Kokborok Day

Kokborok day –  is the day Kokborok got its official status..

Kokborok is the language of the people of Tripura and parts of Bangladesh. Though not the only language it is a major language.

Kokborok is one of the ancient languages of the north-east and belongs to the Sino – Tibetan lineage. The nomenclature comes from two words Kok which means verbal and borok means people or human.

Till the 20^th century Kokborok went by the name Tiprakok. This referred both to the inhabitants of the Twipra Kingdom and the ethnicity of the speakers.

The existence of the language has been attested since 1^st century AD. The Kings of Tripura maintained an historical record in a script known as Koloma. These chronicles where written in a book called Rajratnakar and was originally documented in Koloma script by Durlobendra Chontai.

Eventually it was translated into Sanskrit by two Brahmins (Sukreshwar and Vaneswar) and then in 19^th century to Bengali.

The chronicle of Tripura in Kokborok and Rajratnakar are no longer available. Kokborok became colloquial spoken language in the 19^th century when the kingdom of Tipra was ruled by Tripuri Kings.

In 1979 Kokborok was declared the official language of the state of Tripura and language is being taught in primary schools. In 1994 the Tripura university launched a certificate course in Kokborok and 2001 a postgraduate diploma was started. From the year 2012 regular undergraduate undergraduate program was launched. 2015 saw the launch of their postgraduate program.

Efforts have been made since the 19^th century to revive the language.

1897 saw the publishing of Kokbokma by Daulot Ahmed it was published by Amar Jantra.

1900 came the Tripur Kothamala and Tripur Bhashabidhan by Radhamohan Thakur.

1906 the Kokborok-Bengali- English translation of Tripura Kothamala was published.

1907 Tripura Bhasabidhan translation was published.

1945 December 27^th the Tripura janasiksha samiti began to establish schools in various area of Tripura.

1954 Kwatal Kothama was the first Kokborok magazine to be published. It was edited by Sudhanya Deb Barma who penned  Hachuk Khurio (in the lap of hills) the first modern Kokborok novel. He also founded the Tripura janasiksha samiti.

1976 Smai Kwtal the Kokborok translation of the New Testament was published by Bible society of India.

The current trends show that the Kokborok literary works slowly and steadily is coming to its own.

Having shared this, it sad somewhere that a language spoken by the people should require official status. After all nationality lives in our language like our history and science. It is the language that cradles our civilization.