Dark Age of the Assamese language Dark Age of the Assamese language The Dark Age of Assamese Language is the time-frame during which Bengali Language eclipsed the Assamese. This time-frame is about 37 years long, from 1836 until 1873. During British India, the Bengali Language was imposed over Assamese as the British took over Assam. The clerical and technical workers that they brought were Bengali, imposing Bengali as the medium of instruction in schools and colleges and for all official purposes. Nathan Brown, an American Baptist missionary to India, worked for the restoration of the Assamese language to avoid it being overtaken by the Bengali language
Assamese alphabet said to develop proto-Assamese shapes by the 13th century. In the 18th and 19th century, the Assamese script could be divided into three varieties: "Kaitheli" (also called "Lakhari" in Kamrup region, used by non-Brahmins), "Bamuniya" (used by Brahmins, for Sanskrit) and "Garhgaya" (used by state officials of the Ahom kingdom)—among which the "Kaitheli" style was the most popular, with medieval books (like the "Hastir-vidyrnava") and sattras using this style. In the early part of the 19th century, Atmaram Sarmah designed the first Assamese script for printing in Serampore, and the Bengali and Assamese lithography converged to the present standard that