Textiles and dresses of Assam

The culture of Assam (Assamese: অসমীয়া সংস্কৃতি অথবা অসমীয়া লোক-সংস্কৃতি) is traditionally a hybrid one, developed due to cultural assimilation of different ethno-cultural groups under various politico-economic systems in different periods of history.

The roots of Assamese culture go back almost two thousand years when the first cultural assimilation took place with Indo-Ayans,Austroasiatic, Dravidian and Tibeto-Burman people as the major components. According to the epic Mahabharata and on the basis of local folk lore, people of Assam probably lived in a strong kingdom in the era before Jesus Christ, which led to an early assimilation on a greater scale. Typical naming of the rivers and spatial distribution of related ethno-cultural groups also support this theory. Thereafter, western migrations such as those of various branches of Mediterraneans, Irano-Scythians and Nordics along with mixed northern Indians (the ancient cultural mix already present in northern Indian states such as Magadha enriched the aboriginal culture and under certain stronger politico-economic systems, Sanskritisation and Hinduisation intensified and became prominent. Such an assimilated culture therefore carries many elements of source cultures, of which exact roots are difficult to trace and are a matter for research. However, in each of the elements of Assamese culture, i.e. language, traditional crafts, performing arts, festivities and beliefs, either local elements or the local elements in a Hinduised/Sanskritised forms are always present.

It is believed that Assamese culture in its original form developed over 700 years as the country of Kamarupa during the first millennium AD. The first 300 years of Kamarupa was under the great Varman dynasty, 200 years under the Mlechchha dynasty and 200 years under the Pala dynasty. The records of many aspects of the language, traditional crafts (silk, lac, gold, bronze, etc.) are available in different forms. When the Tai-Shans entered the region in 1228 under the leadership of Sukaphaa to establish Ahom kingdom in Assam for the next 600 years, again a new chapter of cultural assimilation was written. The original Tai-Shans assimilated with the local culture, adopted the language on one hand and on the other also influenced the mainstream culture with the elements from their own. Similarly the Sutiya kingdom in eastern Assam, the Koch Kingdom in western Assam and the medieval Kachari and Jaintia kingdoms in southern Assam provided stages for assimilation at different intensities and with different cultural-mixes.

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Wikipedia