The Valley of Brahmaputra: Assamese Selfhood

The book journeys into the marvels of the mighty Brahmaputra behind the shaping of Assamese self. That the fertile bank of the river has been inviting numerous groups of people from various parts of the world is recorded in history along with fiction as well as non-fiction writing. The Assamese mind constructed with the natural set up and the socio-cultural background and tradition is particularly assimilative and patient. This particular nature seems to be a direct corollary of the alluvial atmosphere created by the River Brahmaputra. Studies on the influence of non-human surroundings on humanity open up newer and newer vistas into the human cultural life. Identification of people with the natural environment they live in is an ancient tendency. Every natural element imposes impression on people when they come into terms with them. The history unfurls the contribution of the Brahmaputra over the people on its bank. From literary and cultural standpoint people in Assam identify themselves with the popular name of the river ‘Luit’. The sense of self is the sense of being located at a point in space, of having a perspective in time and of having a variety of position in a local moral order. The study aims to find out materials connected with the river Brahmaputra to intimate how the river provides time and space to search for identification for the inhabitants on its bank.

The book is based on the doctoral thesis of the author.

Mridusmita Mahanta (b. 1973), Associate Professor, Dept. of English, Sonapur College, has been in the teaching profession since 1995. Her area of interest is English Linguistics and Folk Theory as well as Folk Narratives. She has published a number of articles in books and research articles in ISSN indexed journals and research articles in seminar and conference proceedings particularly on folk narratives. She was conferred doctoral degree by Gauhati University under the guide ship of Dr. Kishore Bhattacharjee, the then HOD of the Dept. of Folklore Research, GU.