A Study on the Toponymy of Lower Assam with Special Reference to the South Kamrup Region

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Manab Choudhury

Abstract

            Generally the study of place names is regarded as ‘Toponymy’. The Encyclopedia Britannica describes ‘Toponymy’ as the taxonomic study of place names based on etymological, historical and geographical information. A place name is a word or words used to indicate, denote or identity of a geographic locality. It provides a glimpse of social, political, economic condition of a particular period on a particular region. ‘Toponymy’ helps us to understand about the development of human civilization through ages.


            From ancient time onwards, Kamrup played an important role in the socio-political, economic, religious, cultural life of Assam. During the rule of East India Company, British Officer A.J. Moffat Mills extensively visited Kamrup and in his “A Report on the Province of Assam”, divided this region into two distinct divisions. The northern part of the mighty Brahmaputra River was named as ‘North Kamrup; while the southern region of the Brahmaputra was known as South Kamrup. Though the geographical boundary of the ‘South Kamrup’ region was changed from time to time, yet people in this area played an important role in the linguistic and cultural unity and oneness.


            The ‘South Kamrup’ region is situated nearest the city of Guwahati, the Gateway of North- East. But still very limited research works has been done in this region especially in the Toponymistic study. Therefore, through this paper an attempt has been made to focus on the study of the place names of the South Kamrup region. For this various primary and secondary data will be used. However these data will be utilized only for the purpose of this paper.

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