A History of Assam c10.36

c10.36

So far Nar Nārāyan had been everywhere successful. But it was now his turn to succumb to a stronger enemy than any he had yet encountered. This was the Padshah of Gaur. There is very little authentic information about the war, but according to the chronicles of the Koch kings, Nar Nārāyan was the aggressor. His army under Chilarai was defeated, and the latter himself was taken prisoner. The Muhamadans ascended the Brahmaputra as far as Tezpur, but they made no attempt to take permanent possession of the country, and returned to Bengal after demolishing the temples at Kāmākhya, Hājo and other places. All local traditions point to the redoubtable Brāhman renegade and iconoclast, Kālā Pāhār, as the leader of the Muhammadan army, and his name is so widely known in Assam as the destroyer of Hindu images and temples that it seems barely possible that there can be any mistake. Kālā Pāhār was the general of Sulaimān Kararāni, who ruled in Bengal from 1563 to 1572 A.D., and the invasion referred to in the local traditions is doubtless the same as that mentioned in the Riyāz-us-Salātin.∗ According to this authority, Sulaimān Kararāni set out for the conquest of the Koch kingdom in 1568 A.D. He had subjugated the outlying parts and was besieging the capital when he heard of an insurrection in Orissa, and so abandoned the siege. It is said in the local Buranjis that Chilarai was taken prisoner to Gaur. He was kept in captivity for some time, but, having gained the favour of the Padshah's wife, he eventually obtained his freedom and returned home. According to one account he married the Padshah's daughter, and received as her dowry the parganas of Bahirband, Bhitarband, Gayabāri, Sherpur and Daskaunia, *i.e.*, the riparian portions of Rangpur and North Mymensingh.