A History of Assam c16: Chapter X
A History of Assam c16
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Chapter X
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The Kachāris may perhaps be described as the aborigines, or earliest known inhabitants, of the Brahmaputra valley. They are identical with the people called Mech in Goālpāra and North Bengal. These are the names given to them by outsiders. In the Brahmaputra valley the Kachāris call themselves Bodo or Bodo fisā (sons of the Bodo). In the North Cachar Hills they call themselves Dimāsā, a corruption of Dimā fisā or “sons of the great river.” They were known to the Ahoms as Timisā, clearly a corruption of Dimāsā, so that this name must have been in use when they were still in the Dhansiri valley.
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The origin of the word Kachāri (the first *a* is short in Assamese and long in Bengali) is difficult to trace, but it may be mentioned that, according to the Limbu legend of creation given by Risley in the *Tribes and Castes of Bengal*, one of the two progenitors of the human race settled in the Khachar country, which is the name given by the Nepalese to the tract at the foot of the hills between the Brahmaputra and Kosi rivers, and there became the father of the Koch, Mech and Dhimāl tribes. If Khachar was an early home of the Mech,* or the head-quarters of a powerful Mech dynasty, the members of the tribe in Assam may well have been called Khachāris or Kachāris; the omission of the aspirate is a common occurrence in words borrowed from Bengali or Assamese. The word Khachar is derived from a Sanskrit word meaning a “bordering region.” The district of Cachar may have got its name directly from this word, or it may have been so-called after its principal tribe. In any case it is certain that the Kachāris did not get their name from Cachar. They are known by that name in many parts far removed from Cachar, and were so called long before a section of the tribe took possession of that district. The earliest use of the word in their own records, with which I am acquainted, is in a letter of appointment by Raja Kirti Chandra, dated 1658 Sak, in which the "Kachārir Niyam," or the practice of the Kachāris, is referred to.
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∗ They must have come originally, as we have already seen, from the north-east, but the movement westwards would not necessarily be continuous and, at times, after a strong flow, there may easily have been an ebb.
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The Kachāris are believed to be very closely allied to the Koches, and also, so far at least as language is concerned, to the Chutiyas, Lālungs and Morāns of the Brahmaputra valley, and to the Gāros and Tipperas of the southern hills. Having regard to their wide distribution, and to the extent of country over which Bodo languages of a very uniform type are still current, it seems not improbable that at one time the major part of Assam and North-East Bengal formed a great Bodo kingdom, and that some, at least, of the Mlechchha kings mentioned in the old copper-plate inscriptions belonged to the Kachāri or some closely allied tribe.
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Dearth of trustworthy information. There are no written records of Kachāri rule, and the traditions current amongst the people consist of little more than long lists of kings, on the accuracy of which it is impossible to rely. According to Fisher the Kachāris of North Cachar believe that they once ruled in Kāmarupa, and their royal family traced its descent from Rajas of that country, of the line of Hā-tsung-tsā. The only trustworthy information regarding their past history is contained in the Buranjis which deal primarily with the history of the Ahoms. The details which they contain are, however, almost entirely confined to a narrative of the wars which were waged between the two nations. These have already been described in the chapters on Ahom rule, and will be referred to only briefly here.
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Position in 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. In the thirteenth century it would seem that the Kachāri kingdom extended along the south bank of the Brahmaputra, from the Dikhu to the Kallang, or beyond, and included also the valley of the Dhansiri and the tract which now forms the North Cachar subdivision. At that time, the country further west, though largely inhabited by Kachāris, appears to have formed part of the Hindu kingdom of Kāmatā. Towards the end of this century, it is narrated that the outlying Kachāri settlements east of the Dikhu river the *Gesta Romanorum*, the *Legenda Aurea* of Jacobus de Voragine, and the *Speculum Historiale* of Vincent of Beauvais. These were the books that fed the imagination of the Middle Ages, and they were the books that the Church, in its wisdom, provided for the instruction and edification of the faithful.
