tive Bengalee but as the ex-president of the Bengal Literary Conference.”
Sir Asutosh Mukerjee's opinion was equally gratifying,— “The people who could write Gita in such prose in the sixteenth century was not a small people.”
Purani Asam Buranji—In 1992 was published Purani Asam Buranji under the auspices of the Kamarupa Anusan- dhan Samiti Mr. Goswami supplied the introduction and the editorial paraphernalia. The manuscript of the chronicle was recovered from the family of Yuvraj Keshav Kanta singha, grandson of Chandra Kanta Singha, the last reigning King of Assam. This particular volume dealing with the history of the Ahoms from King Sukapha to King Gadadhar, A.D. 1228-1696 is one of the many Buranjis which are a distinctive feature of Assamese literature.
The editor points to some of the characteristic aspects of Assamese Buranjis. He refers to the regrettable loss of an Assamese chronicle of Bardhaman which he proposed to publish and which was exhibited in the Gauripur session of the Uttar Banga Sahitya Sammilan. It may be mentioned that Para Adam Barae published by the Kamarupa Anusandhan Samiti, is the first Assamese Buranji or chro nicle to see the light of day.
Typtical Selections from Assamese Literature.—This volu- minous compilation was undertaken at the instance of the late Sir Asutosh Mookerjee in execution of his extensive scheme for promotion of the study of the Indian Vernaculars in the Calcutta University. The work was commended in 1918 soon after Sir Asutosh's visit to Gauhati as a member of the Sadler Commission. The whole range of Assamese literature has been divided, for the purpose of this compilation, into six distinctive periods,viz, the lyrical period or Giti-yuga, the period of mantras and aphorisms or Mantra-aru-bhanita-yuga, the pre-Vaisnavite period or Prak-Vaishnava-yuga, the period of extension or Vistar-yuga, and the modern age or the
