vi missioner of the Assam Valley Division, pointed out Srijut Hemchandra Goswami, his Personal Assistant, as the most competent person to undertake the compilation of the 'typical selections from Assamese literature. With that. keen eye for merit which distinguished Sir Asutosh above his contemporaries, he readily accepted the suggestion, Mr. Goswami was requested to submit & plan of the proposed work, and he submitted the following scheme tc Sir Asutosh in his letter, dated April 8, 1914- | ॥ propose to divide Assamese literature into six different periods on historical and philological grounds. | “ The first period begins about 800 A.D., when the Chinese pilgrim "Hiuen-Tsiang visited . the country of Kamarupa, and extends up to 400 A.D., when the aphorisms of Dak were frst reduced to writing. During this period literature remained in an unwritten state and it was entirely lyrical in its nature. The cradle songs, the pastoral songs, the Bihu songs and the ballads of Assam belong to this period, I propose to call this as lyrical period or Git-page The second peod begins about 800 A.D., when the mata and the aphorisms were first reduced to writing, and extends up to 1200 A.D., the time when the regular written literature took its birth, 1 propose to style this period as the period of avad and aphorisms or Watra-a- bhaita-gage, | ft The third period begins about 1200 A.D., when the translation of the Puranas and the Ramayana was taken in hand for the first time by writers like Hema Saraswati, Madhava Kandali and Pitambar Dwija, to prepare the way for Vaisnavism in the next period, and extends up to 1450 A.D., the time of Sankara's birth. I propose to call this the Pre-Vaisnavita period or PrqkVaisnava-yage, | The fourth period commences at 140 AD, with the birth of Sankara Deva, the great exponent of Vaisnavium in
