Origin of Assamese Architecture

Origin of Assamese Stilt Form of Architecture:

It can safely be held that the stilt architecture of the region is primarily a tribal or more specifically, an Indo-Mongolian contribution. The tribal societies generally possess and display many primitive features in their culture. Thus, there is scope to assume that the housing culture, house types, and the technique of their architecture also bear such traits. The apparent similarity of the form of the stilt architecture of the tribals of the region leads one towards such speculation and conclusion. Similarly, the original habitat and the migration route of these populations were the hilly tracts of surrounding mountains. The uneven topography of their erstwhile hilly habitats compelled them to evolve a suitable architecture type to suit the topography. Through persistent efforts to develop a type of architecture in tune with topography and nature, least disturbing the surrounding nature and topography, the early men skilfully developed the stilt type architecture. Undoubtedly, the stilt architecture was the most appropriate, functional, and logical development to cater the housing need in such topography. Through using the stilting technique, the uneven area of the hill could be easily converted to the even floor of a house. Subsequently, when the people migrated to the plains of the Brahmaputra valley, the traditional form of stilt architecture was the first and sole option of architecture they had in stock to construct a house. The style turned appropriate also in the recurrently inundated region of Brahmaputra valley. So the form and technique continued subsequently and became the main dominating form of architecture in the valley. Subsequently, this Mongoloid form of architecture contributed immensely in the growth and development of the vernacular architecture of the region.

Origin of the Assamese Ground Variety Architecture:

The earth-fast variety of architecture, which is more widespread in the region, seems an equally ancient tradition. If we agree to the opinion of different scholars regarding the sequential entry of different racial groups into the region as well as their culture, then there is every possibility that the earth-fast architecture was in existence in the ancient or prehistoric era itself. This even leads to the assumption that the ground variety is more ancient than the stilt variety. It again leads to the conclusion that the ground housing culture was more dominant leading to shift and adopt the style by certain tribal communities who were originally stilt dweller (Deori:2016).

There is every possibility that the Australoid and Caucasoid Alpine groups developed the earth-fast variety of architecture if we scrutiny their ethnic culture. The entry of the Aryans subsequently supplemented and provided the housing tradition a firm gripping in the region. Then, all these racial culture contributed and shaped the forms and culture of the earth-fast architecture in the region. However, in the situation of the presence of a strong Mongoloid tribal tradition, the ground tradition imbibed certain forms or content of the architecture from the tribal tradition. There is ample evidence that the ground variety of architectural style was emblematic of caste hierarchy at one point of time as the higher castes used to live in this variety. Similarly, as discussed earlier, the percolation of stilt type architecture for certain forms in the ground variety is a recent development (Cutter:1946). Thus, it can be assumed that the ground variety of the Assamese vernacular architecture perhaps predates the stilt or tribal variety of architecture but it heavily absorbed content and formal aspects from the tribal.