A History of Assam c12.131

c12.131

Mir Jumlah was accompanied on his invasion of Assam by a writer named Shihabuddin who detailed account of the expedition and gave a very full description of the people and the country. This contemporaneous account by a foreign observer, albeit a somewhat critical one, is of special interest, as it mentions many matters on which the indigenous records are silent. It is accordingly reproduced below.† "Assam is a wild and dreadful country, abounding in danger. It lies north-east of the province of Bengal. The river Brahmaputra flows through it from the east towards the west. The length of Assam from west to east, Gauhāti to Sadiya, is about 200 kos; its breadth, north to south, from the hills of the Gāros,* Miris, Mishmis, Daflas, and Lāndahs* to those of the Nāga tribe is seven or eight days journey at a guess. Its southern mountains touch lengthwise the hilly region of Khāsia, Kachhar and Gonasher* and breadthwise the hills inhabited by the Nāga tribe......The land on the north bank of the Brahmaputra is called Uttarkol, and on the southern bank Dakhinkol. Uttarkol stretches from Gauhāti to the home of the Miri and Mishmi tribes, and Dakhinkol from the kingdom of the Nāk-kāti Rāni to the village of Sadiya....From Koliābar to Garhgāon houses and orchards full of fruit trees stretch in an unbroken line; and on both sides of the road, shady bamboo groves raise their heads to the sky. Many varieties of sweet-scented wild and garden flowers bloom here, and from the rear of the bamboo groves up to the foot of the hills there are cultivated fields and gardens. From Lakhugarh to Garhgāon, also, there are roads, houses and farms in the same style; and a lofty and wide embanked road has been constructed up to Garhgāon for traffic.