Talk:Kamrupi people

Who are the Kamrupi people?

@Chaipau: I couldn't find sources claiming that Kamrupi people are the people who speak Kamrupi dialects of Assamese. There are other possible meanings: 1. People who live in the colonial Kamrup district region, 2. Inhabitants of the historical Kamarupa kingdom (and their mother descendants?), 3. Speakers of Kamarupi Prakrit and perhaps more. Msasag (talk) 15:41, 21 December 2020 (UTC)

@Msasag: I agree. We should just use what is given in reliable sources. Chaipau (talk) 16:09, 21 December 2020 (UTC)

I have looked around for references and find that "Kamrupi people" is not defined at all. Most of the cultural artifacts listed in the article are associated with a region, not with a people. I am beginning to agree with @Msasag: that this page should not exist. @Fylindfotberserk: need your advice. Chaipau (talk) 22:57, 26 January 2021 (UTC)

@Chaipau: Is there no mention of modern people with the Kamrupi language/dialect in the sources? - Fylindfotberserk (talk) 01:55, 27 January 2021 (UTC)

I haven't found one yet. If we go by the citation quote given here [1], we are supposed to infer for ourselves that this must define a people and we run into WP:OR issues. Despite the citation not mentioning the "Kamrupi people" explicitly, the problem is compounded by the fact that this work was published in 1970 (50 years ago) and the thesis was itself written in 1958 and much of the situation described in this section is no longer true. For one, it is now known that Kamrupi is actually a group of three dialects—Barpetia dialect, Nalbariya dialect and Palasbariya dialect (also called South Kamprupi). The tradition of Ojapali, which Goswami mentions, was primarily a tradition associated with the Koch kingdom, that now is associated with Darrang, which is outside Kamrup. And Bihu today is quite popular, even in Goalpara (search for Bihu and Goalpara). Despite the inaccuracies in Goswami's claims as it stands today it is true that there is a strong identity associated with the individual dialects (Barpetia, Nalbaria, etc.) and not generically Kamrupi, which is a grouping of dialects. And these dialects are increasingly used in popular culture. Chaipau (talk) 09:20, 27 January 2021 (UTC)

Yes, there's no ethnicity called Kamrupi. Even the people speaking Kamrupi dialects belong to different ethnic communities which are also found in other parts (like Koch-Rajbongshi, Kalita, Bamun/Brahmin, Rabha, Saraniya, Nath, Jogi, Goriya, Mariya, Bodo etc). And the differences Goswami mentioned are only regional. They don't make one community different from another. Also the way Goswami defined "dialect" is not accepted by modern linguists. Linguistic dialects are not based on social and political status. Also speakers of different dialects don't necessarily belong to different communities. User:Bhaskarbhagawati is confused by these terms: Kamrup region (the region of colonial Kamrup district), Kamarupa (the region of historical Kamarupa kingdom), Kamrupi dialects (the dialects of Assamese spoken in colonial Kamrup district) and Kamarupi Prakrit (the Indo-Aryan language spoken in Kamarupa kingdom). Seems he considers these terms as synonyms. Earlier writers used "Western Assam" and "Eastern Assam" vaguely. The capital region of Kamarupa is on the western (Guwahati) and eastern (Tezpur) borders of Central Assam. Some of the Early Assamese writers were from Central and Eastern Assam, including the most popular ones (Sankardeva, Madhav Kandali, Madhavdeva). The Kamrupi related articles created or edited by BhaskarBhagawati are based on his misunderstandings. And now he is violating his ban on editing Kamrupi related articles. Msasag (talk) 11:50, 27 January 2021 (UTC)