A History of Assam c21.78

c21.78

The strip of level country at the foot of the Himalayas, from Darrang westwards, is divided off in native parlance into a series of Duārs, or “doors,” through which access is gained to the various passes into the hills. In the direction of Bhutān there were eighteen of these Duārs, eleven on the frontier of Bengal and Goālpāra, and seven, with an area of sixteen hundred square miles, in the north of Kāmrup and Darrang. The former had been annexed by the Bhutias long before the British came into possession of Bengal, but the latter were held by the Ahoms until Gaurināth’s reign, when they were surrendered to the Bhutias in consideration of an annual tribute of Rs. 4,785. It was agreed that, so long as this sum was paid, the Kāmrup Duārs were to remain permanently with the Bhutias, while those in Darrang were to be managed jointly, the Ahoms holding them from July to November, and the Bhutias, for the remaining seven months of the year. After the British conquest, the tribute due by the Bhutias gradually fell into arrears, and frequent outrages and dacoities were committed in British territory. Various punitive measures were taken, but without lasting result. It was therefore decided, in 1841, to take over the whole of this section of the Duārs, and a yearly payment of Rs. 10,000, or one-third of the estimated revenue at the time, was paid to the Bhutān authorities in their stead. This sum was subsequently merged in one of Rs. 25,000, which was sanctioned after the Bhutān War of 1864, when the Duārs north of Goālpāra and Koch Bihār were also annexed. Payment is now made to the Bhutān representatives by the Commissioner of Rajshahi at Buxa. East of the Bhutān Duārs of Darrang is another, known as the Koriāpāra Duār, which was held by certain Bhutia chiefs called Sāt Rajas, whose hills form part of the province of Towāng, an outlying dependency of Lhassa. Here also, there were numerous outrages and disputes until 1843, when the local chiefs ceded the Duār in return for an annual payment of Rs. 5,000, or one-third of the supposed revenue, which is handed over to them every year at the time of the Udalguri fair.