Tarajan
Sanmilan

Our Story · আমাৰ কাহিনী

A Century of
Community & Pride

Tarajan is a locality at the heart of Jorhat city. This name is mentioned in the Tungkhungia Chronicles. The name Tarajan comes from the name of the rivulet that flows through the area. There were many black galangal plants (in Assamese, Taragosh) on both sides of the rivulet at that time, and hence the name of the rivulet became Tarajan — 'Jan' being the Assamese term for a rivulet. In the Tarajan locality, on an August day of 1918, a club named Asomiya Lorar Charitra Gothon Sabha was established. This was the first public organization in the Tarajan area, which is now extinct. This club helped organize the youth of the area to advance in sports. Under the banner of this club, in 1927, a new organization — the Tarajan Sanmilan — was established. In Tarajan, Durga Puja had been celebrated prior to the formation of Tarajan Sanmilan, but in a casual manner. After the formation of Tarajan Sanmilan it became regular under its aegis. Simultaneously, the Tarajan Sanmilan also started activities for the cultural upbringing of the locality. During the Puja days, in the first year of its establishment, two plays were staged — Jahnnavi and Rana Pratap Singh.

At that time, the Tarajan Sanmilan had no land of its own. Later, the late Bipin Chandra Bardoloi, EAC of Jorhat, allocated the necessary government land for the Tarajan Sanmilan. He was employed in Jorhat from 1912 to 1929, and during that time, through the efforts of various others including him, the Tarajan Sanmilan gained a limited permanent form with wooden and iron poles. Many of the people who led the Tarajan Sanmilan in the early years were pioneers in various fields of Jorhat and Assam. Among these were Advocate late Purnananda Sharma Pathak and Advocate late Jadunath Barua — these two held important portfolios like President and Vice-President of the Jorhat Municipal Board during the then British rule. This list also includes late Radhanath Barthakur, who was the founder of the prestigious Happy Lodge hotels in Shillong and Guwahati. Similarly, late Umacharan Baruah was a prominent tea planter.

Apart from theatre performances and Durga Puja celebrations, the Tarajan Sanmilan has been doing much work for the social and spiritual upliftment of the area. The late Samar Bordoloi, one of the pioneer body builders of Assam, inspired and trained a number of teenagers and youths at the Tarajan Sanmilan premises in the 1980s.

"Where community gathers, culture lives on."

— Founding Charter, 1927 · প্ৰতিষ্ঠাপক গোচৰ