A History of Assam c14.127

c14.127

The Burmese at last induced Chandrakānt to believe that they had never meant to injure him, and had only set up Jogesvar because he refused to obey their summons to return. He went back but, on reaching Jorhat, he was seized and placed in confinement at Rangpur. About this time, owing to sickness and the great scarcity of provisions, Mingi Mahā Bandula returned to Burma with the bulk of his army, and a new governor was appointed to Assam, who soon brought about a marked improvement in the treatment of the inhabitants. Rapine and pillage were put a stop to, and no punishment was inflicted without a cause. Officers were again appointed to govern the country; a settled administration was established, and regular taxation took the place of unlimited extortion. The sands, however, had run out; and the Burmese were now to pay for their past oppression of the hapless Assamese, and for the insults which they had levelled at the British authorities on this frontier and elsewhere, especially in the direction of Chittagong, by the loss of the dominions which they had so easily conquered, and of which, for the moment, they seemed to have obtained undisputed possession. But before narrating their expulsion from the Province which they had well-nigh ruined, it is necessary to give some account of the Ahom state organization, and also a brief summary of the history of the Kachāri, Jaintia, and Manipuri kings and of the district of Sylhet which now forms part of Assam.