A History of Assam c21.9

c21.9

It has already been mentioned that Matak and the country round Sadiya were excluded from the direct administrative control of the Agent to the Governor-General. The former tract, which lay to the south of Sadiya, in the angle between the Brahmaputra and the Burhi Dihing, and was chiefly inhabited by persons of the Moāmariā sect, was governed by a chief called the Bar Senapati, the son of the man who had been given that title by Purnānanda Burhā Gohāin. He had shown considerable ability as a ruler, and had protected his people during the Burmese occupation, alike from the predatory inroads of the Burmese* and from the raids of the Singphos, who, during this troublous period harried the other parts of the Ahom king's dominions as far west as Jorhat. His capital was almost in the centre of his jurisdiction, at Rangagora on the Dibru river. This Chief was left in semi-independent possession of his country; and, in May 1826, he executed a treaty, in which it was provided that he should supply to Government two-thirds of the total number of his pāiks. This arrangement worked badly, and gave rise to much friction, which was increased by the encouragement which he gave to runaway pāiks to settle on his lands. It was therefore proposed by Government to substitute, in lieu of all other demands, a fixed tribute of Rs. 12,000 a year, or Rs. 2,000 more than he had paid under the Ahom Government. He objected strenuously to the payment of so large a sum, and at last succeeded in getting it reduced to Rs. 1,800, but only for the term of his own life. A new treaty was executed in January 1835, by which he undertook to pay this amount as tribute, and to supply, when required, a contingent of troops, for whose armament he was given ammunition and three hundred muskets. He derived his revenue from a poll-tax of three rupees per head in the case of Morāns and Kachāris, two rupees eight annas for Bihis or gold-washers, and two rupees for ordinary Assamese.