A History of Assam c19.3

c19.3

Although Sylhet may at times have formed part of the ancient kingdom of Kāmarupa, it was never during the historical period included in Assam, as the term was understood prior to 1874. But when the Chief Commissionership of Assam was created in that year as narrated in Chapter XVII, Sylhet was incorporated in the new Province. It is therefore necessary to refer briefly to its ancient history. This unfortunately is very obscure. Sylhet, is scarcely mentioned in the old legends, but from the circumstance that Bodo-speaking tribes are found both north and south of it, it may be conjectured that in early times it was inhabited by people of the same stock and was ruled by Bodo kings. The tract north of the Kushiāra river was at one time divided into three petty kingdoms—Jaintia (already dealt with) Laur, and Gaur, or Sylhet Proper. The latter word perhaps survives in the "Goārār Jangal," the name of two old embankments which run from the Ghogra to a former bed of the Barāk river in the Rājnagar pargana of Cachar. The more westerly of these embankments is in places a hundred feet broad at the base and ten feet in height, and there is a buried brick wall 140 feet long by six feet broad. There is a tradition that they were erected by some invaders called Goārs.