Tai Ahoms and the Stars: Three Ritual Texts to Ward off Danger

Studies on Southeast Asia 10

The ancient but not completely forgotten language of Ahom (part of a culture that once dominated the Brahmaputra Valley in India) has been marked by a lack of competent critical and scholarly study. The present authors aim to correct this: in their work they include a useful introduction to the state of Ahom studies and about linguistic problems and possibilities. The three primary texts studied are presented in their Ahom characters, in transliteration, and in translation into Thai and English, and are the subjects of both literary and historical interpretation. In the final section, the scholar J. C. Eade presents an essay entitled Astronomy in the Texts: Is there any Coherence? The relevant pages from the three original manuscripts that gave rise to the established texts are reproduced here as well.