Dear all,
It has been more than one and half years since Assamese wikisource got its
own sub-domain. Creating pages by a few members were going at a steady
rate, but it needed a boost in the form of digitalization of copyright free
books by scanning and collaborative typing. It took a while to get going
due to some unavoidable circumstances. At last, a book named '*Bhanumoti'*
by Padmanath Gohainbaruah (1871-1946) was scanned and uploaded to commons
on 25th August.
Though a number of his predecessors wrote a few novels, from historical and
literary point of view 'Bhanumoti' is considered by many to be the first
Assamese novel. It was first published serially in a magazine called '
*Bijulee*' in 1890-91. It was published as a book after a long gap of 17
years in 1908 (Meanwhile the novel '*Lahori*' by the same author was
published as a book in 1892). So these two novels heralded a new era in
Assamese literature. Gohainbaruah was the first president of 'Asam Sahitya
Sabha' (Assam Literary Organization) and first literary pensioner of Assam.
The typing of 'Bhanumoti' was completed within a week and after some minor
fixing the page is ready now (
https://as.wikisource.org/wiki/Bhanumoti).
Kudos to the persons involved in this project and heartiest thanks to ever
helpful Shiju Alex for guiding me through the whole procedure.
Digitalization of another Assamese book is in progress now.
Regards
*~~ গীতাৰ্থ বৰদলৈ (Gitartha Bordoloi)*