Talk:Assam/OriginDisputeResolution

This page has been set up to resolve the disputes in the section Assam#Origin_of_name. It is probably best to first agree on an reiterate some of the Wikipedia policies.

Please cite your sources: Wikipedia:Cite_your_sources
Wikipedia is not a place to publish original research: Wikipedia:No_original_research
Please adopt a neutral point of view: Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view
Wikipedia: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.

Summary of dispute[edit]

Beginning of the dispute[edit]

The dispute began in the following way: On Dec 14, 2004, User:65.38.226.56 added four paragraphs to the section Assam#Origin_of_name which were completely at variance with the existing text [1]. On Dec 15/16, [User:Chaipau]] added more text that critically examined the newly added text but kept the newly added texts in place[2]. 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[edit]

    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[edit]

    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[edit]

    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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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