people would not have given a Sanskrit name to the invaders. Though Gait rejects both these explanations, he nevertheless asserts that the name is somehow associated with the Ahoms. George Grierson, Banikanta Kakati, and Dimbeswar Neog, also reject the Sanskrit origin of the name. Satyendra Nath Sharma accepts Banikanta Kakati's view in toto. Though both explanations have been rejected in the academic literature, the notion that the name Assam has a Sanskrit origin continues to hold sway in popular perceptions, due mainly to two standard dictionaries of Assamese: Hemkox and Chandrakanta Abhidhan. The Hemkox forwards the second theory, associating the name to the meaning "unequaled". A-Sham: from the name Sham Gait reports that some associated the name with the Shan who are called Syam by the Assamese, an explanation which he found not convincing. nevertheless Grierson has accepted that the 13th century natives of Assam called the Shan (Sham) invaders by this name. Dimbeswar Neog notes that the Indic prefix a- does not necessarily mean an antonym in Assamese and it could just be a synonym (e.g. kumari/akumari, bihane/abihane), a feature that is also seen in Sanskrit (sur/asur); therefore, Asham could mean the same as Sham, and the name could be derived as Sham () > Āshām () > Āsam () > Asam (). Amalendu Guha, too derives it from Sham; but instead of using an Indo-Aryan rule, derives it from the Bodo form, Ha-Sham, meaning the land of the Sham people. Masica too believes that Assam derives from an earlier attested form of asam, acam which in turn is from a Burmese corruption of the name Shan/Shyam. A-cham: from Tai derives the name from a Tai root, cham (defeated), with an Indic prefix for negation, a-, so that a-cham would mean undefeated. Notes References Assam Assam, Etymology of Assam, Etymology of Assam, Etymology of Cultural history of Assam