A History of Assam c20.14

c20.14

The terror with which they inspired the people was so great that many thousands fled into the hills and jungles to the south, where large numbers died of disease or starvation; and only a small remnant, after enduring unspeakable hardships, managed to reach the plains of the Surma valley. Several of the submontane villages of Jaintia are inhabited by their descendants, who still talk pure Assamese. The depopulation of the region round Doboka and the Kopili valley dates from this disastrous time, which is still fresh in the memory of the inhabitants of Nowgong, who speak with as much horror of the Mānar Upadrab, or “oppressions of the Burmese,” as do the inhabitants of the Bengal littoral of the devastations of the Maghs, to which they were exposed before the establishment of the Pax Britannica.