Dhekial Phukan and the Christian Missionaries of sibsagar upheld the cause of the Assamese language, and the verdict of the Government was given in favour of Assamese and i was recognised in the courts and the schools of Assam. All the periods have been discussed and described at length by Srijut Hemchandra Goswami in his essay entitled “The Assamese Language published in the third volume of Jonaks, an Assamese monthly journal now defunct. 4. gs DIRECT DESCENT FROM SANSKRIT. • | Ins SIMILARITY WIra HiNDr. Competent critics are of opinion that 63 per cent of words of the Assamese language are of Sanskrit origin, Some of these words have no doubt come directly from Sanskrit but others have come through the medium of Prakrita and Brajabuli and more specially the latter. The eminent writers of the second period were all expounders of Vaisnaviam and as such they wrote chiefly on the sacred theme. of Radha and Krishna, and very naturally they took delight in introducing as many words from the Brajabuli, as they could, in their compositions, on the belief, that Brajabuli being the language of Radha and krishna, was most suited to express anything relating to Radha and Krishna. This, on one hand, increased the stock of words in the Assamese language, and on the other, made the resem blance between gindi and Assamese closer and more pro- nounced. The nasal twang so common in both these languages and a large number of common words of everyday use cannot fail to impress even a casual observer with a strong resemblance between the Assamese and Hindi, Dr. Brown has very ably supported this view in the introduction of his Assamese Gramma.
