Assamese literature forms developed in the Assamese language by the 13th century though the language can be traced back to the seventh century AD. In the early period Rudra Kundali translated the ‘Dronaparva’ of the Mahabharata, and Madhava Kundali rendered dramatic incidents from the Ramayana into Assamese. Hema Saraswati could be called the first poet in Assamese with his Prahladacharita.
The great saint poet Sankaradeva composed lyrics as well as a number of one-act plays leavened Assamese prose interspersed with songs. They flew as Ankiya Nats. Assamese prose was given finite shape by Bhattadeva who translated the Bhagavata and the Gita into Assamese. Modern Assamese prose emerged from Buranjis.
It was in the nineteenth century that new developments, indeed, a renaissance took place in Assamese literature. The pioneers in the movement were Chandra Kumar Agarwalla, Lakshminath Bezbarua and Hemachandra Goswami. They founded the monthly Janaki and used in the romantic period.
The names of Padmanath Gohain Barua and Rajnikanth Bordoloi are associated with the development of the modern novel in Assamese. Lakshminath Bezbarua made a significant contribution to the development of the short story in Assamese.
Writers of the post-independent period include Syed Abdul Malik, Jogesh Das and Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya (who received the Jnanpith Award of 1979 in his novel Mrutunjaya). Assamese literature shows evidence of Western influence.