Conclusion

The Tai Ahom people hold their traditional faith, beliefs, and practices very keenly to their identity even though most of them have been converted to various cults of Hinduism. Though the religious life of the Ahom more or less has changed in the course of time, tra­ditional belief in ancestor worship and performance of rituals related to the birth, death, and marriage are still important among some sections.

Notes

1 Bihu is a set of three festivals named after the months of their celebration or the characteristics attributed to agriculture activities and enthusiasm. According to months of celebration the Bihu is named as Bohag Bihu (Bohag month, mid-April), Magh Bihu (Magh month, mid-January), and Katik Bihu (Kati month, mid-October) and correspondingly these are known as Rongali, Bhogali, and Kongali Bihu. Rongali Bihu is a sowing festival with much merry making; Bhogali Bihu is a harvest festival and plenty is available for feasting; and Kongali Bihu is celebrated for the protec­tion of crops under the condition of short supply of food.

2 Utsav is a Sanskritised word. In fact Assamese has its root in Sanskrit and is an Indo-Aryan lan­guage. Having been Hinduised, the Ahom people extensively use borrowed words and a few of their native words even to express religious worldviews. However, a few Indo-Aryan words in the Assamese family of languages have phonetic variations for certain alphabets having ‘s’ and ‘sh’ sounds which produce ‘ch’ and ‘ha’ sounds respectively.

3 Hushari is a practice of bestowing blessings to the individual household while performing Bihu dance. Only dance is not a part of Husari. The tradition began after Neo-Vaishnavism. In other words, the Neo-Vashnavisim practice of blessings is assimilated with the Bihu.

4 Gamosha - a traditional cotton towel. Bihuwan- maan, i.e. respect on the occasion of Bihu. Gamosha as bihuwan- the gamosha is used as a symbol of showing love and respect (maan).

5 The Ahom have their own religion which is called Phuralung. The Phura means the unified force of the world and the Lung means Dragon, a religious as well as royal symbol of the Ahom.

6 Maidam is a traditional burial mound and also the practice of disposing of the dead particularly in royal and aristocratic families of the Ahom community in Assam. It has one or two chambers inside. For details see Gogoi (1976).

7 A feast for relatives (gyati) with a fish dish so that they can take non-vegetarian food from then onwards. During pollution period, non-vegetarian food is prohibited for several relations of the dead. On this day social approval is given for non-vegetarian food for those who observed pollu­tion taboo together; and gratitude is shown to those who helped the family in different ways.

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