Guwahati: The Assam government’s essay campaign to mark the 400th birth anniversary of Ahom warrior ‘Mahabir’ Lachit Barphukan has set the Guinness World Record for the largest online photo album of handwritten notes.
It came after the state government’s campaign received 43 lakh entries in different languages.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma also addressed a gathering in Dispur after he was handed a certificate for the record by Swapnil Dangarikar, the adjudicator for the event from Guinness World Records Limited, United Kingdom.
It’s a proud moment for the people of Assam, Sarma said, adding that it wasn’t a “competition but a mass participation”.
“We will tell our stories to the world. These are not fables, but stories of bravery, architecture, and creative art prevalent in Assam since time immemorial,” Sarma said. “I got to learn many things when I went through the essays from different districts. Apart from Lachit Barphukan and Chief Counsellor Atan Burhagohain, we came to know about the other brave warriors who fought alongside Lachit in the Battle of Saraighat.”
He added that the battle saw many strategic alliances between the Ahom military and its neighbouring rulers.
The feat comes at a time when Sarma’s government is preparing to set another world record — one for the largest Bihu dance during the Rongali Bihu celebrations next month.
It also comes days after the central government got a technical clearance from UNESCO to make the Ahom dynasty’s Moidams of Charaideo a world heritage site.
With great pride, happy to share a landmark achievement in our endeavour to get World Heritage Site status for Charaideo Maidams. The maidams have met all technical requirements of the UNESCO Secretariat. My gratitude once again to Hon PM Shri @narendramodi ji for the nomination. pic.twitter.com/31y4sr7Q3S
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) March 3, 2023
Ahom commander Lachit Barphukan is a celebrated warrior known for his leadership during the Battle of Saraighat. The naval battle, which was fought on the banks of the Brahmaputra river in 1671, saw the Ahom forces defeat the invading Mughals, who were under the command of Ramsingh I.
Also Read: Assam’s Charaideo Moidams are sacred. Now Unesco bid moves it to India’s political centre
‘A mass participation’
Entries for the competition were posted on the government’s official website launched on 26 October last year.
The campaign received a total of 57, 89,170 lakh entries in form of images, M.K. Yadava, the former managing director of Amtron, or the Assam Electronics Development Corporation, said at the event.
Of these, a total of 44,90,120 “unique images” were included and all typed and computerised images were dropped, he said, adding that a quality audit further reduced the number of entries to 42,94,350 essays, which finally made it to the world record.
Of the total entries, nearly 36 lakhs were in Assamese and about four lakhs in English. Besides these, entries were also in Bengali, Bodo, Hindi, Dimasa, Bishnupuriya, Telugu, Urdu, and Persian, as well as in the Tai dialect, Arabic, Korean, Punjabi, and Rabha languages.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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