A History of Assam c16.2

c16.2

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.