The Ahom dynasty (1228–1826) ruled
the Ahom kingdom in
present-day Assam,
India for nearly 598 years. The dynasty was
established by Sukaphaa,
a Shan prince
of Mong Mao who came
to Assam after crossing the Patkai mountains.
The rule of this dynasty ended with the Burmese
invasion of Assam and the subsequent annexation by the British
East India Company following the Treaty of Yandabo in
1826.
In external medieval chronicles the kings of this
dynasty were called Asam Raja, whereas the subjects of the kingdom
called them Chaopha (Chao-ruler, Pha-heaven),
or Swargadeo (the equivalent in Assamese).
The office of the Ahom king, was reserved exclusively for the
descendants of the first king Sukaphaa (1228–1268)
who came to Assam from Mong Mao in
1228. Succession was by agnatic
primogeniture. Nevertheless, following Rudra Singha's deathbed
injunction four of his five sons became the king one after the other. The
descendants of Sukaphaa were not eligible for ministerial positions—a division
of power that was followed till the end of the dynasty and the kingdom. When
the nobles asked Atan Burhagohain to
become the king, the Tai priests rejected the idea and he desisted from
ascending the throne.
The king could be appointed only with the concurrence
of the patra mantris (council of ministers—Burhagohain, Borgohain, Borpatrogohain, Borbarua and Borphukan).
During three periods in the 14th century, the kingdom had no kings when
acceptable candidates were not found. The ministers could remove unacceptable
kings, and it used to involve executing the erstwhile king.
The Ahom kings were given divine origin. According to
Ahom tradition, Sukaphaa was a descendant of Khunlung, the grandson of the king
of the heavens Leungdon, who had come down from the heavens and ruled
Mong-Ri-Mong-Ram. During the reign of Suhungmung (1497–1539)
which saw the composition of the first Assamese Buranji and
increased Hindu influence, the Ahom kings were traced to the union of Indra (identified
with Lengdon) and Syama (a low-caste woman), and were declared Indravamsa kshatriyas,
a lineage created exclusively for the Ahoms.[2] Suhungmung
adopted the title Swarganarayan, and the later kings were called
Swargadeo's (Lord of the heavens). It was during his reign that the Buranji titled Sri
Sri Swarganarayan Maharajor Jonmokotha was written wherein the source
and lineage of the Ahom kings was connected to the Hindu God, Indra, Lord of
the Heaven.
Dam-Phi (Dam: dead; Phi: god) is the worship of
ancestors as gods and it is performed either in individual households (Dam-Phi)
or publicly (Me-Dam-Me-Phi).
The dead in Ahom society becomes a Dam (literally, 'spirit of
the dead').[13] They
are held in awe (fear, wonder,
and reverence); worshipped and propitiated for protection.[14] After
the fourteenth generation a Dam becomes a god (Phi) and
is worshiped by the whole community.
The Ahoms migrated from present-day Myanmar to the
Brahmaputra valley in the 13th-century. They settled in with the locals
initially and created a new state; and in the 16th-century they vastly expanded
their power and territory by occupying the Chutiya kingdom in
Upper Assam, removing the Baro-Bhuyan confederacy
in Nagaon and Darrang,and pushing the Dimasa kingdom further
south. As the kingdom pushed west it came under attack from Turkic and Afghan
rulers; and on one occasion the Ahoms general Ton Kham Borgohain pursued
retreating invaders through a nascent Koch kingdom and
reached the Karatoya river—and since then they began to see themselves as the
rightful heir of the erstwhile Kamarupa kingdom.
From the beginning the relationship between the Ahoms and
the Mughals was
hostile and that was due to certain factors, such as, Mughal alliance
with Koch
Bihar, the western enemy of the Ahoms and secondly the
growing advance of the Mughals in north-eastern frontier which alarmed them.
