Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s6.23.6

c48.s6.23.6

They are said in the ancient Assam histories to have come down from the north-east, and to have founded a kingdom in that corner of the valley afterwards expanding southwards into Sibsāgar and Nowgong. They came into contact with the Āhōm, and were dethroned in 1500. Before that date they were in part Brahmanised, and their community is now divided into the Brahmanic, the Āhōm, the Borāhī, or porkeaters, and the Dēōrī, or Levitical body. The two first have been for some time almost completely converted to Brāhmanism, and the fourth, though standing out for some generations, has now succumbed, on social considerations, it is said, rather than by religious conviction. The Borāhī are a lower class and were the first to fall before the Āhōm, who reduced them to a servile condition. They are now apparently almost extinct as a separate community. The Cūtiyā have lost, along with their religion, their tribal language, which is closely allied to that of the Bōdo. They are no doubt of the same origin, but have long been separated politically as well as geographically, and occupied in upper Assam the same dominant position which the Bōdo held lower down the river. At present the majority of the Cūtiyā are found to the south of the Brahmaputra, in Sibsāgar, Nowgong, and Lakhimpur. The Dēōrī have remained in and about their original seat in the extreme north-east.