The first appearance of Hemchandra before the public was with an article on agriculture contributed to Rai Bahadur Gunabhiram Barua’s Assam-Bandhu for February-March, 1885, of which Mr. Goswami himself wrote on the copy of his own volume—“This was my first Assamese composition when my age was thirteen years and I was reading in the fifth class of Nowgong Government High School.” In this piece the young author deplored the abandonment of agricultural pursuits by the educated middle class of Assam. The style is direct and earnest in tone, This was followed by a number of poems published in the same magazine. These poems have been incorporated in his collection of juvenile verses published in 1907 under the title Phular Chaki, literally a nosegay of flowers. The pieces do some credit to a young lad in the early teens,
Mr. Goswami's historical contributions are mainly om- bodied in the books he edited, and in the occasional papers he wrote to Assamese periodicals, we give below short notices of his more important works with the belief that they will afford us glimpses into certain phases of the history of Assamese literature.
Hemskosha-Hemchandra Barua, one of the founders of modern Assamese literature died in 1898 leaving unpublished his dictionary of the Assamese language, known as Hemskosha after the name of the distinguished author. The manuscript of this voluminous compilation was handed over to Lt-Col. P. B. T. Gurdon by the late Dulalchandra chaudhuri. Mr. Gait, realising the importance of the work moved the Govern- ment for having it published at their expense. Sir Henry Cotton, the then Chief Commissioner of Assam, granted a sum for the purpose. During the earthquake of June 1897, the buildings of the Government Press at Shillong were com- pletely destroyed, and Mr. Gait had to rescue the manuscript of Hemskosha from below a heap of debris. Col, Gurdon and Mr. Goswami jointly undertook the editorial responsibility.