While the Mughals supported Lakshminarayan, son of Nara Narayan of
Koch Behar, the Ahom king Sukhaamphaa (1552–1603)
entered into alliance by marrying the daughter of Lakshminarayan's cousin Raghudeva, the son of Chilarai who
became the ruler of the eastern part of the kingdom, Koch Hajo which
approximately included the modern districts of Goalpara, Barpeta, Kamrup, Darrang and
a part of Sonitpur (up
to Bharali). This
dynastic alliance between Ahom and Koch was renewed afterwards by the next Ahom
king Susenghphaa (Pratap
Singha, 1603-1641) who married a daughter of Raja Parikshit. It is true that
with a view to satisfy the territorial ambitions of his own nephew, Nar Narayan
allowed partition of his kingdom. But unfortunately, in spite of being
pacified, Raghudeva and his successors remained all along hostile towards the
Koch royal house and this rivalry and antagonism between these two frontier
states invited intervention and aggression of their two mighty neighbourhood
powers: the Mughals on the west and Ahoms on the east.
From the time the Mughals appeared in the north-eastern frontier, a
state of indirect rivalry and hostility began between the Mughals and the
Ahoms. After the final defeat of Parikshit (1613) the first organised Mughal
attack upon Assam was made
with a view to conquer that kingdom. It was the outcome of the aggressive
imperialism of the Mughals. "A desire for political supremacy and
territorial expansion appears to have been the guiding motives of the
Mughals." Boundary
disputes and the trade rivalries appear to have complicated the
situation and political issues precipitated the conflict. After the extinction
of the Kamrup monarchy, the Mughals came to regard the territory east
of Barnadi up to Singiri as part of the conquered region and
hence asserted their political right over it. Ahoms strongly resented this
claim. "Moreover the rich natural resources of the Assam valley and the
prosperous kingdom of Kamrup in lower Brahmaputra valley,
abounding in elephants and
aromatic plants excited the cupidity of the Mughals and they were determined to
force open the door of Assam."[1]
The first organised open encounter with the Ahom kingdom was the
well-deserved punishment meted out by the Ahom government to an unauthorised
trader from Mughal India named Ratan Singh. His illicit trade was detected, his
goods were confiscated and he was expelled from Assam. The Mughals got the
necessary pretext for war and
an imperial army was at once detached in 1615 under the command of Abu Bakr
and Raja Satrajit of Bhusna. The imperial army advanced towards Barnagar, the
old capital of Kamrup and next moved to Hajo and numerous outposts were raised
in the surrounding region. In November 1615, Abu Bakr suddenly fell upon
Kajali, the Ahom frontier post on the southwest. After a short skirmish, the
Ahoms were defeated and leaving their war boats and the fort, they fled.
Flushed with easy success the Mughals indulged in a series of aggressive
measures against the Ahoms. The Ahom king then fortified the fort of Samdhara with a view to check the advance of
the Mughals. Meanwhile, the Mughals had reached the confluence of the
Brahmaputra and the Bharali facing
Samdhara. After a month of inaction, the Mughals achieved a great triumph. They
transported their horses across the Bharali and made a violent assault on the
Ahom stockade on the left bank. The Ahoms thus suffered another discomfiture.
The Ahom king sent a strong detachment to the Ahom commanders at Samdhara and
exhorted them to fall on the enemy and fight to finish. The Ahoms gained an
initial success and reoccupied the stockade at the mouth of Bharali. The
imperialists were taken by complete surprise and suffered heavy casualties.
Thus in spite of the initial success, the maiden attempt of the Mughals upon
Assam ended in a disastrous failure. They suffered a colossal loss in men and
money besides military prestige.[2]
After the first disastrous failure in Assam, the Mughals henceforth
continued to follow a defensive and conciliatory policy in regards to the Assam
state. Because of their heavy engagement in Kamrup, the Mughals henceforward
were very cautious not to offend their mighty neighbour. But the Ahoms being encouraged
at their recent brilliant success continued to pursue hostile policy against
the Mughals and proceeded to take advantage of the prevailing political
confusion in Kamrup. The Assam disaster encouraged seditions and rebellions in
Mughal occupied Kamrup. The Ahoms encouraged the Kamrup rebels and thereby
caused hardship to the Mughals. There was hardly any open and direct conflict
between the two powers as such. In the year 1618 CE the Ahom king Pratap Singha installed
Balinarayan, the brother of Parikshit as King of Darrang, stationed 3000 Chutia troops at
Mangaldai[3] and continued
to help him for some time to reoccupy Kamrup. But in spite of Ahom king's
material assistance, Balinarayan ultimately failed to reconquer Kamrup. The
Ahoms interfered in Kamrup for the third time on behalf of the hill chiefs of
Dhanikal in 1619. The hill chiefs being sick of Mughal subjection made a bold
attempt to seize the hill fort of Ranihat and they sought the help of the Ahom king.
