A History of Assam c14.67

c14.67

During his reign the people, who had hitherto enjoyed a fair measure of happiness and prosperity, were plunged into the depths of misery and despair. Where the Moāmariās held sway, whole villages were destroyed, and the inhabitants, robbed of all their possessions, were forced to flee the country, or to eke out a precarious existence by eating wild fruits and roots and the flesh of unclean animals. The country between Dergāon and Rangpur, once so highly cultivated, was found desolate by Captain Welsh, and many large villages had been entirely deserted by their inhabitants.* In Lower Assam the Bengal mercenaries and gangs of marauding banditti who flocked into the province caused similar, though less widespread, havoc, while where Gaurināth himself had power, all persons belonging to the Moāmariā communion were subjected to all manner of persecutions and barbarities.