Buranjis (, , )"The Tai-Ahom term buran is cognate with the Standard Thai word boran (ancient). Buranji, then, are ancient writings." are a heterogeneous class of royal chronicles, genealogies, administrative records, family histories and related manuscripts associated with pre-colonial Assam, particularly the Ahom kingdom."With the coming of the Ahoms, begins a procedure of keeping records of all events of the time, in a class of documents called Buranjis which are so numerous and voluminous that they overshadow the other primary sources like archaeology and numismatics." Although the tradition claims an origin in the 13th century, scholarly research indicates that the written chronicles likely took shape only from the late 14th–16th centuries onward, following the emergence of the Tai Ahom script."Although tradition suggests that the Ahom brought their script with them when they crossed the Patkai Mountains into Assam in the 13th century from Mong Mao, located on the frontier of what is now Myanmar and China (Phukan 2006); it is unknown how old the script actually is. The oldest surviving Ahom text, the Snake Pillar inscription, only dates back to the time of King Siuw Hum Miung who reigned during 1497-1539 (Hosken and Morey 2012). However, the resemblance between the Ahom script and one of the extant Shan scripts known as lik hto ngouk, or “bean-sprout letters”, points to a common origin (Cushing 1888; Ferlus 1988; Diller 1992; Wichasin 1986). A recent paper by Daniels (2012) refers to a manuscript published in Yang, Bartholemew and Wang (2000). This has been identified as a Chinese manuscript dated 1407 that includes Tai language very similar in form and structure to the Tai Ahom script, suggesting that a script like Tai Ahom was in use in the Mong Mao kingdom by the end of the 14th century at the latest.""There is a general consensus that the proto-Shan script that developed into the modern Shan and Ahom scripts was adapted from the Burmese script sometime between the late 14th and the 16th century. Ferlus (1988) and Diller (1992) also argue that lack of orthographic contrasts between original voiced and voiceless consonants suggests that the adaptation took place later than the first half of the 13th century. In addition, Pain (2017) adds the use of digraph ui, to represent /ɯ/ in Shan and Ahom as further evidence for the Old Burmese origin. Furthermore, Daniel’s (2012) analysis of the 1407 manuscript discussed above postulates that the adaptation occurred in the 14th century. The shapes of 14 letters attested in the text as well as the use of diacritical -y-, -r-, and -w- points to an Old Burmese origin."
The Buranjis were written initially in the Ahom Language and from the 16th century additionally in the Assamese language. The Buranjis are an example of historical literature which is rare in India"The oft-repeated complaint of the absence of any historical literature in India has to be qualified not only by Kalhana's Rajatarangini in Kashmir but also by Assamese historical literature." —they bear resemblance to Southeast Asian traditions of historical literature instead."The established fact is that the buranji tradition bore a marked similarity with the Southeast Asian tradition of historical chronicles." The Buranjis are generally found in manuscript form (locally called puthi), written on sanchipat; a number of these manuscripts have been compiled and published especially in the Assamese language."A number of Buranjis written in Assamese have been published by the Department of Historical and Antiquarian Studies, Assam."
They are among the principal sources for the study of pre-colonial Assam, especially for the period from the thirteenth century to the beginning of colonial rule in 1828,"(T)he primary sources of information of medieval Assam from the thirteenth century onward may broadly be classified under the heads: Ahom and Assamese Buranjis, contemporary chronicles, memoirs and farmans in Persian, letters in Assamese in Persian, archaeological, epigraphic and numismatic sources, accounts of foreign travellers and East-India Company's reports and records." and have become central to the historiography of the region."However, the question of traditions of history writing in eastern India is complicated by the presence of a distinctly north-eastern genre called the buranji...Yet it is present not only in Assam, where it has become a central source for the writing of the history of pre-colonial Assam." Their chronology, composition and historical claims, particularly for the earliest periods, nevertheless require textual criticism and, where possible, corroboration with independent evidence. The details in the Buranjis regarding the Ahom–Mughal conflicts agree with those in Mughal chronicles such as the Baharistan-i-Ghaibi, Padshahnama, Alamgirnamah and Fathiyyah, while also providing additional information absent from those accounts.
Etymology The etymology of the term buranji is disputed. G. A. Grierson analysed it as a combination of the Ahom words bu ("ignorant"), ran ("to teach") and ji ("storehouse"), producing the meaning "a storehouse for teaching the ignorant". More recent interpretations connect buran with the Tai word boran, meaning "ancient". Other proposed derivations include Numal Gogoi's pulanchi, interpreted as papers transmitted from grandparents to grandchildren, and J. N. Phukan's proposed derivation from the Pali–Sanskrit expression puran panji.
