Assamese Bible History (3)

**List: Assamese Ministry the Bible ( the Bible ) Assamese... ASSAMESE. "I.--GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENT AND STATISTICS. ASSAM was one of the provinces ceded to the British in 1826 by the Burmese, and now forms part of the eastern frontier of our Indian possessions.   It is included in the valley of the Brahmaputra, and extends from the north-east corner of the province of Bengal, about longitude 91 degrees east, in an easterly direction, to an extent not yet very clearly defined; but it is probable that from about the 96th degree of east longitude, the territory is inhabited by several independent tribes, who occupy the intervening space from thence to the province of Yun-nan in China, and who speak dialects belonging to the monosyllabic stock.   According to the parliamentary returns of 1851, the population of Assam numbers 710,000.   They are chiefly Hindoos, and Brahminism has been the general religion of the people since the seventeenth century, yet many among them profess Moh_mm_danism. II.--CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LANGUAGE.    The original language of the Assamese nation was the Ahom, a branch of the Siamese family of languages.   The Ahom appears to have been formerly vernacular on the borders of China, whence these people are said to have emigrated prior to their settlement in Assam.   On their adoption of the religion of Bengal, in the middle of the seventeenth century, they also gradually habituated them- selves to the use of its language, till at length the ancient Ahom tongue became extinct.   The language now spoken in Assam has, during the lapse of years, contracted several peculiarities of its own, distinguishing it from the Bengalee.   The Serampore mies. diligently compared it with the Bengalee, and found that though the two dialects still correspond with each other exactly, so far as words are concerned, yet that the inflections of nouns and verbs differ so greatly, that the natives of the two countries are unintelligible to each other.   The letters of the Assamese dialect have in general the same name and power as the Bengalee, but several of the characters vary a little in form; and though these variations are but trifling, yet in printing the Scriptures it was found impracticable to use the Bengalee types, and the mies. were obliged to cast a new fount of types for the purpose. III.--VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES IN THIS DIALECT.    A translation of the Scriptures into Assamese was commenced at Serampore in 1811, and com- pleted in 1815, when the first two Gospels were printed.   The whole New Testament was finished at press in 1819, the edition consisting of a thousand copies: the British and Foreign Bible Society aided the publication by the grant of £500.   In 1822, one thousand copies of the Pentateuch left the press; and the printing of the entire Old Testament was subsequently completed.   The American Baptist My. Society has three stations in this province, and Mr. Nathan Brown, one of their agents, has been for some years occupied in the task of preparing another translation of the New Testament into Assamese.   We are not in possession of any recent information respecting the progress of this version. IV.--RESULTS OF THE DISSEMINATION OF THIS VERSION.    Comparatively few details have been received in Europe concerning the progress of the Gospel in this province, or the results that may have followed the Christian efforts of the American Baptist Mies., the only labourers employed on this field.   These mies., however, have stated "that the truth appears to be slowly and surely working its way in Assam; that the people are eager to receive books; and that a number of interesting young men do not hesitate to denounce Hindooism as false, and to acknowledge the Scriptures as true.""--The Bible of Every Land. (1860, Second Edition)   Samuel Bagster   [Info only] THE ASSAMESE VERSION.--1860   Samuel Bagster   [Info only: Bengali Character   n.d. Psalm ch:v unknown.]

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