CH-1 :- The State
• Assam is described as the second largest after Arunachal Pradesh of the ‘seven sisters’ comprising of the North-Eastern States of the country.
• Assam is known as the land of red river and blue hills. The total area of Assam is 78,438 sq km which represents 2.39% of the total land area of the country.
• Assam is surrounded by international; boundaries extending up to nearly 3,200 km.
• The Brahmaputra river flows through Assam, serves as a lifeline for the people who are settled on both of its banks.
• Assam is located about 79.5m above sea level: Sadiya 134m, Dibrugarh 104m, Guwahati 50m, Goalpara 37m and Dhubri 28m.
SUB 1:- ORIGIN OF THE NAME
• The word ‘Assam’ is derived from the Sanskrit word Asoma meaning ‘peerless’ or ‘unequalled’.
• In the epic age, Assam was known as Pragjyotisa or the palce of eastern astronomy and the same name pragjyotisa in classical Sanskrit literature is called Kamrupa. An account of the geography of Pragjyotisa or Kamupa is also found in Kalika Purana (10th Century) and in Yogini Tantra (16th Century), both of which forms a part of religio-geagraphical history of mediaeval Assam.
• According to historian Raj Mohan Nath, an ancient race, Chouthius settled or were lived in this part of India who were later came to be known as Pragjuthis and in this way, this part of India came to be known as Pragjyotishpura.
• Historian Dr Banikanta Kakoti also holds a separate view regarding the origin of the name Pragjyothispura, According to him, in Austric Language pragjyotishpura meant a wide hilly terrain.
• According to some other historians, the ancient name of Assam was Pragjyotishpura – the city of eastern light, which was later changed to Kamrupa – the land where Kamdeva, the god of love was re-born.
• The recent name of the province i.e., Assam is recently originated and is connected with Ahoms who entered the Brahmaputra valley in the beginning of 13th century.
• As per Historian Banikanta Kakoti, the word “Asama” has came from a later day Sanskritization of the earlier known word “Acham”.
• In Tai, “Cham” means “to be Vanquished” and the same with Assamese prefix ‘a’, ‘Asam’ or ‘Acham’ means ‘undefeated’ or ‘Victorious’.
(History of Assamese Literature: Birinchi Kumar Barua)
• While some other scholars believes that the word ‘Assam’ denotes the unparalleled beauty of the state.
• Lord Baden Powell in his book Indian Village Community states that the BODO Community named this ancient land ‘Sa-Sum’, that with the passage of time got translated into the modern word “Assam”.
SUB 2:- LOCATION
• Assam being T-Shaped, located in the North-East corner of Indian Subcontinent.
• The Area of Assam extends from latitude 24010’N to 27058’N and longitude 89049’E to 97026’E between the foothills of eastern Himalayas and the Patkai and Naga Ranges.
SUB 3:- BOUNDARIES
• Assam is surrounded by all the other 6 north-eastern states(among the 7) namely-
a) Arunachal Pradesh (from North and East)
b) Nagaland (from East)
c) Manipur (from East)
d) Meghalaya (from South and West)
e) Mizoram (from South)
f) Tripura (from South)
• Assam is also surrounded by one other Indian state, namely, West Bengal and it surrounds Assam from West. The boarder that Assam share with West Bengal is also the only way to connect Assam with the rest of India through a narrow corridor called the ‘Chicken’s Neck’ or ‘Bottle Neck’. The Narrow Corridor- Chicken’s Neck, runs for 56 km below the foothills of Bhutan and Sikkim.
• Assam is also surrounded by two other countries as well, namely-
a) Bhutan (from North)
b) Bangladesh (from West).
SUB 4:- PHYSIOGRAPHY
• Assam has been reduced to one-third of its original size in thirty year’s time.
• Assam occupies a strategic position for India and it forms the core of the north east region for India. It is the focal point for other north eastern states of the country.
• Assam can be divided into three important physical regions :-
a) Brahmaputra Valley;
b) Barak or Surama Valley; and
c) The hilly areas of Karbi Anglong and North Cachar hill districts.
• The Brahmaputra Valley covers a large part of the territory(Assam) and is built mostly by aggregation work of the Brahmaputra and its tributaries.
• Most of the prominent towns and cities of Assam are situated in this valley whose length and breadth are 725 kms and 80-100 kms respectively.
• After flowing from Assam, the Brahmaputra river then flows through a narrow passage at the Meghalaya plateau and Bhutan-Arunachal-Himalayas and then finally opens out into the North Bengal Plains.
• The second natural division of Assam is the Barak or Surama Valley and is surrounded by North Cachar, Manipur and Mizoram. The Barak Valley is dominated by the Barak river.
• The Barak river flows through the valley and empties itself to the old bed of Brahmaputra in Bangladesh. This valley has hills and ‘beels’ or Lakes in plenty and flood is a common feature lending the quality of fertility to the valley.