Yasmin Saikia notes that the manuscripts themselves rarely describe their contents as buranjis. Many instead use titles meaning royal genealogy, origin narrative or account of a ruling lineage. Among the earliest chronicles that she identifies as explicitly using the term are the Tungkhungia Buranji, composed in 1804, and Kasinath Tamuli-Phukan's Assam Buranji of 1835. The works have consequently been interpreted both as historical chronicles and as puthis containing sacred, genealogical or ritual knowledge.
Description Buranjis were consulted by the king and high officials of the Ahom kingdom for decision making in state matters."The most general use of these works was within the limited elites of the Ahom administration. The nobility, apart from the king, consulted them to arrive at decisions relating to affairs of the state." Buranjis are available in manuscript form usually hand-written on oblong pieces of Sanchi bark, though the size and number of folios varies. They are usually densely written on both sides of the folios. Most often the text begins with a legendary account of the establishment of the Ahom kingdom."Oblong strips of Sanchi bark were used to prepare these manuscripts. The size and numbers of folios varied. Normally both sides of the folios contained written lines. The manuscript of one such buranji of 1804 was enclosed in a painted wooden box made of one piece of wood.22 It contained 85 folios or 170 pages, and each folio measured four inches by 12½ inches.23 Folios were packed with ten lines of ‘closely packed writing on each page’.24 Another buranji contained 59 folios. Each of them measured 2½ inches by 10¼ inches, and contained five to seven lines.25 In most instances the text begins with narratives, encapsulated in a few legends, of the early days of the establishment of the Ahom kingdom." Though many such Buranjis have been collected, compiled and published, an unknown number of Buranjis are still in private hands.
Buranji writing tradition There were two kinds of Buranjis: one maintained by the state (official) and the other maintained by families.
The Buranjis themselves claim that the tradition of state Buranjis began with Sukaphaa () who led a group of Shans into the Brahmaputra valley in 1228."The official type trace their genesis to the appearance of the Tai-Mau chieftain Sukapha and a band of some 10,000 followers in Sadyia, a point in the northern reaches of the Bhramaputra Valley in the reputed year of 1228 A.D." Saikia cautions that this tradition (as recorded in a late-17th century manuscript) does not establish the existence of a fully developed written chronicle system during the 13th century. She also found it difficult to accept that a conscious system of writing developed under the uncertain conditions of a 13th-century migration, noting that the narrative does not explain how the alleged records were subsequently used."While this is not impossible (throughout human history people have told stories of themselves and others), it is somewhat difficult to accept that a conscious writing system developed within the uncertain conditions of migration in the thirteenth century. Also, this account does not convincingly tell us how this recorded memory was put to use." Modern linguistic and epigraphic research suggests that the development of the Tai Ahom script—and by extension the written Buranji tradition—likely occurred later. The earliest surviving Ahom inscription, the Snake Pillar inscription, dates only to the early 16th century, and scholars generally agree that the script was adapted from a proto-Shan script derived from Burmese between the late 14th and 16th centuries.
The tradition of writing family Buranjis began in the 16th century."According to Wichasin, there are two types of Tai-Ahom chronicles: official and family. The latter were begun in the sixteenth century A.D." The tradition of writing Buranjis survived more than six hundred years well into the British period till the last decade of 1890s, more than a half century after the demise of the Ahom kingdom, when Padmeswar Naobaisha Phukan wrote a Buranji in the old style incorporating substantial details from the colonial times."The system of compilation of buranjis continued to be practised till the last decades of the nineteenth century. The content and form of the later buranjis did not change substantially. In the 1890s, Padmeswar Naobaisha Phukan, a successor of the Ahom nobility, wrote an Assam buranji. The text was a careful reproduction of the pre-colonial chronicles, to which Phukan added substantial narratives of contemporary events."
Official Buranjis were written by scribes under the office of the Likhakar Barua, and these were based on state papers, such as diplomatic correspondences, spy reports, etc."Information and facts mentioned in a buranji emerged after consulting state papers.... Official communications, letters of ambassadors or spy reports were significant parts of these state papers." The Buranjis and the state papers were usually secured in a store or library called Gandhia Bhoral under the supervision of an officer called Gandhia Barua."(B)uranjis were closely guarded, at least the official ones, the reason why they were kept in the Gandhia Bhoral (store house/library) under the supervision of an Ahom official called Gandhia Barua." Generally one of the three ministers of the Ahom state, the Burhagohain, the Borgohain, or the Borpatragohain, was in command of producing Buranjis, but the junior office of Borbarua took over the power in the 18th century."One of the three principal functionaries of the Ahom ministry supervised the function of chronicling royal events. From the middle of the eighteenth century, another superior executive called Barbaruah and ranked below a minister, usurped the function of producing buranjis."