VIII LITERATURE

Radhamohan Thakur wrote the grammar of Kokborok named "Kok-Borokma" published in 1900 AD. Besides he wrote two other books viz., "Traipur Kothamala" and "Traipur Bhasabidhan". Traipur Kothamala was the Kokborok-Bengali-English translation book published in 1906 AD. The "Traipur Bhasabidhan" was published in 1907. Daulot Ahmed was a contemporary of Radhamohan Thakur and was a pioneer of writing Kokborok Grammar jointly with Mohammad Omar. The Amar jantra, Comilla published his Kokborok grammar book "KOKBOKMA" in 1897 AD. On 27 December 1945, the "Tripura Janasiksha Samiti" came into being and it established many schools in different areas of Tripura. The first Kokborok magazine "Kwtal Kothoma" was first edited and published in 1954 by Sudhanya Deb Barma, who was a founder of the Samiti. "Hachuk Khurio" (In the lap of Hills) by Sudhanya Deb Barma is the first modern Kokborok novel. It was published by the Kokborok Sahitya Sabha and Sanskriti Samsad in 1987 AD.

The biggest and greatest Kokborok literary work of this century was the "Smai Kwtal", the New Testament of the Bible in Kokborok language, published in 1976 AD by the Bible Society of India. The "Smai Kwtal" benchmarked all other works in the coming years and was the first popular literature to have seen the day-to-day use among the Tripuri community.

The 21st century began for Kokborok literature with the monumental work, The Anglo-Kokborok-Bengali Dictionary compiled by Binoy Deb Barma and published in 2002 A.D. by the Kokborok tei Hukumu Mission. This is the 2nd edition of his previous ground breaking dictionary published in 1996 and is a trilingual dictionary. Twiprani Laihbuma (The Rajmala - History of Tripura) translated by R.K Debbarma and published in 2002 AD by KOHM.

The present trend of development of the Kokborok literary works show that the Kokborok literature is moving forward slowly but steadily with its vivacity and distinctive originality to touch the rich literature of the rich languages. The Department of Kokborok in Tripura University is responsible for the teaching and training of Kokborok language and literature.