• The Barak and Brahmaputra Vallies are being separated by long range of hills.
• The third natural division of Assam are the hilly areas of Karbi Anglong and North Cachar Hill districts. These hills are located in the south of the Brahmaputra Valley.
• The Karbi Hills are a part of Meghalaya Plateau and are dotted with plain areas. The average height of this plateau is 600 metres with occasional peaks like Dambukso (1,363m) and Singhasan (1,359m).
• The Karbi Hills are slowly reaching their full height towards the middle of the Dima Hasao district(Assam),merging with the Assam’s Borail Range- which is the highest hill range in Assam.
• The height of Borail Range varies from 1,000 to 1,200 metres above sea level.
• Laike peak in the south side of Borail Range having a height of 1,959 metres is the highest peak of Assam (located to the east of haflong).
SUB 5:- CLIMATE
• The climatic conditions of Assam comprises of Humid, tropical type in Plains and Subalpine in the hills. There is a heavy rainfall and vegetation in green all the year round in Assam.
• The average temperatures of Assam in summer and winter are 36oC and 6oC respectively.
• The winter season starts from the month of October and extends till February and then the rainfall predominate for the rest of the year.
• There are also a couple of fair weather with a fall in temperature exist in the state after the withdrawal of Monsoon.
SUB 6:- RAINFALL
• Rainfall in Assam varies between 178 and 305 cm and all this rainfall concentrated mainly in four months, from June to September.
• Assam’s unique physiography and its surrounding mountain and hill ranges affects the distribution of rainfall in the state.
• The hills and foothills areas of Assam receives more rainfall than the other.
• Besides this, the districts of the Brahmaputra valley viz., Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Sivasagar, Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Kokrajhar, Baksa and Dhubri, and the southern most districts of Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj enjoys annual rainfall of more than 250 cm on average.
• The Nagaon and Karbi Anglong districts of Assam on the other hand receives the relatively low rainfall, having the lowest in Lanka-Lumding area(average annual rainfall of 129 cm) because of its locations on the Leeward side of the Meghalaya plateau and Karbi Hills.
SUB 7:- EARTHQUAKE
•Assam is also known the nightmarish land of earthquakes.
• As Assam is situated in the earthquake belt, it experiences earthquake shocks very often.
• Some of the most important earthquakes of Assam and the Noth East India are being recorded in the book, Tungkhungia Buranjee, written in 1696, on the history of Ahom rules in Assam during the mediaeval period.
• The earthquake of January 10, 1869, having its epicentre at the North cachar hills, destroyed the area between North Cachar and Assam Valley and also made the Bank of Barak sink about 15 feet.
• Another devastating earthquake that hits Assam was on June 12,1897. It has an intensity of 8.7 Richter Scale. This particular earthquake destroyed many houses, buildings and bridges. There were also cases of sinking and upliftment in many areas. Many river-beds were raised and many changed their courses due to this particular earthquake. Even a forested foothill area about 40 km. to the south-west of Guwahati sank down to give rise to the present Chand Dubi lake, which still bears the submerged stumps of large trees.
• Another devastating earthquake was felt on 9th September,1923 that had its destruction primarily on the western part of Assam.
• Another most devastating and most important to know earthquake of the recent memory was felt on August 15, 1950. This earthquake basically hits and destroys the habitation in Upper Assam having an intensity of 8.6 Richter Scale. This earthquake starts from early evening (7:40 pm) and the tremor continued throughout the night.
• The earthquake of 1950 develops numerous wide and deep crakes on the ground, roads, settlement sites and crop field. This earthquake also disturbs the courses and beds of many rivers like, Brahmaputra, Subansiri, Burhi Dihing, Jia Bharali etc., causing them either to change their courses or by raising the beds resulting in occurrence of floods. It is also noticed that the large number of lakes, marshes and swamps in Assam became shallow as a result of this earthquake.
• After this devastating earthquake of 1950, Assam has not experienced any severe earthquake so far. However, it is noticed that the frequency of mild earthquakes tremors has been increased since last 20 years.
SUB 8:- RIVER
• Brahmaputra and Barak are the two important rivers of Assam which flows throughout the year.
• Assam is dominated by Brahmaputra river and is supposed to be the most important and main river of Assam. The source of Brahmaputra river lies towards the east of ‘Manas Sarovar’ lake in the Himalayas in an ice glacier called “Tamchuk Khambab”. The location of Tamchuk Khambab is approximately 31oN latitude and 42oE longitude.
• The total length of Brahmaputra river from the source to the sea is 2,880 km and its drainage area is roughly 9,35,000sq km.
• After flowing from Assam for 725 km, the Brahmaputra river turns south-west beyond Meghalaya and then again moves to the south, joining the easternmost branch of the Ganga-the Padma-and empties together with Ganga into the Bay of Bengal.
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