Nagaon, Dec. 23: Assamese scholar and historian Sarbeswar Rajguru passed away at his residence here this morning. He was 79.

Born in 1923 at Charing Garkasharia village in Sivasagar district, Rajguru did his post-graduation in Assamese literature from Gauhati University and then obtained a diploma in phonetics, phonemics and linguistics from University of Pune.

Earlier, he got admission to the Kanchi Hindu University in philosophy but could not continue his studies due to financial problems. Rajguru served in various schools as a teacher, including at the Sankardev Seminary in Jorhat in Upper Assam and then joined Bajali College.

Later, he joined Nowgong College from where he superannuated in 1986.

He did his PhD on “medieval Assamese society, 1228-1826” in 1967 under the guidance of Prafulla Dutta Goswami. His thesis was praised by Nihar Ranjan Roy of Calcutta University and A.L. Basham of London University.

Rajguru’s literary works include Buraeejir Kahini and Asomiya Samaj aru Sanskriti. He was working on the book Asomiya Prabad (Assamese proverbs) at the time of his death. The work, in three volumes, is yet to be released.