The Ahom responded to the appeal and sent a large detachment to their
assistance. After hard fighting, the Mughals courted defeat and were compelled
to evacuate Ranihat hotly pursued by the Ahoms.
The reign of Shah
Jahan (1628–1655) marks a new epoch in Ahom-Mughal relations…
the asylum given by the Ahom king to the hill-chiefs of Dhanikal who had sought
his protection against the ill-treatment of the Bengal Subahdar Qasim
Khan Chishti. The second factor, which precipitated the crisis, was
the wickedness and treachery of Satrajit, the Thanadar of Pandu who made a common cause with
Balinarayan and instigated him to take advantage of the change of governor in
Bengal in order to attack Kamrup. The invasion of Kamrup by Balinarayan
compelled the Mughals to resort to arms. The Ahoms gained initial success. A
fierce encounter took place, which ultimately ended with the total discomfiture
of the imperialists. Thereupon, the Mughal fell back to their frontier post of
Hajo. The Ahoms laid siege to
Hajo and fighting continued for some time. At last both sides having been
thoroughly worn out, the fighting was stopped for some time.
The Ahom-Mughal conflict started afresh towards the end of December
1636. The Mughals entered Kamrup proper. The decisive defeat inflicted by the
imperialists on Balinarayan and the Ahoms in November 1637 turned the tide of
fortune in favour of imperialists. The whole of Kamrup was cleared and
re-annexed to the Pan-Mughalia. The third round of conflict began soon. The
imperialists advanced up the Brahmaputra and halted opposite to Samdhara in
October 1638; severe fighting ensued. Although the faint-hearted Ahom admiral
retired from battlefield, the garrison in the fort of Samdhara offered such a
gallant defence that the Mughals had to give up the contest with great loss of
men and materials.[4]
Both sides became eager for peace. Hence a treaty of peace was signed
in February 1639. According to the Treaty
of Asurar Ali between the Ahom general Momai Tamuli Borbarua,
and the Mughal commander Allah Yar Khan, western Assam commencing from Gauhati passed
into the hands of Mughals.[5] The Ahom
king, for the first time, acknowledged formally the Mughal overlordship in
Kamrup, the Mughals acknowledged the independence of the Ahom king and gave up
all pretensions to the territories east of Barnadi on the north and Kalang on the
south and the Ahom king agreed not to interfere in Kamrup. Besides trade and
commercial intercourses were resumed.[6][7]
The Ahom-Mughal relation following the peace of 1639 was far from
satisfactory. However, it would be wrong to assume that both sides strictly
honoured the peace treaty of 1639. The keynote of the political history of this
period is the endless criminations and recriminations of the Mughals and the
Assamese on various rounds, such as, 'Kheda' operations, trade and commercial
intercourse, boundary disputes, extradition of
political offenders, and violation of personal liberty and privileges of the
subject people. On these issues frictions continued mounting without, of
course, any open armed-clash. It was really a period of armed peace between the
Mughals and the Ahoms.
In 1648, the Mughal Faujdar of Gauhati sent a message
of congratulations to the Ahom king Jayadhwaj (Sutamla)
on his succession. But, Jayadhwaj Singha (1648–1663), taking advantage of the
emperor Shah Jahan's illness and the war of succession, expelled the Mughals
from Gauhati, and chased them down beyond the river Manaha (Manas). He
also devastated the territory near Dacca and
carried off to Assam a large number of Mughal subjects as captives.
Aurangzeb after
ascending on the throne of Delhi ordered Mir Jumla to
invade Cooch Behar and Assam and re-establish Mughal prestige in eastern India.
After having occupied Koch Behar had also declared its independence. Mir Jumla
entered Assam in the beginning of 1662. He easily repulsed the feeble
resistance offered by the Assamese at the garrisons between Manaha and Guwahati. He
occupied one garrison after another, and Pandu, Guwahati, and Kajali fell into
the hands of the Mughals practically unopposed.
