Introduction
The Boro people call themselves Boro Fisa which means 'children of Boro'; Boro means 'man' in their own language. They are also called Boro-Kachari in the Indian constitution.Homeland
The homeland of the Boro is in Brahmaputra valley. They live mainly in Assam state and also surrounding states. Boro is the largest ethnic group in North-East India.
Original homeland
Their original homeland was in eastern Qinghai plateau and their ancestors followed the Hengduan mountains down to the Brahmaputra River basin. Most scholars agree that Proto-Bodo-Garo entered Brahmaputra Valley not later than 1000 BC. |
| Migration to North-East India |
Natives of Brahmaputra valley
The ancestors of Boro people are the earliest natives of Brahmaputra Valley and not the Austro-Asiatic people such as Munda and Khasi as initially thought.
Professor Van Driem stated that their ancestors created the Indian Eastern Neolithic culture in northeast India (around 7000 BC-2000 BC) where the ancient tools found such as shouldered celt and cord-marked grey pottery are similar to those first found in Sichuan Neolithic site in China.
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| Cord impressed pottery fragments |
Besides the Neolithic artifact evidence, another evidence that the Boro were early settlers of the river valleys came from the fact that most of the rivers in the Brahmaputra valley today carry Boro names such as Di-bang, Di-hang, Di-khou, Di-hing, Doi-yang, Doi-grung where Di/Doi means water.
The Indo-Aryan people only reached Indus River valley in India from central Asia around 1500 BC-1000 BC so this date is much later than the ancestors of Boro's migration to Brahmaputra River . There is still a huge distance between Indus River in the west to the Brahmaputra River in the east.
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| Migration path of Indo-Aryan |
The Indo-Aryan Mahabharata history text stated that the Mlecha tribes constituted most of the population in Assam Valley, northern and eastern Bengal, and surrounding hills. The word 'Mlecha' in Sanskrit means 'barbarians who don't follow the Indo-Aryan culture' and this word survived in the Mech subgroup of Boro people.
Refer to the 'Origin of Austro-Asiatic tribes' as to why the Austro-Asiatic people are not the earliest natives in North-East India.
Early Boro kingdom
Salastambha founded the Boro kingdom called Mlecha dynasty of Kamarupa (655 AD-900 AD) who revolted against the Indo-Aryan Varman dynasty (350-650AD) who invaded the region in 350 AD.
The word 'Mlecha' gave evidence that they were the native Boro people. This dynasty is confirmed by archaeological evidence as shown in the photo below.
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| Mechla dynasty |
By the late 7th century AD the rulers of Mechla dynasty had adopted the Hindu religion and culture from the previous Varman dynasty who first brought these Indo-Aryan elements into the Brahmaputra Valley.
Today, the Boro-Garo people are spread over a very large area but their current languages are very similar in phonology, vocabulary and grammar even after more than 3000 years living along the Brahmaputra Valley. This suggests that proto-Boro-Garo language was formed around 1000 years ago replacing the ancient Boro languages.
The most probable period that the ancestors of the Boro people were united, had the political power to enforce a standard lingua franca among the different Boro-Garo tribes was during this Mlecha dynasty.
Chinese monk visit to Kamarupa
Some nationalists claimed that the Varman dynasty was also a Boro ruled kingdom but the evidence doesn't support this theory.
The Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang recorded in Chinese history text of his visit to Kamarupa around 642-643 AD (Varman dynasty) which gave evidences of the rulers speaking an Indo-Aryan language and being of Brahmin caste which are not characteristics of the native Boro people at that time.
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| Xuanzhang visit to Brahmaputra River basin |
Xuanzang could translate the Buddhist texts into Chinese text which showed that he can speak and read the Sanskrit language when he visited the Varman king Bhaskar Varman.
In ancient times, the Indo-Aryan rulers were considered the highest caste of Brahmin/Brahman whereas the native Boro people were considered 'tribal' or lower caste by the Indo-Aryan people.
Era of fragmentation
After the collapse of the Kamarupa kingdom in the 12th century AD, several smaller kingdoms sprung up in Brahmaputra River basin that were ruled by different ethnic groups such as Indo-Aryan, Boro and also Tai Ahom.
The Boro ruled kingdoms were
- Koch kingdom (1515-1949 AD) in western part.
- Dimasa kingdom (around 1228-1832 AD) in central part.
- Chutia kingdom (1187-1673 AD) in eastern part.
The approximate locations of these kingdoms is shown in the map below. Note that this map shows the distribution of the different branches of the Boro people and not the exact political boundaries.
