A History of Assam c14.66

c14.66

Gaurināth was the most incompetent, blood-thirsty, His disreputable and cowardly of all the Ahom kings. He was character. described by Captain Welsh as "a poor debilitated man, incapable of transacting business, always either washing or praying, and, when seen, intoxicated with opium." His vindictive treatment of the Moāmariās and other enemies has already been mentioned. But the stimulus of hatred or revenge was not needed to induce him to perpetrate the grossest barbarities; he would frequently do so from the sheer love of inflicting suffering on others, and he never moved out without a body of executioners ready to carry out his sanguinary orders. Many stories are told which reveal his cruel and brutal nature, but a single instance will suffice. One of his servants having inadvertently answered a question intended for another, he instantly caused him to be seized, his eyeballs to be extracted, and his ears and nose to be cut off. Gaurināth neglected entirely the duties of his kingly office, which he left to his intriguing and corrupt favourites. These were stigmatized by Captain Welsh as "a set of villains, all drawing different ways." It was probably the vices and excesses of the king and his parasites, quite as much as the physical and moral deterioration of the people, that led to the ignominious overthrow of his government by the Moāmariā rabble. The signal success of Captain Welsh's small force, ably handled though it was, clearly shows what contemptible foes the Moāmariās really were; and it is impossible to believe that the Ahoms, much as they may have degenerated, would have been unable to repel them, had they presented a united front, instead of being distracted by jealousy and mutual distrust, and had not their loyalty been sapped by the brutal excesses of the inhuman monster, who called himself their king, and of his equally infamous ministers.