অ’ মোৰ আপোনাৰ দেশ,
অ’ মোৰ চিকুণী দেশ।
— লক্ষ্মীনাথ বেজবৰুৱা (Lakshminath Bezbaroa)
The Assamese Sanctuary has a new face. অসমীয়া সাহিত্যৰ সুঁৱৰণি is now a place to wander through rather than a page to scroll past: a dawn over the Brahmaputra, a rhino in the grass, a gamosa riding the wind, and room after room of Assamese writing, old and new.
A dawn to step into
The Sanctuary opens on an original illustrated scene. Dawn breaks over the Brahmaputra; a nao drifts with its boatman; a temple stands on Nilachal hill, with the quiet outlines of a mosque and a namghar nearby; tea-garden rows run green with pluckers in their japi; a one-horned rhino rests on a grassy char. Around it, a deep tea-green field woven with the gamosa’s diamond pattern, and three ways in: poems, stories and essays (প্ৰবন্ধ).
Things that move
Life drifts gently around the page. A rhino walks back and forth along the bottom edge. Tea leaves and petals fall in the margins, a japi floats down the side, and now a gamosa, white with its red woven border and motifs, flies across the screen and keeps you company as you read. Nothing ever sits on a button or a line of text, and readers whose devices ask for less motion see a still page.
Listen closely and there is the dhol. A small sound button at the bottom left plays its beat only when you tap it; it never starts on its own.
কবিতা, গল্প, প্ৰবন্ধ, হাৰ্টলাইনছ
Each form of writing now has a section of its own: অসমীয়া কবিতা, অসমীয়া গল্প, অসমীয়া প্ৰবন্ধ and অসমীয়া হাৰ্টলাইনছ. Each shows the newest pieces in a row you can swipe, with a door into the full collection and a button to write your own.
কালজয়ী সাহিত্যিক
The classic writers of Assam now have cards of their own, each with a portrait, the years of a life, and a door to the writings: from Srimanta Sankardev, Madhavdev and Azan Fakir to Lakshminath Bezbaroa, Chandrakumar Agarwala, Jyotiprasad Agarwala and Padmanath Gohainbarua. We reproduce only work that has passed into the public domain, so that these voices can be read freely, by anyone, anywhere.
More to discover
- মানচিত্ৰত অসম: a map of all 35 districts of Assam, each with its literature, culture and heritage.
- বিহু আৰু সংস্কৃতি: tap the japi, gamosa, dhol, pepa, rhino or tea to read its story.
- A proverb a day, and the writers born or remembered on this day.
- সঁজুলি: an Assamese calendar (অসমীয়া পঞ্জিকা), an English–Assamese dictionary, a recipe book you can leaf through (অসমীয়া ৰন্ধন-পুথি) and a treasury of proverbs (ফকৰা-যোজনাৰ ভঁৰাল).
আপোনাৰ সৃষ্টিৰে আমাৰ ভঁৰাল চহকী কৰক
Enrich our treasury with your own creations. Wander the new Sanctuary, read a classic you have not met before, and when the words come, send us your poem, story or essay from the foot of the page, or write an Assamese Heartline.