The easy success of Mir Jumla was due to dissatisfaction in the
Assam camp. The leading commanders and the officers were the exclusive
monopolies of the Tai-Ahom. But. King Jayadhwaj Singha had appointed a Kayastha as
viceroy of Western Assam and commander-in-chief of
the Ahom army despatch against Mir Jumla leading to resentment among the ranks.
This officer was Manthir Bharali Barua of Bejdoloi family. He was also
appointed Parbatia Phukan. This appointment caused bitter resentment among
the hereditary Ahom nobles and commanders and the resistance which they offered
to the invaders was neither worthy of the efficient military organisation of
the Ahoms nor of the reputation which they acquired by repeated success in
their enterprises against foreigners, and Mir Jumla's march into Assam was an
uninterrupted series of triumph and victories through the real secret of his
success, namely, defection in Ahom camp, which has not been touched upon by any
historian of the expedition.
The Ahoms, however, recovered their senses when the
hostile force reached the neighbourhood of Kaliabor. They concentrated their
defence at Simalugarh and Samdhara. In February 1662, Mir Jumla laid siege to
Simalugarh and after the severe hand-to-hand fight, the Ahoms abandoned the
fort and took to flight. The Ahom forces at Samdhara on the opposite bank,
being unnerved by the fall of Simalugarh, left their charge without any
opposition worth the name. After this brilliant success, Mir Jumla entered the
Ahom capital Garhgaon on 17 March 1662. The Ahom king Jayadhwaj took shelter in
the eastern hills abandoning his capital and all his treasures. Immense spoils
fell into the hands of the Mughal
Empire – 82 elephants, about 300,000 coins in gold and
silver, 675 big guns, about 4750 maunds of gunpowder in
boxes, 7828 shields,
1000 odd ships, and 173 stores of rice.
But, Mir Jumla conquered only the soil of Ahom
capital and neither the king nor the country. The rainy season was
fast approaching and so Mir Jumla halted there and made necessary arrangements
for holding the conquered land. Communications with the imperial fleet at
Lakhau as well as with Dacca were
arranged. But the torrential rain and violence of the rivers caused immense
hardship to the Mughals and the communication with the Mughal fleet and Lakhau
and with Dacca became completely disrupted.
The Ahoms took the fullest advantage of the unspeakable
hardship of the Mughals. With the progress of monsoon, the
Ahoms easily recovered all the country east of Lakhau. Only Garhgaon and Mathurapur remained in the
possession of Mughals. The Ahoms were not slow to take advantages of the
miserable plight of the Mughals. The Ahom king came out of his refuge and
ordered his commanders to expel the invaders from his kingdom. A serious
epidemic broke out in the Mughal camp at Mathurapur, which took away the lives
of hundreds of Mughal soldiers. There was no suitable diet or comfort in the
Mughal camp. At last life became unbearable at Mathurapur and hence the Mughals
abandoned it.[10]
By the end of September, the worst was over.
The rains decreased,
and flood went
down, roads reappeared and communications became easier. The contact with the
Mughal fleet at Lakhau was restored which cheered the long-suffering Mughal
garrison. The Mughal army under Mir Jumla joined the fleet at Devalgaon. The Ahom king Jayadhwaj Singha took
refuge in hill again. But in December, Mir Jumla fell seriously ill and the
soldiers refused to advance any further. Meanwhile, the Ahom king became
extremely anxious for peace. At last a treaty was concluded at Ghilajharighat in January 1663, according to
which the Ahoms ceded western Assam to the Mughals, promised a war indemnity of
three lakhs of rupees and
ninety elephants. Besides, the king had to deliver his only child and daughter
Ramani Gabharu, as well as his niece, the daughter of the Tipam Raja to the
harem of the Mughal emperor. Thus, according to the treaty Jayadhwaj Singha
transferred Kamrup to the possession of the Mughals and promised to pay a heavy
war indemnity.[11][12]
The question of prompt payment of war indemnity of
elephants and cash became a source of friction between the Ahoms and the
Mughals. The
first installment was paid by Jayadhwaj promptly. But as soon as Mir Jumla
withdrew from Assam the Ahoms began to default. Jayadhwaj Singha's
successor Chakradhwaj
Singha (Supangmung,
1663-1670) was against any payment at all on principle. He shouted out from his
throne: – "Death is preferable to a life of subordination to
foreigners". In 1665 the king summoned an assembly of his ministers and nobles and
ordered them to adopt measures for expelling the Mughals from western Assam,
adding—"My ancestors were never subordinate to any other people; and I for
myself cannot remain under the vassalage of any foreign power. I am a
descendant of the Heavenly King and how can I pay tribute to the wretched
foreigners."
