Manjil Hazarika

Manjil Hazarika, born in 1981 at Golaghat in Assam. In 2005, Hazarika completed his Master’s thesis entitled Neolithic Culture of Northeast India with special reference to the Origins of Pottery and Agriculture at Deccan College at Poona (Puṇe) under the direction of Vasant Shinde. In 2007, he completed an International Masters in Quaternary and Prehistory under the Erasmus Mundus programme at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, Spain. Additionally in 2007, Hazarika attained excellent results in his research conducted on lithic tools from Uganda at the Département de Préhistoire du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris under the direction of Dr. Claire Gaillard.

For the Himalayan Languages Project of Leiden University, Manjil Hazarika is completing as his doctoral dissertation an extensive archaeological and palaeobotanical study of rice agriculture and Neolithic culture in northeastern India with special reference to the implications for the ethnolinguistic prehistory of the region. Manjil Hazarika is addressing both the Austroasiatic and Tibeto-Burman linguistic dispersals from an archaeological point of view. Northeastern India is one of the most poorly documented areas archaeologically and at the same time one of the most vital areas for our understanding of rice domestication and potentially the earliest farming communities on the planet.

Hazarika’s research will have direct ramifications for the theoretical discussion relating to the ancient dispersal of language families, such as Austroasiatic and Tibeto-Burman. Hazarika hails from northeastern India himself and, in addition to his archaeological qualifications, interdisciplinary interest and knowledge of the relevant ethnolinguistic literature, he has specialised first-hand knowledge of various Oryza cultigens and cultivars indigenous and often unique to the region.

Selected publications

Hazarika, Manjil. 2009. ‘Archaeological heritage of northeast India: Only for archaeologists?’, Khumtai, 2009: 230-238.

Hazarika, Manjil. 2009. ‘Aerial archaeology and remote sensing in Indian archaeological research’, Aerial Archaeology Research Group News, 39: 36-37.

Hazarika, Manjil. 2008. ‘Archaeological research in North-East India: A critical review’, Journal of Historical Research, XVI: 1-14.

Hazarika, Manjil. 2008. ‘Prehistoric importance of Northeast India: Some theoretical considerations’, Proceedings of North East India History Association, 28: 22-36.

Hazarika, Manjil. 2007. ‘Report on the ICREA international conference on “Plio-Pleistocene climatic changes, faunal turnovers and human dispersals” held in Tarragona, Spain on May 4-6, 2006’, Man and Environment, XXXII (1): 122-123.

Hazarika, Manjil. 2006. ‘Neolithic culture of Northeast India: A recent perspective on the origins of pottery and agriculture’, Ancient Asia, I: 25-43.

Hazarika, Manjil. 2006. ‘Understanding the process of plants and animal domestication in Northeast India: A hypothetical approach’, Asian Agri-History, X: 203-212.