INTRODUCTION it Example :- V.Avavanta (owning horses), | =S.-avayan; Ass.avavanta. v.Sakuyanta (having friends), | =S.Sakhivan; Ass.Sakhivanta. v.gomanta (rich in cows), =S.goman; Ass.gonianta. V.-Dhanavanta (wealthy), =s. dhanay@n; Pr,dhanavanto; Ass.dhanavanta. (ii) Assamese taddhit an" as in kaliyan (credit) froin S. kalika | (price to be paid by instalments) : ‘patiyan (conviction, belief) from S. pratyaya (trust), is probably derived from Vedic suffix tvan”. (See $ 488). | (iii) Assamese taddhits ali, ari and ari are derived from Vedic taddhit “tati”, ($ 490). | Example :-v.jyestha-tati (superiority)=Pr.jeththa-ari or jeth. tha-ali=Ass.jethali (qualities of a jetha, father's elder brother, or a superior). | The above peculiarities will indicate the extent to which vedic elements have been preserved in Assamese. THE KALITAS Before advancing further it would be well to notice some charac. teristics of the people now inhabiting the valley of the mighty Brahmaputra. The Vedic and pre-Vedic elements in the Assamese language point to one of the following two conclusions, viz., (1) that the Assamese had con with the Indo-European Aryans, or (2) that they were members of the same Aryan stock. A study of the enthology and social system of the Assamese people also leads to the same conclusion. The following con- siderations will, I think, throw some light on this point. | Assam is the home of the Kalitas and its civilization is pre-eminently a Kalita civilization. The other sub-castes follow the Kalia social law and customs in their entirety. I shall therefore refer, in the following pages, to the Kalita characteristics as typical of the whole of the Assamese Hindu population except the Brahmans and kayasthas. | The Kalitas are found everywhere in the Brahmaputra Valley. They are not, I think, the degraded Kayasthas as described in the “Hemakosa.”
