ABSTRACT
On 7 April 1912, at a meeting held in Kamakhya, an ancient centre of pilgrimage near Guwahati, and attended by about a dozen persons, a research organization called Kamarupa Anusandhana Samiti (KAS) was founded. The KAS had 12 founding members, almost all of them involved in matters of study and research, though not all of them were professionally engaged in study, teaching and research. The KAS set up a branch in Rangpur, with the secretary of the Rangpur Sahitya Parishad functioning as its secretary. The establishment of a separate department of historical research under the direct control of the government, with the domain of its research activities defined and confined to ‘Assam’ in contradistinction to the universe of Kamarupa was, at that point of time, as much a political necessity as a path-breaking endeavour to expand historical research in Assam.
