Assamese Literature Syllabus for UPSC

About Assamese Language: –

Assamese is the eastern Indo-Aryan (Indic) language that is the official language of Assam state of India. The only indigenous Indo-Aryan language of the Assam valley, Assamese has been affected in vocabulary, phonetics, and structure by its close association with Tibeto-Burman dialects in the region. Its grammar is noted for its highly inflected forms, and there are also different pronouns and noun plural markers for use in honorific and nonhonorific constructions. Assamese is also closely related to Bengali; like Bengali and Oriya, Assamese has no grammatical gender distinctions.

Assamese Syllabus Subject For UPSC

Assamese is the language provided as a Literature Optional which focuses on the candidates’ understanding of the basic concepts of literature. Candidates who have studied the Assamese literature can opt for it as an optional subject in the IAS (UPSC CSE) Mains Exam. Analytical and unconventional questions are appearing in previous papers so while preparing students should keep IAS Mains Assamese Syllabus and previous papers for reference. The aspirants who are well versed with the Assamese language and are familiar with the grammatical aspects can easily score high marks in this optional. 

Assamese Syllabus Exam Pattern: –

The Assamese language is one of the optional subjects offered for the 2 optional papers in the IAS (UPSC CSE) Main Exam. Each Assamese optional paper consists of 250 marks. Duration for each Assamese mains paper is 3 hours. With well-planned strategies, you can easily score well in the Assamese literature. Interest should be the prime criteria for choosing any optional.

 

Advantages of choosing Assamese

  • Well defined syllabus and Less subjectivity
  • Direct and straightforward questions
  • Ample scope to score marks with diagrams
  • The inquiries in this subject are immediate and crucial.
  • Room for interpretation in the written answers
  • Quality of answers as there is no limitation to different kinds of answers.
  • Updation in the syllabus is rare

Disadvantages of choosing Assamese

  • Subjective Nature of the answers can lead to less scoring at times if your views do not match with the evaluator.
  • Lack of resources
  • No syllabus overlaps with GS papers
  • Essay writing and interviews won’t pose much of a problem as the amount of reading will help with these.

Paper-I

Section-A

Language
(a) History of the origin and development of the Assamese language-its position among the Indo-Aryan Languages-periods in its history.
(b) Developments of Assamese prose.
(c) Vowels and consonants of the Assamese languages-rules of phonetic changes with stress on Assamese coming down from Old Indo-Aryan.
(d) Assamese vocabulary-and its sources.
(e) Morphology of the language-conjugation-enclitic definitives and pleonastic suffixes.
(f) Dilectical divergences-the standard colloquial and the Kamrupi dialect in particulars.
(g) Assamese scripts-its evolution through the ages till 19th century A.D.


Section-B

Literary Criticism and Literary History
(a) Principles of Literary criticism up to New criticism.
(b) Different literary genres.
(c) Development of literary forms in Assamese.
(d) Development of literary criticism in Assamese.
(e) Periods of the literary history of Assam from the earliest beginnings, i.e. from the period of the charyyageets with their socio-cultural background : the proto Assamese-Pre-Sankaradeva-Sankaradeva-post Sankaradeva-Modern period (from the coming of the Britishers)-Post-Independence period. Special emphasis is to be given on the Vaisnavite period, the gonaki and the post-Independence period.

Paper-II

  • Section-A
    Rãmãyana (Ayodhya Kãnda only)-by Madhava Kandali.
    Pãrijãt-Harana-by Sankaradeva.
    Rãsakrïdã-by Sankaradeva (From Kirtana Ghosa).
    Bargeet-by Madhavadeva
    Rãjasûya-by Madhavadeva.
    Kãthã-Bhãgavata (Books I and II)-by Baikunthanath Bhattacharyya.
    Gurucarit-Kathã (Sankaradeva’s Part only)-ed. by Maheswar Neog.
  • Section-B
    Mor Jeevan Soñwaran-by Lakshminath Bezbaroa.
    Kripãbar Barbaruãr Kãkatar Topola-by Lakshminath Bezbaroa.
    Pratimã-by Chandra Kumar Agarwalla.
    Gãoñburhã-by Padmanath Gohain Barua.
    Monamatî-by Rajanikanta Bordoloi.
    Purani Asamîyã Sãhitya-by Banikanta Kakati.
    Kãrengar Ligirî-by Jyotiprasad Agarwalla
    Jeevanar Bãtat-by Bina Barwa (Birinchi Kumar Barua)
    Mrityunjoy-by Birendrakumar Bhattachary-ya
    Samrãt-by Navakanta Barua.