is derived from the present designation of the Ahoms. At first sight, this does not carry us much further. The Ahoms called themselves Tai, and it still remains to be explained how they came to be known by their present name. It has been suggested that this may be derived from Shān, or as the Assamese say, Syām. This word, however, is not used by the Assamese when speaking of the Ahoms, but only with reference to the people of Siam. The tradition of the Ahoms themselves is that the present name is derived from Asama, in the sense of " unequalled " or " peerless." They say that this was the term applied to them, at the time of Sukāphā's invasion of Assam, by the local tribes, in token of their admiration of the way in which the Ahom king first conquered and then conciliated them. Asama, however, is a Sanskrit derivative which these rude Mongolian tribes would not have been acquainted with, and, on this account, the suggested etymology has hitherto been rejected. But, although we may not accept the way in which the word is said to have come into use, it is nevertheless very probable that this derivation is, after all, the right one. The Ahoms, as we have seen, called themselves Tai, which means " glorious " (cf. the Chinese, " celestial "), and of this Asama is a fair Assamese equivalent, just as is Svargadeh of Chāuphā and Gohāin of Chāo. The softening of the s to h, i.e., the change from Asam to Aham or Ahom, has its counterpart in the change from Gosāin to Gohāin.