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But the Church did not merely provide books; it also provided the means of their dissemination. The monastic scriptoria, where monks labored in silence to copy the sacred texts, were the precursors of the printing press. And when the press finally arrived, it was the Church that first harnessed its power, using it to spread the word of God to the corners of the earth. The Gutenberg Bible, the first major book printed in Europe, was a testament to the Church's commitment to the written word.
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Yet, even as the Church championed the spread of knowledge, it also sought to control it. The *Index Librorum Prohibitorum*, or List of Prohibited Books, was a tool used by the Church to suppress ideas it deemed dangerous or heretical. This tension between the desire to educate and the need to control would define the Church's relationship with literature for centuries to come.
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It is a complex history, one that is marked by both enlightenment and suppression. But it is a history that cannot be ignored, for it is the history of the very foundation of Western civilization. The Church, in its role as the guardian of knowledge, has shaped the way we think, the way we write, and the way we understand the world around us.
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DIMAPUR ON DUNSIRI RY. ASSAM.
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CARVED PILLARS DIMAPUR
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withdrew before the advance of the Ahoms. For a hundred years, this river appears to have formed the boundary between the two nations, and no hostilities between them are recorded until 1490, when a battle was fought on its banks. The Ahoms were defeated and were forced to sue for peace. But their power was rapidly growing, and during the next thirty years, in spite of this defeat, they gradually thrust the Kachāri boundary back to the Dhansiri river.*
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When war again broke out, in 1526, the neighbourhood of this river was the scene of two battles: the Kachāris were victorious in the first but suffered a crushing defeat in the second. Hostilities were renewed in 1531, and a collision occurred in the south of what is now the Golāghāt subdivision, in which the Kachāris were defeated and Detcha, the brother of their king, was slain. The Ahoms followed up their victory and, ascending the Dhansiri, penetrated as far as the Kachāri capital at Dimāpur on the Dhansiri, forty-five miles south of Golāghāt. Khunkhara, the Kachāri king, became a fugitive, and a relative named Detsung was set up by the victors in his stead.
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In 1536 Detsung quarrelled with the Ahoms, who again ascended the Dhansiri and sacked Dimāpur. Detsung fled, but was followed, captured and put to death. After this invasion, the Kachāris deserted Dimāpur and the valley of the Dhansiri, and, retreating further south, established a new capital at Maibong.
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The ruins of Dimāpur, which are still in existence, show that, at that period, the Kachāris had attained a state of civilization considerably in advance of that of the Ahoms. The use of brick for building purposes was then practically unknown to the Ahoms, and all their buildings were of timber or bamboo, with mud-plastered walls. Dimāpur, on the other hand, was surrounded on three sides by a brick wall of the aggregate length of nearly two miles, while the fourth or southern side was bounded by the Dhansiri river.* On the eastern side was a fine solid brick gateway, with a pointed arch and stones pierced to receive the hinges of double heavy doors. It was flanked by octagonal turrets of solid brick, and the intervening distance to the central archway was relieved by false windows of ornamental moulded brick-work. The curved battlement of the gateway, as well as the pointed arch over the entrance, point distinctly to the Bengali style of Muhammadan architecture. In this connection it will be remembered that, when the Ahom king Rudra Singh determined to erect brick buildings at Rangpur, he called in an artisan from Bengal to direct the operations. The excellence of the mortar is shown by the fact that, although the building has evidently been shaken on various occasions by earthquakes, it is still in a good state of preservation. Inside the enclosure (which has not yet been fully explored) are some ruins of a temple, or perhaps a market-place, the most notable feature of which is a double row of carved pillars of sandstone, averaging about 12 feet in height and 5 feet in circumference. There are also some curious V-shaped pillars which are apparently memorial stones. The nearest point at which the sandstone for these pillars could have been quarried is at least ten miles distant. It seems probable that the blocks of sandstone were brought and set up in the rough, and then carved *in situ*; otherwise they would have been much damaged in the process of erection. No two are precisely alike in the ornamentation, but all are of one general form, having large semi-circular tops, with concentric foliated carving below on the shaft. There are representations of the elephant, deer, dog, duck and peacock, but nowhere is there a human form or head. The inference seems to be that, at this time, the Kachāris were free from all Hindu influences. There are several fine tanks at Dimāpur, two of which are nearly 300 yards square.
