The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c19.40

v4.c19.40

The first great war of Aurangzīb's reign was the invasion of Assam. Early in the sixteenth century a Mongoloid soldier of fortune had founded a kingdom in Cooch Behār, north of Bengal. Lakshmī Nārāyan, the third king of this dynasty (r. 1584–1622), had professed allegiance to Akbar. A younger branch of the family had been installed over its eastern districts or Kāmrūp, i.e. the country between the Sankosh and Bar Nadī rivers, which the Muslim writers called Kuch Hājo. In 1612, taking advantage of a contest between the two branches, the Mughuls conquered and annexed Kuch Hājo, but this brought them into collision with the Āhoms. These Āhoms were a branch of the Shān race, who had crossed the Pātkai range in the thirteenth century and established a kingdom of their own over eastern and central Assam. They were a hardy race of demon-worshippers, expert in building stockades, plying boats, and making night attacks. Their society was organised on a feudal basis, under a number of official nobles, who cultivated their estates by slave labour. Their army consisted entirely of infantry, stiffened with elephants; but during their wars with Bengal they had learnt the use of firearms. Their king was the patriarch of the clan and was venerated as a semi-divine being. After much desultory fighting with the Mughuls of Kuch Hājo, the Āhom king made peace in 1638, recognising the boundary line of the Bar Nadī.