A History of Assam c15.s1.22

c15.s1.22

The kings' Hindu names were often the Assamese equivalents of those given them by the Deodhāis. Gadādhar Singh was so called because *gadā* is the Assamese translation of the Ahom *pāt*; and Rudra Singh, because *rudra* in Assamese corresponds to *khrung* in Ahom. It has been suggested that the first syllable (*Su*) is the same as the Shān *Chāo*, meaning great, and ought to be written *Chu*. This, however, does not appear to be the case. The word *Chāo* also means "great" or "God" (Deb) in Ahom, and it is frequently used in addition to the regular prefix *Su*; Sunenphā, for instance, is described as Chāo Sunenphā on his coins. In this connection it may be mentioned that the Assamese title *Svargadeb* is the equivalent of the Ahom and Shān Chāo-phā, which is also the origin of the Burmese term *tsaubwa*. The word Gohāin, the title of the original three great officers of state, is also a translation of the Ahom *Chāo*. In the first instance, the word was Gosāin, but the Ahoms pronounced the *s* as *h*, and the spelling was altered accordingly. The Bar Gohāin was known in Ahom as Chāothāolung (God-old-great), the Burhā Gohāin, as Chāophrāngmung (God-wide-country) and the Barpātra Gohāin as Chāosenglung (God-holy-great).* The Bar Barua was known to the Ahoms as Phukenlung (male-noble-great) and the Bar Phukan as Phukanlung (male-origin-great).