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Section 6. The Nagas of Upper Asam |
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extent of country; differences between peoples called Nagas; language |
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We ascend the valley again and go back to the Shingphos on the Bori Dihing river and valley of the Kydendwen, where the Nagas appear so much mixed up with the Singphos that the Burmese have the same name for both - Kakhyens (On the authority of Mr. Robinson in his book on "Assam," but I am not sure of it.). In the basin of the Brahmaputra they are found only on the left bank of the Bori Dihing river, and the people called Nagas extend from that river to the Kopili of the Nowgong District and to the great southern bend of the Barak river and the eastern frontier of Tipperah, between the 83rd and 97th degrees of east longitude; but we cannot, simply from their having this common appellation, predicate that all the tribes in that great area are one people. There seems to be a very broad distinction between the Nagas to the east, and the Nagas to the west, of the Dhunsiri river. From the Dihing to that river the dialects spoken, though greatly differing, have indubitable indication of a common origin, but there appears to be no such obvious affinity between those dialects and the language of the Angami bordering on North Kachar, and there appears to be likewise very wide divergence in their polity, religion, and customs. |
