MEETUNG OF DIFFERENT CULTURES IN ANCIENT ASAS 13 and economic conditions in Assam, Bengal and Orissa during the last few hundred years. "It is the fact that the Brühmans form a single inter-marrying community, combined with the political situation in Assam and Orissa as independent Hindu lands as contrasted with Bengal as being under Muhaanmadan rule, that was largely responsible for the gradual esta- blishment of the local speeches of Bengal, Assam and Orissa as separate languages" (Preface to New Light on History of Amiya Literature, pp. 7-vi). THREE MEETING OF DIFFERENT CULTURES IN ANCIENT ASAM Is may be recalled that while all the neighbouring provinces of northern India were thoroughly Buddhist-ridden and infested with the Buddhist monasteries, ancient Kamarupa was the single instance of a province free from Buddhist influence and having Brahmanie culture and Hindu temples in abundance. Yuan Chwang's authentie personal records about Kamarupa of the carly seventh century may be carefully noted. "They (the people of Kamarupa) worshipped the Devas and did not believe in Buddha. So there had never been any Buddhist monas- tery in the land. The Deva temples were some hundreds in number and various systems had some myriads of professed adherents...His majesty (Bhiskar Varma) was a lover of learning and his subjects followed his example, men of abilities came from far lands to study here". (Watters' Yu Ching, Vol. II, p. 186) As earlier noted, the copper plate Inscription of Bhaskar Varmi alone has at least 205 Brahman donees belonging to a minimum of 55 different gotras. As Bhaskar Varma simply replaced the copper plate grant of his great-grand-father Bhatt or Maha-Blūta Vurmi which was burnt, it may safely be surmised that it was the self-sume situation at least about the latter half of the fifth century. Since the descen- dants of these Brahmans claim usually to have been Maithill by tradi- tion, it may be that because of the above situation Brahman scholars from Mithis might have come originally with a view to study in this Brāhmanie centre of culture divorced from Buddhist influence, and then settled here. The Pafica handa Pargani, where the grant of Bhaskar Varma was discovered, has a tradition that it originally formed a part of Tripura and that it was so named from the fact that Brahmans of five gotras,