A large portion of the war indemnity still remained undelivered for
which the Ahom king had to receive threatening letters from Syed Firoz Khan, the new Faujdar at
Guwahati On receiving Firoz Khan's letter the Ahom king made up his mind
to fight.[19] On
Thursday, Bhadra 3, 1589 saka near aboutAugust 20, 1667, the
Ahom army started from the capital and sailed down the Brahmaputra in two
divisions. They encamped at Kaliabor, the Vice
Regal headquarters, from where they conducted their war operations against the
Mughals. Syed Firoz Khan, the imperial governor of Guwahati and his army were
not prepared for such an eventuality, with the result that the Ahoms gained a
series of victories over the enemy. The Ahom army on the south bank was
successful in their fighting. Their chief objective was the capture of Itakhuli which is
a small hill on the south bank of the Brahmaputra at Guwahati. On 2 November
1667, Itakhuli and the
contiguous garrison of Guwahati fell into the hands of the Ahoms. The enemy
was chased down to the mouth of the Manaha river, the old boundary between
Assam and Mughal India. The Ahom also succeeded in bringing back the
Assamese subjects who had previously been taken as captives by the Mughals
during the expedition of Mir Jumla. Thus within the short span of two months
the Ahoms succeeded their lost possession and along with it their lost prestige
and glory, this was due to the determination and courage of Ahom king Chakradhwaj
Singha. On receiving the news of victory the king cried
out-"It is now that I can eat my morsel of food with ease and
pleasure". The success of the Ahoms in recovering possession of Guwahati
and western Assam forms a momentous chapter in the history of their conflicts
with the Mughals.
In December 1667, the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb
received intelligence of the capture of Guwahati by the Ahoms, and he at once
resolved to dispatch a strong army to reestablish Mughal prestige in North-East
frontier. He commissioned Raja Ramsingh
I of Amber, son of
the distinguished general Mirza-Raja Jai Singh I, to
lead an invasion of Assam. He was accompanied by Rashid Khan, the ex-Faujdar of
Guwahati. Ram Singha reached the frontier garrison of Rangamati in February
1669. On Ram Singha's arrival at Rangamati, the
Ahom commanders stationed at Manaha attempted to oppose the advance of the
enemy. There were few skirmishes, but the Assamese could not attain any
success.[22] The
Assamese were not prepared for such an eventuality and they left their frontier
garrisons and sailed down to Guwahati.
Also, the Ahoms had not quite completed their
preparations for resisting Ramsingh
I’s advance. Lachit Borphukan,
the commander-in-chief of the Ahom camp had realized fully that postponement of
the open encounter would enable him to bring his preparations to perfection in
the light of the enemy’s superior strength. Lachit Borphukan sent the following
message to Ram Singh "Tell Raja Ram Singh that we want to know why he has
come to our country." Firoz Khan, ex-Fauzadar of Guwahatii, now a prisoner
of the Ahoms, was released and Lachit Barphukan sent him to Raja Ram Singh with
the above message. Ram Singh demanded through Firoz Khan the restoration of
the limit fixed in 1639 between Allah Yar Khan and Momai Tamuli Borbarua. By
the time he received this reply Barphukan would rather fight than yield an inch
of the territory which providence had given to his master.
The result was that in the first two battles of the
campaign were fought near Tezpur in
the beginning of April 1669. The Ahoms were worsted on both occasions, but they
gained a naval battle, and soon afterwards repulsed the Muhammadans and Ram
Singha was compelled to retire to Hajo where he quarreled with Rashid Khan.
Eventually, Ram Singha cut his tent ropes and ordered him out of the
camp. Soon afterwards the Muhammadans were again defeated near Sualkuchi, both
on land and water.
