Buranjis and the Asian History Writing Tradition

Abstract

The historiographical tradition of Assam called Buranji reached the Northeast of India with the coming of Ahoms in the first quarter of thirteenth century. The history of pre-colonial Assam is largely constructed on the basis of buranji and most modern historians mainly from the region have engaged with the buranji literature reproduced and interpreted by native scholars after the coming of the British. While the main focus of modern historians have been on the relevance and importance of buranji in the historical study of Assam, no significant study is visible in tracing the historical journey of this tradition itself. This article, thus, is an attempt to locate the buranji tradition in a trans-regional context by linking it with the historiographical practices of East and Southeast Asia, particularly by looking at the Chinese historical tradition to propose that certain similarities found in them are highly suggestive of a more active historical interaction between the Tai (Shan) and the Chinese, bearings of which can be seen in the buranji tradition.