. 03-02-102
102
RABH.
This is a language which is fast dying out, and regarding which it has been very difficult to obtain any information. It certainly belongs to the Bodo group. Two dia- lects of it have been reported, viz.:-
| Name of Dialect. | Where spoken. |
Number of speakers.
|
|
Rangd ni... |
Goalpara... |
29,000
|
|
| Kamrup... |
370
|
|
|
| Garo Hills... |
1,000
|
|
|
|
|
30,370
|
||
| Maitari or Matrai... |
Garo Hills... |
|
1,000
|
|
TOTAL.
|
31,370
|
||
The above figures are estimates. Goalpara and Kamrup do not report the name
of the dialect, but the specimen received from the former district is Rangdani,
and I have hence provisionally entered the Rbh of both districts under
that dialect.
Regarding the Rbhs and their language, Mr. Gait speaks as follows
in his Census Report:-
"The Rbhs, who are also known as Totls and Dtiyl Kachr
s,
are found chiefly in Goalpara, Kamrup, Darrang, and the Garo Hills. There seems
to be a good deal of uncertainty as to who these people really are. In Lower
Assam it is asserted that they are an offshoot of the Gros, while in Kamrup
and Darrang, it is thought that they are Kachrs on the road to Hinduism.
That they belong to the great Bodo family is certain; but it is not equally
clear that the Rbhs are more closely allied to any one tribe of that
group than to another. They have their own language (which is fast dying out),
and it is not necessary for a Kachr or Gro to become a Rbh
on his way to Hinduism. On the whole, therefore, although some Kachrs
and Gr
s may have become Rbhs just as others have become Kches,
it seems probable that the Rbhs are in reality a distinct tribe.
"In the Garo Hills there are said to be five sections of Rbhs, viz.,
Rangdni, Pti, Maitari, Dabur, and Kachr. ... These
Rbhs of the Garo Hills are said to differ very slightly from the Kches
of the same district.
"In Kamrup and Darrang, the above-mentioned subdivisions tend to disappear,
the Rangdni and Pti sections alone being reported. ...
"The Rbhs consider themselves superior to the Kachrs, and
have, as a rule, abandoned their tribal dialect in favour of Assamese."
According to Mr. Damant the Pti Rbh have become to a great extent
Hinduised, and have abandoned their own language for Assamese; the remainder
still preserve their own customs and language to a greater or less extent. He
considered the Maitari Rbh to be most probably the purest specimens
of the race; they bear a close resemblance both to the Gr and Pni
Kch, both in their dialect and in their manners and customs. They are a
scattered and broken race, having few, ifany; villages of their own, but living
in small hamlets along with the Mech and Kch.
AUTHORITIES-
DAMANT, G.H.,-Notes on the Locality and Population of the Tribes dwelling
between the Brahmaputra and Ningthi Rivers. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,
xli, 1880, pp. 228 and ff. Account of Language on p. 233. Vocabulary of 22 Matrai
Rbh words on p. 254.
GAIT, E.A.,-Report on the Census of Assam for 1891, pp. 162 and 232. Shillong, 1892.
I am indebted to the Reverend A. F. Stephen for the following version of
the Parable of the Prodigal Son in the Rangdni dialect. It has evidently
been most carefully transliterated from a copy in the Bengali character, and
the rules of pronuncia- tion are those for pronouncing that language. Thus,
every a should be pronounced as