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∗ Dr. Wade's translation of a *buranji* no longer available describes various encounters between the Ahoms and Kachāris, but the discrepancies in names and dates are so great that it is impossible to make serious use of it.
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∗ This description of the ruins of Dimāpur is taken mainly from that given by Major Godwin-Austen in the journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal for 1874, page 1. A more recent account of the remains will be found in Dr. T. Bloch's Archæological Report for 1902-03. According to some, there was formely a wall on the south side also, which has now been washed away.
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The first European to describe these ruins was Mr. Grange, who visited the locality in 1839. At that time the Kachāris still preserved traditions of their rule there, and attributed the erection of the city to “Chakradhvaj, the fourth Kachāri king.” They ascribed its destruction to Kālā Pāhār, but admitted that they were defeated by the Ahoms about the same time. There are similar remains of another old city at Kāsomāi Pathār, near the Doyang river. The site of this city also is now covered with forest. It has not yet been completely examined.
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We have seen that, after the destruction of Dimāpur by the Ahoms, the Kachāri kings established themselves at Maibong. This place is on the bank of the Mahur river. It was surrounded by a wall, inside of which the remains of several temples are still visible. Here they were soon to meet a fresh enemy. It is recorded in the Bansābali of the Darrang Rajas that the Kachāri king was defeated, about the middle of the sixteenth century, by Chilarāi, the brother and general of the great Koch king Nar Nārāyan. There is a small colony of people in the Cachar district known as Dehāns. These are reputed to be the descendants of some Koches who accompanied Chilarāi’s army and remained in the country. They enjoyed special privileges in the days of Kachāri rule, and their chief, or Senapati, was allowed to enter the king’s courtyard in his palanquin.
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The Kachāri king at that time was styled “Lord of Hidimbā.” After this time, the name Hidimbā or Hiramba frequently occurs in inscriptions and other records, but there is no evidence of its use by the Kachāris at any earlier period. It has been suggested that it had long been the name of the Kachāri kingdom, and that Dimāpur is in reality a corruption of Hidimbāpur, but it seems more likely that Hidimbā was an old name of Cachar, which the Brāhmans afterwards connected with the Kachāri dynasty, just as in the Brahmaputra valley they connected successive dynasties of aboriginal potentates with the mythical Narak. Another derivation of the word Dimāpur has already been given.¹ A silver coin obtained a few years ago in the neighbourhood of Maibong bears a date equivalent to 1583 A.D. and was issued by Jaso Nārāyan Deb, “a worshipper of Hara Gauri, Siva and Durgā, of the line of Hāchengsā.*
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¹ *Ante* page 92, footnote.
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Up to 1603 A.D. nothing more is known of Kachāri affairs, but it may be gathered that, during this period, the Kachāri kings held the greater part of the Nowgong district and the North Cachar Hills and gradually extended their rule into the plains of Cachar. The previous history of this tract is wrapped in oblivion, but there is a tradition that it was formerly included in the Tippera kingdom, and was presented by a king of that country to a Kachāri Raja who had married his daughter, about three hundred years ago.
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At the beginning of the seventeenth century the Jaintia king Dhan Mānik seized Prabhākar, the chief of Dimarua, whose family owed allegiance to the Kachāris. Prabhākar appealed to the latter, and their king, Satrudaman, demanded his release. Failing to obtain it, he led an army into the Jaintia kingdom and defeated Dhan Mānik, who thereupon submitted and undertook to pay tribute; he also gave two princesses to the Kachāri king and made over his nephew and heir-apparent, Jasa Mānik, as a hostage. The latter was kept a prisoner at Brahmapur, which was afterwards renamed Khaspur. To commemorate his victory, Satrudaman assumed the title Asimardan.
