Talk:Assam/OriginDisputeResolution

This page has been set up to resolve the disputes in the section Assam. It is probably best to first agree on an reiterate some of the Wikipedia policies.
 * Please cite your sources: Cite_your_sources
 * Wikipedia is not a place to publish original research: No_original_research
 * Please adopt a neutral point of view: Neutral_point_of_view
 * Civility

Please add other rules from Wikipedia that you think are relevant here.

Also, please do not argue your cases here. Instead, give a brief account of the dispute.

Beginning of the dispute
The dispute began in the following way: On Dec 14, 2004, User:65.38.226.56 added four paragraphs to the section Assam which were completely at variance with the existing text. On Dec 15/16, [User:Chaipau]] added more text that critically examined the newly added text but kept the newly added texts in place. That same day, User:65.38.226.42 (probably the same person as above), removed the edits of User:Chaipau, and added some more text. User:Chaipau then flagged the article as disputed. Some more edits by different contributors continued for some time. On Feb 27, 2005, an edit war ensued between User:65.38.226.203 and User:Psneog. On Feb 28, 2005, User:Chaipau reverted the article to the Feb 25 version, the version before the edit war began.

In these exchanges, it seems User:65.38.226.56, User:65.38.226.42, User:65.38.226.203, User:Kamrupi are the same person. We will call this person User:Kamrupi below.

In the meantime, the presentation of evidence began in Talk:Assam. The disputes and summaries are given below:

Dispute 1: Assam from Ahom
Some consider Assam to be a corruption of the Sanskrit word asama or     assama meaning uneven. This word well describes the hilly region, as     the Indo-Burmese corridor consists of a number of mountainous chains of the lower Himalayan region and valleys between them. Others believe the word is related to the Ahoms who ruled Assam for 600 years, as there is no record of the use of this name before their advent in 1228, and because historical texts have occasionally used the word asam for the Ahoms. --Please cite a reference for a historical texts.


 * Objection: User:Kamrupi has protested that a connection of the name Assam cannot be made with the Ahom rulers, because their chronicles (Buranjis) did not contain either the word Ahom or Asam.
 * Reply: User:Chaipau has replied that the dominant scholarly view today is that the appelation Asam was given by the natives to the new invaders, from which both the name Assam and the name of the rulers Ahom were derived (quote from Satyendra Nath Sarma, Assamese Literature).

Dispute 2: Meaning of Assama in Kamrupi
The word asama or assama was used during the time while Bhaskarvarman ruled Kamarupa. Then the present upper Assam used to emit poisonous gasses and was uninhabitable. Some of the Kamrupi criminals escaped to this land during those days in order to avoid punishment, as reported in the travel notes of the Chinese traveler Xuanzang. Those people were also called asama or assama. Xuanzang not traveling back via this route returning to China was because he was worried about attacks from asama or assama people. In Kamrupi, the term can also mean one who is not comparable with, in addition to     weird/sinner, but no yester year Kamrupi scriptures referred the land asama or asam or asom.


 * Objection: User:Chaipau requested reference to scholarly work in which a connection is made between asama used in the 7th century and the modern name Assam.
 * Reply: Not given yet.


 * Objection: User:Chaipau has requested reference to scholarly work in which Xuangzang is said to have returned to Harshavardhana's country and not proceeded to China because of "weird/sinner" people.
 * Reply: Not given yet.

Dispute 3: Assam from Antheraea assamensis
The British general did not choose the name from any of the above, but concatenated it from the scientific name “Anthera Assama”, i.e., he dropped “Anthera” and “a” of “Assama”. This was done for the first time while British created “Upper Assam State” after the “Yandabu Accord”.

This contention is however unlikely. Antheraea Assama is the biological name of the species of silkworm that produces the Muga silk. The species is endemic to the Assam region, and it is likely that the species is named after the region it belonged to and not the other way around.

Anthera Assama was discovered long before the Yandabu Accord, and assama here implies unequal or not comparable with – assama was chosen as part of the scientific name because the silkworm can only live in the climate of foothills of Eastern Himalaya.


 * Objection: User:Chaipau Assam could not have been named from assamensis because the first use of the Latin name for the Muga silkworm was made in 1837 whereas Europeans and others have been using Assam for a few hundred years before that.
 * Reply: Use of the name Assam by outsiders is not relevant.

Alternative Text
The text below is suggested as a compromise. It is neutral, and just states what is known in the academic community, and puts forwards those view which are substantiated with evidence as well as objections.

Sample
The origin of the name Assam is not clear. Edward Gait [History of Assam, 1906] suggests the name comes from the Sanskrit word asama meaning "uneven", which describes the geographical region with its mountains and valleys. Banikanta Kakati [Aspects of Early Assamese Literature, 1953] suggests that the word is rooted in the Tai word cham (to be defeated). Since the Tai conquerors were undefeated, the indigenous people called them a-cham (undefeated). This word morphed into asama with a Sanskritized meaning "peerless", which formed the root for both the names: Assam as well as Ahom. Kakati's assertion, that the word asam was used originally by the local people to call the Ahoms, is now accepted widely in the academic community. There are some who dispute this interpretation and claim that Assam and Ahom can only be associated if the word Assam is found in the buranjis, the Ahom chronicles.

Comments

 * This is excellent. Approved from my side. Prabhakar 06:37, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC)