A History of Assam c7.s2.35

c7.s2.35

It is not certain where Arimatta ruled, but most accounts place his kingdom in Lower Assam. His capital is said to have been at the Baidargarh, near Betna in Kāmarup, where a high embankment forming a square, each side of which is about four miles long, is still in existence. He was attacked by a king named Phengua, of the house of Kāmatāpur, who advanced with an army of Meches and Koches, armed with bows and arrows, and threw up an embankment ten miles west of the Baidargarh; this embankment is in the Dhumdhuma Mauza and is still known as Phenguagarh. Phengua was at first defeated. He then engaged in an intrigue with Arimatta’s wife Ratnamālā, and with her aid spoilt the bow-strings of his soldiers, defeated and slew him, and took possession of his capital. He put Ratnamālā to death, saying that, as she had been unfaithful to her late husband, she would probably be false also to him, if he were to fulfil his promise and marry her. Arimatta’s son Ratna Singh continued the war, and eventually overcame Phengua Raja and killed him. He afterwards lost his kingdom, owing, it is said, to the curse of a Brāhman, with whose wife he had carried on an intrigue.