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Soon afterwards Dhan Mānik died. Satrudaman thereupon released Jasa Mānik from captivity and made him king of Jaintia, but he appears to have insisted on being recognized as his overlord. Jasa Mānik resented this, but, being unable by himself to offer any effectual resistance to the Kachāris, he endeavoured to embroil them with the Ahom king, Pratāp Singh. He offered him his daughter in marriage on the condition that he should send to fetch her through the Kachāri country. The refusal of Satrudaman to permit the girl to be taken through his dominions led, as Jasa Mānik had hoped, to a war with the Ahoms. The Kachāri troops were defeated in the first encounter, but they subsequently surprised and destroyed the Ahom garrison at Rahā. Satrudaman celebrated his success by assuming the title Pratāp Nārāyan and changing the name of his capital from Maibong to Kirtipur. The Ahom king prepared to take his revenge, but at this juncture he heard rumours of an approaching Muhammadan invasion, and was fain to make peace. At this period the Kachāris were still in possession of the portion of the Nowgong district which lies to the south of Rahā.
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∗ Botham, J. A. S. B., 1912, Vol. VIII, page 556. Three undated silver coins were obtained at the same time and place, one of the same king Jaso Nārāyan and two of Pratāp Nārāyan, otherwise known as Satrudaman. Botham has also identified as of Tāmradhvaj, a coin figured by Stapleton in J. A. S. B., Vol. VI, page 160, No. 4.
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Satrudaman is the hero of a Bengali novel called *Ranachandi*, which is said to be based on traditions current in Cachar, but the book does not appear to contain any reliable historical information. The previous ruler, his father Upendra Nārāyan, was killed, it is said, in the course of an invasion of Cachar by a detachment of Mir Jumlah's Assam expeditionary force, and Satrudaman and his affianced wife drove them out. As a matter of fact, Satrudaman must have died about forty years before the date of Mir Jumlah's invasion, and the reference is probably to one or other of the invasions of Cachar which took place during the reign of the Emperor Jehangir. The first occurred when Islām Khān was Governor of Bengal, and the second shortly after he had been succeeded (in 1612) by his brother Qasim Khan. The first of these invasions was abortive, but in the second, the Kachāri forts at Asuratikri and Pratāpgarh were captured, and the Kachāri king made peace by giving 40 elephants and a lakh of rupees for the Emperor, 5 elephants and Rs. 20,000 for the Subadar, and two elephants and Rs. 20,000 for Mubariz Khān, the thānādār of Bandāsal who commanded the invading force. In the account of this expedition mention is made of the Khāsias as a tribe living on the Kachāri frontier, and also of a tribe calling themselves Mughals, who claimed to be the descendants of soldiers left in charge of the country by Timur after he had conquered it.*
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Satrudaman the hero of a Bengali novel.
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∗ These invasions are described in the *Bahāristan-i-Ghaibi*, which has been translated by Professor Jadunāth Sarkār.
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Nar Nārāyan, Bhim Darpa and Indra Ballabh.
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Satrudaman was succeeded by his son Nar Nārāyan. The latter died after a very brief reign, and was followed by his uncle Bhimbal or Bhim Darpa, who had acted as Commander-in-Chief during the war with the Ahoms. The only event recorded in his reign was a raid on some Ahom villages in, or near, the Dhansiri valley. He died in 1637 and was followed by his son Indra Ballabh. The latter, on his accession, sent a friendly message and presents to the Ahom king, but the tone of his communication gave offence, as being too independent, and his envoy met with a very cool reception. The valley of the Dhansiri had now been entirely deserted by the Kachāris and had relapsed into jungle.
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Bir Darpa Nārāyan.
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In 1644 Bir Darpa Nārāyan, who succeeded Indra Ballabh, re-opened communications with the Ahom king, but he was told that the style of his letter was unbecoming on the part of a protected prince. Bir Darpa took exception to the appellation "protected," but apparently withdrew his objection on being promised an Ahom princess in marriage. His relations with the Ahoms, however, continued to be unsatisfactory, and in 1660 he was warned that if he failed to send the usual envoys his country would be invaded. In 1663 Chakradhvaj Singh sent envoys announcing his succession to the throne and demanding the extradition of the Marangi Khowa Gohāin, who had fled to Cachar during Mir Jumlah's invasion. This request was refused by Bir Darpa who allowed the Ahom mission to depart unaccompanied by one of his own. But when Chakradhvaj defeated the Muhammadans in 1667, Bir Darpa sent envoys with complimentary messages, and friendly relations were thus restored. A conch shell has been discovered with the ten avatārs, or incarnations, of Krishna, carved on it, which bears an inscription to the effect that it was carved in Bir Darpa's reign in 1671.*
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His three successors.
