A History of Assam c16.20

c16.20

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.*