ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on how textual traditions of the trans-Brahmaputra had mapped socio-spatial relations. The Buranjis were chronicles written or commissioned by the different noble families or royal clans. Buranjis recorded the past and often, until the time that they were being written, were in prose. Some 19th century Buranjis were written in verse as well. The chapter highlights the interrelatedness of three issues vis-à-vis the Buranjis: the nature of Buranji chronicling; the worldview that they represent; and Buranjis and forms of cultural appropriation. The legend of Jaymati is an important example of how since the late 19th century the Tibet–Brahmaputra–Myanmar worldview transformed into the Indo-Gangetic worldview in the Valley. Neo-Vaishnava literature, also called Sankari literature after the saint-reformer Sankardeb, was performance-based textual tradition. The written texts were primarily meant to be performed in front of an audience. Neo-Vaishnava literature emerged in the western and central part of the Valley.