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Bir Darpa died in 1681 and was succeeded by his son Garurdhvaj, who sent a messenger to the Bar Phukan asking that the usual congratulatory envoys might be sent to him by the Ahom king. He was told in reply that nothing would be done until he had himself sent envoys with letters in the usual form to the Ahom king and his chief nobles. This he failed to do, and relations between the two courts again became strained till his death in 1695. He was succeeded in turn by his two sons, Makardhvaj and Udayāditya.
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∗ Proceedings, Asiatic Society of Bengal, for July, 1895.
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During the last forty years of the seventeenth century the Ahoms were fully occupied with Muhammadan invasions and internal troubles, and had neither the time nor the power to interfere with the Kachāris. The latter gradually forgot the defeats which the Ahoms had formerly inflicted on them, and became more and more self-confident. At last Tāmradhvaj, who was ruling when Rudra Singh ascended the Ahom throne, boldly proclaimed his independence. Rudra Singh was not the man to brook such an insult. In December 1706 two armies, numbering in all over 70,000 men, were despatched to invade the Kachāri country, one force marching up the bank of the Dhansiri and the other proceeding *viâ* Rahā and the valley of the Kopili. The Kachāris offered but little resistance to this overwhelming force, and their capital at Maibong was occupied without much difficulty. Tāmradhvaj fled to Khāspur in the plains of Cachar, whence he sent an urgent appeal for help to Rām Singh, Raja of Jaintia. In the meantime disease had effected what the arms of the Kachāris had been unable to accomplish, and the Ahoms, decimated by fever and dysentery, after demolishing the brick fort at Maibong, returned to their own country.
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On hearing of this, Tāmradhvaj sent word to Rām Singh that his aid was no longer needed, but the latter, perceiving, as he thought, an opportunity for adding the Kachāri country to his own dominions, secured Tāmradhvaj’s person by a stratagem and kept him a prisoner in Jaintiapur. Tāmradhvaj managed to send a letter to Rudra Singh, begging for forgiveness and imploring his assistance, and the latter, failing to obtain his release by peaceful means, despatched two armies to invade the Jaintia country. Jaintiapur was occupied, and, in April 1708, Tāmradhvaj was escorted *viâ* Maibong to Rudra Singh’s camp near Bishnāth. He was there received in a grand Darbar and, on
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Tāmradhvaj defeated by Ahoms.
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Made prisoner by Jaintias and rescued by Ahoms.
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his promising to pay tribute and to visit the Ahom king once a year, he was permitted to return to his own country. He was escorted by the Ahom troops as far as Demera, where he was met by a number of his own people. Soon after reaching Khāspur he fell seriously ill. Rudra Singh sent his own physicians to attend him, but in vain. He died in September 1708.
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Sura Darpa and subsequent kings. Tāmradhvaj was succeeded by his son Sura Darpa Nārāyan, a boy of nine, who was installed by some Ahom officers deputed for the purpose by Rudra Singh. In a manuscript copy of the Nāradi Purān it is stated that this work was written by one Bhubaneswar Vāchaspati, in the reign of Sura Darpa Nārāyan, by command of his mother Chandra Prabhā, widow of Tāmradhvaj Nārāyan.
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The Ahom records contain no further reference to the Kachāri kings for nearly sixty years, but an inscription on a rock-cut temple at Maibong sets forth that it was excavated in the Sak year 1633 (1721 A.D.) in the reign of Harish Chandra Nārāyan, who is described as "Lord of Hidimbā"; and we know from a document, certifying the appointment of one Maniram as Vazir of Barkhola, that in 1736 the reigning monarch was named Kirti Chandra Nārāyan. In 1765, when messengers calling upon him to appear before Raja Rājesvar Singh were sent to Sandhikāri, who was then reigning, the latter refused to receive them. The Ahom king thereupon sent his Bar Barua with an army to Rahā. This had the desired effect. Sandhikāri surrendered himself to the Bar Barua and was taken before Rājesvar, by whom he was admonished; then having tendered his apologies, he was permitted to return to his country. He did not reign much longer; and, by 1771, he had been succeeded by Harish Chandra Nārāyan, "King of Hidamba," whose name is preserved in an inscription recording the erection of a palace at Khāspur in that year.