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| Three main branches |
The invasion of the Tai Ahom people around 1228 AD played a major role in creating some of the different subgroups.
These three Boro kingdoms essentially split the ancestors of Boro people into its modern-day branches as detailed in the next section.
Boro-Garo subgroups
The Boro-Garo people are classified into three main branches based on linguistic similarities.- Western: Koch, Rabha, Ruga, Atong, Garo/A-chik Mande, Megam, Hajong
- Central: Boro, Mech, Kachari, Dimasa, Tiprasa/Kokborok, Tiwa/Lalung, Sonowal
- Eastern: Deori, Sutia
Central
The invasion of the Tai Ahom people split the Central Boro ancestors in Upper Assam into two subgroups which are Sonowal and Dimasa.
To escape the invading Ahom, the ancestors of Dimasa managed to cross the Brahmaputra River south into the Dima River (modern-day Dhansiri River) basin to establish the Dimasa kingdom. 'Di-Ma' means 'river-big' in their language.
The Boro people who were left behind in the northern bank of Brahmaputra River became the Sonowal people and became the subjects of the Ahom kingdom.
It is believed that the Ahom kingdom separated the Boro ancestors into two branches i.e. Central and Eastern by situating in the middle between the two.
Eastern
The Sutia and Deori are descendants of the Chutia kingdom; the original language of the Sutia is similar to Deori language.
Western
The Hajong subgroup originally came from Koch Hajo area in Goalpara district. The Garo people migrated up to Garo hills in western Meghalaya to escape from the Tai Ahom invasion in the Brahmaputra River valley.
Boro writing & languages
The Boro language was written using the ancient Deodhai script found in the stone pillar wreckages of the ancient royal palace in Dimapur. Dimapur was the capital of the Dimasa kingdom during the 13th century AD.
Currently, the Boro people use the Devanagari script which is descended from the Indic Brahmic scripts.
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| Devanagari script |
The Sonowal, Sutia and Hajong subgroups have lost their original language and now speak the Indo-Aryan Assamese language.
British colonization
British India annexed most of the Boro people's land which were later incorporated into Indo-Aryan India in 1947 AD. In 1949 AD, India also forcibly annexed additional Boro lands of Tripura and Koch Bihar.
The documentary below narrates the Boro people fight for identity and independence.
Closest ethnic relative
Their closest ethnic relative are the North Naga who originally came from Brahmaputra Valley before migrating to the Naga hills. |
| North Naga |
The North Naga languages are more complex grammatically when compared to the modern Boro-Garo languages.
This suggests that the North Naga migrated to the Naga hills before the 7th century AD (Mechla dynasty) when proto-Boro-Garo language first formed. The North Naga languages seem to have preserved the original complex grammar.
Another evidence is that the North Naga didn't adopt the Hindu religion and culture unlike their Boro relatives which implies these two closely-related groups separated before the adoption of Indo-Aryan culture by the Boro people.
Conclusion
The Boro-Garo people belongs to a major branch of the Sino-Tibetan people who originated from eastern Qinghai plateau.They are the first natives in the Brahmaputra River basin before they adopted the Aryan religion and culture from the invading Indo-Aryan people.
Related links
Ethnic origin of North NagaIndo-European compare with Sino-Tibetan
Sources
- On the origins of Bodo-Garo. North East Indian Linguistics Volume 4. By Scott Delancy.
- Discovering Boro-Garo History of an analytical and descriptive linguistic category. By François Jacquesson
- Neolithic Culture of Northeast India: A Recent Perspective on the Origins of Pottery and Agriculture. By Manjil Hazarika.
- Neolithic correlates of ancient Tibeto-Burman migrations. By George Van Driem 1998.
- The linguistic reconstruction of the past: The case of the Boro-Garo languages. By François Jacquesson and Seino van Breugel. (2017)
- A Cultural History of Assam (Early Period). By Barua, B.K. (1969).
- Land and People of Indian States and Union Territories:Tripura, Vol. 26. By Shankarlal Bhatt.
- Oral traditions of the Sonowal Kacharis of Assam. By Pallabita Das, Hojai College.
- Tribes of North-East India: A study on Hajongs. By Dr Khema Sonowal.
- The Indo-Aryan languages. By Colin Masica. Cambridge University Press (1991).
- Proto Indo Europeans: Linguistics, Migrations. By Kenneth Harl, Prof of History at Tulane University.
Last updated: 28 March 2022
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