At this juncture, Ramsingh I challenged Chakradhwaj
Singha to single combat, and undertook, if he were
defeated, to return with the army to Bengal. The Ahom king declined the
invitation, and ordered his generals to renew their attack. They did so, and
won another double engagement near Sessa. They followed up this
success by taking the fort at Agiathuti, but soon afterwards Ram Singha
attacked the Ahom army and routed it, inflicting heavy loss. The Barphukan
hurried up with reinforcements, but his flank was tired and he was obliged to
retreat with loss of his ships. Raja Ram Singha now opened negotiations for
peace. The Ahoms were also tired of the war, and hostilities were suspended for
a time. Sporadic engagement accompanied by proposals of peace continued
during 1669 and 1670. From October 1669 to March 1670, Ram Singha withdrew
himself from the fight.
In the meantime Ramsingh I sent
a letter to the Barphukan inviting the king of Assam to fight a duel in the
presence of the two hostile armies. But the Ahom king dismissed the insolent
challenge by simply saying—"Ram Singha is a mere servant and he has no
umbrella over his head. So I do not like to fight a duel with such a
man." Chakradhvaj Singha could not hold his patience any longer. In
the meantime, the Mughal had then concentrated their army near Alaboi Hill in
the vicinity of Dalibari. A terrible contest ensued on the plains
to the south of the Alaboi Hill. The Ahoms were badly defeated in that battle. The
massacre at Alaboi had terribly upset Lachit Barphukan. Though the Alaboi
massacre meant a serious loss to the Ahoms, it did not confer upon the enemy
any decisive advantage.
But Ram Singha repeated his demands for the evacuation of Guwahati
and reversion to the status quo ante of the year 1639. The
Barphukan remained firm in the position he had previously maintained. So war
was inevitable between the two parties. But when the war was taking a more
critical turn, Chakradhwaj
Singha, the king of Assam died in April 1670. He was succeeded by
his brother Udayaditya
Singha (Sunyatphaa, 1670-1672)
Although the negotiations with the Mughals continued, but Ram
Singha suspecting the sincerity of the Barphukan returned to attack. Udayaditya
renewed the war and ordered the Barphukan to march with 20,000 men from
Samdhara to Saraighat. The Ahoms were successful on land but their navy was
forced to retreat. Barphukan arrived with more ships and Mughal army was beaten
and the Ahoms also gained a second land victory. The Mughals could not stand
the dash and fury of the Assamese onset. The Assamese were fighting for their
life and liberty, and the Mughals for the mere luxury of triumph and
territorial expansion. The Barphukan intended to chase them further still, but
he was dissuaded by Achyutanda Doloi. The combat came to an end, and it was a
decisive victory for the Assamese.[34][35] This
battle is known in history as the Battle
of Saraighat. Ram Singha weakened by the repeated losses
retreated to Rangamati in March 1671. Hadira opposite to Goalpara became the
Ahom frontier outpost. Thus Mughals were evicted from Kamrup, strong
fortifications were constructed at Guwahati. Thus Ahoms remained in undisturbed
possession of their territories till 1679 A.D
In 1679, during the reign of Sudoiphaa or Parvatiya Raja, Laluk
Barphukan, the Ahom viceroy of Gauhati, and his brother entered into a
conspiracy and invited Muhammad
Azam Shah, the then Nawab of Bengal (married
to his niece Ramani
Gabharu), to take possession of the fort at Saraighat. Accordingly,
in March Laluk Sola made over Gauhati to the Mughals in return for a promised
reward of four lakhs of rupees and an assurance to support Laluk's candidature
for the throne of Assam.
In 1681, Gadapani was
formally installed as sovereign of Assam under the name Gadadhar Singha
(Supaatphaa, 1681-1696). His first act after taking reign was the dispatch of
an army against Mansur
Khan, which succeeded in recovering Gauhati in August 1682
after a decisive encounter at Itakhuli. The Ahoms expelled Mansur Khan from
Gauhati and re-established their possession over the territories extending up
to the river Manaha (Manas). Thus, Manaha (river Manas) became once more
the western boundary of Assam and it remained as such till the occupation of
the western Assam by the British in
the year 1824.
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