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Fresh war with Ahoms. During the convulsions that shook the Ahom kingdom in the latter part of the eighteenth century, many Moāmariās and other Ahom subjects took shelter in the territory of the Kachāri king Krishna Chandra, chiefly in the country along the upper reaches of the Jamuna. In Kamalesvar's reign the extradition of these refugees was demanded and refused. This resulted in a war, which lasted from 1803 until 1805, when a decisive defeat was inflicted on the Kachāris and their Moāmariā allies.
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The process of Hinduization had, probably, already commenced at Haibong, at least among the royal family and the court. At Khāspur it proceeded rapidly, and in 1790, the formal act of conversion took place; the Raja, Krishna Chandra, and his brother, Govind Chandra, entered the body of a copper effigy of a cow. On emerging from it, they were proclaimed to be Hindus of the Kshatriya caste, and a genealogy of a hundred generations, reaching to Bhim, the hero of the Mahābhārat, was composed for them by the Brāhmans. Many of the names are purely imaginary and others are misplaced, while some kings, who, as we know from other sources, reigned in fairly recent times, are not mentioned at all. The list, which will be found in Hunter’s Statistical Account of Assam (Vol. II, page 403), is clearly a compound of oral tradition and deliberate invention, and has no historical value.
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Krishna Chandra died in 1813 and was succeeded by his brother Gobind Chandra. The latter soon found himself involved in difficulties. Kohi Dān, who had been a table servant of the late Raja, was appointed to a post in the northern hilly tract, where he rebelled and endeavoured to form an independent kingdom. Gobind Chandra managed to inveigle him to Dharampur, where he caused him to be assassinated. The rebellion was continued by Kohi Dān’s son Tulārām, himself a servant of the Raja, who, thinking that his own life was in danger, fled to the hills and successfully resisted all attempts to reduce him.
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Gobind Chandra was thus deprived of the northern portion of his dominions. But worse was to follow. In 1818 Mārjit Singh of Manipur invaded his territory in the plains. He called to his aid Chaurjit Singh, the exiled Manipuri Raja, who helped him to repel the invasion, but, having done so, proceeded to establish himself in Cachar. In the following year Mārjit Singh was defeated by the Burmese, and again found his way to Cachar. With him came Gambhir Singh, another brother; and the three ended by taking the whole country and forcing the lawful monarch to flee to Sylhet, where he invoked in vain the help of the British authorities. Subsequently Gambhir Singh quarrelled with Chaurjit Singh, and appropriated the whole of southern Cachar except Hailakandi, which remained in Mārjit Singh’s possession. Chaurjit Singh now also sought shelter in Sylhet, and tendered his interest in Cachar to the British Government.
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Burmese invasion. Gobind Chandra, on the other hand, having failed to obtain redress in this direction, appealed to the Burmese, who promised to reinstate him; and it was their advance on Cachar with this declared object which led to their first conflict with the British. On learning of the advance of the Burmese, the local officers made overtures to Gambhir Singh, but the latter was averse from an alliance and held secret communication with the Burmese. When these facts were reported to the British Government, the local authorities were informed that it was not the intention of the Government to accord support to any particular chief, but merely to take the country under its protection, so far as was necessary to prevent the Burmese from occupying it. It was added that Gambhir Singh had forfeited all claim to consideration; and eventually, when the Burmese had been driven out, the country was restored, as will be seen further on, to the *de jure* ruler, Gobind Chandra. An undated coin of Gobind Chandra “King of Hidimba” has recently been found by Mr. F. C. Jackson, I.C.S., in the possession of a descendant of his Prime Minister.*
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∗ J. A. S. B., Vol. VI, page 161.
Linked texts (3)
- Nāradapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
- Mahābhārata — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
- Dimapur